libvirt
More info
- Released
- Owner
- Red Hat
- Type
- Virtualization API
- License
- LGPL-2.1
- Website
- libvirt.org
An abstraction layer over hypervisors — one API and one XML definition whether KVM, Xen or LXC sits underneath.
The point is not having to write tooling against every hypervisor's own interface. A VM is described in XML: CPU, memory, disks, network. virsh is the command-line client, virt-manager the graphical one.
It also manages storage pools, virtual networks and snapshots. It underpins OpenStack Nova, oVirt and Proxmox's older layers, making it one of the most used and least discussed components in Linux virtualisation.