I would like to install windows 10 ltsc iot inside qemu/kvm using virt-manager. My question is will this be completely isolated from the host os (linux mint 22.3 cinnamon)?
I am used to running virtual machines on windows 10 using virtualbox. I just wanted to confirm that this setup should be good before going ahead. I intend to run only open source software on the linux install and this is a closed source / hostile / untrustworthy OS. I wanted to make sure it is fully isolated like I am used to with virtualbox.
Thank you.
Not sure how you had it set up in VirtualBox but I’m guessing you should just do the same thing since that’s what you’re used to.
The other comment is correct but if you need a slightly shorter version
Bridge networking = Pretend the VM is its own separate physical computer plugged into your network. It is receiving an IP address from your network router, it is doing DNS through the network router, etc. And the network router is able to direct incoming internet traffic directly to the VM if configured that way so you could do stuff like port forwarding to a specific open port in the VM if you choose.
NAT = The host system (your Linux computer) is pretending to be a virtual router for the VM, the VM is not doing any direct communication with the network router. The VM gets its IP address from the host computer (the virtual NAT router). Since the VM sits behind the host computer that means it’s double-NAT’d, all internet traffic goes through the host first. It is not possible to configure an incoming port forward from the internet router directly to the VM.
Excellent explanation, thank you very much. Since I am using a VPN configuration on the host computer, am I correct in thinking NAT is the option I want if I want all traffic routed through that? It seems to function that way at the moment (checking IP on speedtest). If I recall, I had it configured that way on virtualbox. I want everything to network wise to be piped through the host first so if in the future I have custom firewall rules etc on the host, those are in place from the sounds of it using NAT correct?
Thanks again.
Yes that sounds correct, the traffic would go through the host so if the host is on VPN then the VM should be on that as well when in NAT mode.
Haven’t done that myself, maybe just do some testing to make sure that’s working as expected e.g. could be worthwhile to test what happens when the VPN drops out on the host and see how the VM behaves in that scenario. I don’t know how a kill switch would behave with that setup (or if you even need it, just mentioning).
I do have a kill switch configuration set with the VPN. I will test it, again thank you for the simplified explanation. It is quite clear in my head now and I will test accordingly.