Beginner KVM Networking Lab with Alpine Linux (Step-by-Step)

🧪 Beginner KVM Networking Lab with Alpine Linux (Step-by-Step) In this tutorial, we will: Download Alpine Linux ISO Create alpine1 VM Install Alpine to disk Verify NAT networking Clone and create alpine2 Test VM-to-VM communication All using KVM + libvirt on Ubuntu. We use: Alpine Linux because it is extremely lightweight and perfect for networking labs. 🧱 Lab Architecture We will use the default libvirt NAT network: Host (Ubuntu) └── virbr0 (192.168.121.1/24) ├── alpine1 └── alpine2 VMs can talk to each other VMs can access internet via NAT VMs are not reachable from outside 🥇 Step 1 — Download Alpine ISO Download Alpine (virt edition recommended for KVM): wget https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.19/releases/x86_64/alpine-virt-3.19.1-x86_64.iso Move it to libvirt image directory: sudo mv alpine-virt-3.19.1-x86_64.iso /var/lib/libvirt/images/ Verify: ls -lh /var/lib/libvirt/images/ 🥈 Step 2 — Create alpine1 VM Create a 4GB disk and attach ISO: sudo virt-install \ --name alpine1 \