{"id":12090,"date":"2021-11-18T05:52:21","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T05:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/?p=12090"},"modified":"2024-03-25T02:10:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T02:10:31","slug":"how-to-create-a-virtual-machine-in-kvm-on-the-command-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/centos\/how-to-create-a-virtual-machine-in-kvm-on-the-command-line\/","title":{"rendered":"How to create a virtual machine in KVM on the command line"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the previous guide, we looked at how to install the KVM hypervisor on Rocky Linux \/ AlmaLinux. We went further and demonstrated how you can create and manage virtual machines using the virt-manager<\/a>. This is a desktop application that provides a GUI interface that allows users to intuitively create and manage virtual machines.<\/p>\n

In this guide, we shift focus slightly and walk you through how you can create a virtual machine on command line.<\/p>\n

Prerequisites<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For this to be successful, you need to have KVM installed on your Linux instance. We already have a guide on how to install KVM on Rocky Linux \/ AlmaLinux.<\/p>\n

Additionally, ensure that you have a sudo user configured on your system for performing elevated tasks.<\/p>\n

How to create a virtual machine in KVM on Command line<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In this example, we are going to create a virtual machine from a Debian 10 ISO image located in the \u2018Downloads\u2019 folder in the home directory. To achieve this, launch the terminal and execute the following command:<\/p>\n

\r\n$ sudo virt-install --name=debian-10 \\<\/strong>\r\n\r\n--os-type=Linux \\<\/strong>\r\n\r\n--os-variant=debian10 \\<\/strong>\r\n\r\n--vcpu=2 \\<\/strong>\r\n\r\n--ram=2048 \\<\/strong>\r\n\r\n--disk path=\/var\/lib\/libvirt\/images\/debian.img,size=15 \\<\/strong>\r\n\r\n--graphics vnc,listen=0.0.0.0 \\<\/strong>\r\n\r\n--location=\/home\/james\/Downloads\/debian-10.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso \\<\/strong>\r\n\r\n--network bridge:virbr0<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
Let\u2019s briefly expound on the options used:<\/p>\n
 –name <\/strong>: This is the name of the virtual machine, in our case – debian-10.<\/strong><\/p>\n
–os-type: <\/strong>The option indicates the operating system.<\/p>\n
–os-variant: <\/strong> This indicates the flavor or version of your OS. You can get a comprehensive list of all he supported OS variants by running the osinfo-query os <\/strong>command.<\/p>\n
–vcpu: <\/strong>The number of virtual CPUs allocated to the virtual machine.<\/p>\n
–ram: <\/strong>The amount of RAM in Megabytes allocated to the virtual machine.<\/p>\n
–disk path: <\/strong>The option specifies the path of the virtual machine image. The size <\/strong>option specifies the size of the image in GB.<\/p>\n
–graphics:<\/strong> This specifies the graphical mode used to access the virtual machine. In this case, we have specified vnc<\/strong> as our preferred option.<\/p>\n
–location: <\/strong>This points to the location of the ISO image used for creating the virtual machine.<\/p>\n
Here is some output generated from running the command:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>Accessing the virtual machine <\/strong><\/h2>\n
At this point, the virtual machine is running. But how do you access its graphical interface? There are two main ways of going about this. You can use a VNC client or simply use the Virtual machine manager.<\/p>\n
To use VNC, you need to install a VNC client such as TigerVNC. To install it, simply run the command:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo dnf install tigervnc<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
Next, run the following command to find out which vnc port the virtual machine is listening to:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh vncdisplay debian-10<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
Next, use the application manager to launch TigerVNC.Type in your IP address followed by the port.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This opens the TigerVNC graphical viewer as shown.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>Managing the virtual machines on command-line<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The virsh <\/strong>utility is a command-line tool that is used to manage virtual machines. You can perform various operations as we shall see shortly.<\/p>\n
To list currently running virtual machines, run the command:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh list<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
To list all the virtual machines, including those that have been powered off use the –all <\/strong>option at the end. Since we have only deployed a since VM, the output will remain the same.<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh list --all<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
To poweroff a vm, use the syntax:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh shutdown vm<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
For example, to poweroff the virtual machine, run:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh shutdown debian-10<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
To start the virtual machine execute:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh start debian-10<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
To reboot the virtual machine, run:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh reboot debian-10<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
To suspend the VM, run the command:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh suspend debian-10<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
To resume the vm, execute:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh resume debian-10<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
And finally, you can delete to destroy the virtual machine:<\/p>\n
\r\n$ sudo virsh destroy debian-10<\/strong>\r\n<\/pre>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n
In this guide, we have shown you how to create and manage guest virtual machines on KVM from the command-line. We hope you have grasped the basic concepts of creating anf managing the state of virtual machines straight from the terminal console.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the previous guide, we looked at how to install the KVM hypervisor on Rocky Linux \/ AlmaLinux. We went further and demonstrated how you can create and…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":12096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,168,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-centos","category-scripting","category-ubuntu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}