virt-what(1)

1VIRT-WHAT(1)                Virtualization Support                VIRT-WHAT(1)
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NAME

6       virt-what - detect if we are running in a virtual machine
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SUMMARY

9       virt-what [options]
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DESCRIPTION

12       "virt-what" is a shell script which can be used to detect if the
13       program is running in a virtual machine.
14
15       The program prints out a list of "facts" about the virtual machine,
16       derived from heuristics.  One fact is printed per line.
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18       If nothing is printed and the script exits with code 0 (no error), then
19       it can mean either that the program is running on bare-metal or the
20       program is running inside a type of virtual machine which we don't know
21       about or cannot detect.
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FACTS

24       bhyve
25           This is a bhyve (FreeBSD hypervisor) guest.
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27           Status: contributed by Leonardo Brondani Schenkel.
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29       docker
30           This is a Docker container.
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32           Status: confirmed by Charles Nguyen
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34       hyperv
35           This is Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor.
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37           Status: confirmed by RWMJ
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39       ibm_power-kvm
40           This is an IBM POWER KVM guest.
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42           Status: contributed by Adrian Likins.
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44       ibm_power-lpar_shared
45       ibm_power-lpar_dedicated
46           This is an IBM POWER LPAR (hardware partition) in either shared or
47           dedicated mode.
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49           Status: contributed by Adrian Likins.
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51       ibm_systemz
52           This is an IBM SystemZ (or other S/390) hardware partitioning
53           system.  Additional facts listed below may also be printed.
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55       ibm_systemz-direct
56           This is Linux running directly on a IBM SystemZ hardware
57           partitioning system.
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59           This is expected to be a highly unusual configuration - if you see
60           this result you should treat it with suspicion.
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62           Status: not confirmed
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64       ibm_systemz-lpar
65           This is Linux running directly on an LPAR on an IBM SystemZ
66           hardware partitioning system.
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68           Status: not confirmed
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70       ibm_systemz-zvm
71           This is a z/VM guest running in an LPAR on an IBM SystemZ hardware
72           partitioning system.
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74           Status: confirmed by RWMJ using a Fedora guest running in z/VM
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76       linux_vserver
77           This is printed for backwards compatibility with older virt-what
78           which could not distinguish between a Linux VServer container guest
79           and host.
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81       linux_vserver-guest
82           This process is running in a Linux VServer container.
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84           Status: contributed by BarXX Metin
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86       linux_vserver-host
87           This process is running as the Linux VServer host (VxID 0).
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89           Status: contributed by BarXX Metin and Elan Ruusamaee
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91       lxc This process is running in a Linux LXC container.
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93           Status: contributed by Marc Fournier
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95       kvm This guest is running on the KVM hypervisor using hardware
96           acceleration.
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98           Note that if the hypervisor is using software acceleration you
99           should not see this, but should see the "qemu" fact instead.
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101           Status: confirmed by RWMJ.
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103       lkvm
104           This guest is running on the KVM hypervisor using hardware
105           acceleration, and the userspace component of the hypervisor is lkvm
106           (a.k.a kvmtool).
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108           Status: contributed by Andrew Jones
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110       openvz
111           The guest appears to be running inside an OpenVZ or Virtuozzo
112           container.
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114           Status: contributed by Evgeniy Sokolov
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116       ovirt
117           The guest is running on an oVirt node.  (See also "rhev" below).
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119           Status: contributed by RWMJ, not confirmed
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121       parallels
122           The guest is running inside Parallels Virtual Platform (Parallels
123           Desktop, Parallels Server).
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125           Status: contributed by Justin Clift
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127       powervm_lx86
128           The guest is running inside IBM PowerVM Lx86 Linux/x86 emulator.
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130           Status: data originally supplied by Jeffrey Scheel, confirmed by
131           Yufang Zhang and RWMJ
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133       qemu
134           This is QEMU hypervisor using software emulation.
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136           Note that for KVM (hardware accelerated) guests you should not see
137           this.
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139           Status: confirmed by RWMJ.
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141       rhev
142           The guest is running on a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV)
143           node.
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145           Status: confirmed by RWMJ
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147       uml This is a User-Mode Linux (UML) guest.
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149           Status: contributed by Laurent Leonard
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151       virt
152           Some sort of virtualization appears to be present, but we are not
153           sure what it is.  In some very rare corner cases where we know that
154           virtualization is hard to detect, we will try a timing attack to
155           see if certain machine instructions are running much more slowly
156           than they should be, which would indicate virtualization.  In this
157           case, the generic fact "virt" is printed.
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159       virtage
160           This is Hitachi Virtualization Manager (HVM) Virtage hardware
161           partitioning system.
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163           Status: data supplied by Bhavna Sarathy, not confirmed
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165       virtualbox
166           This is a VirtualBox guest.
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168           Status: contributed by Laurent Leonard
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170       virtualpc
171           The guest appears to be running on Microsoft VirtualPC.
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173           Status: not confirmed
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175       vmware
176           The guest appears to be running on VMware hypervisor.
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178           Status: confirmed by RWMJ
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180       xen The guest appears to be running on Xen hypervisor.
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182           Status: confirmed by RWMJ
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184       xen-dom0
185           This is the Xen dom0 (privileged domain).
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187           Status: confirmed by RWMJ
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189       xen-domU
190           This is a Xen domU (paravirtualized guest domain).
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192           Status: confirmed by RWMJ
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194       xen-hvm
195           This is a Xen guest fully virtualized (HVM).
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197           Status: confirmed by RWMJ
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EXIT STATUS

200       Programs that use or wrap "virt-what" should check that the exit status
201       is 0 before they attempt to parse the output of the command.
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203       A non-zero exit status indicates some error, for example, an
204       unrecognized command line argument.  If the exit status is non-zero
205       then the output "facts" (if any were printed) cannot be guaranteed and
206       should be ignored.
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208       The exit status does not have anything to do with whether the program
209       is running on baremetal or under virtualization, nor with whether
210       "virt-what" managed detection "correctly" (which is basically
211       unknowable given the large variety of virtualization systems out there
212       and that some systems deliberately emulate others).
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RUNNING VIRT-WHAT FROM OTHER PROGRAMS

215       "virt-what" is designed so that you can easily run it from other
216       programs or wrap it up in a library.
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218       Your program should check the exit status (see the section above).
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220       Some programming languages (notably Python: issue 1652) erroneously
221       mask the "SIGPIPE" signal and do not restore it when executing
222       subprocesses.  "virt-what" is a shell script and some shell commands do
223       not work correctly when you do this.  You may see warnings from
224       "virt-what" similar to this:
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226        echo: write error: Broken pipe
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228       The solution is to set the "SIGPIPE" signal handler back to "SIG_DFL"
229       before running "virt-what".
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IMPORTANT NOTE

232       Most of the time, using this program is the wrong thing to do.  Instead
233       you should detect the specific features you actually want to use.  (As
234       an example, if you wanted to issue Xen hypervisor commands you would
235       look for the "/proc/xen/privcmd" file).
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237       However people keep asking for this, so we provide it.  There are a few
238       legitimate uses:
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240       Bug reporting tool
241           If you think that virtualization could affect how your program
242           runs, then you might use "virt-what" to report this in a bug
243           reporting tool.
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245       Status display and monitoring tools
246           You might include this information in status and monitoring
247           programs.
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249       System tuning (sometimes)
250           You might use this program to tune an operating system so it runs
251           better as a virtual machine of a particular hypervisor.  However if
252           installing paravirtualized drivers, it's better to check for the
253           specific features your drivers need (eg. for the presence of PCI
254           devices).
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AUTHORS

264       Richard W.M. Jones <rjones @ redhat . com>
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COPYRIGHT

267       (C) Copyright 2008-2015 Red Hat Inc.,
268       <http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/>
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270       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
271       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
272       Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
273       option) any later version.
274
275       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
276       WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
277       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
278       General Public License for more details.
279
280       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
281       with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
282       675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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REPORTING BUGS

285       Bugs can be viewed on the Red Hat Bugzilla page:
286       <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/>.
287
288       If you find a bug in virt-what, please follow these steps to report it:
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290       1. Check for existing bug reports
291           Go to <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and search for similar bugs.
292           Someone may already have reported the same bug, and they may even
293           have fixed it.
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295       2. Capture debug and error messages
296           Run
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298            virt-what > virt-what.log 2>&1
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300           and keep virt-what.log.  It may contain error messages which you
301           should submit with your bug report.
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303       3. Get version of virt-what.
304           Run
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306            virt-what --version
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308       4. Submit a bug report.
309           Go to <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and enter a new bug.  Please
310           describe the problem in as much detail as possible.
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312           Remember to include the version numbers (step 3) and the debug
313           messages file (step 2) and as much other detail as possible.
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315       5. Assign the bug to rjones @ redhat.com
316           Assign or reassign the bug to rjones @ redhat.com (without the
317           spaces).  You can also send me an email with the bug number if you
318           want a faster response.
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322virt-what-1.11                    2017-03-22                      VIRT-WHAT(1)