Ubuntu Manpage: virt-install - provision new virtual machines

Provided by: virtinst_0.600.4-3ubuntu2_all

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 held locally or remotely on NFS, HTTP, FTP servers. In the
       latter 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. An interactive mode is also available with the --prompt option, but this
       will only ask for the minimum required options.

OPTIONS

Most options are not required. Minimum requirements are --name, --ram, guest storage
(--disk, --filesystem or --nodisks), and an install option.

-h, --help
Show the help message and exit

--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.

qemu:///session
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, --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".

-r MEMORY, --ram=MEMORY
Memory to allocate for guest instance in megabytes. If the hypervisor does not have
enough free memory, it is usual for it to automatically take memory away from the host
operating system to satisfy this allocation.

--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=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.

-u UUID, --uuid=UUID
UUID for the guest; if none is given a random UUID will be generated. If you specify
UUID, you should use a 32-digit hexadecimal number. UUID are intended to be unique
across the entire data center, and indeed world. Bear this in mind if manually
specifying a UUID

--vcpus=VCPUS[,maxvcpus=MAX][,sockets=#][,cores=#][,threads=#]
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=CPUSET
Set 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.

--numatune=NODESET,[mode=MODE]
Tune NUMA policy for the domain process. Example invocations

--numatune 1,2,3,4-7
--numatune \"1-3,5\",mode=preferred

Specifies the numa nodes to allocate memory from. This has the same syntax as "--cpuset"
option. mode can be one of 'interleave', 'preferred', or 'strict' (the default). See
'man 8 numactl' for information about each mode.

The nodeset string must use escaped-quotes if specifying any other option.

--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 listed in libvirt's cpu_map.xml file.

Specific CPU features can be specified in a number of ways: using one of 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

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.

--description
Human readable text description of the virtual machine. This will be stored in the
guests XML configuration for access by other applications.

--security type=TYPE[,label=LABEL][,relabel=yes|no]
Configure domain security driver settings. Type can be either 'static' or 'dynamic'.
'static' configuration requires a security LABEL. Specifying LABEL without TYPE implies
static configuration.

To have libvirt automatically apply your static label, you must specify relabel=yes.
Otherwise disk images must be manually labeled by the admin, including images that virt-
install is asked to create.

Installation Method options
-c CDROM, --cdrom=CDROM
File or device use as a virtual CD-ROM device for fully virtualized guests. It can be
path to an ISO image, or to a CDROM device. It can also be a URL from which to
fetch/access a minimal boot ISO image. The URLs take the same format as described for
the "--location" argument. If a cdrom has been specified via the "--disk" option, and
neither "--cdrom" nor any other install option is specified, the "--disk" cdrom is used
as the install media.

-l LOCATION, --location=LOCATION
Distribution tree installation source. virt-install can recognize certain distribution
trees and fetches a bootable kernel/initrd pair to launch the install.

With libvirt 0.9.4 or later, network URL installs work for remote connections. virt-
install will download kernel/initrd to the local machine, and then upload the media to
the remote host. This option requires the URL to be accessible by both the local and
remote host.

The "LOCATION" can take one of the following forms:

DIRECTORY
Path to a local directory containing an installable distribution image

nfs:host:/path or nfs://host/path
An NFS server location containing an installable distribution image

http://host/path
An HTTP server location containing an installable distribution image

ftp://host/path
An FTP server location containing an installable distribution image

Some distro specific url samples:

Fedora/Red Hat Based
http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/10/Fedora/i386/os/

Debian/Ubuntu
http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/installer-amd64/

Suse
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.0/repo/oss/

Mandriva
ftp://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/mandrake/official/2009.0/i586/

Mageia
ftp://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/linux/Mageia/distrib/1

--pxe
Use the PXE boot protocol to load the initial ramdisk and kernel for starting the guest
installation process.

--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".

--init=INITPATH
Path to a binary that the container guest will init. If a root "--filesystem" is has
been specified, virt-install will default to /sbin/init, otherwise will default to
/bin/sh.

--livecd
Specify that the installation media is a live CD and thus the guest needs to be
configured to boot off the CDROM device permanently. It may be desirable to also use the
"--nodisks" flag in combination.

-x EXTRA, --extra-args=EXTRA
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=http://myserver/my.ks"

--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"

--os-type=OS_TYPE
Optimize the guest configuration for a type of operating system (ex. 'linux',
'windows'). This will attempt to pick the most suitable ACPI & APIC settings, optimally
supported mouse drivers, virtio, and generally accommodate other operating system
quirks.

By default, virt-install will attempt to auto detect this value from the install media
(currently only supported for URL installs). Autodetection can be disabled with the
special value 'none'

See "--os-variant" for valid options.

--os-variant=OS_VARIANT
Further optimize the guest configuration for a specific operating system variant (ex.
'fedora8', 'winxp'). This parameter is optional, and does not require an "--os-type" to
be specified.

By default, virt-install will attempt to auto detect this value from the install media
(currently only supported for URL installs). Autodetection can be disabled with the
special value 'none'.

If the special value 'list' is passed, virt-install will print the full list of variant
values and exit. The printed format is not a stable interface, DO NOT PARSE IT.

If the special value 'none' is passed, no os variant is recorded and OS autodetection is
disabled.

Values for some recent OS options are:

win7 : Microsoft Windows 7
vista : Microsoft Windows Vista
winxp64 : Microsoft Windows XP (x86_64)
winxp : Microsoft Windows XP
win2k8 : Microsoft Windows Server 2008
win2k3 : Microsoft Windows Server 2003
freebsd8 : FreeBSD 8.x
generic : Generic
debianwheezy : Debian Wheezy
debiansqueeze : Debian Squeeze
debianlenny : Debian Lenny
fedora18 : Fedora 18
fedora17 : Fedora 17
fedora16 : Fedora 16
fedora15 : Fedora 15
mageia1 : Mageia 1 and later
mes5.1 : Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1 and later
rhel6 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
rhel5.4 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 or later
rhel4 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
sles11 : Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11
sles10 : Suse Linux Enterprise Server
opensuse12 : openSuse 12
opensuse11 : openSuse 11
ubuntutrusty : Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)
ubuntusaucy : Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander)
ubunturaring : Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail)
ubuntuquantal : Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)
ubuntuprecise : Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)
ubuntulucid : Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

Use '--os-variant list' to see the full OS list

--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 it's 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,menu=on
Set the boot device priority as first cdrom, first floppy, first harddisk, network PXE
boot. Additionally enable BIOS boot menu prompt.

--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 loader=BIOSPATH
Use BIOSPATH as the virtual machine BIOS. Only valid for fully virtualized guests.

Storage Configuration
--disk=DISKOPTS
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,...

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. If installing on a remote host, the existing media must be shared
as a libvirt storage volume.

Specifying a non-existent path implies attempting to create the new storage, and
will require specifying a 'size' value. If the base directory of the path is a
libvirt storage pool on the host, the new storage will be created as a libvirt
storage volume. For remote hosts, the base directory is required to be a storage
pool if using this method.

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'.

Other available options:

device
Disk device type. Value can be 'cdrom', 'disk', or 'floppy'. Default is 'disk'. If a
'cdrom' is specified, and no install method is chosen, the cdrom is used as the
install media.

bus Disk bus type. Value can be 'ide', 'sata', 'scsi', 'usb', 'virtio' or 'xen'. The
default is hypervisor dependent since not all hypervisors support all bus types.

perms
Disk permissions. Value can be 'rw' (Read/Write), 'ro' (Readonly), or 'sh' (Shared
Read/Write). Default is 'rw'

size
size (in GB) to use if creating new storage

sparse
whether to skip fully allocating newly created storage. Value is 'true' or 'false'.
Default is 'true' (do not fully allocate).

The initial time taken to fully-allocate the guest virtual disk (sparse=false) will
be usually by 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.

cache
The cache mode to be used. The host pagecache provides cache memory. The cache
value can be 'none', 'writethrough', or 'writeback'. 'writethrough' provides read
caching. 'writeback' provides read and write caching.

format
Image format to be used if creating managed storage. For file volumes, this can be
'raw', 'qcow2', 'vmdk', etc. See format types in <http://libvirt.org/storage.html>
for possible values. This is often mapped to the driver_type value as well.

With libvirt 0.8.3 and later, this option should be specified if reusing an existing
disk image, since libvirt does not autodetect storage format as it is a potential
security issue. For example, if reusing an existing qcow2 image, you will want to
specify format=qcow2, otherwise the hypervisor may not be able to read your disk
image.

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.

io Disk IO backend. Can be either "threads" or "native".

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

See the examples section for some uses. This option deprecates "--file", "--file-size",
and "--nonsparse".

--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.

The following explicit options can be specified:

type
The type or the source directory. Valid values are 'mount' (the default) or
'template' for OpenVZ templates.

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.

--nodisks
Request a virtual machine without any local disk storage, typically used for running
'Live CD' images or installing to network storage (iSCSI or NFS root).

-f DISKFILE, --file=DISKFILE
This option is deprecated in favor of "--disk path=DISKFILE".

-s DISKSIZE, --file-size=DISKSIZE
This option is deprecated in favor of "--disk ...,size=DISKSIZE,..."

--nonsparse
This option is deprecated in favor of "--disk ...,sparse=false,..."

Networking Configuration
-w NETWORK, --network=NETWORK,opt1=val1,opt2=val2
Connect the guest to the host network. The value for "NETWORK" can take one of 3
formats:

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.

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.

If this option is omitted a single NIC will be created in the guest. If there is a
bridge device in the host with a physical interface enslaved, 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.

Other available options are:

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 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'.

--nonetworks
Request a virtual machine without any network interfaces.

-b BRIDGE, --bridge=BRIDGE
This parameter is deprecated in favour of "--network bridge=bridge_name".

-m MAC, --mac=MAC
This parameter is deprecated in favour of "--network NETWORK,mac=12:34..."

Graphics Configuration
If no graphics option is specified, "virt-install" will default to '--graphics vnc' if the
DISPLAY environment variable is set, otherwise '--graphics none' is used.

--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

The supported options are:

type
The display type. This is one of:

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).

sdl

Setup a virtual console in the guest and display an SDL window in the host to render
the output. If the SDL window is closed the guest may be unconditionally terminated.

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. Fully virtualized guests (Xen
FV or QEmu/KVM) will need to have a text console configured on the first serial port
in the guest (this can be done via the --extra-args option). Xen PV will set this up
automatically. The command 'virsh console NAME' can be used to connect to the serial
device.

port
Request a permanent, statically assigned port number for the guest console. This is
used by 'vnc' and 'spice'

tlsport
Specify the spice tlsport.

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. This is use by 'vnc' and 'spice'

keymap
Request that the virtual VNC console be configured to run with a specific keyboard
layout. If the special value 'local' is specified, virt-install will attempt to
configure to use the same keymap as the local system. A value of 'none' specifically
defers to the hypervisor. Default behavior is hypervisor specific, but typically is
the same as 'local'. This is used by 'vnc'

password
Request a VNC 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'

passwordvalidto
Set an expiration date for password. After the date/time has passed, all new
graphical connections are denied until a new password is set. This is used by 'vnc'
and 'spice'

The format for this value is YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS, for example 2011-04-01T14:30:15

--vnc
This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics vnc,..."

--vncport=VNCPORT
This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics vnc,port=PORT,..."

--vnclisten=VNCLISTEN
This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics vnc,listen=LISTEN,..."

-k KEYMAP, --keymap=KEYMAP
This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics vnc,keymap=KEYMAP,..."

--sdl
This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics sdl,..."

--nographics
This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics none"

--noautoconsole
Don't automatically try to connect to the guest console. The default behaviour is to
launch a VNC client to display the graphical console, or to run the "virsh" "console"
command to display the text console. Use of this parameter will disable this behaviour.

Virtualization Type 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, xen, or kqemu. Available
options are listed via 'virsh capabilities' in the <domain> tags.

--accelerate
Prefer KVM or KQEMU (in that order) if installing a QEMU guest. This behavior is now the
default, and this option is deprecated. To install a plain QEMU guest, use '--virt-type
qemu'

--noapic
Force disable APIC for the guest.

--noacpi
Force disable ACPI for the guest.

Device Options
--controller=TYPE[,OPTS]
Attach a controller device to the guest. TYPE is one of: ide, fdc, scsi, sata, virtio-
serial, or usb.

Controller also supports the special value usb2, which will set up a USB2 controller
with fallback USB1 support.

model
Controller model.

address
Controller address, current PCI of form 'bus:domain:slot:function'.

index
A decimal integer describing in which order the bus controller is encountered, and
to reference the controller bus.

master
Applicable to USB companion controllers, to define the master bus startport.

Example:

--controller usb,model=ich9-uhci2,address=0:0:4.7,index=0,master=2
Adds a ICH9 USB companion controller on PCI address 0:0:4.7 with master bus 0 and
first port 2.

--host-device=HOSTDEV
Attach a physical host device to the guest. Some example values for HOSTDEV:

--host-device pci_0000_00_1b_0
A node device name via libvirt, as shown by 'virsh nodedev-list'

--host-device 001.003
USB by bus, device (via lsusb).

--host-device 0x1234:0x5678
USB by vendor, product (via lsusb).

--host-device 1f.01.02
PCI device (via lspci).

--soundhw MODEL
Attach a virtual audio device to the guest. MODEL specifies the emulated sound card
model. Possible values are ich6, ac97, es1370, sb16, pcspk, or default. 'default' will
try to pick the best model that the specified OS supports.

This deprecates the old boolean --sound option (which still works the same as a single
'--soundhw default')

--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:

Use the recommended settings:

--watchdog default

Use the i6300esb with the 'poweroff' action

--watchdog i6300esb,action=poweroff

--parallel=CHAROPTS
--serial=CHAROPTS
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 pipe,path=PIPEPATH
Named pipe (see pipe(7))

--serial tcp,host=HOST:PORT,mode=MODE,protocol=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,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,mode=bind,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

--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[,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[,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.

--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
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtioSerial for more info. virtio console
requires libvirt 0.8.3 or later.

--video=VIDEO
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, or vmvga
(vmware).

--smartcard=MODE[,OPTS]
Configure a virtual smartcard device.

Mode is one of host, host-certificates, or passthrough. Additional options are:

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

See "http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSmartcard" for complete details.

--redirdev=BUS[,OPTS]
Add a redirected device.

type
The redirection type, currently supported is tcp or spicevmc.

server
The TCP server connection details, of the form 'server:port'.

Examples of invocation:

--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.

--memballoon MODEL
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:

Use the recommended settings:

--memballoon virtio

Do not use memballoon device:

--memballoon none

Miscellaneous Options
--autostart
Set the autostart flag for a domain. This causes the domain to be started on host boot
up.

--print-xml
If the requested guest has no install phase (--import, --boot), print the generated XML
instead of defining the guest. By default this WILL do storage creation (can be disabled
with --dry-run).

If the guest has an install phase, you will need to use --print-step to specify exactly
what XML output you want. This option implies --quiet.

--print-step
Acts similarly to --print-xml, except requires specifying which install step to print
XML for. Possible values are 1, 2, 3, or all. Stage 1 is typically booting from the
install media, and stage 2 is typically the final guest config booting off hardisk.
Stage 3 is only relevant for windows installs, which by default have a second install
stage. This option implies --quiet.

--noreboot
Prevent the domain from automatically rebooting after the install has completed.

--wait=WAIT
Amount of time to wait (in minutes) for a VM to complete its install. 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. Any negative value will make virt-install wait indefinitely, a value of 0 triggers
the same results as noautoconsole. If the time limit is exceeded, virt-install simply
exits, leaving the virtual machine in its current state.

--force
Prevent interactive prompts. If the intended prompt was a yes/no prompt, always say yes.
For any other prompts, the application will exit.

--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.

--prompt
Specifically enable prompting for required information. Default prompting is off (as of
virtinst 0.400.0)

--check-cpu
Check that the number virtual cpus requested does not exceed physical CPUs and warn if
they do.

-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 "$HOME/.virtinst/virt-install.log" even if this
parameter is omitted.

EXAMPLES

       Install a Fedora 13 KVM guest with virtio accelerated disk/network, creating a new 8GB
       storage file, installing from media in the hosts CDROM drive, auto launching a graphical
       VNC viewer

         # virt-install \
              --connect qemu:///system \
              --virt-type kvm \
              --name demo \
              --ram 500 \
              --disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/demo.img,size=8 \
              --graphics vnc \
              --cdrom /dev/cdrom \
              --os-variant fedora13

       Install a Fedora 9 plain QEMU guest, using LVM partition, virtual networking, booting from
       PXE, using VNC server/viewer

         # virt-install \
              --connect qemu:///system \
              --name demo \
              --ram 500 \
              --disk path=/dev/HostVG/DemoVM \
              --network network=default \
              --virt-type qemu
              --graphics vnc \
              --os-variant fedora9

       Install a guest with a real partition, with the default QEMU hypervisor for a different
       architecture using SDL graphics, using a remote kernel and initrd pair:

         # virt-install \
              --connect qemu:///system \
              --name demo \
              --ram 500 \
              --disk path=/dev/hdc \
              --network bridge=eth1 \
              --arch ppc64 \
              --graphics sdl \
              --location http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/x86_64/os/

       Run a Live CD image under Xen fullyvirt, in diskless environment

         # virt-install \
              --hvm \
              --name demo \
              --ram 500 \
              --nodisks \
              --livecd \
              --graphics vnc \
              --cdrom /root/fedora7live.iso

       Run /usr/bin/httpd in a linux container guest (LXC). Resource usage is capped at 512 MB of
       ram and 2 host cpus:

         # virt-install \
               --connect lxc:/// \
               --name httpd_guest \
               --ram 512 \
               --vcpus 2 \
               --init /usr/bin/httpd

       Install a paravirtualized Xen guest, 500 MB of RAM, a 5 GB of disk, and Fedora Core 6 from
       a web server, in text-only mode, with old style --file options:

         # virt-install \
              --paravirt \
              --name demo \
              --ram 500 \
              --file /var/lib/xen/images/demo.img \
              --file-size 6 \
              --graphics none \
              --location http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/x86_64/os/

       Create a guest from an existing disk image 'mydisk.img' using defaults for the rest of the
       options.

         # virt-install \
              --name demo \
              --ram 512 \
              --disk /home/user/VMs/mydisk.img \
              --import

       Test a custom kernel/initrd using an existing disk image, manually specifying a serial
       device hooked to a PTY on the host machine.

         # virt-install \
              --name mykernel \
              --ram 512 \
              --disk /home/user/VMs/mydisk.img \
              --boot kernel=/tmp/mykernel,initrd=/tmp/myinitrd,kernel_args="console=ttyS0" \
              --serial pty

AUTHORS

       Written by Daniel P. Berrange, Hugh Brock, Jeremy Katz, Cole Robinson and a team of many
       other contributors. See the AUTHORS file in the source distribution for the complete list
       of credits.

BUGS

       Please see http://virt-manager.org/page/BugReporting

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2006-2011 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
       "http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html". There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
       law.