Topic: kvm
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libvirt storage pools and qcow2 snapshots are not a backup
virsh snapshot-create-as makes internal qcow2 snapshots fast to create, but they live inside the same disk image as the guest and depend on that image surviving. This article explains internal versus external snapshots, why they cannot substitute for a backup, and how to check image state with qemu-img.
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Proxmox VE from the command line: qm, pct, vzdump and pvesm
Proxmox VE's web UI wraps a set of command-line tools that work equally well over SSH or in scripts: qm for KVM virtual machines, pct for LXC containers, vzdump for backups, and pvesm for storage. This methodology covers the core read and lifecycle commands for each.
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Managing KVM guests with virsh: list, start, shutdown versus destroy, and autostart
virsh is the standard command-line client for libvirt-managed KVM guests. This methodology covers listing domains, the difference between a graceful shutdown and a hard destroy, setting autostart, and where to find the persistent domain definition.
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Why NTP still runs inside virtual machines despite guest agents and paravirtual clocks
Virtual machines get time-related help from several layers — kvm-clock, guest agents, Hyper-V integration services — but none of them substitute for an NTP or chrony client running inside the guest. This article explains what each layer actually does and why time sync stays a guest-OS responsibility.
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Checking hardware virtualization support and nested KVM before relying on it
Before installing a hypervisor or nesting a VM inside a VM, confirm the CPU exposes virtualization extensions and, for nesting, that the kvm_intel or kvm_amd module has the nested option enabled. virt-host-validate and /proc/cpuinfo give a quick answer.
Machine-readable: JSON