- Multi-platform
- KVM acceleration
Via docker-compose.yml
version: "3"
services:
qemu:
container_name: qemu
image: qemux/qemu-docker:latest
environment:
DISK_SIZE: "16G"
BOOT: "https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.18/releases/x86_64/alpine-standard-3.18.2-x86_64.iso"
devices:
- /dev/kvm
cap_add:
- NET_ADMIN
ports:
- 22:22
restart: on-failure
Via docker run
docker run -it --rm -e "BOOT=http://www.example.com/image.iso" --device=/dev/kvm --cap-add NET_ADMIN qemux/qemu-docker:latest
-
You can modify the
BOOT
environment variable to specify the URL of an ISO image:environment: BOOT: "https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.18/releases/x86_64/alpine-standard-3.18.2-x86_64.iso"
It will be downloaded only once, during the initial run of the container.
-
To expand the default size of 16 GB, locate the
DISK_SIZE
setting in your compose file and modify it to your preferred capacity:environment: DISK_SIZE: "256G"
This can also be used to resize the existing disk to a larger capacity without data loss.
-
To change the data disk's location from the default Docker volume, include the following bind mount in your compose file:
volumes: - /home/user/data:/storage
Replace the example path
/home/user/data
with the desired storage folder. -
By default, a single core and 512 MB of RAM are allocated to the container. To increase this, add the following environment variables:
environment: CPU_CORES: "4" RAM_SIZE: "2048M"
-
To verify if your system supports KVM, run the following commands:
sudo apt install cpu-checker sudo kvm-ok
If you receive an error from
kvm-ok
indicating that KVM acceleration can't be used, check your BIOS settings. -
You can create the
ARGUMENTS
environment variable to provide additional arguments to QEMU at runtime:environment: ARGUMENTS: "-drive file=/seed.iso,format=raw,if=virtio"
-
By default, the container uses bridge networking, which shares the IP address with the host.
If you want to assign an individual IP address to the container, you can create a macvlan network as follows:
docker network create -d macvlan \ --subnet=192.168.0.0/24 \ --gateway=192.168.0.1 \ --ip-range=192.168.0.100/28 \ -o parent=eth0 vlan
Be sure to modify these values to match your local subnet.
Once you have created the network, change your compose file to look as follows:
services: qemu: container_name: qemu ..<snip>.. networks: vlan: ipv4_address: 192.168.0.100 networks: vlan: external: true
An added benefit of this approach is that you won't have to perform any port mapping anymore since all ports will be exposed by default.
Please note that this IP address won't be accessible from the Docker host due to the design of macvlan, which doesn't permit communication between the two. If this is a concern, you need to create a second macvlan as a workaround.
-
After configuring the container for macvlan (see above), it is possible for the VM to become part of your home network by requesting an IP from your router, just like your other devices.
To enable this feature, add the following lines to your compose file:
environment: DHCP: "Y" devices: - /dev/vhost-net device_cgroup_rules: - 'c *:* rwm'
Please note that even if you don't need DHCP, it's still recommended to enable this feature as it prevents NAT issues and increases performance by using a
macvtap
interface.