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Virtualization on SUSE Linux with Benefits and Setup
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1

Virtualization on SUSE Linux with Benefits and Setup

Publication Date: 08 Jul 2026
WHAT?

Virtualization is a technology that allows a single physical server (host) to run multiple virtual machines (guests), each with its own operating system.

WHY?

Use virtualization to reduce hardware costs, save power and space, and improve infrastructure flexibility and productivity.

EFFORT

It takes less than 15 minutes to understand the core concepts of virtualization.

GOAL

By the end of this article, you will understand the benefits of virtualization and the basic setup of a virtual machine host and guest environment.

1 Introduction to virtualization

 

Virtualization is a technology that provides a way for a machine (VM Host Server) to run another operating system (VM Guest) on top of the host operating system.

1.1 How does virtualization work?

 

The primary component of VM Host Server that enables virtualization is a hypervisor. A hypervisor is a layer of software that runs directly on VM Host Server's hardware. It controls platform resources, sharing them among multiple VM Guests and their operating systems by presenting virtualized hardware interfaces to each VM Guest.

A general schema of virtualization
Figure 1: A general schema of virtualization
 

1.2 Benefits of virtualization

 

Virtualization brings a lot of advantages while providing the same service as a hardware server.

Virtualization reduces the cost of your infrastructure. Servers are mainly used to provide a service to a customer. A virtualized operating system can provide the same service but with the following advantages:

  • Less hardware: you can run several operating systems on one host, therefore all hardware maintenance is reduced.

  • Less power/cooling: less hardware means you do not need to invest more in electric power, backup power, and cooling if you need more service.

  • Save space: your data center space is saved because you do not need more hardware servers (fewer servers than services running).

  • Less management: using a VM Guest simplifies the administration of your infrastructure.

  • Agility and productivity: virtualization provides migration capabilities, live migration and snapshots. These features reduce downtime and bring an easy way to move your service from one place to another without any service interruption.

2 Installation of virtualization components

 

To run a virtualization server (VM Host Server) that can host multiple guest systems (VM Guests), you need to install required virtualization components on the server. These components vary depending on which virtualization technology you want to use.

You can install the virtualization tools required to run a VM Host Server either when installing the system (see the manual installation), or from an alerady installed system by installing a virtualization pattern. The later option is described bellow: 

> sudo zypper install -t pattern PATTERN_NAME

Replace the PATTERN_NAME with one of the following values:

kvm_server

Installs a basic VM Host Server with the KVM and QEMU environments.

kvm_tools

Installs libvirt tools for managing and monitoring VM Guests in the KVM environment.

3 Virtualization modes

 

Virtualization is a technology that provides a way for a machine (VM Host Server) to run another operating system (VM Guest) on top of the host operating system. There are two basic modes of hosting VM Guests on virtual machines—full virtualization mode and paravirtual mode.

Full virtualization (FV)

FV lets virtual machines run unmodified operating systems. It uses either Binary Translation or hardware-assisted virtualization technology, such as AMD* Virtualization or Intel* Virtualization Technology, to improve performance on processors that support it. In FV mode, VM Guest is also called the Hardware Virtual Machine (HVM).

Tip
Tip

Certain guest operating systems hosted in full virtualization mode can be configured to use drivers from the SUSE Virtual Machine Drivers Pack (VMDP) instead of drivers included in the operating system. Running virtual machine drivers improves performance on guest operating systems, such as Windows Server.

Paravirtualization (PV)

PV normally requires that guest operating systems are modified for the virtualization environment. VM Guests running in paravirtual mode have better performance than those running under full virtualization. Operating systems currently modified to run in paravirtual mode are called paravirtualized operating systems and include SLES for SAP.

PV on HVM (PVHVM)

PVHVM enhances HVM (see Full virtualization (FV)) with paravirtualized drivers, and handling of paravirtualized interrupts and timers.

4 For more information

 

For further steps in virtualization, refer to the following sources:

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Acronyms

 
ACPI

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface

An open standard that provides uniform device configuration and power management capabilities directly to the operating system.

AER

Advanced Error Reporting

A capability within the PCI Express specification that enables advanced reporting, logging and recovery from PCI bus errors.

APIC

Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller

An architecture of interrupt controllers designed to efficiently manage and route hardware interrupts across multiprocessing systems.

BDF

Bus:Device:Function

A standard notation used to uniquely address and identify individual physical or virtual devices on a PCI/PCIe bus.

CG

Control Groups (cgroups)

A Linux kernel feature used to limit, account for, isolate and prioritize the resource usage (such as CPU, memory and disk I/O) of collections of processes.

EDF

Earliest Deadline First

A dynamic priority scheduling algorithm that provides intuitive, real-time CPU resource sharing based on strict time guarantees.

EPT

Extended Page Tables

Performance in a virtualized environment is close to that in a native environment. However, virtualization does create overhead. It comes from the virtualization of the CPU, the MMU, and the I/O devices. In some recent x86 processors, AMD and Intel have begun to provide hardware extensions to help bridge this performance gap. In 2006, both vendors introduced their first-generation hardware support for x86 virtualization with AMD-Virtualization (AMD-V) and Intel® VT-x technologies. Intel introduced its second generation of hardware support that incorporates MMU-virtualization, called Extended Page Tables (EPT). EPT-enabled systems can improve performance compared to using shadow paging for MMU virtualization. EPT increases memory access latencies for a few workloads. This cost can be reduced by effectively using large pages in the guest and the hypervisor.

HVM

Hardware Virtual Machine

A fully virtualized operating system instance running on hardware that natively supports virtualization extensions (such as Intel VT-x or AMD-V).

IOMMU

Input/Output Memory Management Unit

IOMMU (AMD* technology) is a memory management unit (MMU) that connects a direct memory access-capable (DMA-capable) I/O bus to the main memory.

KSM

Kernel Same-page Merging

A Linux kernel feature that allows for automatic sharing of identical memory pages between guests to save host memory. KVM is optimized to use KSM if enabled on the VM Host Server.

MMU

Memory Management Unit

A hardware component responsible for handling accesses to memory requested by the CPU. Its functions include translation of virtual addresses to physical addresses (that is, virtual memory management), memory protection, cache control, bus arbitration and, in simpler computer architectures (especially 8-bit systems), bank switching.

PAE

Physical Address Extension

A memory management feature that allows 32-bit x86 operating systems to address more than 4 GB of physical memory by expanding page table entries to 64 bits.

PCID

Process-Context Identifiers

A processor facility that caches information for multiple linear-address spaces so that the processor may retain cached information when software switches to a different linear address space. The INVPCID instruction is used for fine-grained TLB flush, which benefits the kernel.

PCIe

Peripheral Component Interconnect Express

A high-speed serial expansion bus standard designed to replace older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. PCIe has numerous improvements, including a higher maximum system bus throughput, a lower I/O pin count and a smaller physical footprint. Moreover, it also has a more detailed error detection and reporting mechanism (AER) and a native hotplug functionality. It is also backward compatible with PCI.

PSE / PSE36

Page Size Extension / Page Size Extension 36-Bit

Hardware features in x86 processors that allow for pages larger than the traditional 4 KiB size. PSE-36 capability offers 4 more bits, in addition to the normal 10 bits, which are used inside a page directory entry pointing to a large page. This allows a large page to be located in a 36-bit address space.

PT

Page Table

The data structure used by a virtual memory system in a computer operating system to store the mapping between virtual addresses and physical addresses. Virtual addresses are those unique to the accessing process. Physical addresses are those unique to the hardware (RAM).

QXL

QXL Display Device

QXL is a cirrus VGA framebuffer (8M) driver for virtualized environment.

RVI / NPT

Rapid Virtualization Indexing / Nested Page Tables

AMD's second-generation hardware-assisted virtualization technology for the processor memory management unit (MMU).

SATA

Serial ATA

A computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices, such as hard disks and optical drives.

Seccomp2-based sandboxing

Secure Computing Mode sandboxing

A sandboxed environment where only predetermined system calls are permitted for added protection against malicious behavior.

SPICE

Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments

An open-source remote display protocol designed for virtual environments to deliver high-quality graphics and audio streaming over networks.

TCG

Tiny Code Generator

The core component of the QEMU emulator that acts as a just-in-time compiler, translating target CPU instructions into host system architecture instructions.

THP

Transparent Huge Pages

A Linux kernel feature that allows CPUs to address memory using pages larger than the default 4 KB. This helps reduce memory consumption and CPU cache usage. KVM is optimized to use THP (via madvise and opportunistic methods) if enabled on the VM Host Server.

TLB

Translation Lookaside Buffer

A hardware cache that memory management hardware uses to improve virtual address translation speed. All current desktop, notebook and server processors use a TLB to map virtual and physical address spaces, and it is nearly always present in any hardware that uses virtual memory.

VCPU

Virtual Central Processing Unit

A software-defined scheduling entity managed by a hypervisor that represents a single physical CPU core allocated to a virtual machine.

VDI

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

An IT architecture that hosts user desktop environments within virtual machines running on centralized data center servers.

VFIO

Virtual Function I/O

A Linux kernel framework that provides secure, direct user-space access to PCI devices.

VHS

Virtualization Host Server

A physical server hardware platform explicitly configured with a hypervisor to host, manage and run multiple virtual machines.

VMCS

Virtual Machine Control Structure

VMX non-root operation and VMX transitions are controlled by a data structure called a virtual-machine control structure (VMCS). Access to the VMCS is managed through a component of processor state called the VMCS pointer (one per logical processor). The value of the VMCS pointer is the 64-bit address of the VMCS. The VMCS pointer is read and written using the instructions VMPTRST and VMPTRLD. The VMM configures a VMCS using the VMREAD, VMWRITE, and VMCLEAR instructions. A VMM could use a different VMCS for each virtual machine that it supports. For a virtual machine with multiple logical processors (virtual processors), the VMM could use a different VMCS for each virtual processor.

VMDq

Virtual Machine Device Queues

Multi-queue network adapters that support multiple VMs at the hardware level, having separate packet queues associated with the different hosted VMs (by means of the IP addresses of the VMs).

VMM

Virtual Machine Monitor (Hypervisor)

Software, firmware or hardware that creates, runs and manages virtual machines, mediating access to the underlying physical resources.

VMX

Virtual Machine Extensions

Intel’s hardware-assisted virtualization technology architecture added to x86 processors to support native hypervisor execution.

VMX Root / Non-Root Operation

Processor execution modes introduced by VMX. The VMM runs in VMX root operation, while guest software runs in VMX non-root operation. Transitions between the two modes are called VMX transitions.

VPID

Virtual Processor Identifiers

New support for software control of TLB (VPID improves TLB performance with small VMM development effort).

VT-d

Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O

Intel's hardware implementation of an IOMMU, providing device isolation and direct memory access (DMA) translation for virtualized environments.

vTPM

Virtual Trusted Platform Module

Component to establish end-to-end integrity for guests via Trusted Computing.

Glossary

 

General

Create Virtual Machine Wizard

Virtual Machine Manager provides a graphical interface to guide you through the steps to create virtual machines. It can also be run in text mode by entering virt-install at a command prompt in the host environment.

Hardware-assisted

Intel* and AMD* provide virtualization hardware-assisted technology. This reduces the frequency of VM IN/OUT (fewer VM traps), because software is a major source of overhead, and increases the efficiency (the execution is done by the hardware). Moreover, this reduces the memory footprint, provides better resource control, and allows secure assignment of specific I/O devices.

Host Environment

The desktop or command line environment that allows interaction with the host computer's environment. It provides a command line environment and can also include a graphical desktop, such as GNOME or IceWM. The host environment runs as a special type of virtual machine that has privileges to control and manage other virtual machines.

Hypervisor

The software that coordinates the low-level interaction between virtual machines and the underlying physical computer hardware.

Paravirtualized Frame Buffer

The video output device that drives a video display from a memory buffer containing a complete frame of data for virtual machine displays running in paravirtual mode.

VHS

A Virtualization Host Server (VHS) is the physical computer running SUSE virtualization platform software. The virtualization environment consists of the hypervisor, the host environment, virtual machines and associated tools, commands and configuration files. Other commonly used terms include host, Host Computer, Host Machine (HM), Virtual Server (VS), Virtual Machine Host (VMH) and VM Host Server (VHS).

VirtFS

VirtFS is a new paravirtualized file system interface designed for improving pass-through technologies in the KVM environment. It is based on the VirtIO framework.

Virtual Machine

A software-defined computer environment (VM) capable of hosting an independent guest operating system and its associated applications. Also commonly referred to as a VM Guest.

Virtual Machine Manager

A software program that provides a graphical user interface for creating and managing virtual machines.

Virtualized

The status or condition of a guest operating system or application executing within an isolated virtual machine environment.

CPU

CPU capping

The resource restriction process that limits a virtual CPU's allocation window to a defined percentage (from 1 to 100 percent) of available physical CPU capacity.

CPU hotplugging

CPU hotplugging is used to describe the functions of replacing/adding/removing a CPU without shutting down the system.

CPU over-commitment

Virtual CPU over-commitment is the ability to assign more virtual CPUs to VMs than the actual number of physical CPUs present in the physical system. This procedure does not increase the overall performance of the system, but may be useful for testing purposes.

CPU pinning

Also referred to as processor affinity; CPU pinning enables the binding and unbinding of a process or a thread to a central processing unit (CPU) or a range of CPUs.

Network

Bridged Networking

A type of network connection that lets a virtual machine be identified on an external network as a unique identity that is separate from and unrelated to its host computer.

Empty Bridge

A type of network bridge that has no physical network device or virtual network device provided by the host. This lets virtual machines communicate with other virtual machines on the same host, but not with the host or on an external network.

External Network

The network outside a host's internal network environment.

Internal Network

A type of network configuration that restricts virtual machines to their host environment.

Local Bridge

A type of network bridge that has a virtual network device but no physical network device provided by the host. This lets virtual machines communicate with the host and other virtual machines on the host. Virtual machines can communicate on an external network through the host.

Network Address Translation (NAT)

A type of network connection that lets a virtual machine use the IP address and MAC address of the host.

No Host Bridge

A type of network bridge that has a physical network device but no virtual network device provided by the host. This lets virtual machines communicate on an external network but not with the host. This lets you separate virtual machine network communications from the host environment.

Traditional Bridge

A type of network bridge that has both a physical network device and a virtual network device provided by the host.

Storage

AHCI

The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel* that specifies the operation of Serial ATA (SATA) host bus adapters in a non-implementation-specific manner.

Block Device

Data storage components, such as CD-ROM drives or disk drives, that move data in the form of blocks. Partitions and volumes are also considered block devices.

File-Backed Virtual Disk

A virtual disk based on a file, also called a disk image file.

Raw Disk

A method of accessing data on a disk at the individual byte level instead of through its file system.

Sparse image file

A disk image file that does not reserve its entire amount of disk space but expands as data is written to it.

xvda

The drive designation given to the first virtual disk on a paravirtual machine.