Chapter 1. About container-native virtualization
Learn about container-native virtualization’s capabilities and support scope.
1.1. What you can do with container-native virtualization
Container-native virtualization is an add-on to OpenShift Container Platform that allows you to run and manage virtual machine workloads alongside container workloads.
Container-native virtualization adds new objects into your OpenShift Container Platform cluster via Kubernetes custom resources to enable virtualization tasks. These tasks include:
- Creating and managing Linux and Windows virtual machines
- Connecting to virtual machines through a variety of consoles and CLI tools
- Importing and cloning existing virtual machines
- Managing network interface controllers and storage disks attached to virtual machines
- Live migrating virtual machines between nodes
An enhanced web console provides a graphical portal to manage these virtualized resources alongside the OpenShift Container Platform cluster containers and infrastructure.
You can use container-native virtualization with either the OVN-Kubernetes or the OpenShiftSDN network provider.
1.2. Container-native virtualization support
Container-native virtualization is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview/.
