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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- If you need to use virtual machines on Linux, try Virt-Manager.
- Virt-Manager is more reliable than VirtualBox.
- Virt-Manager is completely free and open-source.
I’m a long-time supporter of VirtualBox. Over the years, I’ve written probably hundreds of articles about it for various publications and spun up thousands of virtual machines. VirtualBox has been integral to my ability to cover Linux.
But recently, I had to wave off the virtual machine manager because I’d had enough.
Why I dumped VirtualBox
Two weeks ago, out of nowhere and just when I needed VirtualBox most, I found I couldn’t create virtual machines. When this very same thing happened a week earlier, I had to perform a purge uninstall, and reinstall the software to get it to work.
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This time around, that purge didn’t work. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get VirtualBox to behave. This same issue has surfaced for me repeatedly over the years. The number of times I’ve had to uninstall and reinstall VirtualBox is mind-blowing. Sometimes, uninstalling and reinstalling isn’t enough to solve the problem. Even worse, the errors I get are no help.
Years ago, I’d written another piece of VM software that I had mixed feelings about. In some respects, it was better than VirtualBox, but in other respects… not so much.
That software is a combination of KVM and Virt-Manager.
What is KVM?
KVM, which stands for Kernel-based Virtual Machine, is an open-source technology built into the Linux kernel. KVM leverages hardware virtualization, such as Intel VT and AMD-V, which promises near-native performance for virtual machines.
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In other words, there’s no need to install KVM on Linux because it’s already there. And because KVM is a part of the kernel, I was fairly confident that it would be far more reliable than VirtualBox.
What is Virt-Manager?
Virt-Manager is simply a GUI front end for KVM that manages virtual machines through libvirt. The GUI might not be the most modern-looking piece of software you’ll ever see, but it makes working with libvirt and KVM exponentially easier than going with the command line.
There’s one thing you need to understand about Virt-Manager. Red Hat deprecated the software some time ago in favor of Cockpit. However, the deprecation only applies to RHEL. Also, I don’t find Cockpit a viable solution for virtual machine management because you have to jump through certain hoops to get it to work properly. Virt-Manager is still very much in active development and is (in my opinion) a much easier route than Cockpit.
So, if you see mention of the software being deprecated, know that it most likely doesn’t apply to you.
Is Virt-Manager as easy to use as VirtualBox?
The answer is tricky. VirtualBox makes creating virtual machines very simple — when things are “normal.” When things aren’t normal, VirtualBox can get a bit confusing. Which video driver do I use? Do I need to enable or disable UEFI? Sometimes, it’s guesswork, and it can be quite frustrating.
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Virt-Manager has its own complications. The only way to define where a virtual machine will be stored is via storage pools; otherwise, you wind up using the default, which is on the same drive as your OS. Considering how many virtual machines I tend to create, that’s not a viable solution. Because of that, I’m forced to create storage pools.
When you first start working with storage pools, it can be a bit cumbersome. Once you get the hang of them, however, it becomes second nature.
As for networking, with VirtualBox, I always had to remember to set the Networking option to Bridged; otherwise, machines on my LAN couldn’t access the VM. On contrast, Virt-Manager uses bridged networking by default. All you have to do is boot the VM, locate the IP address, and you’re good to go.
When I first used Virt-Manager years ago, I found it wasn’t nearly as easy to use as VirtualBox. Now, howeve, I’m happy to report that it’s every bit as easy to use, especially if you consider how often VirtualBox breaks. With Virt-Manager, I don’t have to spend an hour every other week trying to get the software to do what it’s supposed to.
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Yes, Virt-Manager does have a slightly steeper learning curve than VirtualBox. (I’ll write an article soon on how to create a VM with Virt-Manager.) However, the reward for getting up to speed is a much more reliable solution that gives you near-native performance and doesn’t randomly decide it’s done its job.
I don’t have time for that. Spending a few minutes figuring out Virt-Manager, on the other hand, I did have time for.
How to get Virt-Manager
Virt-Manager is not only free, but it’s easy to install. You already have the backend installed (since KVM is built into the kernel), so all you have to do is install the frontend, which can be done like this:
- Ubuntu/Debian-based distributions – sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils virt-manager -y
- Fedora-based distributions – sudo dnf group install –with-optional virtualization
- Arch-based distributions – sudo pacman -S –needed qemu virt-manager dnsmasq iptables-nft
After the installation, make sure to start and enable libvirt with:
sudo systemctl enable –now libvirtd
You might also need to add your user to the libvirt group with the command:
sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER
After that, log out and log back in so the changes take effect.
You should now be able to create your first virtual machine with Virt-Manager and KVM.
We’ll talk about this more later.