KubeVirt 0.40: Virtual Machine Management on Kubernetes

Introduction

KubeVirt 0.40 — Virtual Machine Management on Kubernetes — was released on August 10, 2021.

This is a practical update aimed at making day‑to‑day Kubernetes work a bit more predictable.

In this release: KubeVirt 0.40 enhances virtual machine management with improved VM lifecycle, better storage integration, and enhanced networking for running VMs alongside containers.

VM Lifecycle Improvements

• Startup performance optimizations reduce time required for VM creation and startup.
• Shutdown handling improvements ensure graceful VM termination.
• Migration enhancements enable live migration of VMs between nodes.
• Snapshot support provides point-in-time VM state capture.

Storage Integration

1. CSI integration improvements enable better use of Kubernetes storage for VM disks.
2. Volume management enhancements simplify attaching and detaching storage volumes.
3. Snapshot support expansion enables more flexible backup and restore workflows.
4. Storage performance optimizations improve I/O throughput for VM workloads.

Networking Enhancements

• Network policies support enables applying Kubernetes network policies to VMs.
• Service integration improvements enable VMs to participate in Kubernetes Services.
• Multi-NIC support enables VMs with multiple network interfaces.
• Network performance optimizations reduce latency for VM networking.

Operational Features

• Resource management improvements enable better CPU and memory allocation.
• Monitoring expansion includes VM-specific metrics and health indicators.
• Troubleshooting tools improve debugging of VM issues.
• Documentation expansion includes comprehensive guides for common scenarios.

Getting Started

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/v0.40.0/kubevirt-operator.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/v0.40.0/kubevirt-cr.yaml

Create a VM:

apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: testvm
spec:
  running: true
  template:
    spec:
      domain:
        devices:
          disks:
          - name: disk0
            disk:
              bus: virtio
        resources:
          requests:
            memory: 1Gi
      volumes:
      - name: disk0
        containerDisk:
          image: kubevirt/fedora-cloud-container-disk-demo

Summary

KubeVirt 0.40 continues to evolve as a solution for VM management on Kubernetes, providing teams with unified infrastructure orchestration.