libvirtbacked

Libvirtbacked is a term used to describe a virtualization backend that relies on the libvirt library to manage virtual machines and their resources. It is not a standalone hypervisor; rather, it provides a unified interface to multiple supported hypervisors through libvirt, such as QEMU/KVM, Xen, LXC, and Hyper-V.

In a libvirtbacked stack, a control layer issues high-level VM management requests, and a libvirt client connects to the libvirtd daemon. A translation or adapter layer maps these requests to libvirt constructs—domains, storage pools, and networks—allowing the underlying hypervisor(s) to perform the actual operations. Libvirt uses XML-based domain definitions and exposes a consistent API for lifecycle management, storage orchestration, and network configuration, regardless of the specific hypervisor in use.

Typical capabilities include VM lifecycle operations (start, stop, pause, reboot), live and offline migration, snapshot management, and storage provisioning. Networking is handled through libvirt networks, bridging, NAT, and interface filtering. The backend can also coordinate with external cloud or orchestration components, enabling multi-hypervisor environments with a common management layer.

Use of a libvirtbacked approach is common in virtualization platforms and cloud-like systems that aim to support multiple hypervisors with a single management interface. It leverages libvirt’s成熟 API and broad hypervisor support, but requires running libvirtd and careful configuration to ensure compatibility, performance, and security across environments. See also libvirt, QEMU, KVM, and virtualization management tools.