1.\" $OpenBSD: vmm.4,v 1.5 2015/12/06 19:06:17 jmc Exp $ 2.\" 3.\"Copyright (c) 2015 Mike Larkin <mlarkin@openbsd.org> 4.\" 5.\"Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any 6.\"purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above 7.\"copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. 8.\" 9.\"THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES 10.\"WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 11.\"MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR 12.\"ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES 13.\"WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN 14.\"ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF 15.\"OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. 16.\" 17.Dd $Mdocdate: December 6 2015 $ 18.Dt VMM 4 amd64 19.Os 20.Sh NAME 21.Nm vmm 22.Nd virtual machine monitor 23.Sh SYNOPSIS 24.Cd "vmm0 at mainbus0" 25.Sh DESCRIPTION 26The 27.Nm 28driver implements a virtual machine monitor (VMM) suitable for executing 29.Em virtual machines 30(VMs). 31A VMM runs on the 32.Em host 33operating system and provides facilities to execute one or more 34VMs, each of which is provided with a suitable complement of 35virtual hardware. 36.Pp 37These VMs run independently of the host, but may interact with 38it as any other machine would (e.g. via network communications or 39other means). 40.Pp 41VMs are allocated hardware resources by the VMM during creation, 42including: 43.Pp 44.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact 45.It 46Virtual CPUs 47.It 48Virtual network interfaces 49.It 50Virtual disk images 51.It 52Virtual serial ports 53.El 54.Pp 55Although VMs execute independently of each other and the host, they 56do consume host resources and, as such, the number of VMs (and their 57configurations) should be taken into consideration when planning 58host capacity. 59.Pp 60The 61.Nm 62driver requires suitable host CPU capabilities in order to provide 63VM services. 64The 65.Nm 66driver requires at least one CPU with hardware-assisted virtualization 67capabilities and nested or extended paging capabilities to be 68present on the host. 69For more information, consult the CPU vendor's documentation. 70.Sh SEE ALSO 71.Xr cpu 4 , 72.Xr intro 4 , 73.Xr virtio 4 , 74.Xr vmctl 8 , 75.Xr vmd 8 76.Sh HISTORY 77The 78.Nm 79driver 80appeared in 81.Ox 5.9 . 82.Sh AUTHORS 83.An Mike Larkin Aq Mt mlarkin@openbsd.org 84