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Long story short, you can seem KVM as replacement of VMware, XEN, VirtualBox, and so on (If you don't know what am I talking about, please give a look about what is Virtualization).

If you have play with similar solutions once before, the virtualization GUI shouldn't be new to you. The virtualization GUI usually provide an interface for client creation, managment and also operation, e.g. when you start a virtual client, the GUI will provide a window for it and display its screen message as like as real PC. So any similar solution for KVM? Yes, virt-manager (http://virt-manager.et.redhat.com/) is one of similar choice.

Besides previous 2 mini-HOWTO (KVM on Debian mini-HOWTO and libvirt + KVM on Debian mini-HOWTO), here I will guide you though how to employ virt-manager for more high level visualization handling.

This mini-HOWTO will give you some idea about using KVM handily with the help of libvirt - The virtualization API (http://libvirt.org/), where an ultimate goal is using virt-manager (http://virt-manager.et.redhat.com/) in order to provide similar MUI (management UI) and feature as VMWare.

The main idea of using libvirt is because of its handy virtual client management style. Besides using libvirt, we will need to use CLI and input corresponding parameter to start the virtual client manually (every time!), or prepare a lossy startup script for reuse; libvirt can give a hand for virtual client installation, profile create and management (in XML style so easy to understand and editable), and even instant start/shutdown/etc action.

Long story short, libvirt is much like a middle-ware between low level KVM/XEN/QEmu interface and high level virt-manager MUI.

First of all, I will assume that you have some knowledge about what is KVM and how to let it function on Debian sid. I will not detail them once again within this mini-HOWTO. In order to have more general idea, please refer to here.

A quick look about KVM (http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki/KVM-Wiki):

KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware. It consists of a loadable kernel module (kvm.ko) and a userspace component.

Using KVM, one can run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux or Windows images. Each virtual machine has private virtualized hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc.

The kernel component of KVM is included in mainline Linux, and will appear in Linux 2.6.20.

KVM is open source software.

So how to set it up under Debian? Since KVM is still under active development, using Debian sid (unstable) would be a good idea; on the other hand, a VT supported CPU is also required; finally, you should have X11 installed. You may handle the setup of KVM client in many different way: manual command line parameter, custom pre-defined start/stop/config shell scripting, or by using libvirt + virt-manager. For this simple mini-HOWTO, I will guide you though the 1st solution with the least dependence.