SUSE Virtualization as a Stable Foundation
SUSE Virtualization as a Stable Foundation
SUSE relies on KVM virtualization in the enterprise environment, controlled via a libvirt-based stack with tools such as virsh, virt-manager and virt-install to consistently manage virtual machines, networks and storage. This architecture has been tried and tested in business-critical environments for years and offers full support for hardware virtualization, live migration and high-availability workloads.
Libvirt: Unified VM Management
Libvirt provides a unified API for managing popular hypervisors such as KVM, QEMU, Xen and even VMware ESX, decoupling your management layer from the underlying virtualization technology. SUSE recommends libvirt as the primary way to centrally control VMs, virtual networks and storage, including remote management with TLS encryption and x509 certificates for secure administration.
Harvester & HCI based on Cloud-Native Principles
With Harvester, SUSE offers a modern, open HCI solution that is built directly on Kubernetes, uses bare-metal servers and combines virtualization and distributed storage in an integrated stack. Harvester uses KubeVirt to run VMs as Kubernetes workloads and integrates closely with Rancher, so that infrastructure, VMs, containers and clusters can be managed via a common management interface.
KubeVirt: VMs as First-Class Citizens in Kubernetes
KubeVirt extends Kubernetes with VM resources and allows virtual machines to be operated directly via Kubernetes APIs, CRDs and familiar concepts such as scheduling, monitoring and high availability. This allows legacy or specialized VM workloads to run side by side with containers in the same cluster, enabling mixed environments, gradual modernization and unified CI/CD pipelines for VMs and containers.
Bridge between Legacy VMs and Cloud-Native
KubeVirt addresses teams that already use or want to use Kubernetes but need to keep significant VM loads that cannot easily be containerized. By running these workloads directly in the cluster, applications can be gradually decomposed and modernized, while critical components initially continue to run as VMs – without parallel management silos.
Future-proofing through an open stack
As an open, Kubernetes-based HCI platform, SUSE Harvester is an alternative to proprietary virtualization suites and enables operators to automatically integrate container environments via Rancher. The combination of libvirt, KVM, Kubernetes and KubeVirt is based entirely on open standards and open source technologies, which reduces lock-in and increases the portability of your workloads from the core data center to the edge.
Ideal for Managed HCI Services
For a Managed HCI Service, this stack means: central, standardized VM administration via libvirt, HCI consolidation with Harvester and a common control plane model for VMs and containers with KubeVirt and Rancher. This creates a platform on which classic enterprise applications, virtual appliances and cloud-native microservices can be consistently operated, automated and rolled out via GitOps processes – ready for current requirements and future transformation projects.