Linux: Determine The Type of Virtualization

This post will guide you how to determine the type of virtualization in your Linux guest. How do I check if your Linux guest is physical or virtual.  How to find out the virtualization type of a remote Linux guest.

Assuming that you have a command line access to a Linux machine, and I want to determine what kind of virtualization technology it runs on. and there are several ways to detect the type of virtualization (KVM, XEN, VMWARE, VirtualBox,  Lxc, Container, Hyper-V )in a Linux virtual guest.

Check The Type of Virtualization Using Virt-what Tool

You can use the virt-what tool to check the type of virtualization. You need to install this tool firstly, type the following command:

For Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

#apt-get install virt-what

For CentOS/RHEL Linux:

#yum install virt-what

For Fedora Linux:

# dnf install virt-what

Check the virtualization technology, type the following command:

# virt-what

Outputs:

[root@osetc_x8664 ~]# virt-what
xen
xen-hvm

For VMware Workstation Guest:

[root@osetc ~]# virt-what
vmware

For VirtualBox Guest:

[root@osetc ~]# virt-what
virtualbox
kvm

For KVM guest:

[root@osetc ~]# virt-what
kvm

You can also use the dmidecode command to achieve the same result. type the following command:

# dmidecode -s system-product-name
# dmidecode -s system-manufacturer

Outputs:

[root@osetc_x8664 ~]# dmidecode -s system-product-name
HVM domU

[root@osetc_x8664 ~]# dmidecode -s system-manufacturer
Xen

For KVM Guest:

[root@osetc~]# dmidecode -s system-product-name
Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)
[root@osetc~]# dmidecode -s system-manufacturer
QEMU