23.2. Recommended features in RHEL 10 virtualization

The following features are recommended for use with the KVM hypervisor included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 (RHEL 10):

Host system architectures

RHEL 10 with KVM is only supported on the following host architectures:

Any other hardware architectures are not supported for using RHEL 10 as a KVM virtualization host, and Red Hat highly discourages doing so.

Guest operating systems

Red Hat provides support with KVM virtual machines that use specific guest operating systems (OSs). For a detailed list of certified guest OSs, see Certified Guest Operating Systems in the Red Hat KnowledgeBase.

Note, however, that by default, your guest OS does not use the same subscription as your host. Therefore, you must activate a separate license or subscription for the guest OS to work properly.

In addition, the pass-through devices that you attach to the VM must be supported by both the host OS and the guest OS.

Similarly, for optimal function of your deployment, Red Hat recommends that the CPU model and features that you define in the XML configuration of a VM are supported by both the host OS and the guest OS.

To view the certified CPUs and other hardware for various versions of RHEL, see the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog.

Machine types

To ensure that your VM is compatible with your host architecture and that the guest OS runs optimally, the VM must use an appropriate machine type.

When creating a VM by using the command line, the virt-install utility provides multiple methods of setting the machine type.

The recommended machine types for KVM virtual machines on supported architectures, and the corresponding values for the --machine option, are as follows. Y stands for the latest minor version of RHEL 10.

To obtain the machine type of an existing VM:

# virsh dumpxml VM-name | grep machine=

To view the full list of machine types supported on your host:

# /usr/libexec/qemu-kvm -M help