QEMU in a docker container for running x86 and x64 virtual machines.
It uses high-performance QEMU options (like KVM acceleration, kernel-mode networking, IO threading, etc.) to achieve near-native speed.
- Multi-platform
- KVM acceleration
- Web-based viewer
Via Docker Compose:
services:
qemu:
container_name: qemu
image: qemux/qemu-docker
environment:
BOOT: "https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.19/releases/x86_64/alpine-virt-3.19.1-x86_64.iso"
devices:
- /dev/kvm
cap_add:
- NET_ADMIN
ports:
- 8006:8006
stop_grace_period: 2m
Via Docker CLI:
docker run -it --rm -e "BOOT=http://example.com/image.iso" -p 8006:8006 --device=/dev/kvm --cap-add NET_ADMIN qemux/qemu-docker
Via Kubernetes:
kubectl apply -f kubernetes.yml
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Very simple! These are the steps:
-
Set the
BOOT
environment variable to the URL of an ISO image you want to install. -
Start the container and connect to port 8006 using your web browser.
-
You will see the screen and can now install the OS of your choice using your keyboard and mouse.
Enjoy your brand new machine, and don't forget to star this repo!
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To change the storage location, include the following bind mount in your compose file:
volumes: - /var/qemu:/storage
Replace the example path
/var/qemu
with the desired storage folder. -
To expand the default size of 16 GB, add the
DISK_SIZE
setting to your compose file and set it to your preferred capacity:environment: DISK_SIZE: "128G"
This can also be used to resize the existing disk to a larger capacity without any data loss.
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You can use a local file directly, and skip the download altogether, by binding it in your compose file in this way:
volumes: - /home/user/example.iso:/boot.iso
Replace the example path
/home/user/example.iso
with the filename of the desired ISO file, the value ofBOOT
will be ignored in this case. -
You can use qemu-arm to run ARM64-based images.
-
Use dockur/windows instead, as it includes all the drivers required during installation, amongst many other features.
-
By default, the machine makes use of
virtio-scsi
drives for performance reasons, and even though most Linux kernels bundle the necessary driver for this device, that may not always be the case for other operating systems.If your machine fails to detect the hard drive, you can modify your compose file to use
virtio-blk
instead:environment: DISK_TYPE: "blk"
If it still fails to boot, you can set the value to
ide
to emulate a IDE drive, which is slow but compatible with almost every system. -
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 the virtualization settings in the BIOS. -
By default, the container will be allowed to use a maximum of 1 CPU core and 1 GB of RAM.
If you want to adjust this, you can specify the desired amount using the following environment variables:
environment: RAM_SIZE: "4G" CPU_CORES: "4"
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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.
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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 a real PC.
To enable this mode, add the following lines to your compose file:
environment: DHCP: "Y" devices: - /dev/vhost-net device_cgroup_rules: - 'c *:* rwm'
Please note that in this mode, the container and the VM will each have their own separate IPs. The container will keep the macvlan IP, and the VM will use the DHCP IP.
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To create additional disks, modify your compose file like this:
environment: DISK2_SIZE: "32G" DISK3_SIZE: "64G" volumes: - /home/example:/storage2 - /mnt/data/example:/storage3
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It is possible to pass-through disk devices directly by adding them to your compose file in this way:
devices: - /dev/sdb:/disk1 - /dev/sdc:/disk2
Use
/disk1
if you want it to become your main drive, and use/disk2
and higher to add them as secondary drives. -
To pass-through a USB device, first lookup its vendor and product id via the
lsusb
command, then add them to your compose file like this:environment: ARGUMENTS: "-device usb-host,vendorid=0x1234,productid=0x1234" devices: - /dev/bus/usb
-
You can create the
ARGUMENTS
environment variable to provide additional arguments to QEMU at runtime:environment: ARGUMENTS: "-device usb-tablet"