NAME
virt-install - provision new virtual machines
SYNOPSIS
virt-install [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION
virt-install is a command line tool for creating new KVM, Xen, or Linux container guests using the libvirt hypervisor management library. See the EXAMPLES section at the end of this document to quickly get started.
virt-install tool supports graphical installations using (for example) VNC or SPICE, as well as text mode installs over serial console. The guest can be configured to use one or more virtual disks, network interfaces, audio devices, physical USB or PCI devices, among others.
The installation media can be local ISO or CDROM media, or a distro install tree hosted remotely over HTTP, FTP, or in a local directory. In the install tree case virt-install will fetch the minimal files necessary to kick off the installation process, allowing the guest to fetch the rest of the OS distribution as needed. PXE booting, and importing an existing disk image (thus skipping the install phase) are also supported.
Given suitable command line arguments, virt-install is capable of running completely unattended, with the guest 'kickstarting' itself too. This allows for easy automation of guest installs. This can be done manually, or more simply with the --unattended option.
Many arguments have sub options, specified like opt1=foo,opt2=bar, etc. Try --option=? to see a complete list of sub options associated with that argument, example: virt-install --disk=?
Most options are not required. If a suitable --os-variant value is specified or detected, all defaults will be filled in and reported in the terminal output. If an --os-variant is not specified. minimum required options, --memory, guest storage (--disk or --filesystem), and an install method choice.
CONNECTING TO LIBVIRT
--connect
Syntax: --connect URI
Connect to a non-default hypervisor. If this isn't specified, libvirt will try and choose the most suitable default.
Some valid
options here are:
qemu:///system
For creating KVM and QEMU guests to be run by the system libvirtd instance. This is the default mode that virt-manager uses, and what most KVM users want.
For creating KVM and QEMU guests for libvirtd running as the regular user.
xen:///
For connecting to Xen.
lxc:///
For creating linux containers
GENERAL OPTIONS
General configuration parameters that apply to all types of guest installs.
-n, --name
Syntax: -n, --name NAME
Name of the new guest virtual machine instance. This must be unique amongst all guests known to the hypervisor on the connection, including those not currently active. To re-define an existing guest, use the virsh(1) tool to shut it down ('virsh shutdown') & delete ('virsh undefine') it prior to running virt-install.
--memory
Syntax: --memory OPTIONS
Memory to allocate for the guest, in MiB. This deprecates the -r/--ram option. Sub options are available, like 'memory', 'currentMemory', 'maxMemory' and 'maxMemory.slots', which all map to the identically named XML values.
Back compat values 'memory' maps to the <currentMemory> element, and maxmemory maps to the <memory> element.
To configure memory modules which can be hotunplugged see --memdev description.
Use --memory=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryAllocation
--memorybacking
Syntax: --memorybacking OPTIONS
This option will influence how virtual memory pages are backed by host pages.
Use --memorybacking=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryBacking
--arch
Syntax: --arch ARCH
Request a non-native CPU architecture for the guest virtual machine. If omitted, the host CPU architecture will be used in the guest.
--machine
Syntax: --machine MACHINE
The machine type to emulate. This will typically not need to be specified for Xen or KVM, but is useful for choosing machine types of more exotic architectures.
--metadata
Syntax: --metadata OPT=VAL,[...]
Specify metadata values for the guest. Possible options include name, uuid, title, and description. This option deprecates -u/--uuid and --description.
Use --metadata=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMetadata
--events
Syntax: --events OPT=VAL,[...]
Specify events values for the guest. Possible options include on_poweroff, on_reboot, and on_crash.
Use --events=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsEvents
--resource
Syntax: --resource OPT=VAL,[...]
Specify resource partitioning for the guest.
Use --resource=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#resPartition
--sysinfo
Syntax: --sysinfo OPT=VAL,[...]
Configure
sysinfo/SMBIOS values exposed to the VM OS. Examples:
--sysinfo host
Special type that exposes the host's SMBIOS info into the VM.
--sysinfo emulate
Special type where hypervisor will generate SMBIOS info into the VM.
--sysinfo bios.vendor=custom or --sysinfo smbios,bios.vendor=custom
The default type is smbios and allows users to specify SMBIOS info manually.
Use --sysinfo=? to see a list of all available sub options.
Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSysinfo and https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsOSBIOS for smbios XML element.
--xml
Syntax: --xml ARGS
Make direct edits to the generated XML using XPath syntax. Take an example like
virt-install --xml ./@foo=bar --xml ./newelement/subelement=1
This will alter the generated XML to contain:
<domain foo='bar' ...> ... <newelement> <subelement>1</subelement> </newelement> </domain>
The --xml
option has 4 sub options:
--xml xpath.set=XPATH[=VALUE]
The default behavior if no explicit suboption is set. Takes the form XPATH=VALUE unless paired with xpath.value . See below for how value is interpreted.
--xml xpath.value=VALUE
xpath.set will be interpreted only as the XPath string, and xpath.value will be used as the value to set. May help sidestep problems if the string you need to set contains a '=' equals sign.
If value is empty, it's treated as unsetting that particular node.
--xml xpath.create=XPATH
Create the node as an empty element. Needed for boolean elements like <readonly/>
--xml xpath.delete=XPATH
Delete the entire node specified by the xpath, and all its children
--qemu-commandline
Syntax: --qemu-commandline ARGS
Pass options directly to the qemu emulator. Only works for the libvirt qemu driver. The option can take a string of arguments, for example:
--qemu-commandline="-display gtk,gl=on"
Environment variables are specified with 'env', for example:
--qemu-commandline=env=DISPLAY=:0.1
Complete details about the libvirt feature: https://libvirt.org/drvqemu.html#qemucommand
--vcpus
Syntax: --vcpus OPTIONS
Number of virtual cpus to configure for the guest. If 'maxvcpus' is specified, the guest will be able to hotplug up to MAX vcpus while the guest is running, but will startup with VCPUS.
CPU topology can additionally be specified with sockets, cores, and threads. If values are omitted, the rest will be autofilled preferring sockets over cores over threads.
'cpuset' sets which physical cpus the guest can use. CPUSET is a comma separated list of numbers, which can also be specified in ranges or cpus to exclude. Example:
0,2,3,5 : Use processors 0,2,3 and 5 1-5,^3,8 : Use processors 1,2,4,5 and 8
If the value 'auto' is passed, virt-install attempts to automatically determine an optimal cpu pinning using NUMA data, if available.
Use --vcpus=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCPUAllocation
--numatune
Syntax: --numatune OPTIONS
Tune NUMA policy for the domain process. Example invocations
--numatune 1,2,3,4-7 --numatune 1-3,5,memory.mode=preferred
Specifies the numa nodes to allocate memory from. This has the same syntax as --vcpus cpuset= option. mode can be one of 'interleave', 'preferred', or 'strict' (the default). See 'man 8 numactl' for information about each mode.
Use --numatune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsNUMATuning
--memtune
Syntax: --memtune OPTIONS
Tune memory policy for the domain process. Example invocations
--memtune 1000 --memtune hard_limit=100,soft_limit=60,swap_hard_limit=150,min_guarantee=80
Use --memtune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryTuning
--blkiotune
Syntax: --blkiotune OPTIONS
Tune blkio policy for the domain process. Example invocations
--blkiotune 100 --blkiotune weight=100,device.path=/dev/sdc,device.weight=200
Use --blkiotune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsBlockTuning
--cpu
Syntax: --cpu
MODEL[,+feature][,-feature][,match=MATCH][,vendor=VENDOR],...
Configure the CPU model and CPU features exposed to the guest. The only required value is MODEL, which is a valid CPU model as known to libvirt.
Libvirt's feature policy values force, require, optional, disable, or forbid, or with the shorthand '+feature' and '-feature', which equal 'force=feature' and 'disable=feature' respectively.
If exact CPU model is specified virt-install will automatically copy CPU features available on the host to mitigate recent CPU speculative execution side channel and Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data security vulnerabilities. This however will have some impact on performance and will break migration to hosts without security patches. In order to control this behavior there is a secure parameter. Possible values are on and off, with on as the default. It is highly recommended to leave this enabled and ensure all virtualization hosts have fully up to date microcode, kernel & virtualization software installed.
Some examples:
--cpu core2duo,+x2apic,disable=vmx
Expose the core2duo CPU model, force enable x2apic, but do not expose vmx
--cpu host
Expose the host CPUs configuration to the guest. This enables the guest to take advantage of many of the host CPUs features (better performance), but may cause issues if migrating the guest to a host without an identical CPU.
--cpu
numa.cell0.memory=1234,numa.cell0.cpus=0-3,numa.cell1.memory=5678,numa.cell1.cpus=4-7
Example of specifying two NUMA cells. This will generate XML like:
<cpu> <numa> <cell cpus="0-3" memory="1234"/> <cell cpus="4-7" memory="5678"/> </numa> </cpu>
--cpu host-passthrough,cache.mode=passthrough
Example of passing through the host cpu's cache information.
Use --cpu=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCPU
--cputune
Syntax: --cputune OPTIONS
Tune CPU parameters for the guest.
Configure which of the host's physical CPUs the domain VCPU will be pinned to. Example invocation
--cputune vcpupin0.vcpu=0,vcpupin0.cpuset=0-3,vcpupin1.vcpu=1,vcpupin1.cpuset=4-7
Use --cputune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCPUTuning
--security,
--seclabel
Syntax: --security, --seclabel
type=TYPE[,label=LABEL][,relabel=yes|no],...
Configure domain seclabel domain settings. Type can be either 'static' or 'dynamic'. 'static' configuration requires a security LABEL. Specifying LABEL without TYPE implies static configuration.
Use --security=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#seclabel
--keywrap
Syntax: --keywrap OPTIONS
Specify domain <keywrap> XML, used for S390 cryptographic key management operations.
Use --keywrap=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#keywrap
--iothreads
Syntax: --iothreads OPTIONS
Specify domain <iothreads> and/or <iothreadids> XML. For example, to configure <iothreads>4</iothreads>, use --iothreads 4
Use --iothreads=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsIOThreadsAllocation
--features
Syntax: --features FEAT=on|off,...
Set elements in
the guests <features> XML on or off. Examples include
acpi, apic, eoi, privnet, and hyperv features. Some
examples:
--features apic.eoi=on
Enable APIC PV EOI
--features hyperv.vapic.state=on,hyperv.spinlocks.state=off
Enable hypver VAPIC, but disable spinlocks
--features kvm.hidden.state=on
Allow the KVM hypervisor signature to be hidden from the guest
--features pvspinlock=on
Notify the guest that the host supports paravirtual spinlocks for example by exposing the pvticketlocks mechanism.
--features gic.version=2
This is relevant only for ARM architectures. Possible values are "host" or version number.
--features smm.state=on
This enables System Management Mode of hypervisor. Some UEFI firmwares may require this feature to be present. (QEMU supports SMM only with q35 machine type.)
Use --features=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsFeatures
--clock
Syntax: --clock offset=OFFSET,TIMER_OPT=VAL,...
Configure the
guest's <clock> XML. Some supported options:
--clock offset=OFFSET
Set the clock offset, ex. 'utc' or 'localtime'
--clock TIMER_present=no
Disable a boolean timer. TIMER here might be hpet, kvmclock, etc.
--clock TIMER_tickpolicy=VAL
Set a timer's tickpolicy value. TIMER here might be rtc, pit, etc. VAL might be catchup, delay, etc. Refer to the libvirt docs for all values.
Use --clock=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsTime
--pm
Syntax: --pm OPTIONS
Configure guest power management features. Example:
--pm suspend_to_memi.enabled=on,suspend_to_disk.enabled=off
Use --pm=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsPowerManagement
--launchSecurity
Syntax: --launchSecurity TYPE[,OPTS]
Enable launch security for the guest, e.g. AMD SEV. Example invocations:
# This will use a default policy 0x03 # No dhCert provided, so no data can be exchanged with the SEV firmware --launchSecurity sev # Explicit policy 0x01 - disables debugging, allows guest key sharing --launchSecurity sev,policy=0x01 # Provide the session blob obtained from the SEV firmware # Provide dhCert to open a secure communication channel with SEV firmware --launchSecurity sev,session=BASE64SESSIONSTRING,dhCert=BASE64DHCERTSTRING
SEV has further implications on usage of virtio devices, so refer to EXAMPLES section to see a full invocation of virt-install with --launchSecurity.
Use --launchSecurity=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#launchSecurity
INSTALLATION OPTIONS
-c,
--cdrom
Syntax: --cdrom PATH
ISO file or CDROM device to use for VM install media. After install, the the virtual CDROM device will remain attached to the VM, but with the ISO or host path media ejected.
-l,
--location
Syntax: -l, --location OPTIONS
Distribution tree installation source. virt-install can recognize certain distribution trees and fetches a bootable kernel/initrd pair to launch the install.
--location allows things like --extra-args for kernel arguments, and using --initrd-inject. If you want to use those options with CDROM media, you can pass the ISO to --location as well which works for some, but not all, CDROM media.
The
LOCATION can take one of the following forms:
https://host/path
An HTTP server location containing an installable distribution image.
An FTP server location containing an installable distribution image.
ISO |
Probe the ISO and extract files using 'isoinfo' |
DIRECTORY
Path to a local directory containing an installable distribution image. Note that the directory will not be accessible by the guest after initial boot, so the OS installer will need another way to access the rest of the install media.
Some distro
specific url samples:
Fedora/Red Hat Based
https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/29/Server/x86_64/os
Additionally, --location can take 'kernel' and 'initrd' sub options. These paths relative to the specified location URL/ISO that allow selecting specific files for kernel/initrd within the install tree. This can be useful if virt-install/ libosinfo doesn't know where to find the kernel in the specified --location.
For example, if you have an ISO that libosinfo doesn't know about called my-unknown.iso, with a kernel at 'kernel/fookernel' and initrd at 'kernel/fooinitrd', you can make this work with:
--location my-unknown.iso,kernel=kernel/fookernel,initrd=kernel/fooinitrd
--pxe
Install from PXE. This just tells the VM to boot off the
network for the first boot.
--import
Skip the OS installation process, and build a guest around
an existing disk image. The device used for booting is the
first device specified via --disk or
--filesystem.
-x,
--extra-args
Syntax: -x, --extra-args KERNELARGS
Additional kernel command line arguments to pass to the installer when performing a guest install from --location. One common usage is specifying an anaconda kickstart file for automated installs, such as --extra-args "ks=https://myserver/my.ks"
--initrd-inject
Syntax: --initrd-inject PATH
Add PATH to the root of the initrd fetched with --location. This can be used to run an automated install without requiring a network hosted kickstart file: --initrd-inject=/path/to/my.ks --extra-args "ks=file:/my.ks"
--install
This is a larger entry point for various types of install
operations. The command has multiple subarguments, similar
to --disk and friends. This option is strictly for VM
install operations, essentially configuring the first
boot.
The simplest usage to ex: install fedora29 is:
--install fedora29
And virt-install will fetch a --location URL from libosinfo, and populate defaults from there.
Available suboptions:
os= |
This is os install option described above. The explicit way to specify that would be --install os=fedora29 . os= is the default option if none is specified |
kernel=, initrd=
Specify a kernel and initrd pair to use as install media. They are copied into a temporary location before booting the VM, so they can be combined with --initrd-inject and your source media will not be altered. Media will be uploaded to a remote connection if required.
Example case using local filesystem paths: --install kernel=/path/to/kernel,initrd=/path/to/initrd
Example using network paths. Kernel/initrd will be downloaded locally first, then passed to the VM as local filesystem paths: --install kernel=https://127.0.0.1/tree/kernel,initrd=https://127.0.0.1/tree/initrd
Note, these are just for install time booting. If you want to set the kernel used for permanent VM booting, use the --boot option.
kernel_args=, kernel_args_overwrite=yes|no
Specify install time kernel arguments (libvirt <cmdline> XML). These can be combine with ex: kernel/initrd options, or --location media. By default, kernel_args is just like --extra-args, and will _append_ to the arguments that virt-install will try to set by default for most --location installs. If you want to override the virt-install default, additionally specify kernel_args_overwrite=yes
bootdev=
Specify the install bootdev (hd, cdrom, floppy, network) to boot off of for the install phase. This maps to libvirt <os><boot dev=X> XML.
If you want to install off a cdrom or network, it's probably simpler and more backwards compatible to just use --cdrom or --pxe , but this options gives fine grained control over the install process if needed.
no_install=yes|no
Tell virt-install that there isn't actually any install happening, and you just want to create the VM. --import is just an alias for this, as is specifying --boot without any other install options. The deprecated --live option is the same as '--cdrom $ISO --install no_install=yes'
--reinstall
DOMAIN
Reinstall an existing VM. DOMAIN can be a VM name, UUID, or
ID number. virt-install will fetch the domain XML from
libvirt, apply the specified install config changes, boot
the VM for the install process, and then revert to roughly
the same starting XML.
Only install related options are processed, all other VM configuration options like --name, --disk, etc. are completely ignored.
If --reinstall is used with --cdrom, an existing CDROM attached to the VM will be used if one is available, otherwise a permanent CDROM device will be added.
--unattended
Syntax: --unattended [OPTIONS]
Perform an unattended install using libosinfo's install script support. This is essentially a database of auto install scripts for various distros: Red Hat kickstarts, Debian installer scripting, Windows unattended installs, and potentially others. The simplest invocation is to combine it with --install like:
--install fedora29 --unattended
A Windows install will look like
--cdrom /path/to/my/windows.iso --unattended
Sub options
are:
profile=
Choose which libosinfo unattended profile to use. Most distros have a 'desktop' and a 'jeos' profile. virt-install will default to 'desktop' if this is unspecified.
admin-password-file=
A file used to set the VM OS admin/root password from. This option can be used either as "admin-password-file=/path/to/password-file" or as "admin-password-file=/dev/fd/n", being n the file descriptor of the password-file. Note that only the first line of the file will be considered, including any whitespace characters and excluding new-line.
user-login=
The user login name to be used in th VM. virt-install will default to your current host username if this is unspecified. Note that when running virt-install as "root", this option must be specified.
user-password-file=
A file used to set the VM user password. This option can be used either as "user-password-file=/path/to/password-file" or as "user-password-file=/dev/fd/n", being n the file descriptor of the password-file. The username is either the user-login specified or your current host username. Note that only the first line of the file will be considered, including any whitespace characters and excluding new-line.
product-key=
Set a Windows product key
--cloud-init
Pass cloud-init metadata to the VM. A cloud-init NoCloud ISO
file is generated, and attached to the VM as a CDROM device.
The device is only attached for the first boot. This option
is particularly useful for distro cloud images, which have
locked login accounts by default; --cloud-init provides the
means to initialize those login accounts, like setting a
root password.
The simplest invocation is just plain --cloud-init with no suboptions; this maps to --cloud-init root-password-generate=on,disable=on. See those suboptions for explanation of how they work.
Use --cloud-init=? to see a list of all available sub options.
Sub options
are:
root-password-generate=on
Generate a new root password for the VM. When used, virt-install will print the generated password to the console, and pause for 10 seconds to give the user a chance to notice it and copy it.
disable=on
Disable cloud-init in the VM for subsequent boots. Without this, cloud-init may reset auth on each boot.
root-password-file=
A file used to set the VM root password from. This option can be used either as "root-password-file=/path/to/password-file" or as "root-password-file=/dev/fd/n", being n the file descriptor of the password-file. Note that only the first line of the file will be considered, including any whitespace characters and excluding new-line.
meta-data=
Specify a cloud-init meta-data file to add directly to the iso. All other meta-data configuration options on the --cloud-init command line are ignored.
user-data=
Specify a cloud-init user-data file to add directly to the iso. All other user-data configuration options on the --cloud-init command line are ignored.
ssh-key=
Specify a public key to inject into the guest, providing ssh access to the unprivileged account. Example: ssh-key=/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
--boot
Syntax: --boot BOOTOPTS
Optionally specify the post-install VM boot configuration. This option allows specifying a boot device order, permanently booting off kernel/initrd with option kernel arguments, and enabling a BIOS boot menu (requires libvirt 0.8.3 or later)
--boot can be specified in addition to other install options (such as --location, --cdrom, etc.) or can be specified on its own. In the latter case, behavior is similar to the --import install option: there is no 'install' phase, the guest is just created and launched as specified.
Some examples:
--boot cdrom,fd,hd,network
Set the boot device priority as first cdrom, first floppy, first harddisk, network PXE boot.
--boot kernel=KERNEL,initrd=INITRD,kernel_args="console=/dev/ttyS0"
Have guest permanently boot off a local kernel/initrd pair, with the specified kernel options.
--boot kernel=KERNEL,initrd=INITRD,dtb=DTB
Have guest permanently boot off a local kernel/initrd pair with an external device tree binary. DTB can be required for some non-x86 configurations like ARM or PPC
--boot loader=BIOSPATH
Use BIOSPATH as the virtual machine BIOS.
--boot bootmenu.enable=on,bios.useserial=on
Enable the bios boot menu, and enable sending bios text output over serial console.
--boot init=INITPATH
Path to a binary that the container guest will init. If a root --filesystem has been specified, virt-install will default to /sbin/init, otherwise will default to /bin/sh.
--boot uefi
Configure the VM to boot from UEFI. In order for virt-install to know the correct UEFI parameters, libvirt needs to be advertising known UEFI binaries via domcapabilities XML, so this will likely only work if using properly configured distro packages.
--boot
loader=/.../OVMF_CODE.fd,loader.readonly=yes,loader.type=pflash,nvram.template=/.../OVMF_VARS.fd,loader_secure=no
Specify that the virtual machine use the custom OVMF binary as boot firmware, mapped as a virtual flash chip. In addition, request that libvirt instantiate the VM-specific UEFI varstore from the custom "/.../OVMF_VARS.fd" varstore template. This is the recommended UEFI setup, and should be used if --boot uefi doesn't know about your UEFI binaries. If your UEFI firmware supports Secure boot feature you can enable it via loader_secure.
Use --boot=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsOS
--idmap
Syntax: --idmap OPTIONS
If the guest configuration declares a UID or GID mapping, the 'user' namespace will be enabled to apply these. A suitably configured UID/GID mapping is a pre-requisite to make containers secure, in the absence of sVirt confinement.
--idmap can be specified to enable user namespace for LXC containers. Example:
--idmap uid.start=0,uid.target=1000,uid.count=10,gid.start=0,gid.target=1000,gid.count=10
Use --idmap=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsOSContainer
GUEST OS OPTIONS
--os-variant,
--osinfo
Syntax: --os-variant [OS_VARIANT|OPT1=VAL1,...]
Optimize the guest configuration for a specific operating system (ex. 'fedora29', 'rhel7', 'win10'). While not required, specifying this options is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, as it can greatly increase performance by specifying virtio among other guest tweaks.
The simplest
usage is --os-variant OS-NAME, for example
--os-variant fedora32. --os-variant supports
explicit suboption syntax as well:
name=, short-id=
The OS name/short-id from libosinfo. Examples: fedora32, win10
id= |
The full URL style libosinfo ID. For example, name=win10 is the same as id=http://microsoft.com/win/10 |
detect=on|off
Whether virt-install should attempt OS detection from the specified install media. Detection is presently only attempted for URL and CDROM installs, and is not 100% reliable.
require=on|off
If on, virt-install errors if no OS value is set or detected.
Some
interesting examples:
--os-variant detect=on,require=on
This tells virt-install to attempt detection from install media, but explicitly fail if that does not succeed. This will ensure your virt-install invocations don't fallback to a poorly performing config
--os-variant detect=on,name=OSNAME
Attempt OS detection from install media, but if that fails, use OSNAME as a fallback.
By default, virt-install will do --os-variant detect=on,name=generic, using the detected OS if found, and falling back to the stub generic value otherwise, and printing a warning.
If any manual --os-variant value is specified, the default is all settings off or unset.
Use the command "osinfo-query os" to get the list of the accepted OS variant names.
STORAGE OPTIONS
--disk
Syntax: --disk OPTIONS
Specifies media to use as storage for the guest, with various options. The general format of a disk string is
--disk opt1=val1,opt2=val2,...
The simplest invocation to create a new 10G disk image and associated disk device:
--disk size=10
virt-install will generate a path name, and place it in the default image location for the hypervisor. To specify media, the command can either be:
--disk /some/storage/path[,opt1=val1]...
or explicitly specify one of the following arguments:
path |
A path to some storage media to use, existing or not. Existing media can be a file or block device. |
Specifying a non-existent path implies attempting to create the new storage, and will require specifying a 'size' value. Even for remote hosts, virt-install will try to use libvirt storage APIs to automatically create the given path.
If the hypervisor supports it, path can also be a network URL, like https://example.com/some-disk.img . For network paths, they hypervisor will directly access the storage, nothing is downloaded locally.
pool |
An existing libvirt storage pool name to create new storage on. Requires specifying a 'size' value. | ||
vol |
An existing libvirt storage volume to use. This is specified as 'poolname/volname'. |
Options that apply to storage creation:
size |
size (in GiB) to use if creating new storage | ||
sparse |
whether to skip fully allocating newly created storage. Value is 'yes' or 'no'. Default is 'yes' (do not fully allocate) unless it isn't supported by the underlying storage type. |
The initial time taken to fully-allocate the guest virtual disk (sparse=no) will be usually balanced by faster install times inside the guest. Thus use of this option is recommended to ensure consistently high performance and to avoid I/O errors in the guest should the host filesystem fill up.
format |
Disk image format. For file volumes, this can be 'raw', 'qcow2', 'vmdk', etc. See format types in https://libvirt.org/storage.html for possible values. This is often mapped to the driver_type value as well. |
If not specified when creating file images, this will default to 'qcow2'.
If creating storage, this will be the format of the new image. If using an existing image, this overrides libvirt's format auto-detection.
backing_store
Path to a disk to use as the backing store for the newly created image.
backing_format
Disk image format of backing_store
Some example device configuration suboptions:
device |
Disk device type. Example values are be 'cdrom', 'disk', 'lun' or 'floppy'. The default is 'disk'. |
boot.order
Guest installation with multiple disks will need this parameter to boot correctly after being installed. A boot.order parameter will take values 1,2,3,... Devices with lower value has higher priority. This option applies to other bootable device types as well.
target.bus** or *bus
Disk bus type. Example values are be 'ide', 'sata', 'scsi', 'usb', 'virtio' or 'xen'. The default is hypervisor dependent since not all hypervisors support all bus types.
readonly
Set drive as readonly (takes 'on' or 'off')
shareable
Set drive as shareable (takes 'on' or 'off')
cache |
The cache mode to be used. The host pagecache provides cache memory. The cache value can be 'none', 'writethrough', 'directsync', 'unsafe' or 'writeback'. 'writethrough' provides read caching. 'writeback' provides read and write caching. 'directsync' bypasses the host page cache. 'unsafe' may cache all content and ignore flush requests from the guest. |
driver.discard
Whether discard (also known as "trim" or "unmap") requests are ignored or passed to the filesystem. The value can be either "unmap" (allow the discard request to be passed) or "ignore" (ignore the discard request). Since 1.0.6 (QEMU and KVM only)
driver.name
Driver name the hypervisor should use when accessing the specified storage. Typically does not need to be set by the user.
driver.type
Driver format/type the hypervisor should use when accessing the specified storage. Typically does not need to be set by the user.
driver.io
Disk IO backend. Can be either "threads", "native" or "io_uring".
driver.error_policy
How guest should react if a write error is encountered. Can be one of "stop", "ignore", or "enospace"
serial |
Serial number of the emulated disk device. This is used in linux guests to set /dev/disk/by-id symlinks. An example serial number might be: WD-WMAP9A966149 |
source.startupPolicy
It defines what to do with the disk if the source file is not accessible.
snapshot
Defines default behavior of the disk during disk snapshots.
See the examples section for some uses. This option deprecates -f/--file, -s/--file-size, --nonsparse, and --nodisks.
Use --disk=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsDisks
--filesystem
Specifies a directory on the host to export to the guest.
The most simple invocation is:
--filesystem /source/on/host,/target/point/in/guest
Which will work for recent QEMU and linux guest OS or LXC containers. For QEMU, the target point is just a mounting hint in sysfs, so will not be automatically mounted.
Some example suboptions:
type |
The type or the source directory. Valid values are 'mount' (the default) or 'template' for OpenVZ templates. |
accessmode or mode
The access mode for the source directory from the guest OS. Only used with QEMU and type=mount. Valid modes are 'passthrough' (the default), 'mapped', or 'squash'. See libvirt domain XML documentation for more info.
source |
The directory on the host to share. |
|||
target |
The mount location to use in the guest. |
Use --filesystem=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsFilesystems
NETWORKING OPTIONS
-w,
--network
Syntax: -w, --network OPTIONS
Connect the
guest to the host network. Examples for specifying the
network type:
bridge=BRIDGE
Connect to a bridge device in the host called BRIDGE. Use this option if the host has static networking config & the guest requires full outbound and inbound connectivity to/from the LAN. Also use this if live migration will be used with this guest.
network=NAME
Connect to a virtual network in the host called NAME. Virtual networks can be listed, created, deleted using the virsh command line tool. In an unmodified install of libvirt there is usually a virtual network with a name of default. Use a virtual network if the host has dynamic networking (eg NetworkManager), or using wireless. The guest will be NATed to the LAN by whichever connection is active.
type=direct,source=IFACE[,source.mode=MODE]
Direct connect to host interface IFACE using macvtap.
user |
Connect to the LAN using SLIRP. Only use this if running a QEMU guest as an unprivileged user. This provides a very limited form of NAT. | ||
none |
Tell virt-install not to add any default network interface. |
If --network is omitted a single NIC will be created in the guest. If there is a bridge device in the host with a physical interface attached, that will be used for connectivity. Failing that, the virtual network called default will be used. This option can be specified multiple times to setup more than one NIC.
Some example
suboptions:
model.type or model
Network device model as seen by the guest. Value can be any nic model supported by the hypervisor, e.g.: 'e1000', 'rtl8139', 'virtio', ...
mac.address or mac
Fixed MAC address for the guest; If this parameter is omitted, or the value RANDOM is specified a suitable address will be randomly generated. For Xen virtual machines it is required that the first 3 pairs in the MAC address be the sequence '00:16:3e', while for QEMU or KVM virtual machines it must be '52:54:00'.
filterref.filter
Controlling firewall and network filtering in libvirt. Value can be any nwfilter defined by the virsh 'nwfilter' subcommands. Available filters can be listed by running 'virsh nwfilter-list', e.g.: 'clean-traffic', 'no-mac-spoofing', ...
virtualport.* options
Configure the device virtual port profile. This is used for 802.Qbg, 802.Qbh, midonet, and openvswitch config.
Use --network=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsNICS
This option deprecates -m/--mac, -b/--bridge, and --nonetworks
GRAPHICS OPTIONS
If no graphics option is specified, virt-install will try to select the appropriate graphics if the DISPLAY environment variable is set, otherwise '--graphics none' is used.
--graphics
Syntax: --graphics TYPE,opt1=arg1,opt2=arg2,...
Specifies the graphical display configuration. This does not configure any virtual hardware, just how the guest's graphical display can be accessed. Typically the user does not need to specify this option, virt-install will try and choose a useful default, and launch a suitable connection.
General format of a graphical string is
--graphics TYPE,opt1=arg1,opt2=arg2,...
For example:
--graphics vnc,password=foobar
Some supported TYPE values:
vnc |
Setup a virtual console in the guest and export it as a VNC server in the host. Unless the port parameter is also provided, the VNC server will run on the first free port number at 5900 or above. The actual VNC display allocated can be obtained using the vncdisplay command to virsh (or virt-viewer(1) can be used which handles this detail for the use). | ||
spice |
Export the guest's console using the Spice protocol. Spice allows advanced features like audio and USB device streaming, as well as improved graphical performance. |
Using spice graphic type will work as if those arguments were given:
--video qxl --channel spicevmc
none |
No graphical console will be allocated for the guest. Guests will likely need to have a text console configured on the first serial port in the guest (this can be done via the --extra-args option). The command 'virsh console NAME' can be used to connect to the serial device. |
Some supported suboptions:
port |
Request a permanent, statically assigned port number for the guest console. This is used by 'vnc' and 'spice' |
tlsPort
Specify the spice tlsport.
websocket
Request a VNC WebSocket port for the guest console.
If -1 is specified, the WebSocket port is auto-allocated.
This is used by 'vnc' and 'spice'
listen |
Address to listen on for VNC/Spice connections. Default is typically 127.0.0.1 (localhost only), but some hypervisors allow changing this globally (for example, the qemu driver default can be changed in /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf). Use 0.0.0.0 to allow access from other machines. |
Use 'none' to specify that the display server should not listen on any port. The display server can be accessed only locally through libvirt unix socket (virt-viewer with --attach for instance).
Use 'socket' to have the VM listen on a libvirt generated unix socket path on the host filesystem.
This is used by 'vnc' and 'spice'
password
Request a console password, required at connection time. Beware, this info may end up in virt-install log files, so don't use an important password. This is used by 'vnc' and 'spice'
gl.enable
Whether to use OpenGL accelerated rendering. Value is 'yes' or 'no'. This is used by 'spice'.
gl.rendernode
DRM render node path to use. This is used when 'gl' is enabled.
Use --graphics=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsGraphics
This deprecates the following options: --vnc, --vncport, --vnclisten, -k/--keymap, --sdl, --nographics
--autoconsole
Syntax: --autoconsole OPTIONS
Configure what
interactive console virt-install will launch for the VM.
This option is not required; the default behavior is
adaptive and dependent on how the VM is configured. But you
can use this option to override the default choice.
--autoconsole graphical
Use the graphical virt-viewer(1) as the interactive console
--autoconsole text
Use the text mode virsh console as the interactive console.
--autoconsole none
This is the same as --noautoconsole
--noautoconsole
Don't automatically try to connect to the guest console. Same as --autoconsole none
Note, virt-install exits quickly when this option is specified. If your command requested a multistep install, like --cdrom or --location, after the install phase is complete the VM will be shutoff, regardless of whether a reboot was requested in the VM. If you want the VM to be rebooted, virt-install must remain running. You can use '--wait' to keep virt-install alive even if --noautoconsole is specified.
VIRTUALIZATION OPTIONS
Options to override the default virtualization type choices.
-v,
--hvm
Request the use of full virtualization, if both para &
full virtualization are available on the host. This
parameter may not be available if connecting to a Xen
hypervisor on a machine without hardware virtualization
support. This parameter is implied if connecting to a QEMU
based hypervisor.
-p,
--paravirt
This guest should be a paravirtualized guest. If the host
supports both para & full virtualization, and neither
this parameter nor the --hvm are specified, this will
be assumed.
--container
This guest should be a container type guest. This option is
only required if the hypervisor supports other guest types
as well (so for example this option is the default behavior
for LXC and OpenVZ, but is provided for completeness).
--virt-type
The hypervisor to install on. Example choices are kvm, qemu,
or xen. Available options are listed via 'virsh
capabilities' in the <domain> tags.
This deprecates the --accelerate option, which is now the default behavior. To install a plain QEMU guest, use '--virt-type qemu'
DEVICE OPTIONS
All devices have a set of address.* options for configuring the particulars of the device's address on its parent controller or bus. See https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsAddress for details.
--controller
Syntax: --controller OPTIONS
Attach a controller device to the guest. TYPE is one of: ide, fdc, scsi, sata, virtio-serial, or usb .
Controller also supports the special values usb2 and usb3 to specify which version of the USB controller should be used (version 2 or 3).
Some example suboptions:
model |
Controller model. These may vary according to the hypervisor and its version. Most commonly used models are e.g. auto , virtio-scsi for the scsi controller, ehci or none``for the ``usb controller. |
Use --controller=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsControllers
--input
Syntax: --input OPTIONS
Attach an input device to the guest. Example input device types are mouse, tablet, or keyboard.
Use --input=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsInput
--hostdev,
--host-device
Syntax: --hostdev, --host-device OPTIONS
Attach a
physical host device to the guest. Some example values for
HOSTDEV:
--hostdev pci_0000_00_1b_0
A node device name via libvirt, as shown by 'virsh nodedev-list'
--hostdev 001.003
USB by bus, device (via lsusb).
--hostdev 0x1234:0x5678
USB by vendor, product (via lsusb).
--hostdev 1f.01.02
PCI device (via lspci).
--hostdev wlan0,type=net
Network device (in LXC container).
--hostdev /dev/net/tun,type=misc
Character device (in LXC container).
--hostdev /dev/sdf,type=storage
Block device (in LXC container).
Use --hostdev=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsHostDev
--sound
Syntax: --sound MODEL
Attach a virtual audio device to the guest. MODEL specifies the emulated sound card model. Possible values are ich6, ich9, ac97, es1370, sb16, pcspk, or default. 'default' will try to pick the best model that the specified OS supports.
This deprecates the old --soundhw option. Use --sound=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSound
--watchdog
Syntax: --watchdog MODEL[,action=ACTION]
Attach a virtual hardware watchdog device to the guest. This requires a daemon and device driver in the guest. The watchdog fires a signal when the virtual machine appears to hung. ACTION specifies what libvirt will do when the watchdog fires. Values are
reset |
Forcefully reset the guest (the default) |
poweroff
Forcefully power off the guest
pause |
Pause the guest |
|||
none |
Do nothing |
shutdown
Gracefully shutdown the guest (not recommended, since a hung guest probably won't respond to a graceful shutdown)
MODEL is the
emulated device model: either i6300esb (the default) or
ib700. Some examples:
--watchdog default
Use the recommended settings
--watchdog i6300esb,action=poweroff
Use the i6300esb with the 'poweroff' action
Use --watchdog=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsWatchdog
--serial
Syntax: --serial OPTIONS
Specifies a serial device to attach to the guest, with various options. The general format of a serial string is
--serial type,opt1=val1,opt2=val2,...
--serial and
--parallel devices share all the same options, unless
otherwise noted. Some of the types of character device
redirection are:
--serial pty
Pseudo TTY. The allocated pty will be listed in the running guests XML description.
--serial dev,path=HOSTPATH
Host device. For serial devices, this could be /dev/ttyS0. For parallel devices, this could be /dev/parport0.
--serial file,path=FILENAME
Write output to FILENAME.
--serial tcp,host=HOST:PORT,source.mode=MODE,protocol.type=PROTOCOL
TCP net console. MODE is either 'bind' (wait for connections on HOST:PORT) or 'connect' (send output to HOST:PORT), default is 'bind'. HOST defaults to '127.0.0.1', but PORT is required. PROTOCOL can be either 'raw' or 'telnet' (default 'raw'). If 'telnet', the port acts like a telnet server or client. Some examples:
Wait for connections on any address, port 4567:
--serial tcp,host=0.0.0.0:4567
Connect to localhost, port 1234:
--serial tcp,host=:1234,source.mode=connect
Wait for telnet connection on localhost, port 2222. The user could then connect interactively to this console via 'telnet localhost 2222':
--serial tcp,host=:2222,source.mode=bind,source.protocol=telnet
--serial udp,host=CONNECT_HOST:PORT,bind_host=BIND_HOST:BIND_PORT
UDP net console. HOST:PORT is the destination to send output to (default HOST is '127.0.0.1', PORT is required). BIND_HOST:BIND_PORT is the optional local address to bind to (default BIND_HOST is 127.0.0.1, but is only set if BIND_PORT is specified). Some examples:
Send output to default syslog port (may need to edit /etc/rsyslog.conf accordingly):
--serial udp,host=:514
Send output to remote host 192.168.10.20, port 4444 (this output can be read on the remote host using 'nc -u -l 4444'):
--serial udp,host=192.168.10.20:4444
--serial unix,path=UNIXPATH,mode=MODE
Unix socket, see unix(7). MODE has similar behavior and defaults as --serial tcp,mode=MODE
Use --serial=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharSerial
--parallel
Syntax: --parallel OPTIONS
Specify a parallel device. The format and options are largely identical to serial
Use --parallel=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharParallel
--channel
Specifies a communication channel device to connect the
guest and host machine. This option uses the same options as
--serial and --parallel for specifying the host/source end
of the channel. Extra 'target' options are used to specify
how the guest machine sees the channel.
Some of the
types of character device redirection are:
--channel
SOURCE,target.type=guestfwd,target.address=HOST:PORT
Communication channel using QEMU usermode networking stack. The guest can connect to the channel using the specified HOST:PORT combination.
--channel SOURCE,target.type=virtio[,target.name=NAME]
Communication channel using virtio serial (requires 2.6.34 or later host and guest). Each instance of a virtio --channel line is exposed in the guest as /dev/vport0p1, /dev/vport0p2, etc. NAME is optional metadata, and can be any string, such as org.linux-kvm.virtioport1. If specified, this will be exposed in the guest at /sys/class/virtio-ports/vport0p1/NAME
--channel spicevmc,target.type=virtio[,target.name=NAME]
Communication channel for QEMU spice agent, using virtio serial (requires 2.6.34 or later host and guest). NAME is optional metadata, and can be any string, such as the default com.redhat.spice.0 that specifies how the guest will see the channel.
Use --channel=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharChannel
--console
Connect a text console between the guest and host. Certain
guest and hypervisor combinations can automatically set up a
getty in the guest, so an out of the box text login can be
provided (target_type=xen for xen paravirt guests, and
possibly target_type=virtio in the future).
Example:
--console pty,target.type=virtio
Connect a virtio console to the guest, redirected to a PTY on the host. For supported guests, this exposes /dev/hvc0 in the guest. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtioSerial for more info. virtio console requires libvirt 0.8.3 or later.
Use --console=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharConsole
--video
Syntax: --video OPTIONS
Specify what video device model will be attached to the guest. Valid values for VIDEO are hypervisor specific, but some options for recent kvm are cirrus, vga, qxl, virtio, or vmvga (vmware). Use --video=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsVideo
--smartcard
Syntax: --smartcard MODE[,OPTIONS]
Configure a virtual smartcard device.
Example MODE values are host, host-certificates, or passthrough. Example suboptions include:
type |
Character device type to connect to on the host. This is only applicable for passthrough mode. |
An example
invocation:
--smartcard passthrough,type=spicevmc
Use the smartcard channel of a SPICE graphics device to pass smartcard info to the guest
Use --smartcard=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSmartcard
--redirdev
Syntax: --redirdev BUS[,OPTIONS]
Add a redirected device. Example suboptions:
type |
The redirection type, currently supported is tcp or spicevmc . | ||
server |
The TCP server connection details, of the form 'server:port'. |
Examples
invocations:
--redirdev usb,type=tcp,server=localhost:4000
Add a USB redirected device provided by the TCP server on 'localhost' port 4000.
--redirdev usb,type=spicevmc
Add a USB device redirected via a dedicated Spice channel.
Use --redirdev=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsRedir
--memballoon
Syntax: --memballoon MODEL[,OPTIONS]
Attach a virtual memory balloon device to the guest. If the memballoon device needs to be explicitly disabled, MODEL='none' is used.
MODEL is the
type of memballoon device provided. The value can be
'virtio', 'xen' or 'none'. Some examples:
--memballoon virtio
Explicitly create a 'virtio' memballoon device
--memballoon none
Disable the memballoon device
Use --memballoon=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemBalloon
--tpm
Syntax: --tpm TYPE[,OPTIONS]
Configure a
virtual TPM device. Examples:
--tpm /dev/tpm
Convenience option for passing through the hosts TPM.
--tpm emulator
Request an emulated TPM device.
Use --tpm=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsTpm
--rng
Syntax: --rng TYPE[,OPTIONS]
Configure a virtual RNG device.
Example TYPE values include random, egd or builtin.
Example
invocations:
--rng /dev/urandom
Use the /dev/urandom device to get entropy data, this form implicitly uses the "random" model.
--rng builtin
Use the builtin rng device to get entropy data.
--rng
egd,backend.source.host=localhost,backend.source.service=8000,backend.type=tcp
Connect to localhost to the TCP port 8000 to get entropy data.
Use --rng=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsRng
--panic
Syntax: --panic MODEL[,OPTS]
Attach a panic notifier device to the guest. For the recommended settings, use: --panic default
Use --panic=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsPanic
--memdev
Syntax: --memdev OPTS
Add a memory module to a guest which can be hotunplugged. To add a memdev you need to configure hotplugmemory and NUMA for a guest.
Use --memdev=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemory.
--vsock
Syntax: --vsock OPTS
Configure a vsock host/guest interface. A typical configuration would be
--vsock cid.auto=yes
Use --vsock=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#vsock.
--iommu
Syntax: --iommu MODEL[,OPTS]
Add an IOMMU device to the guest.
Use --iommu=? to see a list of all available options. Complete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsIommu.
MISCELLANEOUS OPTIONS
-h,
--help
Show the help message and exit
--version
Show program's version number and exit
--autostart
Set the autostart flag for a domain. This causes the domain
to be started on host boot up.
--transient
Use --import or --boot and --transient if you want a
transient libvirt VM. These VMs exist only until the domain
is shut down or the host server is restarted. Libvirt
forgets the XML configuration of the VM after either of
these events. Note that the VM's disks will not be deleted.
See:
https://wiki.libvirt.org/page/VM_lifecycle#Transient_guest_domains_vs_Persistent_guest_domains
--destroy-on-exit
When the VM console window is exited, destroy (force
poweroff) the VM. If you combine this with --transient, this
makes the virt-install command work similar to qemu, where
the VM is shutdown when the console window is closed by the
user.
--print-xml
Syntax: --print-xml [STEP]
Print the generated XML of the guest, instead of defining it. By default this WILL do storage creation (can be disabled with --dry-run). This option implies --quiet.
If the VM install has multiple phases, by default this will print all generated XML. If you want to print a particular step, use --print-xml 2 (for the second phase XML).
--noreboot
Prevent the domain from automatically rebooting after the
install has completed.
--wait
Syntax: --wait WAIT
Configure how virt-install will wait for the install to complete. Without this option, virt-install will wait for the console to close (not necessarily indicating the guest has shutdown), or in the case of --noautoconsole, simply kick off the install and exit.
Bare '--wait' or any negative value will make virt-install wait indefinitely. Any positive number is the number of minutes virt-install will wait. If the time limit is exceeded, virt-install simply exits, leaving the virtual machine in its current state.
--dry-run
Proceed through the guest creation process, but do NOT
create storage devices, change host device configuration, or
actually teach libvirt about the guest. virt-install may
still fetch install media, since this is required to
properly detect the OS to install.
--check
Enable or disable some validation checks. Some examples are
warning about using a disk that's already assigned to
another VM (--check path_in_use=on|off), or warning about
potentially running out of space during disk allocation
(--check disk_size=on|off). Most checks are performed by
default.
-q,
--quiet
Only print fatal error messages.
-d,
--debug
Print debugging information to the terminal when running the
install process. The debugging information is also stored in
~/.cache/virt-manager/virt-install.log even if this
parameter is omitted.
EXAMPLES
The simplest invocation to interactively install a Fedora 29 KVM VM with recommended defaults. virt-viewer(1) will be launched to graphically interact with the VM install
# sudo virt-install --install fedora29
Similar, but use libosinfo's unattended install support, which will perform the fedora29 install automatically without user intervention:
# sudo virt-install --install fedora29 --unattended
Install a Windows 10 VM, using 40GiB storage in the default location and 4096MiB of ram, and ensure we are connecting to the system libvirtd instance:
# virt-install \ --connect qemu:///system \ --name my-win10-vm \ --memory 4096 \ --disk size=40 \ --os-variant win10 \ --cdrom /path/to/my/win10.iso
Install a CentOS 7 KVM from a URL, with recommended device defaults and default required storage, but specifically request VNC graphics instead of the default SPICE, and request 8 virtual CPUs and 8192 MiB of memory:
# virt-install \ --connect qemu:///system \ --memory 8192 \ --vcpus 8 \ --graphics vnc \ --os-variant centos7.0 \ --location http://mirror.centos.org/centos-7/7/os/x86_64/
Create a VM around an existing debian9 disk image:
# virt-install \ --import \ --memory 512 \ --disk /home/user/VMs/my-debian9.img \ --os-variant debian9
Start serial QEMU ARM VM, which requires specifying a manual kernel.
# virt-install \ --name armtest \ --memory 1024 \ --arch armv7l --machine vexpress-a9 \ --disk /home/user/VMs/myarmdisk.img \ --boot kernel=/tmp/my-arm-kernel,initrd=/tmp/my-arm-initrd,dtb=/tmp/my-arm-dtb,kernel_args="console=ttyAMA0 rw root=/dev/mmcblk0p3" \ --graphics none
Start an SEV launch security VM with 4GB RAM, 4GB+256MiB of hard_limit, with a couple of virtio devices:
Note: The IOMMU flag needs to be turned on with driver.iommu for virtio devices. Usage of --memtune is currently required because of SEV limitations, refer to libvirt docs for a detailed explanation.
# virt-install \ --name foo \ --memory 4096 \ --boot uefi \ --machine q35 \ --memtune hard_limit=4563402 \ --disk size=15,target.bus=scsi \ --import \ --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi,driver.iommu=on \ --controller type=virtio-serial,driver.iommu=on \ --network network=default,model=virtio,driver.iommu=on \ --rng /dev/random,driver.iommu=on \ --memballoon driver.iommu=on \ --launchSecurity sev
BUGS
Please see https://virt-manager.org/bugs
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) Red Hat, Inc, and various contributors. This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU General Public License https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
virsh(1), virt-clone(1), virt-manager(1), the project website https://virt-manager.org