System Emulation

This manual is the overall guide for users using QEMU for full system emulation (as opposed to user-mode emulation). This includes working with hypervisors such as KVM, Xen, Hax or Hypervisor.Framework.

Contents:

• Quick Start
• Invocation
  • Standard options
  • Block device options
  • USB convenience options
  • Display options
  • i386 target only
  • Network options
  • Character device options
  • TPM device options
  • Linux/Multiboot boot specific
  • Debug/Expert options
  • Generic object creation
  • Device URL Syntax
• Keys in the graphical frontends
• Keys in the character backend multiplexer
• QEMU Monitor
  • Commands
  • Integer expressions
• Disk Images
  • Quick start for disk image creation
  • Snapshot mode
  • VM snapshots
  • Disk image file formats
  • Read-only formats
  • Using host drives
    • Linux
    • Windows
    • Mac OS X
  • Virtual FAT disk images
  • NBD access
  • iSCSI LUNs
  • GlusterFS disk images
  • Secure Shell (ssh) disk images
  • NVMe disk images
  • Disk image file locking
  • Filter drivers
• Network emulation
  • Using TAP network interfaces
    • Linux host
    • Windows host
  • Using the user mode network stack
  • Hubs
  • Connecting emulated networks between QEMU instances
• QEMU virtio-net standby (net_failover)
  • Restrictions
  • Usecase
  • Usage
  • Hotplug
  • Migration
• USB emulation
  • Connecting USB devices
  • Using host USB devices on a Linux host
• NVMe Emulation
  • Adding NVMe Devices
    • Controller Emulation
    • Additional Namespaces
    • NVM Subsystems
  • Optional Features
    • Controller Memory Buffer
    • Simple Copy
    • Zoned Namespaces
    • Metadata
    • End-to-End Data Protection
• Inter-VM Shared Memory device
  • Migration with ivshmem
  • ivshmem and hugepages
• Direct Linux Boot
• Generic Loader
  • Loading Data into Memory Values
  • Setting a CPU’s Program Counter
  • Loading Files
  • Restrictions and ToDos
• Guest Loader
  • Arguments
• VNC security
  • Without passwords
  • With passwords
  • With x509 certificates
  • With x509 certificates and client verification
  • With x509 certificates, client verification and passwords
  • With SASL authentication
  • With x509 certificates and SASL authentication
  • Configuring SASL mechanisms
• TLS setup for network services
  • Setup the Certificate Authority
  • Issuing server certificates
  • Issuing client certificates
  • TLS x509 credential configuration
  • TLS Pre-Shared Keys (PSK)
• GDB usage
  • Debugging multicore machines
  • Advanced debugging options
    • Changing single-stepping behaviour
    • Examining physical memory
• Managed start up options
• Virtual CPU hotplug
  • vCPU hotplug
  • vCPU hot-unplug
• virtio pmem
  • Usecase
  • How does virtio-pmem compare to the nvdimm emulation?
  • virtio pmem usage
  • Hotplug
  • Guest Data Persistence
  • Limitations
• Persistent reservation managers
  • Defining a persistent reservation manager
  • Multipath devices and persistent reservations
• QEMU System Emulator Targets
  • Arm System emulator
    • Choosing a board model
    • Board-specific documentation
    • Arm CPU features
  • AVR System emulator
  • ColdFire System emulator
  • MIPS System emulator
    • Supported CPU model configurations on MIPS hosts
    • nanoMIPS System emulator
  • PowerPC System emulator
    • Board-specific documentation
  • RISC-V System emulator
    • Choosing a board model
    • Board-specific documentation
    • RISC-V CPU features
  • RX System emulator
  • s390x System emulator
    • Device support
    • Architectural features
  • Sparc32 System emulator
  • Sparc64 System emulator
  • x86 System emulator
    • Board-specific documentation
    • Recommendations for KVM CPU model configuration on x86 hosts
    • Syntax for configuring CPU models
    • OS requirements
  • Xtensa System emulator
• Security
  • Overview
  • Security Requirements
    • Virtualization Use Case
    • Non-virtualization Use Case
  • Architecture
    • Guest Isolation
    • Principle of Least Privilege
    • Isolation mechanisms
  • Sensitive configurations
    • Monitor console (QMP and HMP)
• Multi-process QEMU
  • 1) Configuration
  • 2) Usage
• Deprecated features
  • System emulator command line arguments
    • QEMU_AUDIO_ environment variables and -audio-help (since 4.0)
    • Creating sound card devices and vnc without audiodev= property (since 4.2)
    • Creating sound card devices using -soundhw (since 5.1)
    • -chardev backend aliases tty and parport (since 6.0)
    • RISC-V -bios (since 5.1)
    • Short-form boolean options (since 6.0)
    • delay option for socket character devices (since 6.0)
    • --enable-fips (since 6.0)
    • -writeconfig (since 6.0)
    • Userspace local APIC with KVM (x86, since 6.0)
    • hexadecimal sizes with scaling multipliers (since 6.0)
    • -spice password=string (since 6.0)
    • opened property of rng-* objects (since 6.0.0)
    • loaded property of secret and secret_keyring objects (since 6.0.0)
  • QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP) commands
    • blockdev-open-tray, blockdev-close-tray argument device (since 2.8.0)
    • eject argument device (since 2.8.0)
    • blockdev-change-medium argument device (since 2.8.0)
    • block_set_io_throttle argument device (since 2.8.0)
    • blockdev-add empty string argument backing (since 2.10.0)
    • block-commit arguments base and top (since 3.1.0)
    • nbd-server-add and nbd-server-remove (since 5.2)
  • System accelerators
    • MIPS Trap-and-Emul KVM support (since 6.0)
  • System emulator CPUS
    • Icelake-Client CPU Model (since 5.2.0)
    • MIPS I7200 CPU Model (since 5.2)
  • System emulator machines
    • Raspberry Pi raspi2 and raspi3 machines (since 5.2)
    • Aspeed swift-bmc machine (since 6.1)
  • Device options
    • Emulated device options
    • Block device options
  • linux-user mode CPUs
    • ppc64abi32 CPUs (since 5.2.0)
    • MIPS I7200 CPU (since 5.2)
  • Related binaries
    • qemu-img amend to adjust backing file (since 5.1)
    • qemu-img backing file without format (since 5.1)
  • Backwards compatibility
    • Runnability guarantee of CPU models (since 4.1.0)
  • Guest Emulator ISAs
    • nanoMIPS ISA
• Removed features
  • System emulator command line arguments
    • -net ...,name=name (removed in 5.1)
    • -no-kvm (removed in 5.2)
    • -realtime (removed in 6.0)
    • -show-cursor option (removed in 6.0)
    • -tb-size option (removed in 6.0)
    • -usbdevice audio (removed in 6.0)
    • -vnc acl (removed in 6.0)
    • -mon ...,control=readline,pretty=on|off (removed in 6.0)
    • -drive file=json:{...{'driver':'file'}} (removed 6.0)
    • Floppy controllers’ drive properties (removed in 6.0)
    • -drive with bogus interface type (removed in 6.0)
    • -usbdevice ccid (removed in 6.0)
  • QEMU Machine Protocol (QMP) commands
    • block-dirty-bitmap-add “autoload” parameter (removed in 4.2.0)
    • cpu-add (removed in 5.2)
    • change (removed in 6.0)
    • query-events (removed in 6.0)
    • migrate_set_cache_size and query-migrate-cache-size (removed in 6.0)
    • migrate_set_downtime and migrate_set_speed (removed in 6.0)
    • query-cpus (removed in 6.0)
    • query-cpus-fast arch output member (removed in 6.0)
    • chardev client socket with wait option (removed in 6.0)
    • query-named-block-nodes result encryption_key_missing (removed in 6.0)
    • query-block result inserted.encryption_key_missing (removed in 6.0)
    • query-named-block-nodes and query-block result dirty-bitmaps[i].status (removed in 6.0)
    • query-block result field dirty-bitmaps (removed in 6.0)
    • object-add option props (removed in 6.0)
  • Human Monitor Protocol (HMP) commands
    • The hub_id parameter of hostfwd_add / hostfwd_remove (removed in 5.0)
    • cpu-add (removed in 5.2)
    • change vnc TARGET (removed in 6.0)
    • acl_show, acl_reset, acl_policy, acl_add, acl_remove (removed in 6.0)
    • migrate-set-cache-size and info migrate-cache-size (removed in 6.0)
    • migrate_set_downtime and migrate_set_speed (removed in 6.0)
  • Guest Emulator ISAs
    • RISC-V ISA privilege specification version 1.09.1 (removed in 5.1)
  • System emulator CPUS
    • KVM guest support on 32-bit Arm hosts (removed in 5.2)
    • RISC-V ISA Specific CPUs (removed in 5.1)
    • RISC-V no MMU CPUs (removed in 5.1)
    • compat property of server class POWER CPUs (removed in 6.0)
    • moxie CPU (removed in 6.1)
    • lm32 CPUs (removed in 6.1.0)
    • unicore32 CPUs (since 6.1.0)
  • System emulator machines
    • spike_v1.9.1 and spike_v1.10 (removed in 5.1)
    • mips r4k platform (removed in 5.2)
    • mips fulong2e machine alias (removed in 6.0)
    • pc-1.0, pc-1.1, pc-1.2 and pc-1.3 (removed in 6.0)
  • linux-user mode CPUs
    • tilegx CPUs (removed in 6.0)
  • System emulator devices
    • ide-drive (removed in 6.0)
    • scsi-disk (removed in 6.0)
  • Related binaries
    • qemu-nbd --partition (removed in 5.0)
    • qemu-img convert -n -o (removed in 5.1)
    • qemu-img create -b bad file $size (removed in 5.1)
  • Command line options
    • -smp (invalid topologies) (removed 5.2)
    • -numa node (without memory specified) (removed 5.2)
    • -numa node,mem=size (removed in 5.1)
    • -mem-path fallback to RAM (removed in 5.0)
    • -smp (invalid topologies) (removed 5.2)
    • -machine enforce-config-section=on|off (removed 5.2)
  • Block devices
    • VXHS backend (removed in 5.1)
    • sheepdog driver (removed in 6.0)
• Supported build platforms
  • Linux OS, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
  • Windows
• License