This chapter lists system requirements for successfully running virtualized guest operating systems with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Virtualization is available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 on the Intel 64 and AMD64 architecture.
The KVM hypervisor is provided with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
6GB plus the required disk space recommended by the guest operating system per guest. For most operating systems more than 6GB of disk space is recommended.
One processor core or hyper-thread for each virtualized CPU and one for the hypervisor.
2GB of RAM plus additional RAM for virtualized guests.
KVM overcommit
KVM can overcommit physical resources for virtualized guests. Overcommitting resources means the total virtualized RAM and processor cores used by the guests can exceed the physical RAM and processor cores on the host. For information on safely overcommitting resources with KVM refer to Chapter 20, Overcommitting with KVM.
KVM requirements
The KVM hypervisor requires:
an Intel processor with the Intel VT and the Intel 64 extensions, or
an AMD processor with the AMD-V and the AMD64 extensions.
SRP devices (SCSI RDMA Protocol), the block export protocol used in Infiniband and 10GbE iWARP adapters.
File-based guest storage
File-based guest images should be stored in the /var/lib/libvirt/images/ folder. If you use a different directory you must add the directory to the SELinux policy. Refer to Section 16.2, “SELinux and virtualization” for details.
