Ditching Vagrant: VMs with KVM and Virsh on Debian

4 hours ago

The author decided to move away from Vagrant to using KVM and libvirt for virtual machine management, feeling it was overly complex and redundant since Linux can handle virtualization natively.
KVM allows the Linux kernel to function as a hypervisor, while libvirt is a library that manages KVM and other virtualization platforms, with virsh as a command-line interface for interacting with libvirt.
A practical example is given for creating a preseeded Debian VM using virt-install, which automates installation with predefined answers and handles network connectivity, mounting, and SSH agent forwarding.
Key steps include checking KVM module status, installing libvirt and virsh, using preseed files for deterministic builds, and troubleshooting issues like serial output problems after OS upgrades.
The author highlights the benefits of using libvirt for unified virtualization management and shares useful commands for VM lifecycle control, network setup, and file system mounting.

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