Ubuntu Manpage: libvirtd - libvirt management daemon

Provided by: libvirt-daemon_10.0.0-2ubuntu8.4_amd64

NAME

       libvirtd - libvirt management daemon

SYNOPSIS

       libvirtd [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

       The  libvirtd  program  is  the server side daemon component of the libvirt virtualization
       management system.

       This daemon runs on host servers and performs required management  tasks  for  virtualized
       guests.   This includes activities such as starting, stopping and migrating guests between
       host servers, configuring and manipulating networking, and managing  storage  for  use  by
       guests.

       The  libvirt  client  libraries  and  utilities  connect to this daemon to issue tasks and
       collect information about the configuration and resources of the host system and guests.

       By default, the libvirtd daemon listens for requests on a local Unix domain socket.  Using
       the  -l  |  --listen  command  line  option,  the  libvirtd  daemon  can  be instructed to
       additionally listen on a TCP/IP socket.  The TCP/IP  socket  to  use  is  defined  in  the
       libvirtd configuration file.

       Restarting  libvirtd  does not impact running guests.  Guests continue to operate and will
       be picked up automatically if their XML configuration has been defined.  Any guests  whose
       XML configuration has not been defined will be lost from the configuration.

SYSTEM SOCKET ACTIVATION

       The libvirtd daemon is capable of starting in two modes.

       In  the  traditional  mode,  it  will  create  and  listen on UNIX sockets itself.  If the
       --listen parameter is given, it will also listen on TCP/IP  socket(s),  according  to  the
       listen_tcp and listen_tls options in /etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf

       In  socket  activation mode, it will rely on systemd to create and listen on the UNIX, and
       optionally TCP/IP, sockets and pass them as pre-opened file descriptors. In this mode,  it
       is  not  permitted  to  pass the --listen parameter, and most of the socket related config
       options in /etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf will no longer have any effect. To enable TCP or TLS
       sockets use either

          $ systemctl start libvirtd-tls.socket

       Or

          $ systemctl start libvirtd-tcp.socket

       Socket  activation  mode  is  generally  the  default  when running on a host OS that uses
       systemd. To revert to the traditional mode, all the socket unit files must be masked:

          $ systemctl mask libvirtd.socket libvirtd-ro.socket \
             libvirtd-admin.socket libvirtd-tls.socket libvirtd-tcp.socket

       On top of that make sure that the --timeout argument is not used for the daemon  since  it
       would not be started upon any later connection.

       If  using libvirt-guests service then the ordering for that service needs to be adapted so
       that it is ordered after the service unit instead of the socket unit.  Since  dependencies
       and  ordering cannot be changed with drop-in overrides, the whole libvirt-guests unit file
       needs  to  be  changed.   In  order  to  preserve   such   change   copy   the   installed
       /usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirt-guests.service                                          to
       /etc/systemd/system/libvirt-guests.service and make the change  there,  specifically  make
       sure the After= ordering mentions libvirtd.service and not libvirtd.socket:

          [Unit]
          After=libvirtd.service

OPTIONS

       -h, --help

       Display command line help usage then exit.

       -d, --daemon

       Run as a daemon & write PID file.

       -f, --config *FILE*

       Use this configuration file, overriding the default value.

       -l, --listen

       Listen  for TCP/IP connections. This should not be set if using systemd socket activation.
       Instead activate the libvirtd-tls.socket or libvirtd-tcp.socket unit files.

       -p, --pid-file *FILE*

       Use this name for the PID file, overriding the default value.

       -t, --timeout *SECONDS*

       Exit after timeout period (in seconds), provided there are neither any client  connections
       nor any running domains.

       -v, --verbose

       Enable output of verbose messages.

       --version

       Display version information then exit.

SIGNALS

       On receipt of SIGHUP libvirtd will reload its configuration.

FILES

When run as root
• /etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf

The default configuration file used by libvirtd, unless overridden on the command line
using the -f | --config option.

Depending on what driver is installed, then the following files are also read:

• /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf for the QEMU driver

• /etc/libvirt/lxc.conf for the LXC driver

• /etc/libvirt/libxl.conf for the libxl driver

These files contain various knobs and default values for virtual machines created within
their respective drivers, and offer a way to override the built in defaults, for instance
(but not limited to): paths to various supplementary binaries, TLS certificates location,
graphical consoles configuration and others. Location of neither of these files can be
overridden by any command line switch.

• /run/libvirt/libvirt-sock

• /run/libvirt/libvirt-sock-ro

The sockets libvirtd will use.

• /etc/pki/CA/cacert.pem

The TLS Certificate Authority certificate libvirtd will use.

• /etc/pki/libvirt/servercert.pem

The TLS Server certificate libvirtd will use.

• /etc/pki/libvirt/private/serverkey.pem

The TLS Server private key libvirtd will use.

• /run/libvirtd.pid

The PID file to use, unless overridden by the -p | --pid-file option.

When run as non-root
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/libvirt/libvirtd.conf

The default configuration file used by libvirtd, unless overridden on the command line
using the -f``|--config`` option.

If QEMU driver is installed, then the following file is also read:

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/libvirt/qemu.conf

If the file exists, it can contain various knobs and default values for virtual machines
created within QEMU driver, and offers a way to override the built in defaults, for
instance (but not limited to): paths to various supplementary binaries, TLS certificates
location, graphical consoles configuration and others. Location of this file can't be
overridden by any command line switch.

• $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/libvirt/libvirt-sock

The socket libvirtd will use.

• $HOME/.pki/libvirt/cacert.pem

The TLS Certificate Authority certificate libvirtd will use.

• $HOME/.pki/libvirt/servercert.pem

The TLS Server certificate libvirtd will use.

• $HOME/.pki/libvirt/serverkey.pem

The TLS Server private key libvirtd will use.

• $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/libvirt/libvirtd.pid

The PID file to use, unless overridden by the -p``|--pid-file`` option.

If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set in your environment, libvirtd will use $HOME/.config

If $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is not set in your environment, libvirtd will use $HOME/.cache

EXAMPLES

       To retrieve the version of libvirtd:

          # libvirtd --version
          libvirtd (libvirt) 10.0.0

       To start libvirtd, instructing it to daemonize and create a PID file:

          # libvirtd -d
          # ls -la /run/libvirtd.pid
          -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Jul  9 02:40 /run/libvirtd.pid

BUGS

       Please report all bugs you discover.  This should be done via either:

       1. the mailing list

          https://libvirt.org/contact.html

       2. the bug tracker

          https://libvirt.org/bugs.html

       Alternatively, you may report bugs to your software distributor / vendor.

AUTHORS

       Please refer to the AUTHORS file distributed with libvirt.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2006-2012 Red Hat, Inc., and the authors listed in the libvirt AUTHORS file.

LICENSE

       libvirtd is distributed under the terms of the GNU LGPL v2.1+.  This is free software; see
       the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for  MERCHANTABILITY  or
       FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE