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What is Virtual Machine (Virtnest)?

Virtnest, built on KubeVirt, manages virtual machines as cloud native applications so that VMs and containers share the same Kubernetes scheduling, networking, storage and image system. You can create VMs quickly from an image, a template or YAML, log in over VNC / SSH, and handle day-to-day operations such as start/stop/restart, spec changes, snapshots and cloning, migration and monitoring on the same platform. Typical use cases include migrating traditional applications to the cloud, importing VMware VMs, development and test environments, and GPU workloads.

Note

The Virtual Machine, Virtnest , is a feature exclusive to the DCE Enterprise Package (Standard, Advanced, and Platinum editions).

Product Architecture

Virtnest product architecture

The architecture consists of three layers, from top to bottom: creation and access, VM capabilities, and the cloud native foundation:

Layer Component Responsibility In the diagram
Creation & Access Image / Template / YAML creation Three ways to create VMs; VNC, SSH and NodePort multi-terminal access, plus VM details Blue area
Creation & Access VM images Container registries, HTTP file servers and S3 object storage; built-in CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian images Blue bar
VM Capabilities Lifecycle and operations Start/stop/restart, spec changes, snapshots and scheduled snapshots, cloning, live / cold / cross-cluster migration, monitoring and health checks Green area
VM Capabilities Specs, networking and storage CPU / memory hot-plug and Nvidia GPU / vGPU; Masquerade (NAT) and Bridge networking; system disks, data disks and PVCs Green cards
Cloud Native Foundation KubeVirt + Kubernetes VMs described by VirtualMachine / VMI custom resources and hosted by virt-launcher Pods; reuses cluster scheduling, CNI, storage and image services Orange area

Key Capabilities

Virtnest provides complete capabilities for creating, running and operating virtual machines. Each VM runs its own guest OS and kernel inside a virt-launcher Pod, isolated by QEMU / KVM. On top of that, Virtnest reuses Kubernetes scheduling, networking and storage: container images serve as the basis for VM creation, and VMs are scheduled alongside container workloads by the same cluster, improving resource utilization; image-based distribution shortens VM startup time and supports fast, on-demand deployment and scaling; start/stop, configuration and monitoring use the same cluster management tools, simplifying day-to-day operations; applications and their configurations can be packaged into images for flexible release, and can directly reuse container networking, service discovery and load balancing to work seamlessly with existing containerized applications.

  • Cloud Native Virtual Machines

    Manages VMs as cloud native applications with KubeVirt, sharing Kubernetes scheduling, service discovery and networking with containers, and reducing the cost of running virtualization and containerization side by side.

    ▶ Virtual Machine Features

  • Three Ways to Create VMs

    Create VMs from an image, a template or YAML. Images can come from a container registry, an HTTP file server or S3 object storage, and custom images are supported.

    ▶ Create Virtual Machine

  • Images and Templates

    Built-in CentOS, Ubuntu and Debian images, plus custom image builds; convert an existing VM into a template to reuse configurations in bulk.

    ▶ Build Virtual Machine Images

  • Snapshots, Cloning and Migration

    Snapshots and scheduled snapshots, VM cloning, live migration, cold migration, cross-cluster migration and automatic node drift.

    ▶ Snapshot Management

  • Networking and Storage

    Masquerade (NAT) and Bridge networking, multiple NICs and fixed IPs; PVC-based system disks, data disk attachment and expansion.

    ▶ Virtual Machine Networking

  • GPU and Observability

    Nvidia GPU / vGPU passthrough, metrics, events, health checks and console access for full visibility into VM status.

    ▶ Configure GPU Passthrough

Learning Path

Complete the following steps in order to create and operate a virtual machine from scratch:

1 Install Install the VM module and virtnest-agent Go → 2 Prepare Images Build or import VM images Go → 3 Create a VM From an image, template or YAML Go → 4 Connect to the VM Log in via VNC / terminal, view details Go → 5 Day-2 Operations Snapshots, cloning, migration and monitoring Go →

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