Certified Guest Operating Systems in Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Red Hat Virtualization, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM

The following is the list of Red Hat and third-party guest operating systems that are certified and supported for use with certified virtualization solutions.

Red Hat offers Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM for low-density, single machine virtualization. For greater scalability and more advanced features see the following products :

• Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization
• Red Hat OpenStack Platform

For optimal operation, configure your virtual machines (VMs) only with CPU models and pass-through devices that are certified for the guest operating system running on the VM. For CPU models and pass-through devices supported on a RHEL guest operating system, see the Hardware Catalog to search for supported CPU models and Pass-through devices.

Support Tiers

Global Support Services provides support for guest operating systems in accordance with two tiers :

• Tier 1 : Red Hat has tested, certified and will support this combination of hypervisor and guest operating system. Customers may contact Red Hat for support.
• Tier 2 : Red Hat will provide hypervisor support for customers that use this combination of hypervisor and guest operating system. Customers may contact Red Hat for hypervisor support and their Vendor for guest operating system support. Red Hat will work with the Vendor if the guest operating system issue is related to a hypervisor issue.

Note : Red Hat may chose to continue providing hypervisor support for a guest operating system beyond the supported life cycle of that guest operating system. However, customers are recommended to review with the guest operating system vendor support policies relating to support for end of life products.

Red Hat Virtualization, Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure

The following is the list of Red Hat and third-party guest operating systems that are certified and supported for use with Red Hat Virtualization, Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure hosts.

• Red Hat Virtualization 4.2, 4.3 and Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13 use RHEL 7 based hypervisors.
• Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2 use RHEL 8.4 based hypervisors.
• Red Hat Virtualization 4.4 SP1 uses RHEL 8.6 based hypervisors.
• Red Hat OpenStack Platform 17.1 uses RHEL 9.2 based hypervisors.
• For further details on RHEL minor versions used by these products please check their corresponding lifecycle pages (RHV, RHOSP).

Guest		Host based on RHEL version			Spice Support	Support Tier
Operating System	OS Architecture	9	8	7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6	32 bit, 64 bit (x86)	Not supported			3	Tier 1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7	64 bit (x86)				3, 8	Tier 1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8	64 bit (x86)	5	5	5	3, 8	Tier 1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9	64 bit (x86)	6	RHEL 8.4 or later 6	Not supported	3, 8	Tier 1
Microsoft Windows Server 2012	64 bit (x86)					Tier 1
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2	64 bit (x86)					Tier 1
Microsoft Windows Server 2016	64 bit (x86)				4, 8	Tier 1
Microsoft Windows Server 2019	64 bit (x86)			RHEL 7.6 or later	4, 8	Tier 1
Microsoft Windows Server 2022	64 bit (x86)		RHEL 8.6 or later	Not supported		Tier 1
Microsoft Windows 10	32 bit, 64 bit (x86)				7, 8	Tier 1
Microsoft Windows 11	64 bit (x86)		RHEL 8.6 or later	Not supported		Tier 1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12	32 bit, 64 bit (x86)	1	1	1	2, 8	Tier 2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15	64 bit (x86)	1	1	1	2, 8	Tier 2

1. Red Hat tests and supports the latest service pack of the guest operating system. Red Hat will work with the vendors of specific versions of the guest operating systems to resolve Red Hat hypervisor issues. The customer or partner offering a vendor-supported guest operating system will contact the vendor of that operating system. The vendor will then be responsible for appropriate escalations to Red Hat.
2. SPICE drivers (QXL) are not supplied by Red Hat. However, the distribution's vendor may provide SPICE drivers as part of their distribution.
3. SPICE is fully supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7 and Red Hat Enterprise 7.0 and above. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 have Tier 2 level support.
4. An upstream WDDM DoD driver can be used for SPICE. See this link to access the driver. (Please note this is driver/resolution is not a Red Hat supported driver/solution.
5. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is supported by Red Hat Virtualization 4.3, but there is no support for virt-sysprep (template sealing), virt-sparsify or v2v conversion of RHEL 8. There is also no support for SSO in gnome environments, only the qemu-guest-agent is supported.
6. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 is supported by Red Hat Virtualization 4.4, but there is no support for virt-sysprep (template sealing), virt-sparsify or v2v conversion of RHEL 9. There is also no support for SSO in gnome environments, only the qemu-guest-agent is supported.
7. This is achieved using QXL-WDDM-DoD driver with no hardware acceleration for 3D.
8. There is no support for SPICE when the Guest OS is running on RHEL 9 Hosts.

Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization

Certified Guest Operating Systems in OpenShift Virtualization

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM

The following is the list of Red Hat and third-party guest operating systems that are certified and supported for use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server with KVM hosts.

Guest Operating System	Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server with KVM version
	9	8	7	6
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6	Not supported
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8			RHEL 7.5 or later 2	RHEL 6.10 or later
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9		RHEL 8.6 or later 2	Not supported	Not supported
Microsoft Windows 10			1	Not supported
Microsoft Windows 11		RHEL 8.6 or later	Not supported	Not supported
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 64-Bit	Not supported	Not supported	1	RHEL 6.4 or later
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 64-Bit	Not supported		1	RHEL 6.5 or later
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 64-Bit			1	RHEL 6.9 or later
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 64-Bit			1	Not supported
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 64-Bit		RHEL 8.6 or later	Not supported	Not supported
Microsoft Windows Server 2025 64-Bit	RHEL 9.5 or later	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported

1. In RHEL 7, RHEL will have SVVP support only under specific subscription programs. If you are unsure whether your subscription model includes support for Windows guests, please contact customer support. RHV and OSP have full support and ship SVVP certified drivers. In addition, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server version which you are using must be listed as a supported virtualization technology for running Windows Server at Windows Server Catalog - Server Virtualization.
2. Customizing RHEL KVM image of newer release on older release host is not supported. Please refer to this article for details.

IBM Power

The following is the list of Red Hat and third-party guest operating systems that are certified and supported for use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts on IBM POWER8 and POWER9 hardware, using the rhev-qemu-kvm kernel module.

Guest Operating System	Virtual Machine Architecture	Hypervisor Architecture	Red Hat Enterprise Linux version			Support Tier
			9	8	7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6	PPC64BE	PPC64LE				Tier 1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 and 7.2	PPC64BE	PPC64LE				Tier 1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6	PPC64LE	PPC64LE				Tier 1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8	PPC64LE	PPC64LE				Tier 1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12	PPC64LE	PPC64LE				Tier 2
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15	PPC64LE	PPC64LE				Tier 2

Note : Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts on IBM POWER8 and POWER9 hardware are integrated into and used within Red Hat Virtualization. Red Hat Virtualization does not support installing the RHEV-H minimal operating system on IBM POWER8 hardware.

Third-party Guests

If a guest operating system is not listed then support for that guest operating system will be provided in accordance with Red Hat's Third-Party Software Support Policy.

In Windows guest operating systems, the para-virtualized I/O drivers (virtio-win) are required to be installed for best performance :

• In Red Hat Enterprise Linux based host operating system, the drivers are made available as images in the operating system Supplementary channel. For more information, see this article.
• In Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, the drivers can be installed using a graphical console. For more information, see the Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization documentation.

Note : Since Microsoft does not have SVVP certification for client/workstation operating systems, the client/workstation operating system will be supported by Red Hat in the same way as the corresponding server operating system. For example, Windows 11 will be supported in the same way as Windows Server 2022. For certification details, see the Microsoft SVVP site.

Third-party Hosts

Third-party hypervisors or hosts certified to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a guest are provided by :

• Microsoft
  • Certified Microsoft hypervisors, such as Hyper-V, can be found by searching the software section of Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog
  • The hardware section of Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog lists all certified Microsoft hardware
• VMware
  • Certified VMware hypervisors, such as VMware ESXi and ESX, can be found by searching the software section of Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog
  • The hardware section of Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog lists all certified VMware hardware
• Nutanix
  • Certified Nutanix hypervisors, such as Nutanix AHV, can be found by searching the software section of Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog
  • The hardware section of Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog lists all certified Nutanix hardware

If a hypervisor is not listed then support for that hypervisor will be provided in accordance with Red Hat's Third-Party Software Support Policy.