AMDEPYC · LakshmiSaiHarika · Oct 21, 2025 · DGonzalezVillal · Nov 5, 2025 · DGonzalezVillal
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Welcome to SEV OS Certification
 
 
-The purpose of this repository is to provide a unified framework for testing and certifying operating system support for [AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV)](https://www.amd.com/en/developer/sev.html) features. These are hardware-enabled security features that provide confidentiality and integrity of VM memory through per-VM encryption keys. Self-service tools are provided to run a series of certification tests using an AMD EPYC server, allowing for any user/organization to verify SEV support on a particular OS. 
+The purpose of this repository is to provide a unified framework for testing and certifying operating system support for [AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV)](https://www.amd.com/en/developer/sev.html) features. These are hardware-enabled security features that provide confidentiality and integrity of VM memory through per-VM encryption keys. Self-service tools are provided to run a series of certification tests using an AMD EPYC server, allowing for any user/organization to verify SEV support on a particular OS. Users who are new to AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) are encouraged to consult the introductory guide titled [Getting Started User Guide for SEV](./docs/getting-started-user-guide-for-sev.md) for foundational information and setup instructions..
 
 **Note**: Currently only linux distributions supported by [`mkosi`](https://github.com/systemd/mkosi) are compatible with this framework.
 

diff --git a/docs/getting-started-user-guide-for-sev.md b/docs/getting-started-user-guide-for-sev.md
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+# Getting Started Guide for AMD Security Feature(SEV) on AMD EPYC Processor
-# Getting Started Guide for AMD Security Feature(SEV) on AMD EPYC Processor
+# Enabling AMD Security Features in AMD EPYC Processors
-# Getting Started Guide for AMD Security Feature(SEV) on AMD EPYC Processor
+# Enabling AMD Security Features in AMD EPYC Processors
+
+## SEV Introduction
+When a virtual machine is started, data is loaded into memory (RAM). This makes the data vulnerable to software or hardware probing by attackers on the host system, especially in shared environments like cloud computing, where resources are shared by many tenants. For this reason, users must ensure that the data in RAM is secure and protected from both attackers and hypervisors. This reduces the amount of trust virtual machines need to place in the hypervisor and the host system's administrators.
-When a virtual machine is started, data is loaded into memory (RAM). This makes the data vulnerable to software or hardware probing by attackers on the host system, especially in shared environments like cloud computing, where resources are shared by many tenants. For this reason, users must ensure that the data in RAM is secure and protected from both attackers and hypervisors. This reduces the amount of trust virtual machines need to place in the hypervisor and the host system's administrators.
+When a virtual machine (VM) starts, data is loaded into system memory (RAM). This data can be vulnerable to software or hardware probing by attackers on the host system—especially in shared environments like cloud platforms, where multiple tenants share the same physical resources. To mitigate this risk, users must ensure that data in RAM is protected from both attackers and hypervisors. Doing so reduces the level of trust that virtual machines need to place in the hypervisor and host administrators.
+
+AMD EPYC processors introduce confidential computing technologies that provide memory encryption for virtualized environments, protecting data not only from physical attacks but also from other virtual machines and even the hypervisor itself.
+
+The following sections describe the different generations of Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV), each building on the previous generation and introducing new security capabilities and features:
-When a virtual machine is started, data is loaded into memory (RAM). This makes the data vulnerable to software or hardware probing by attackers on the host system, especially in shared environments like cloud computing, where resources are shared by many tenants. For this reason, users must ensure that the data in RAM is secure and protected from both attackers and hypervisors. This reduces the amount of trust virtual machines need to place in the hypervisor and the host system's administrators.
+When a virtual machine (VM) starts, data is loaded into system memory (RAM). This data can be vulnerable to software or hardware probing by attackers on the host system—especially in shared environments like cloud platforms, where multiple tenants share the same physical resources. To mitigate this risk, users must ensure that data in RAM is protected from both attackers and hypervisors. Doing so reduces the level of trust that virtual machines need to place in the hypervisor and host administrators.
+
+AMD EPYC processors introduce confidential computing technologies that provide memory encryption for virtualized environments, protecting data not only from physical attacks but also from other virtual machines and even the hypervisor itself.
+
+The following sections describe the different generations of Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV), each building on the previous generation and introducing new security capabilities and features:
+
+**AMD's SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization)** is a technology used to protect KVM virtual machines (VMs) by transparently encrypting the memory of each VM with a unique key. SEV can also calculate a signature of the memory's content. This signature is provided to the VM's owner as an attestation to prove that the memory was correctly encrypted by the firmware.
-**AMD's SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization)** is a technology used to protect KVM virtual machines (VMs) by transparently encrypting the memory of each VM with a unique key. SEV can also calculate a signature of the memory's content. This signature is provided to the VM's owner as an attestation to prove that the memory was correctly encrypted by the firmware.
+**SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization)**:  is the first generation of the security features. It protects KVM virtual machines (VMs) by transparently encrypting the memory of the VM using a unique key.
-**AMD's SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization)** is a technology used to protect KVM virtual machines (VMs) by transparently encrypting the memory of each VM with a unique key. SEV can also calculate a signature of the memory's content. This signature is provided to the VM's owner as an attestation to prove that the memory was correctly encrypted by the firmware.
+**SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization)**:  is the first generation of the security features. It protects KVM virtual machines (VMs) by transparently encrypting the memory of the VM using a unique key.
+
+**AMD's SEV-ES (Secure Encrypted Virtualization - Encrypted State)** is a technology that encrypts all CPU register contents when a VM halts running, preventing the information leak from the CPU registers to components like hypervisor.
-**AMD's SEV-ES (Secure Encrypted Virtualization - Encrypted State)** is a technology that encrypts all CPU register contents when a VM halts running, preventing the information leak from the CPU registers to components like hypervisor.
+**ES (Encrypted State)**: is the second generation of SEV. It adds CPU register encryption when a VM stops running, preventing the information leak from the CPU registers to components like the hypervisor.
-**AMD's SEV-ES (Secure Encrypted Virtualization - Encrypted State)** is a technology that encrypts all CPU register contents when a VM halts running, preventing the information leak from the CPU registers to components like hypervisor.
+**ES (Encrypted State)**: is the second generation of SEV. It adds CPU register encryption when a VM stops running, preventing the information leak from the CPU registers to components like the hypervisor.
+
+**AMD's SEV-SNP (AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging)** is a technology which adds strong memory integrity protection on top of AMD's SEV and SEV-ES to aid in preventing malicious hypervisor-based attacks(data replay, memory mapping and so on) to create an isolated execution environment.
-**AMD's SEV-SNP (AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging)** is a technology which adds strong memory integrity protection on top of AMD's SEV and SEV-ES to aid in preventing malicious hypervisor-based attacks(data replay, memory mapping and so on) to create an isolated execution environment.
+**SNP (Secure Nested Paging)**:  is the third generation of SEV. It adds strong memory integrity protection on top of SEV and ES to aid in preventing malicious hypervisor-based attacks(data replay, memory mapping and more) to create an isolated execution environment. SNP also introduces several additional optional security enhancements designed to support additional VM use models, offer stronger protection around interrupt behavior, and offer increased protection against recently disclosed side channel attacks. It also introduces a new attestation model that allows run-time attestation in SNP protected VMs.
-**AMD's SEV-SNP (AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging)** is a technology which adds strong memory integrity protection on top of AMD's SEV and SEV-ES to aid in preventing malicious hypervisor-based attacks(data replay, memory mapping and so on) to create an isolated execution environment.
+**SNP (Secure Nested Paging)**:  is the third generation of SEV. It adds strong memory integrity protection on top of SEV and ES to aid in preventing malicious hypervisor-based attacks(data replay, memory mapping and more) to create an isolated execution environment. SNP also introduces several additional optional security enhancements designed to support additional VM use models, offer stronger protection around interrupt behavior, and offer increased protection against recently disclosed side channel attacks. It also introduces a new attestation model that allows run-time attestation in SNP protected VMs.
+
+Resources
+[AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization Developer Central](https://www.amd.com/en/developer/sev.html)
+[AMD-SEV Guide on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 distribution](https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP7/html/SLES-amd-sev/article-amd-sev.html#:~:text=AMD's%20Secure%20Encrypted%20Virtualization%20(SEV,virtual%20machine's%20CPU%20register%20content.))
-Resources
-[AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization Developer Central](https://www.amd.com/en/developer/sev.html)
-[AMD-SEV Guide on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 distribution](https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP7/html/SLES-amd-sev/article-amd-sev.html#:~:text=AMD's%20Secure%20Encrypted%20Virtualization%20(SEV,virtual%20machine's%20CPU%20register%20content.))
+Additional Resources:
+[AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization Developer Central](https://www.amd.com/en/developer/sev.html)
+[Using SEV with AMD EPYC Processors](https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/epyc-technical-docs/tuning-guides/58207-using-sev-with-amd-epyc-processors.pdf)
-Resources
-[AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization Developer Central](https://www.amd.com/en/developer/sev.html)
-[AMD-SEV Guide on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 distribution](https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP7/html/SLES-amd-sev/article-amd-sev.html#:~:text=AMD's%20Secure%20Encrypted%20Virtualization%20(SEV,virtual%20machine's%20CPU%20register%20content.))
+Additional Resources:
+[AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization Developer Central](https://www.amd.com/en/developer/sev.html)
+[Using SEV with AMD EPYC Processors](https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/epyc-technical-docs/tuning-guides/58207-using-sev-with-amd-epyc-processors.pdf)
+
+## User-Specific SEV Implementation Guide
+Stakeholders with varying objectives can utilize the following user guides to begin their implementation of AMD's SEV.
-## User-Specific SEV Implementation Guide
-Stakeholders with varying objectives can utilize the following user guides to begin their implementation of AMD's SEV.
+## Configuring SNP 
+Users can utilize the following guides to set-up SNP in their system.
-## User-Specific SEV Implementation Guide
-Stakeholders with varying objectives can utilize the following user guides to begin their implementation of AMD's SEV.
+## Configuring SNP 
+Users can utilize the following guides to set-up SNP in their system.
+
+### 1. Host
-### 1. Host
+### 1. Host configuration
-### 1. Host
+### 1. Host configuration
+Host system users can configure AMD's Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) and subsequently verify its enablement within their specific Linux environment.
-Host system users can configure AMD's Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) and subsequently verify its enablement within their specific Linux environment.
+Enable SNP in your host in order to launch SNP protected VMs.
-Host system users can configure AMD's Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) and subsequently verify its enablement within their specific Linux environment.
+Enable SNP in your host in order to launch SNP protected VMs.
+
+#### Enable AMD's security feature(SEV) in the host BIOS
+The host hardware should support AMD's SEV technology and should be enabled in the server BIOS.
-#### Enable AMD's security feature(SEV) in the host BIOS
-The host hardware should support AMD's SEV technology and should be enabled in the server BIOS.
+#### Enable AMD's security feature(SEV) in the host BIOS
+To enable SNP in BIOS you need to enable the following settings:
-#### Enable AMD's security feature(SEV) in the host BIOS
-The host hardware should support AMD's SEV technology and should be enabled in the server BIOS.
+#### Enable AMD's security feature(SEV) in the host BIOS
+To enable SNP in BIOS you need to enable the following settings:
+
+Host users should enable AMD Secure Memory Encryption (SMEE) feature in BIOS on the host hardware containing AMD EPYC processors. Follow the instructions posted in [Using SEV with AMD EPYC Processors](https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/epyc-technical-docs/tuning-guides/58207-using-sev-with-amd-epyc-processors.pdf) to enable AMD SEV features from BIOS.
-Host users should enable AMD Secure Memory Encryption (SMEE) feature in BIOS on the host hardware containing AMD EPYC processors. Follow the instructions posted in [Using SEV with AMD EPYC Processors](https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/epyc-technical-docs/tuning-guides/58207-using-sev-with-amd-epyc-processors.pdf) to enable AMD SEV features from BIOS.
+For a more in depth enablement guide, please take a look at the "Using SEV with AMD EPYC Processors" guide in our additional resources.
-Host users should enable AMD Secure Memory Encryption (SMEE) feature in BIOS on the host hardware containing AMD EPYC processors. Follow the instructions posted in [Using SEV with AMD EPYC Processors](https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/epyc-technical-docs/tuning-guides/58207-using-sev-with-amd-epyc-processors.pdf) to enable AMD SEV features from BIOS.
+For a more in depth enablement guide, please take a look at the "Using SEV with AMD EPYC Processors" guide in our additional resources.
+
+#### Verify for AMD's security feature enablement on the host
-#### Verify for AMD's security feature enablement on the host
+#### Verify SNP enablement
-#### Verify for AMD's security feature enablement on the host
+#### Verify SNP enablement
+Host users are advised to manually verify the enablement of AMD’s security features (SEV, SEV-ES, and SEV-SNP) within their Linux host environment. To facilitate this verification, users may utilize the snphost tool to assess SEV-SNP support on the system:
+- Download the latest snphost release from [snphost GH Releases](https://github.com/virtee/snphost/releases) page.
+- Execute the command `snphost ok` to confirm the presence and status of the supported security features.
-Host users are advised to manually verify the enablement of AMD’s security features (SEV, SEV-ES, and SEV-SNP) within their Linux host environment. To facilitate this verification, users may utilize the snphost tool to assess SEV-SNP support on the system:
- Download the latest snphost release from [snphost GH Releases](https://github.com/virtee/snphost/releases) page.
- Execute the command `snphost ok` to confirm the presence and status of the supported security features.
+To verify the complete enablement of AMD’s security features (SEV, ES, and SNP) within their Linux host, users may utilize the [Virtee snphost](https://github.com/virtee/snphost) tool to assess SNP support and enablement on the system:
+
+To use this tool:
+1. Download the latest snphost release from [snphost GH Releases](https://github.com/virtee/snphost/releases) page.
+2. Execute the command `snphost ok` to confirm the presence and status of the supported security features.
-Host users are advised to manually verify the enablement of AMD’s security features (SEV, SEV-ES, and SEV-SNP) within their Linux host environment. To facilitate this verification, users may utilize the snphost tool to assess SEV-SNP support on the system:
- Download the latest snphost release from [snphost GH Releases](https://github.com/virtee/snphost/releases) page.
- Execute the command `snphost ok` to confirm the presence and status of the supported security features.
+To verify the complete enablement of AMD’s security features (SEV, ES, and SNP) within their Linux host, users may utilize the [Virtee snphost](https://github.com/virtee/snphost) tool to assess SNP support and enablement on the system:
+
+To use this tool:
+1. Download the latest snphost release from [snphost GH Releases](https://github.com/virtee/snphost/releases) page.
+2. Execute the command `snphost ok` to confirm the presence and status of the supported security features.
+
+### 2. Guest
-### 2. Guest
+### 2. Guest Launch and enablement
-### 2. Guest
+### 2. Guest Launch and enablement
+Guest users can launch SNP-enabled QEMU guest on the SNP host.
+**Host Requirements:**
+- Guest users should ensure that the below required packages are installed on the host:
+   - kernel package version: 6.11+
+   - QEMU version: 9.2+
+   - OVMF version: 2024.11+
-Guest users can launch SNP-enabled QEMU guest on the SNP host.
-**Host Requirements:**
- Guest users should ensure that the below required packages are installed on the host:
-   - kernel package version: 6.11+
-   - QEMU version: 9.2+
-   - OVMF version: 2024.11+
+#### Guest Requirements
+An SNP enabled guest can be launched after the host has properly set-up and enabled SNP. 
+
+The following are **guest** requirements to launch an SNP enabled VM:
+   - Guest kernel version: 5.19+
+   - QEMU version: 9.2+
+   - OVMF version: 2024.11+
-Guest users can launch SNP-enabled QEMU guest on the SNP host.
-**Host Requirements:**
- Guest users should ensure that the below required packages are installed on the host:
-   - kernel package version: 6.11+
-   - QEMU version: 9.2+
-   - OVMF version: 2024.11+
+#### Guest Requirements
+An SNP enabled guest can be launched after the host has properly set-up and enabled SNP. 
+
+The following are **guest** requirements to launch an SNP enabled VM:
+   - Guest kernel version: 5.19+
+   - QEMU version: 9.2+
+   - OVMF version: 2024.11+
+
+**Procedure:**
-**Procedure:**
+#### Guest Launch
-**Procedure:**
+#### Guest Launch
+Guest users may initiate SEV-SNP-enabled virtual machine boots using the QEMU hypervisor by either utilizing the guest UKI artifacts provided in the [sev-certify](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify.git) project or deploying their own custom guest image.
-Guest users may initiate SEV-SNP-enabled virtual machine boots using the QEMU hypervisor by either utilizing the guest UKI artifacts provided in the [sev-certify](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify.git) project or deploying their own custom guest image.
+Guest users may initiate SEV-SNP-enabled virtual machine boots using the QEMU hypervisor by utilizing the mainline release of one of the certified images in this repository. Please reference the table of certified images here: **link to table**
-Guest users may initiate SEV-SNP-enabled virtual machine boots using the QEMU hypervisor by either utilizing the guest UKI artifacts provided in the [sev-certify](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify.git) project or deploying their own custom guest image.
+Guest users may initiate SEV-SNP-enabled virtual machine boots using the QEMU hypervisor by utilizing the mainline release of one of the certified images in this repository. Please reference the table of certified images here: **link to table**
+
+Guest users have two options for launching an SEV-SNP-enabled virtual machine using QEMU:
+- **Option 1:** Download or build guest artifacts tailored to their specific operating system distribution from the [sev-certify](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify.git) project. These artifacts can then be used to initiate an SEV-SNP-enabled guest following the procedures outlined in the [how-to-run-guest-manually](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify/blob/main/docs/how-to-run-guest-manually.md) guide.
+
+- **Option 2**: Directly boot an SEV-SNP-enabled guest using a custom guest image by specifying the appropriate QEMU command-line parameters.
-Guest users have two options for launching an SEV-SNP-enabled virtual machine using QEMU:
- **Option 1:** Download or build guest artifacts tailored to their specific operating system distribution from the [sev-certify](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify.git) project. These artifacts can then be used to initiate an SEV-SNP-enabled guest following the procedures outlined in the [how-to-run-guest-manually](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify/blob/main/docs/how-to-run-guest-manually.md) guide.
-
- **Option 2**: Directly boot an SEV-SNP-enabled guest using a custom guest image by specifying the appropriate QEMU command-line parameters.
+To boot one of the mainline qcow2 images from one of the certified OS,  the user can use a command similar to the following:
-Guest users have two options for launching an SEV-SNP-enabled virtual machine using QEMU:
- **Option 1:** Download or build guest artifacts tailored to their specific operating system distribution from the [sev-certify](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify.git) project. These artifacts can then be used to initiate an SEV-SNP-enabled guest following the procedures outlined in the [how-to-run-guest-manually](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify/blob/main/docs/how-to-run-guest-manually.md) guide.
-
- **Option 2**: Directly boot an SEV-SNP-enabled guest using a custom guest image by specifying the appropriate QEMU command-line parameters.
+To boot one of the mainline qcow2 images from one of the certified OS,  the user can use a command similar to the following:
+```sh
+$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
+  -enable-kvm \
+  -machine q35 \
+  -cpu EPYC-v4 \
+  -machine memory-encryption=sev0 \
+  -monitor none \
+  -display none \
+  -object memory-backend-memfd,id=ram1,size=<guest-ram-size> \
+  -machine memory-backend=ram1 \
+  -object sev-snp-guest,id=sev0,cbitpos=51,reduced-phys-bits=1 kernel-hashes=on" \
+  -bios <amdsev-ovmf-path> \
+  -kernel <guest-user-image-path>
-$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
-  -enable-kvm \
-  -machine q35 \
-  -cpu EPYC-v4 \
-  -machine memory-encryption=sev0 \
-  -monitor none \
-  -display none \
-  -object memory-backend-memfd,id=ram1,size=<guest-ram-size> \
-  -machine memory-backend=ram1 \
-  -object sev-snp-guest,id=sev0,cbitpos=51,reduced-phys-bits=1 kernel-hashes=on" \
-  -bios <amdsev-ovmf-path> \
-  -kernel <guest-user-image-path>
+$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
+  -enable-kvm \
+  -machine q35 \
+  -cpu EPYC-v4 \
+  -machine memory-encryption=sev0 \
+  -monitor none \
+  -display none \
+  -object memory-backend-memfd,id=ram1,size=<guest-ram-size> \
+  -machine memory-backend=ram1 \
+  -object sev-snp-guest,id=sev0,cbitpos=51,reduced-phys-bits=1 kernel-hashes=on\
+  -bios <amdsev-ovmf-path> \
+   -hda path-to-image
-$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
-  -enable-kvm \
-  -machine q35 \
-  -cpu EPYC-v4 \
-  -machine memory-encryption=sev0 \
-  -monitor none \
-  -display none \
-  -object memory-backend-memfd,id=ram1,size=<guest-ram-size> \
-  -machine memory-backend=ram1 \
-  -object sev-snp-guest,id=sev0,cbitpos=51,reduced-phys-bits=1 kernel-hashes=on" \
-  -bios <amdsev-ovmf-path> \
-  -kernel <guest-user-image-path>
+$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
+  -enable-kvm \
+  -machine q35 \
+  -cpu EPYC-v4 \
+  -machine memory-encryption=sev0 \
+  -monitor none \
+  -display none \
+  -object memory-backend-memfd,id=ram1,size=<guest-ram-size> \
+  -machine memory-backend=ram1 \
+  -object sev-snp-guest,id=sev0,cbitpos=51,reduced-phys-bits=1 kernel-hashes=on\
+  -bios <amdsev-ovmf-path> \
+   -hda path-to-image
+```
+Users may allocate the desired amount of memory for the guest virtual machine, with a minimum requirement of 2 GB (2048 MB).
+
+`amdsev-ovmf-path` refers to the AMDSEV UEFI compatible guest firmware located at either `/usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.amdsev.fd` or `/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF.amdsev.fd` based on your host linux distribution.
+
+`guest-user-image-path` refers to your custom guest image file path.
+
+Guest users can refer to [QEMU documentation](https://www.qemu.org/documentation/) for the additional guest capabilities.
+
+### 3. Verifier
+Verifiers seek to perform AMD' SEV validation checks to confirm the presence and functionality of AMD’s Secure Encrypted Virtualization features. These verifiers may include operating system vendors, hardware manufacturers, or OEMs evaluating support within their platforms, firmware, or pre-release operating systems.
+
+A comprehensive list of operating systems that support AMD SEV features is available in the [Certification Matrix](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify#certification-matrix). Additionally, verifiers may review detailed host and guest SEV status reports within the GitHub Issues section of the sev-certify repository, which are automatically generated by the [dispatch](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/dispatch.git) tool.
+
+**Procedure**
+Verifiers may generate a new SEV certificate to evaluate the status of AMD SEV features on their specific hardware, firmware, or pre-release operating system. The process involves the following steps:
+- **Fork the [sev-certify](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify.git) repository** to create a personalized workspace for validation.
+- **Operating system vendors** intending to test a new pre-release should incorporate support for their OS version within their fork of the [sev-certify](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify.git) repository. This is achieved by creating a corresponding `mkosi.conf` configuration file using the mkosi tool, and placing it under the `images/` directory to define host and guest image parameters.
+
+- **Verify the presence of the newly added host and guest artifacts** under the `Development Images` release tag in the forked sev-certify repository.
+
+- **Set up and execute the [dispatch](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/dispatch.git) tool** against the development branch of the forked repository. Instructions for configuring and running the dispatch tool with the current host artifacts can be found [here](https://github.com/AMDEPYC/sev-certify/blob/main/docs/how-to-generate-certs.md).
+
+To validate a new OS pre-release, verifiers can run the dispatch tool on your `sev-certify` fork using the following command::
+```sh
+./dispatch --owner <your GH username> --repo sev-certify <your-new-os-pre-release>
+```
+
+Alternatively, to download and utilize all existing host artifacts from your `sev-certify` fork, the following command may be used:
+```sh
+./dispatch --owner <your GH username> --repo sev-certify
+```
+
+- **Review the new sev-certificate** by examining the newly generated GitHub issues under the forked sev-certify repository, which detail the AMD's SEV feature status and validation outcomes.