According to your hardware, you’ve got two main options:
– if your hardware (PC, Mac, etc) runs a 32-bit x86 processor with at least 2GB of memory, use Virtual Box; this is not the right option because you will not be able to experiment KVM virtualization and some advanced scenarios with 2 VMs but it’s better than nothing.
– if you’ve got a hardware running a 64-bit x86 processor with virtualization capability (Intel VT-x or AMD-V*) and at least 3GB of memory/50GB of disk space (2 guests plus 1 host, 1GB of memory for each), install RHEL 7 or CentOS 7 and use KVM (CentOS 7 is free, fully compatible with RHEL 7, and works very well).
My advice: buy a second-hand HP N40L (or HP N54L) with 4GB of memory ($200-250) and a DVD drive. It comes with a 250GB hard drive that is more than enough and you don’t need to add another network card. After passing your RHCSA/RHCE exams, you can reconvert it into a VMware ESX or a NAS (you get i/o at 100MB/s and can put 4-to-6 hard drives inside).
*To check if your Intel processor’s got VT-x virtualization capabilities, type:
# grep vmx /proc/cpuinfo
To check if your AMD processor’s got AMD-V virtualization capabilities, type:
# grep svm /proc/cpuinfo
Intel VT-d or AMD-Vi virtualization capabilities improve virtualization performances (they allow direct access to the hardware) but are not mandatory for KVM use (see wikipedia for more information).
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Hi,
I have just realized that my processor (currently running 32bit Windows) support 64bit, however it does not support VT-x. Even though in your tutorial mentioned that it is not compulsory to have VT-x for KVM, but based on what I read at http://www.itzgeek.com/how-tos/linux/centos-how-tos/install-kvm-qemu-on-centos-7-rhel-7.html (upon your recommendation in twitter) it is a must to have VT-x or AMD-V. Mind to clarify on this? and what do you suggest if I don’t plan to upgrade my machine? thanks.
Reread my tutorial: with Intel processor you absolutely need VT-x support to use KVM virtualization. However VT-d support is not mandatory but improves virtualization performances.
If you don’t plan to upgrade your machine, one reasonably good option is VirtualBox because KVM won’t work.
Thank you for your reply. I guess I misread it. Need to upgrade my machine after all, since I am serious about this.thanks again for this tutorial.