22.5. Managing Virtual Machines

Virtual machines can be created and managed by using the Virtual Machine Manager.

  1. On the virtualization host server, click YaST+Virtualization+Virtual Machine Manager.

    The Virtual Machine Manager page displays the virtualization host server (Domain-0) and all virtual machines.

  2. From the Virtual Machine Manager page, you can perform the following actions:

    • New starts the process to create a new virtual machine.

    • Details displays status and hardware of the selected virtual machine or Domain-0

    • Open displays the command console for the selected virtual machine.

    • Delete completely removes the selected virtual machine.

    • Start a virtual machine by selecting it from the list, click Open, and then click Run.

Virtual Machine Manager is recommended for managing virtual machines, but you can also perform actions by entering commands on the command line.

Table 22.3. xm Commands

Command

Action

xm help

View a list of actions available for the xm command.

xm list

View a list of all registered and running virtual machines.

xm new /etc/xen/vm/vm_name

Create and register a new virtual machine based on settings in a configuration file.

This command does not create a configuration file or virtual disk.

xm start vm_name

Start a virtual machine.

xm delete vm_name

Delete a virtual machine.

This command does not delete the configuration file or virtual disk.

xm console vm_name

View the text console of an already-running virtual machine.

xm mem-set vm_name MB_Memory

Change the memory available to a virtual machine.

xm shutdown vm_name

Perform a normal shutdown of the virtual machine’s operating system.

xm destroy vm_name

Immediately terminate a running virtual machine.

xm create /etc/xen/vm/ vm_name

(Deprecated) Start a virtual machine using settings defined in its configuration file.

This command overwrites virtual machine settings with configuration file settings. Instead, use xm new to create and register the virtual machine, and then use xm start to start it.