1VIRT-INSTALL(1) Virtualization Support VIRT-INSTALL(1)
2
6 virt-install - provision new virtual machines
7
9 virt-install [OPTION]...
10
12 virt-install is a command line tool for creating new KVM, Xen, or Linux
13 container guests using the libvirt hypervisor management library. See
14 the EXAMPLES section at the end of this document to quickly get
15 started.
16 virt-install tool supports graphical installations using (for example)
18 VNC or SPICE, as well as text mode installs over serial console. The
19 guest can be configured to use one or more virtual disks, network in‐
20 terfaces, audio devices, physical USB or PCI devices, among others.
21 The installation media can be local ISO or CDROM media, or a distro in‐
23 stall tree hosted remotely over HTTP, FTP, or in a local directory. In
24 the install tree case virt-install will fetch the minimal files neces‐
25 sary to kick off the installation process, allowing the guest to fetch
26 the rest of the OS distribution as needed. PXE booting, and importing
27 an existing disk image (thus skipping the install phase) are also sup‐
28 ported.
29 Given suitable command line arguments, virt-install is capable of run‐
31 ning completely unattended, with the guest 'kickstarting' itself too.
32 This allows for easy automation of guest installs. This can be done
33 manually, or more simply with the --unattended option.
34 Many arguments have sub options, specified like opt1=foo,opt2=bar, etc.
36 Try --option=? to see a complete list of sub options associated with
37 that argument, example: virt-install --disk=?
38 Most options are not required. If a suitable --osinfo value is speci‐
40 fied or detected, all defaults will be filled in and reported in the
41 terminal output. Otherwise, minimum required options are --memory,
42 guest storage (--disk or --filesystem), and an install method choice.
43
45 --connect
46 Syntax: --connect URI
47 Connect to a non-default hypervisor. If this isn't specified, libvirt
49 will try and choose the most suitable default.
50 Some valid options here are:
52 qemu:///system
54 For creating KVM and QEMU guests to be run by the system lib‐
55 virtd instance. This is the default mode that virt-manager
56 uses, and what most KVM users want.
57 qemu:///session
59 For creating KVM and QEMU guests for libvirtd running as the
60 regular user.
61 xen:///
63 For connecting to Xen.
64 lxc:///
66 For creating linux containers
67
69 General configuration parameters that apply to all types of guest in‐
70 stalls.
71 -n, --name
73 Syntax: -n, --name NAME
74 Name of the new guest virtual machine instance. This must be unique
76 amongst all guests known to the hypervisor on the connection, including
77 those not currently active. To re-define an existing guest, use the
78 virsh(1) tool to shut it down ('virsh shutdown') & delete ('virsh unde‐
79 fine') it prior to running virt-install.
80 --memory
82 Syntax: --memory OPTIONS
83 Memory to allocate for the guest, in MiB. This deprecates the -r/--ram
85 option. Sub options are available, like 'memory', 'currentMemory',
86 'maxMemory' and 'maxMemory.slots', which all map to the identically
87 named XML values.
88 Back compat values 'memory' maps to the <currentMemory> element, and
90 maxmemory maps to the <memory> element.
91 To configure memory modules which can be hotunplugged see --memdev de‐
93 scription.
94 Use --memory=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
96 details at
97 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryAllocation
98 --memorybacking
100 Syntax: --memorybacking OPTIONS
101 This option will influence how virtual memory pages are backed by host
103 pages.
104 Use --memorybacking=? to see a list of all available sub options. Com‐
106 plete details at
107 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryBacking
108 --arch
110 Syntax: --arch ARCH
111 Request a non-native CPU architecture for the guest virtual machine.
113 If omitted, the host CPU architecture will be used in the guest.
114 --machine
116 Syntax: --machine MACHINE
117 The machine type to emulate. This will typically not need to be speci‐
119 fied for Xen or KVM, but is useful for choosing machine types of more
120 exotic architectures.
121 --metadata
123 Syntax: --metadata OPT=VAL,[...]
124 Specify metadata values for the guest. Possible options include name,
126 uuid, title, and description. This option deprecates -u/--uuid and
127 --description.
128 Use --metadata=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
130 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMetadata
131 --events
133 Syntax: --events OPT=VAL,[...]
134 Specify events values for the guest. Possible options include
136 on_poweroff, on_reboot, and on_crash.
137 Use --events=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
139 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsEvents
140 --resource
142 Syntax: --resource OPT=VAL,[...]
143 Specify resource partitioning for the guest.
145 Use --resource=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
147 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#resPartition
148 --sysinfo
150 Syntax: --sysinfo OPT=VAL,[...]
151 Configure sysinfo/SMBIOS values exposed to the VM OS. Examples:
153 --sysinfo host
155 Special type that exposes the host's SMBIOS info into the VM.
156 --sysinfo emulate
158 Special type where hypervisor will generate SMBIOS info into the
159 VM.
160 --sysinfo bios.vendor=custom or --sysinfo smbios,bios.vendor=custom
162 The default type is smbios and allows users to specify SMBIOS
163 info manually.
164 Use --sysinfo=? to see a list of all available sub options.
166 Complete details at
168 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSysinfo and
169 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsOSBIOS for smbios XML el‐
170 ement.
171 --xml
173 Syntax: --xml ARGS
174 Make direct edits to the generated XML using XPath syntax. Take an ex‐
176 ample like
177 virt-install --xml ./@foo=bar --xml ./newelement/subelement=1
179 This will alter the generated XML to contain:
181 <domain foo='bar' ...>
183 ...
184 <newelement>
185 <subelement>1</subelement>
186 </newelement>
187 </domain>
188 The --xml option has 4 sub options:
190 --xml xpath.set=XPATH[=VALUE]
192 The default behavior if no explicit suboption is set. Takes the
193 form XPATH=VALUE unless paired with xpath.value . See below for
194 how value is interpreted.
195 --xml xpath.value=VALUE
197 xpath.set will be interpreted only as the XPath string, and
198 xpath.value will be used as the value to set. May help sidestep
199 problems if the string you need to set contains a '=' equals
200 sign.
201 If value is empty, it's treated as unsetting that particular
203 node.
204 --xml xpath.create=XPATH
206 Create the node as an empty element. Needed for boolean elements
207 like <readonly/>
208 --xml xpath.delete=XPATH
210 Delete the entire node specified by the xpath, and all its chil‐
211 dren
212 xpath subarguments
214 Similar to the --xml option, most top level options have xpath.* sub‐
215 options. For example, --disk xpath1.set=./@foo=bar,xpath2.cre‐
216 ate=./newelement would generate XML alterations like
217 <disk foo="bar">
219 <newelements/>
220 </disk>
221 This is useful for setting XML options per device, when virt-install
223 does not support those options yet.
224 --qemu-commandline
226 Syntax: --qemu-commandline ARGS
227 Pass options directly to the qemu emulator. Only works for the libvirt
229 qemu driver. The option can take a string of arguments, for example:
230 --qemu-commandline="-display gtk,gl=on"
232 Environment variables are specified with 'env', for example:
234 --qemu-commandline=env=DISPLAY=:0.1
236 Complete details about the libvirt feature:
238 https://libvirt.org/drvqemu.html#qemucommand
239 --vcpus
241 Syntax: --vcpus OPTIONS
242 Number of virtual cpus to configure for the guest. If 'maxvcpus' is
244 specified, the guest will be able to hotplug up to MAX vcpus while the
245 guest is running, but will startup with VCPUS.
246 CPU topology can additionally be specified with sockets, dies, cores,
248 and threads. If values are omitted, the rest will be autofilled pre‐
249 ferring cores over sockets over threads. Cores are preferred because
250 this matches the characteristics of modern real world silicon and thus
251 a better fit for what guest OS will be expecting to deal with.
252 'cpuset' sets which physical cpus the guest can use. CPUSET is a comma
254 separated list of numbers, which can also be specified in ranges or
255 cpus to exclude. Example:
256 0,2,3,5 : Use processors 0,2,3 and 5
258 1-5,^3,8 : Use processors 1,2,4,5 and 8
259 If the value 'auto' is passed, virt-install attempts to automatically
261 determine an optimal cpu pinning using NUMA data, if available.
262 Use --vcpus=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
264 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCPUAllocation
265 --numatune
267 Syntax: --numatune OPTIONS
268 Tune NUMA policy for the domain process. Example invocations
270 --numatune 1,2,3,4-7
272 --numatune 1-3,5,memory.mode=preferred
273 Specifies the numa nodes to allocate memory from. This has the same
275 syntax as --vcpus cpuset= option. mode can be one of 'interleave',
276 'preferred', or 'strict' (the default). See 'man 8 numactl' for infor‐
277 mation about each mode.
278 Use --numatune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
280 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsNUMATuning
281 --memtune
283 Syntax: --memtune OPTIONS
284 Tune memory policy for the domain process. Example invocations
286 --memtune 1000
288 --memtune hard_limit=100,soft_limit=60,swap_hard_limit=150,min_guarantee=80
289 Use --memtune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
291 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryTuning
292 --blkiotune
294 Syntax: --blkiotune OPTIONS
295 Tune blkio policy for the domain process. Example invocations
297 --blkiotune 100
299 --blkiotune weight=100,device.path=/dev/sdc,device.weight=200
300 Use --blkiotune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
302 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsBlockTuning
303 --cpu
305 Syntax: --cpu MODEL[,+feature][,-feature][,match=MATCH][,vendor=VEN‐
306 DOR],...
307 Configure the CPU model and CPU features exposed to the guest. The only
309 required value is MODEL, which is a valid CPU model as known to lib‐
310 virt.
311 Libvirt's feature policy values force, require, optional, disable, or
313 forbid, or with the shorthand '+feature' and '-feature', which equal
314 'force=feature' and 'disable=feature' respectively.
315 If exact CPU model is specified virt-install will automatically copy
317 CPU features available on the host to mitigate recent CPU speculative
318 execution side channel and Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data secu‐
319 rity vulnerabilities. This however will have some impact on perfor‐
320 mance and will break migration to hosts without security patches. In
321 order to control this behavior there is a secure parameter. Possible
322 values are on and off, with on as the default. It is highly recommended
323 to leave this enabled and ensure all virtualization hosts have fully up
324 to date microcode, kernel & virtualization software installed.
325 Some examples:
327 --cpu core2duo,+x2apic,disable=vmx
329 Expose the core2duo CPU model, force enable x2apic, but do not
330 expose vmx
331 --cpu host
333 Expose the host CPUs configuration to the guest. This enables
334 the guest to take advantage of many of the host CPUs features
335 (better performance), but may cause issues if migrating the
336 guest to a host without an identical CPU.
337 --cpu numa.cell0.memory=1234,numa.cell0.cpus=0-3,numa.cell1.mem‐
339 ory=5678,numa.cell1.cpus=4-7
340 Example of specifying two NUMA cells. This will generate XML
341 like:
342 <cpu>
344 <numa>
345 <cell cpus="0-3" memory="1234"/>
346 <cell cpus="4-7" memory="5678"/>
347 </numa>
348 </cpu>
349 --cpu host-passthrough,cache.mode=passthrough
351 Example of passing through the host cpu's cache information.
352 Use --cpu=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
354 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCPU
355 --cputune
357 Syntax: --cputune OPTIONS
358 Tune CPU parameters for the guest.
360 Configure which of the host's physical CPUs the domain VCPU will be
362 pinned to. Example invocation
363 --cputune vcpupin0.vcpu=0,vcpupin0.cpuset=0-3,vcpupin1.vcpu=1,vcpupin1.cpuset=4-7
365 Use --cputune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
367 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCPUTuning
368 --security, --seclabel
370 Syntax: --security, --seclabel type=TYPE[,label=LABEL][,rela‐
371 bel=yes|no],...
372 Configure domain seclabel domain settings. Type can be either 'static'
374 or 'dynamic'. 'static' configuration requires a security LABEL. Speci‐
375 fying LABEL without TYPE implies static configuration.
376 Use --security=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
378 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#seclabel
379 --keywrap
381 Syntax: --keywrap OPTIONS
382 Specify domain <keywrap> XML, used for S390 cryptographic key manage‐
384 ment operations.
385 Use --keywrap=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
387 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#keywrap
388 --iothreads
390 Syntax: --iothreads OPTIONS
391 Specify domain <iothreads> and/or <iothreadids> XML. For example, to
393 configure <iothreads>4</iothreads>, use --iothreads 4
394 Use --iothreads=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
396 details at
397 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsIOThreadsAllocation
398 --features
400 Syntax: --features FEAT=on|off,...
401 Set elements in the guests <features> XML on or off. Examples include
403 acpi, apic, eoi, privnet, and hyperv features. Some examples:
404 --features apic.eoi=on
406 Enable APIC PV EOI
407 --features hyperv.vapic.state=on,hyperv.spinlocks.state=off
409 Enable hyperv VAPIC, but disable spinlocks
410 --features kvm.hidden.state=on
412 Allow the KVM hypervisor signature to be hidden from the guest
413 --features pvspinlock=on
415 Notify the guest that the host supports paravirtual spinlocks
416 for example by exposing the pvticketlocks mechanism.
417 --features gic.version=2
419 This is relevant only for ARM architectures. Possible values are
420 "host" or version number.
421 --features smm.state=on
423 This enables System Management Mode of hypervisor. Some UEFI
424 firmwares may require this feature to be present. (QEMU supports
425 SMM only with q35 machine type.)
426 Use --features=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
428 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsFeatures
429 --clock
431 Syntax: --clock offset=OFFSET,TIMER_OPT=VAL,...
432 Configure the guest's <clock> XML. Some supported options:
434 --clock offset=OFFSET
436 Set the clock offset, ex. 'utc' or 'localtime'
437 --clock TIMER_present=no
439 Disable a boolean timer. TIMER here might be hpet, kvmclock,
440 etc.
441 --clock TIMER_tickpolicy=VAL
443 Set a timer's tickpolicy value. TIMER here might be rtc, pit,
444 etc. VAL might be catchup, delay, etc. Refer to the libvirt docs
445 for all values.
446 Use --clock=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
448 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsTime
449 --pm
451 Syntax: --pm OPTIONS
452 Configure guest power management features. Example:
454 --pm suspend_to_memi.enabled=on,suspend_to_disk.enabled=off
456 Use --pm=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
458 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsPowerManagement
459 --launchSecurity
461 Syntax: --launchSecurity TYPE[,OPTS]
462 Enable launch security for the guest, e.g. AMD SEV. Example invoca‐
464 tions:
465 # This will use a default policy 0x03
467 # No dhCert provided, so no data can be exchanged with the SEV firmware
468 --launchSecurity sev
469 # Explicit policy 0x01 - disables debugging, allows guest key sharing
471 --launchSecurity sev,policy=0x01
472 # Provide the session blob obtained from the SEV firmware
474 # Provide dhCert to open a secure communication channel with SEV firmware
475 --launchSecurity sev,session=BASE64SESSIONSTRING,dhCert=BASE64DHCERTSTRING
476 SEV has further implications on usage of virtio devices, so refer to
478 EXAMPLES section to see a full invocation of virt-install with
479 --launchSecurity.
480 Use --launchSecurity=? to see a list of all available sub options. Com‐
482 plete details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#launchSecurity
483
485 -c, --cdrom
486 Syntax: --cdrom PATH
487 ISO file or CDROM device to use for VM install media. After install,
489 the virtual CDROM device will remain attached to the VM, but with the
490 ISO or host path media ejected.
491 -l, --location
493 Syntax: -l, --location OPTIONS
494 Distribution tree installation source. virt-install can recognize cer‐
496 tain distribution trees and fetches a bootable kernel/initrd pair to
497 launch the install.
498 --location allows things like --extra-args for kernel arguments, and
500 using --initrd-inject. If you want to use those options with CDROM me‐
501 dia, you can pass the ISO to --location as well which works for some,
502 but not all, CDROM media.
503 The LOCATION can take one of the following forms:
505 https://host/path
507 An HTTP server location containing an installable distribution
508 image.
509 ftp://host/path
511 An FTP server location containing an installable distribution
512 image.
513 ISO Extract files directly from the ISO path
515 DIRECTORY
517 Path to a local directory containing an installable distribution
518 image. Note that the directory will not be accessible by the
519 guest after initial boot, so the OS installer will need another
520 way to access the rest of the install media.
521 Some distro specific url samples:
523 Fedora/Red Hat Based
525 https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/29/Server/x86_64/os
526 Debian https://debian.osuosl.org/debian/dists/stable/main/installer-amd64/
528 Ubuntu https://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/wily/main/installer-amd64/
530 Suse https://download.opensuse.org/pub/opensuse/distribution/leap/42.3/repo/oss/
532 Additionally, --location can take 'kernel' and 'initrd' sub options.
534 These paths relative to the specified location URL/ISO that allow se‐
535 lecting specific files for kernel/initrd within the install tree. This
536 can be useful if virt-install/ libosinfo doesn't know where to find the
537 kernel in the specified --location.
538 For example, if you have an ISO that libosinfo doesn't know about
540 called my-unknown.iso, with a kernel at 'kernel/fookernel' and initrd
541 at 'kernel/fooinitrd', you can make this work with:
542 --location my-unknown.iso,kernel=kernel/fookernel,initrd=kernel/fooinitrd
544 --pxe
546 Install from PXE. This just tells the VM to boot off the network for
547 the first boot.
548 --import
550 Skip the OS installation process, and build a guest around an existing
551 disk image. The device used for booting is the first device specified
552 via --disk or --filesystem.
553 -x, --extra-args
555 Syntax: -x, --extra-args KERNELARGS
556 Additional kernel command line arguments to pass to the installer when
558 performing a guest install from --location. One common usage is speci‐
559 fying an anaconda kickstart file for automated installs, such as --ex‐
560 tra-args "ks=https://myserver/my.ks"
561 --initrd-inject
563 Syntax: --initrd-inject PATH
564 Add PATH to the root of the initrd fetched with --location. This can be
566 used to run an automated install without requiring a network hosted
567 kickstart file: --initrd-inject=/path/to/my.ks --extra-args
568 "ks=file:/my.ks"
569 --install
571 This is a larger entry point for various types of install operations.
572 The command has multiple subarguments, similar to --disk and friends.
573 This option is strictly for VM install operations, essentially config‐
574 uring the first boot.
575 The simplest usage to ex: install fedora29 is:
577 --install fedora29
579 And virt-install will fetch a --location URL from libosinfo, and popu‐
581 late defaults from there.
582 Available suboptions:
584 os= This is os install option described above. The explicit way to
586 specify that would be --install os=fedora29 . os= is the default
587 option if none is specified
588 kernel=, initrd=
590 Specify a kernel and initrd pair to use as install media. They
591 are copied into a temporary location before booting the VM, so
592 they can be combined with --initrd-inject and your source media
593 will not be altered. Media will be uploaded to a remote connec‐
594 tion if required.
595 Example case using local filesystem paths: --install ker‐
597 nel=/path/to/kernel,initrd=/path/to/initrd
598 Example using network paths. Kernel/initrd will be downloaded
600 locally first, then passed to the VM as local filesystem paths:
601 --install kernel=https://127.0.0.1/tree/kernel,ini‐
602 trd=https://127.0.0.1/tree/initrd
603 Note, these are just for install time booting. If you want to
605 set the kernel used for permanent VM booting, use the --boot op‐
606 tion.
607 kernel_args=, kernel_args_overwrite=yes|no
609 Specify install time kernel arguments (libvirt <cmdline> XML).
610 These can be combine with ex: kernel/initrd options, or --loca‐
611 tion media. By default, kernel_args is just like --extra-args,
612 and will _append_ to the arguments that virt-install will try to
613 set by default for most --location installs. If you want to
614 override the virt-install default, additionally specify ker‐
615 nel_args_overwrite=yes
616 bootdev=
618 Specify the install bootdev (hd, cdrom, floppy, network) to boot
619 off of for the install phase. This maps to libvirt <os><boot
620 dev=X> XML.
621 If you want to install off a cdrom or network, it's probably
623 simpler and more backwards compatible to just use --cdrom or
624 --pxe , but this options gives fine grained control over the in‐
625 stall process if needed.
626 no_install=yes|no
628 Tell virt-install that there isn't actually any install happen‐
629 ing, and you just want to create the VM. --import is just an
630 alias for this, as is specifying --boot without any other in‐
631 stall options. The deprecated --live option is the same as
632 '--cdrom $ISO --install no_install=yes'
633 --reinstall DOMAIN
635 Reinstall an existing VM. DOMAIN can be a VM name, UUID, or ID number.
636 virt-install will fetch the domain XML from libvirt, apply the speci‐
637 fied install config changes, boot the VM for the install process, and
638 then revert to roughly the same starting XML.
639 Only install related options are processed, all other VM configuration
641 options like --name, --disk, etc. are completely ignored.
642 If --reinstall is used with --cdrom, an existing CDROM attached to the
644 VM will be used if one is available, otherwise a permanent CDROM device
645 will be added.
646 --unattended
648 Syntax: --unattended [OPTIONS]
649 Perform an unattended install using libosinfo's install script support.
651 This is essentially a database of auto install scripts for various dis‐
652 tros: Red Hat kickstarts, Debian installer scripting, Windows unat‐
653 tended installs, and potentially others. The simplest invocation is to
654 combine it with --install like:
655 --install fedora29 --unattended
657 A Windows install will look like
659 --cdrom /path/to/my/windows.iso --unattended
661 Sub options are:
663 profile=
665 Choose which libosinfo unattended profile to use. Most distros
666 have a 'desktop' and a 'jeos' profile. virt-install will default
667 to 'desktop' if this is unspecified.
668 admin-password-file=
670 A file used to set the VM OS admin/root password from. This op‐
671 tion can be used either as "admin-password-file=/path/to/pass‐
672 word-file" or as "admin-password-file=/dev/fd/n", being n the
673 file descriptor of the password-file. Note that only the first
674 line of the file will be considered, including any whitespace
675 characters and excluding new-line.
676 user-login=
678 The user login name to be used in th VM. virt-install will de‐
679 fault to your current host username if this is unspecified.
680 Note that when running virt-install as "root", this option must
681 be specified.
682 user-password-file=
684 A file used to set the VM user password. This option can be used
685 either as "user-password-file=/path/to/password-file" or as
686 "user-password-file=/dev/fd/n", being n the file descriptor of
687 the password-file. The username is either the user-login speci‐
688 fied or your current host username. Note that only the first
689 line of the file will be considered, including any whitespace
690 characters and excluding new-line.
691 product-key=
693 Set a Windows product key
694 --cloud-init
696 Pass cloud-init metadata to the VM. A cloud-init NoCloud ISO file is
697 generated, and attached to the VM as a CDROM device. The device is only
698 attached for the first boot. This option is particularly useful for
699 distro cloud images, which have locked login accounts by default;
700 --cloud-init provides the means to initialize those login accounts,
701 like setting a root password.
702 The simplest invocation is just plain --cloud-init with no suboptions;
704 this maps to --cloud-init root-password-generate=on,disable=on. See
705 those suboptions for explanation of how they work.
706 Use --cloud-init=? to see a list of all available sub options.
708 Sub options are:
710 root-password-generate=on
712 Generate a new root password for the VM. When used, virt-install
713 will print the generated password to the console, and pause for
714 10 seconds to give the user a chance to notice it and copy it.
715 disable=on
717 Disable cloud-init in the VM for subsequent boots. Without this,
718 cloud-init may reset auth on each boot.
719 root-password-file=
721 A file used to set the VM root password from. This option can be
722 used either as "root-password-file=/path/to/password-file" or as
723 "root-password-file=/dev/fd/n", being n the file descriptor of
724 the password-file. Note that only the first line of the file
725 will be considered, including any whitespace characters and ex‐
726 cluding new-line.
727 meta-data=
729 Specify a cloud-init meta-data file to add directly to the iso.
730 All other meta-data configuration options on the --cloud-init
731 command line are ignored.
732 user-data=
734 Specify a cloud-init user-data file to add directly to the iso.
735 All other user-data configuration options on the --cloud-init
736 command line are ignored.
737 root-ssh-key=
739 Specify a public key to inject into the guest, providing ssh ac‐
740 cess to the root account. Example:
741 root-ssh-key=/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
742 clouduser-ssh-key
744 Specify a public key to inject into the guest, providing ssh ac‐
745 cess to the default cloud-init user account. The account name is
746 different per distro cloud image. Some common ones are docu‐
747 mented here:
748 https://docs.openstack.org/image-guide/obtain-images.html
749 network-config=
751 Specify a cloud-init network-config file to add directly to the
752 iso.
753 --boot
755 Syntax: --boot BOOTOPTS
756 Optionally specify the post-install VM boot configuration. This option
758 allows specifying a boot device order, permanently booting off ker‐
759 nel/initrd with option kernel arguments, and enabling a BIOS boot menu
760 (requires libvirt 0.8.3 or later)
761 --boot can be specified in addition to other install options (such as
763 --location, --cdrom, etc.) or can be specified on its own. In the lat‐
764 ter case, behavior is similar to the --import install option: there is
765 no 'install' phase, the guest is just created and launched as speci‐
766 fied.
767 Some examples:
769 --boot cdrom,fd,hd,network
771 Set the boot device priority as first cdrom, first floppy, first
772 harddisk, network PXE boot.
773 --boot kernel=KERNEL,initrd=INITRD,kernel_args="console=/dev/ttyS0"
775 Have guest permanently boot off a local kernel/initrd pair, with
776 the specified kernel options.
777 --boot kernel=KERNEL,initrd=INITRD,dtb=DTB
779 Have guest permanently boot off a local kernel/initrd pair with
780 an external device tree binary. DTB can be required for some
781 non-x86 configurations like ARM or PPC
782 --boot loader=BIOSPATH
784 Use BIOSPATH as the virtual machine BIOS.
785 --boot bootmenu.enable=on,bios.useserial=on
787 Enable the bios boot menu, and enable sending bios text output
788 over serial console.
789 --boot init=INITPATH
791 Path to a binary that the container guest will init. If a root
792 --filesystem has been specified, virt-install will default to
793 /sbin/init, otherwise will default to /bin/sh.
794 --boot uefi
796 Configure the VM to boot from UEFI. In order for virt-install to
797 know the correct UEFI parameters, libvirt needs to be advertis‐
798 ing known UEFI binaries via domcapabilities XML, so this will
799 likely only work if using properly configured distro packages.
800 --boot loader=/.../OVMF_CODE.fd,loader.read‐
802 only=yes,loader.type=pflash,nvram.template=/.../OVMF_VARS.fd,loader_se‐
803 cure=no
804 Specify that the virtual machine use the custom OVMF binary as
805 boot firmware, mapped as a virtual flash chip. In addition, re‐
806 quest that libvirt instantiate the VM-specific UEFI varstore
807 from the custom "/.../OVMF_VARS.fd" varstore template. This is
808 the recommended UEFI setup, and should be used if --boot uefi
809 doesn't know about your UEFI binaries. If your UEFI firmware
810 supports Secure boot feature you can enable it via loader_se‐
811 cure.
812 Use --boot=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
814 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsOS
815 --idmap
817 Syntax: --idmap OPTIONS
818 If the guest configuration declares a UID or GID mapping, the 'user'
820 namespace will be enabled to apply these. A suitably configured
821 UID/GID mapping is a pre-requisite to make containers secure, in the
822 absence of sVirt confinement.
823 --idmap can be specified to enable user namespace for LXC containers.
825 Example:
826 --idmap uid.start=0,uid.target=1000,uid.count=10,gid.start=0,gid.target=1000,gid.count=10
828 Use --idmap=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
830 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsOSContainer
831
833 --os-variant, --osinfo
834 Syntax: --osinfo [OSNAME|OPT1=VAL1,...]
835 Optimize the guest configuration for a specific operating system. For
837 most cases, an OS must be specified or detected from the install media
838 so performance critical features like virtio can be enabled.
839 The simplest usage is --os-variant OSNAME or --osinfo OSNAME, for exam‐
841 ple --osinfo fedora32. The supported suboptions are:
842 name=, short-id=
844 The OS name/short-id from libosinfo. Examples: fedora32, win10
845 id= The full URL style libosinfo ID. For example, name=win10 is the
847 same as id=http://microsoft.com/win/10
848 detect=on|off
850 Whether virt-install should attempt OS detection from the speci‐
851 fied install media. Detection is presently only attempted for
852 URL and CDROM installs, and is not 100% reliable.
853 require=on|off
855 If on, virt-install errors if no OS value is set or detected.
856 Some interesting examples:
858 --osinfo detect=on,require=on
860 This tells virt-install to attempt detection from install media,
861 but explicitly fail if that does not succeed. This will ensure
862 your virt-install invocations don't fallback to a poorly per‐
863 forming config
864 --osinfo detect=on,name=OSNAME
866 Attempt OS detection from install media, but if that fails, use
867 OSNAME as a fallback.
868 If any manual --osinfo value is specified, the default is all other
870 settings off or unset.
871 By default, virt-install will always attempt --osinfo detect=on for ap‐
873 propriate install media. If no OS is detected, we will fail in most
874 common cases. This fatal error was added in 2022. You can work around
875 this by using the fallback example above, or disabling the require op‐
876 tion. If you just need to get back to the old non-fatal behavior ASAP,
877 set the environment variable VIRTINSTALL_OSINFO_DISABLE_REQUIRE=1.
878 Use the command virt-install --osinfo list to get the list of the ac‐
880 cepted OS variants. See osinfo-query os for even more output.
881 Note: --os-variant and --osinfo are aliases for one another. --osinfo
883 is the preferred new style naming.
884
886 --disk
887 Syntax: --disk OPTIONS
888 Specifies media to use as storage for the guest, with various options.
890 The general format of a disk string is
891 --disk opt1=val1,opt2=val2,...
893 The simplest invocation to create a new 10G disk image and associated
895 disk device:
896 --disk size=10
898 virt-install will generate a path name, and place it in the default im‐
900 age location for the hypervisor. To specify media, the command can ei‐
901 ther be:
902 --disk /some/storage/path[,opt1=val1]...
904 or explicitly specify one of the following arguments:
906 path A path to some storage media to use, existing or not. Existing
908 media can be a file or block device.
909 Specifying a non-existent path implies attempting to create the
911 new storage, and will require specifying a 'size' value. Even
912 for remote hosts, virt-install will try to use libvirt storage
913 APIs to automatically create the given path.
914 If the hypervisor supports it, path can also be a network URL,
916 like https://example.com/some-disk.img . For network paths, they
917 hypervisor will directly access the storage, nothing is down‐
918 loaded locally.
919 pool An existing libvirt storage pool name to create new storage on.
921 Requires specifying a 'size' value.
922 vol An existing libvirt storage volume to use. This is specified as
924 'poolname/volname'.
925 Options that apply to storage creation:
927 size size (in GiB) to use if creating new storage
929 sparse whether to skip fully allocating newly created storage. Value is
931 'yes' or 'no'. Default is 'yes' (do not fully allocate) unless
932 it isn't supported by the underlying storage type.
933 The initial time taken to fully-allocate the guest virtual disk
935 (sparse=no) will be usually balanced by faster install times in‐
936 side the guest. Thus use of this option is recommended to ensure
937 consistently high performance and to avoid I/O errors in the
938 guest should the host filesystem fill up.
939 format Disk image format. For file volumes, this can be 'raw', 'qcow2',
941 'vmdk', etc. See format types in
942 https://libvirt.org/storage.html for possible values. This is
943 often mapped to the driver_type value as well.
944 If not specified when creating file images, this will default to
946 'qcow2'.
947 If creating storage, this will be the format of the new image.
949 If using an existing image, this overrides libvirt's format
950 auto-detection.
951 backing_store
953 Path to a disk to use as the backing store for the newly created
954 image.
955 backing_format
957 Disk image format of backing_store
958 Some example device configuration suboptions:
960 device Disk device type. Example values are be 'cdrom', 'disk', 'lun'
962 or 'floppy'. The default is 'disk'.
963 boot.order
965 Guest installation with multiple disks will need this parameter
966 to boot correctly after being installed. A boot.order parameter
967 will take values 1,2,3,... Devices with lower value has higher
968 priority. This option applies to other bootable device types as
969 well.
970 target.bus** or *bus
972 Disk bus type. Example values are be 'ide', 'sata', 'scsi',
973 'usb', 'virtio' or 'xen'. The default is hypervisor dependent
974 since not all hypervisors support all bus types.
975 readonly
977 Set drive as readonly (takes 'on' or 'off')
978 shareable
980 Set drive as shareable (takes 'on' or 'off')
981 cache The cache mode to be used. The host pagecache provides cache
983 memory. The cache value can be 'none', 'writethrough', 'direct‐
984 sync', 'unsafe' or 'writeback'. 'writethrough' provides read
985 caching. 'writeback' provides read and write caching. 'direct‐
986 sync' bypasses the host page cache. 'unsafe' may cache all con‐
987 tent and ignore flush requests from the guest.
988 driver.discard
990 Whether discard (also known as "trim" or "unmap") requests are
991 ignored or passed to the filesystem. The value can be either
992 "unmap" (allow the discard request to be passed) or "ignore"
993 (ignore the discard request). Since 1.0.6 (QEMU and KVM only)
994 driver.name
996 Driver name the hypervisor should use when accessing the speci‐
997 fied storage. Typically does not need to be set by the user.
998 driver.type
1000 Driver format/type the hypervisor should use when accessing the
1001 specified storage. Typically does not need to be set by the
1002 user.
1003 driver.io
1005 Disk IO backend. Can be either "threads", "native" or "io_ur‐
1006 ing".
1007 driver.error_policy
1009 How guest should react if a write error is encountered. Can be
1010 one of "stop", "ignore", or "enospace"
1011 serial Serial number of the emulated disk device. This is used in linux
1013 guests to set /dev/disk/by-id symlinks. An example serial number
1014 might be: WD-WMAP9A966149
1015 source.startupPolicy
1017 It defines what to do with the disk if the source file is not
1018 accessible.
1019 snapshot
1021 Defines default behavior of the disk during disk snapshots.
1022 See the examples section for some uses. This option deprecates
1024 -f/--file, -s/--file-size, --nonsparse, and --nodisks.
1025 Use --disk=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
1027 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsDisks
1028 --filesystem
1030 Specifies a directory on the host to export to the guest. The most sim‐
1031 ple invocation is:
1032 --filesystem /source/on/host,/target/point/in/guest
1034 Which will work for recent QEMU and linux guest OS or LXC containers.
1036 For QEMU, the target point is just a mounting hint in sysfs, so will
1037 not be automatically mounted.
1038 Some example suboptions:
1040 type The type or the source directory. Valid values are 'mount' (the
1042 default) or 'template' for OpenVZ templates.
1043 accessmode or mode
1045 The access mode for the source directory from the guest OS. Only
1046 used with QEMU and type=mount. Valid modes are 'mapped' (the de‐
1047 fault), 'passthrough', or 'squash'. See libvirt domain XML docu‐
1048 mentation for more info.
1049 source The directory on the host to share.
1051 target The mount location to use in the guest.
1053 Use --filesystem=? to see a list of all available sub options. Com‐
1055 plete details at
1056 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsFilesystems
1057
1059 -w, --network
1060 Syntax: -w, --network OPTIONS
1061 Connect the guest to the host network. Examples for specifying the net‐
1063 work type:
1064 bridge=BRIDGE
1066 Connect to a bridge device in the host called BRIDGE. Use this
1067 option if the host has static networking config & the guest re‐
1068 quires full outbound and inbound connectivity to/from the LAN.
1069 Also use this if live migration will be used with this guest.
1070 network=NAME
1072 Connect to a virtual network in the host called NAME. Virtual
1073 networks can be listed, created, deleted using the virsh command
1074 line tool. In an unmodified install of libvirt there is usually
1075 a virtual network with a name of default. Use a virtual network
1076 if the host has dynamic networking (e.g. NetworkManager), or us‐
1077 ing wireless. The guest will be NATed to the LAN by whichever
1078 connection is active.
1079 type=direct,source=IFACE[,source.mode=MODE]
1081 Direct connect to host interface IFACE using macvtap.
1082 user Connect to the LAN using SLIRP. Only use this if running a QEMU
1084 guest as an unprivileged user. This provides a very limited form
1085 of NAT.
1086 none Tell virt-install not to add any default network interface.
1088 If --network is omitted a single NIC will be created in the guest. If
1090 there is a bridge device in the host with a physical interface at‐
1091 tached, that will be used for connectivity. Failing that, the virtual
1092 network called default will be used. This option can be specified mul‐
1093 tiple times to setup more than one NIC.
1094 Some example suboptions:
1096 model.type or model
1098 Network device model as seen by the guest. Value can be any nic
1099 model supported by the hypervisor, e.g.: 'e1000', 'rtl8139',
1100 'virtio', ...
1101 mac.address or mac
1103 Fixed MAC address for the guest; If this parameter is omitted,
1104 or the value RANDOM is specified a suitable address will be ran‐
1105 domly generated. For Xen virtual machines it is required that
1106 the first 3 pairs in the MAC address be the sequence '00:16:3e',
1107 while for QEMU or KVM virtual machines it must be '52:54:00'.
1108 filterref.filter
1110 Controlling firewall and network filtering in libvirt. Value can
1111 be any nwfilter defined by the virsh 'nwfilter' subcommands.
1112 Available filters can be listed by running 'virsh nwfil‐
1113 ter-list', e.g.: 'clean-traffic', 'no-mac-spoofing', ...
1114 virtualport.* options
1116 Configure the device virtual port profile. This is used for
1117 802.Qbg, 802.Qbh, midonet, and openvswitch config.
1118 Use --network=? to see a list of all available sub options.
1120 Complete details at
1121 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsNICS
1122 This option deprecates -m/--mac, -b/--bridge, and --nonetworks
1124
1126 If no graphics option is specified, virt-install will try to select the
1127 appropriate graphics if the DISPLAY environment variable is set, other‐
1128 wise '--graphics none' is used.
1129 --graphics
1131 Syntax: --graphics TYPE,opt1=arg1,opt2=arg2,...
1132 Specifies the graphical display configuration. This does not configure
1134 any virtual hardware, just how the guest's graphical display can be ac‐
1135 cessed. Typically the user does not need to specify this option,
1136 virt-install will try and choose a useful default, and launch a suit‐
1137 able connection.
1138 General format of a graphical string is
1140 --graphics TYPE,opt1=arg1,opt2=arg2,...
1142 For example:
1144 --graphics vnc,password=foobar
1146 Some supported TYPE values:
1148 vnc Setup a virtual console in the guest and export it as a VNC
1150 server in the host. Unless the port parameter is also provided,
1151 the VNC server will run on the first free port number at 5900 or
1152 above. The actual VNC display allocated can be obtained using
1153 the vncdisplay command to virsh (or virt-viewer(1) can be used
1154 which handles this detail for the use).
1155 spice Export the guest's console using the Spice protocol. Spice al‐
1157 lows advanced features like audio and USB device streaming, as
1158 well as improved graphical performance.
1159 Using spice graphic type will work as if those arguments were
1161 given:
1162 --video qxl --channel spicevmc
1164 none No graphical console will be allocated for the guest. Guests
1166 will likely need to have a text console configured on the first
1167 serial port in the guest (this can be done via the --extra-args
1168 option). The command 'virsh console NAME' can be used to connect
1169 to the serial device.
1170 Some supported suboptions:
1172 port Request a permanent, statically assigned port number for the
1174 guest console. This is used by 'vnc' and 'spice'
1175 tlsPort
1177 Specify the spice tlsport.
1178 websocket
1180 Request a VNC WebSocket port for the guest console.
1181 If -1 is specified, the WebSocket port is auto-allocated.
1183 This is used by 'vnc' and 'spice'
1185 listen Address to listen on for VNC/Spice connections. Default is typi‐
1187 cally 127.0.0.1 (localhost only), but some hypervisors allow
1188 changing this globally (for example, the qemu driver default can
1189 be changed in /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf). Use 0.0.0.0 to allow ac‐
1190 cess from other machines.
1191 Use 'none' to specify that the display server should not listen
1193 on any port. The display server can be accessed only locally
1194 through libvirt unix socket (virt-viewer with --attach for in‐
1195 stance).
1196 Use 'socket' to have the VM listen on a libvirt generated unix
1198 socket path on the host filesystem.
1199 This is used by 'vnc' and 'spice'
1201 password
1203 Request a console password, required at connection time. Beware,
1204 this info may end up in virt-install log files, so don't use an
1205 important password. This is used by 'vnc' and 'spice'
1206 gl.enable
1208 Whether to use OpenGL accelerated rendering. Value is 'yes' or
1209 'no'. This is used by 'spice'.
1210 gl.rendernode
1212 DRM render node path to use. This is used when 'gl' is enabled.
1213 Use --graphics=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1215 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsGraphics
1216 This deprecates the following options: --vnc, --vncport, --vnclisten,
1218 -k/--keymap, --sdl, --nographics
1219 --autoconsole
1221 Syntax: --autoconsole OPTIONS
1222 Configure what interactive console virt-install will launch for the VM.
1224 This option is not required; the default behavior is adaptive and de‐
1225 pendent on how the VM is configured. But you can use this option to
1226 override the default choice.
1227 --autoconsole graphical
1229 Use the graphical virt-viewer(1) as the interactive console
1230 --autoconsole text
1232 Use the text mode virsh console as the interactive console.
1233 --autoconsole none
1235 This is the same as --noautoconsole
1236 --noautoconsole
1238 Don't automatically try to connect to the guest console. Same as
1239 --autoconsole none
1240 Note, virt-install exits quickly when this option is specified. If your
1242 command requested a multistep install, like --cdrom or --location, af‐
1243 ter the install phase is complete the VM will be shutoff, regardless of
1244 whether a reboot was requested in the VM. If you want the VM to be re‐
1245 booted, virt-install must remain running. You can use '--wait' to keep
1246 virt-install alive even if --noautoconsole is specified.
1247
1249 Options to override the default virtualization type choices.
1250 -v, --hvm
1252 Request the use of full virtualization, if both para & full virtualiza‐
1253 tion are available on the host. This parameter may not be available if
1254 connecting to a Xen hypervisor on a machine without hardware virtual‐
1255 ization support. This parameter is implied if connecting to a QEMU
1256 based hypervisor.
1257 -p, --paravirt
1259 This guest should be a paravirtualized guest. If the host supports both
1260 para & full virtualization, and neither this parameter nor the --hvm
1261 are specified, this will be assumed.
1262 --container
1264 This guest should be a container type guest. This option is only re‐
1265 quired if the hypervisor supports other guest types as well (so for ex‐
1266 ample this option is the default behavior for LXC and OpenVZ, but is
1267 provided for completeness).
1268 --virt-type
1270 The hypervisor to install on. Example choices are kvm, qemu, or xen.
1271 Available options are listed via 'virsh capabilities' in the <domain>
1272 tags.
1273 This deprecates the --accelerate option, which is now the default be‐
1275 havior. To install a plain QEMU guest, use '--virt-type qemu'
1276
1278 All devices have a set of address.* options for configuring the partic‐
1279 ulars of the device's address on its parent controller or bus. See
1280 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsAddress for details.
1281 --controller
1283 Syntax: --controller OPTIONS
1284 Attach a controller device to the guest.
1286 Some example invocations:
1288 --controller usb2
1290 Add a full USB2 controller setup
1291 --controller usb3
1293 Add a USB3 controller
1294 --controller type=usb,model=none
1296 Disable USB entirely
1297 --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi
1299 Add a VirtIO SCSI controller
1300 --controller num_pcie_root_ports=NUM
1302 Control the number of default pcie-root-port controller devices
1303 we add to the new VM by default, if the VM will use PCIe by de‐
1304 fault.
1305 Use --controller=? to see a list of all available sub options. Com‐
1307 plete details at
1308 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsControllers
1309 --input
1311 Syntax: --input OPTIONS
1312 Attach an input device to the guest. Example input device types are
1314 mouse, tablet, or keyboard.
1315 Use --input=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
1317 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsInput
1318 --hostdev, --host-device
1320 Syntax: --hostdev, --host-device OPTIONS
1321 Attach a physical host device to the guest. Some example values for
1323 HOSTDEV:
1324 --hostdev pci_0000_00_1b_0
1326 A node device name via libvirt, as shown by 'virsh nodedev-list'
1327 --hostdev 001.003
1329 USB by bus, device (via lsusb).
1330 --hostdev 0x1234:0x5678
1332 USB by vendor, product (via lsusb).
1333 --hostdev 1f.01.02
1335 PCI device (via lspci).
1336 --hostdev wlan0,type=net
1338 Network device (in LXC container).
1339 --hostdev /dev/net/tun,type=misc
1341 Character device (in LXC container).
1342 --hostdev /dev/sdf,type=storage
1344 Block device (in LXC container).
1345 Use --hostdev=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1347 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsHostDev
1348 --sound
1350 Syntax: --sound MODEL
1351 Attach a virtual audio device to the guest. MODEL specifies the emu‐
1353 lated sound card model. Possible values are ich6, ich9, ac97, es1370,
1354 sb16, pcspk, or default. 'default' will try to pick the best model that
1355 the specified OS supports.
1356 This deprecates the old --soundhw option. Use --sound=? to see a list
1358 of all available sub options. Complete details at
1359 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSound
1360 --audio
1362 Configure host audio output for the guest's --sound hardware.
1363 Use --audio=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
1365 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#audio-backends
1366 --watchdog
1368 Syntax: --watchdog MODEL[,action=ACTION]
1369 Attach a virtual hardware watchdog device to the guest. This requires a
1371 daemon and device driver in the guest. The watchdog fires a signal when
1372 the virtual machine appears to hung. ACTION specifies what libvirt will
1373 do when the watchdog fires. Values are
1374 reset Forcefully reset the guest (the default)
1376 poweroff
1378 Forcefully power off the guest
1379 pause Pause the guest
1381 none Do nothing
1383 shutdown
1385 Gracefully shutdown the guest (not recommended, since a hung
1386 guest probably won't respond to a graceful shutdown)
1387 MODEL is the emulated device model: either i6300esb (the default) or
1389 ib700. Some examples:
1390 --watchdog default
1392 Use the recommended settings
1393 --watchdog i6300esb,action=poweroff
1395 Use the i6300esb with the 'poweroff' action
1396 Use --watchdog=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1398 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsWatchdog
1399 --serial
1401 Syntax: --serial OPTIONS
1402 Specifies a serial device to attach to the guest, with various options.
1404 The general format of a serial string is
1405 --serial type,opt1=val1,opt2=val2,...
1407 --serial and --parallel devices share all the same options, unless oth‐
1409 erwise noted. Some of the types of character device redirection are:
1410 --serial pty
1412 Pseudo TTY. The allocated pty will be listed in the running
1413 guests XML description.
1414 --serial dev,path=HOSTPATH
1416 Host device. For serial devices, this could be /dev/ttyS0. For
1417 parallel devices, this could be /dev/parport0.
1418 --serial file,path=FILENAME
1420 Write output to FILENAME.
1421 --serial tcp,host=HOST:PORT,source.mode=MODE,protocol.type=PROTOCOL
1423 TCP net console. MODE is either 'bind' (wait for connections on
1424 HOST:PORT) or 'connect' (send output to HOST:PORT), default is
1425 'bind'. HOST defaults to '127.0.0.1', but PORT is required. PRO‐
1426 TOCOL can be either 'raw' or 'telnet' (default 'raw'). If 'tel‐
1427 net', the port acts like a telnet server or client. Some exam‐
1428 ples:
1429 Wait for connections on any address, port 4567:
1431 --serial tcp,host=0.0.0.0:4567
1433 Connect to localhost, port 1234:
1435 --serial tcp,host=:1234,source.mode=connect
1437 Wait for telnet connection on localhost, port 2222. The user
1439 could then connect interactively to this console via 'telnet lo‐
1440 calhost 2222':
1441 --serial tcp,host=:2222,source.mode=bind,source.protocol=telnet
1443 --serial udp,host=CONNECT_HOST:PORT,bind_host=BIND_HOST:BIND_PORT
1445 UDP net console. HOST:PORT is the destination to send output to
1446 (default HOST is '127.0.0.1', PORT is required).
1447 BIND_HOST:BIND_PORT is the optional local address to bind to
1448 (default BIND_HOST is 127.0.0.1, but is only set if BIND_PORT is
1449 specified). Some examples:
1450 Send output to default syslog port (may need to edit /etc/rsys‐
1452 log.conf accordingly):
1453 --serial udp,host=:514
1455 Send output to remote host 192.168.10.20, port 4444 (this output
1457 can be read on the remote host using 'nc -u -l 4444'):
1458 --serial udp,host=192.168.10.20:4444
1460 --serial unix,path=UNIXPATH,mode=MODE
1462 Unix socket, see unix(7). MODE has similar behavior and defaults
1463 as --serial tcp,mode=MODE
1464 Use --serial=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1466 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharSerial
1467 --parallel
1469 Syntax: --parallel OPTIONS
1470 Specify a parallel device. The format and options are largely identical
1472 to serial
1473 Use --parallel=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1475 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharParallel
1476 --channel
1478 Specifies a communication channel device to connect the guest and host
1479 machine. This option uses the same options as --serial and --parallel
1480 for specifying the host/source end of the channel. Extra 'target' op‐
1481 tions are used to specify how the guest machine sees the channel.
1482 Some of the types of character device redirection are:
1484 --channel SOURCE,target.type=guestfwd,target.address=HOST:PORT
1486 Communication channel using QEMU usermode networking stack. The
1487 guest can connect to the channel using the specified HOST:PORT
1488 combination.
1489 --channel SOURCE,target.type=virtio[,target.name=NAME]
1491 Communication channel using virtio serial (requires 2.6.34 or
1492 later host and guest). Each instance of a virtio --channel line
1493 is exposed in the guest as /dev/vport0p1, /dev/vport0p2, etc.
1494 NAME is optional metadata, and can be any string, such as
1495 org.linux-kvm.virtioport1. If specified, this will be exposed
1496 in the guest at /sys/class/virtio-ports/vport0p1/NAME
1497 --channel spicevmc,target.type=virtio[,target.name=NAME]
1499 Communication channel for QEMU spice agent, using virtio serial
1500 (requires 2.6.34 or later host and guest). NAME is optional
1501 metadata, and can be any string, such as the default com.red‐
1502 hat.spice.0 that specifies how the guest will see the channel.
1503 Use --channel=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1505 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharChannel
1506 --console
1508 Connect a text console between the guest and host. Certain guest and
1509 hypervisor combinations can automatically set up a getty in the guest,
1510 so an out of the box text login can be provided (target_type=xen for
1511 xen paravirt guests, and possibly target_type=virtio in the future).
1512 Example:
1514 --console pty,target.type=virtio
1516 Connect a virtio console to the guest, redirected to a PTY on
1517 the host. For supported guests, this exposes /dev/hvc0 in the
1518 guest. See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtioSerial
1519 for more info. virtio console requires libvirt 0.8.3 or later.
1520 Use --console=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1522 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharConsole
1523 --video
1525 Syntax: --video OPTIONS
1526 Specify what video device model will be attached to the guest. Valid
1528 values for VIDEO are hypervisor specific, but some options for recent
1529 kvm are cirrus, vga, qxl, virtio, or vmvga (vmware). Use --video=? to
1530 see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at
1531 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsVideo
1532 --smartcard
1534 Syntax: --smartcard MODE[,OPTIONS]
1535 Configure a virtual smartcard device.
1537 Example MODE values are host, host-certificates, or passthrough. Exam‐
1539 ple suboptions include:
1540 type Character device type to connect to on the host. This is only
1542 applicable for passthrough mode.
1543 An example invocation:
1545 --smartcard passthrough,type=spicevmc
1547 Use the smartcard channel of a SPICE graphics device to pass
1548 smartcard info to the guest
1549 Use --smartcard=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1551 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSmartcard
1552 --redirdev
1554 Syntax: --redirdev BUS[,OPTIONS]
1555 Add a redirected device. Example suboptions:
1557 type The redirection type, currently supported is tcp or spicevmc .
1559 server The TCP server connection details, of the form 'server:port'.
1561 Examples invocations:
1563 --redirdev usb,type=tcp,server=localhost:4000
1565 Add a USB redirected device provided by the TCP server on 'lo‐
1566 calhost' port 4000.
1567 --redirdev usb,type=spicevmc
1569 Add a USB device redirected via a dedicated Spice channel.
1570 Use --redirdev=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1572 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsRedir
1573 --memballoon
1575 Syntax: --memballoon MODEL[,OPTIONS]
1576 Attach a virtual memory balloon device to the guest. If the memballoon
1578 device needs to be explicitly disabled, MODEL='none' is used.
1579 MODEL is the type of memballoon device provided. The value can be 'vir‐
1581 tio', 'xen' or 'none'. Some examples:
1582 --memballoon virtio
1584 Explicitly create a 'virtio' memballoon device
1585 --memballoon none
1587 Disable the memballoon device
1588 Use --memballoon=? to see a list of all available sub options. Com‐
1590 plete details at
1591 https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemBalloon
1592 --tpm
1594 Syntax: --tpm TYPE[,OPTIONS]
1595 Configure a virtual TPM device. Examples:
1597 --tpm /dev/tpm
1599 Convenience option for passing through the hosts TPM.
1600 --tpm emulator
1602 Request an emulated TPM device.
1603 --tpm default
1605 Request virt-install to fill in a modern recommended default
1606 Use --tpm=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
1608 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsTpm
1609 --rng
1611 Syntax: --rng TYPE[,OPTIONS]
1612 Configure a virtual RNG device.
1614 Example TYPE values include random, egd or builtin.
1616 Example invocations:
1618 --rng /dev/urandom
1620 Use the /dev/urandom device to get entropy data, this form im‐
1621 plicitly uses the "random" model.
1622 --rng builtin
1624 Use the builtin rng device to get entropy data.
1625 --rng egd,backend.source.host=localhost,backend.source.ser‐
1627 vice=8000,backend.type=tcp
1628 Connect to localhost to the TCP port 8000 to get entropy data.
1629 Use --rng=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
1631 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsRng
1632 --panic
1634 Syntax: --panic MODEL[,OPTS]
1635 Attach a panic notifier device to the guest. For the recommended set‐
1637 tings, use: --panic default
1638 Use --panic=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
1640 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsPanic
1641 --shmem
1643 Syntax: --shmem NAME[,OPTS]
1644 Attach a shared memory device to the guest. The name must not contain /
1646 and must not be directory-specific to . or ..
1647 Use --shmem=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
1649 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#shared-memory-device
1650 --memdev
1652 Syntax: --memdev OPTS
1653 Add a memory module to a guest which can be hotunplugged. To add a
1655 memdev you need to configure hotplugmemory and NUMA for a guest.
1656 Use --memdev=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete
1658 details at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemory.
1659 --vsock
1661 Syntax: --vsock OPTS
1662 Configure a vsock host/guest interface. A typical configuration would
1664 be
1665 --vsock cid.auto=yes
1667 Use --vsock=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete de‐
1669 tails at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#vsock.
1670 --iommu
1672 Syntax: --iommu MODEL[,OPTS]
1673 Add an IOMMU device to the guest.
1675 Use --iommu=? to see a list of all available options. Complete details
1677 at https://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsIommu.
1678
1680 -h, --help
1681 Show the help message and exit
1682 --version
1684 Show program's version number and exit
1685 --autostart
1687 Set the autostart flag for a domain. This causes the domain to be
1688 started on host boot up.
1689 --transient
1691 Use --import or --boot and --transient if you want a transient libvirt
1692 VM. These VMs exist only until the domain is shut down or the host
1693 server is restarted. Libvirt forgets the XML configuration of the VM
1694 after either of these events. Note that the VM's disks will not be
1695 deleted. See:
1696 https://wiki.libvirt.org/page/VM_lifecycle#Transient_guest_domains_vs_Persistent_guest_domains
1697 --destroy-on-exit
1699 When the VM console window is exited, destroy (force poweroff) the VM.
1700 If you combine this with --transient, this makes the virt-install com‐
1701 mand work similar to qemu, where the VM is shutdown when the console
1702 window is closed by the user.
1703 --print-xml
1705 Syntax: --print-xml [STEP]
1706 Print the generated XML of the guest, instead of defining it. By de‐
1708 fault this WILL do storage creation (can be disabled with --dry-run).
1709 This option implies --quiet.
1710 If the VM install has multiple phases, by default this will print all
1712 generated XML. If you want to print a particular step, use --print-xml
1713 2 (for the second phase XML).
1714 --noreboot
1716 Prevent the domain from automatically rebooting after the install has
1717 completed.
1718 --wait
1720 Syntax: --wait WAIT
1721 Configure how virt-install will wait for the install to complete.
1723 Without this option, virt-install will wait for the console to close
1724 (not necessarily indicating the guest has shutdown), or in the case of
1725 --noautoconsole, simply kick off the install and exit.
1726 Bare '--wait' or any negative value will make virt-install wait indefi‐
1728 nitely. Any positive number is the number of minutes virt-install will
1729 wait. If the time limit is exceeded, virt-install simply exits, leaving
1730 the virtual machine in its current state.
1731 --dry-run
1733 Proceed through the guest creation process, but do NOT create storage
1734 devices, change host device configuration, or actually teach libvirt
1735 about the guest. virt-install may still fetch install media, since
1736 this is required to properly detect the OS to install.
1737 --check
1739 Enable or disable some validation checks. Some examples are warning
1740 about using a disk that's already assigned to another VM (--check
1741 path_in_use=on|off), or warning about potentially running out of space
1742 during disk allocation (--check disk_size=on|off). Most checks are per‐
1743 formed by default.
1744 -q, --quiet
1746 Only print fatal error messages.
1747 -d, --debug
1749 Print debugging information to the terminal when running the install
1750 process. The debugging information is also stored in
1751 ~/.cache/virt-manager/virt-install.log even if this parameter is omit‐
1752 ted.
1753
1755 The simplest invocation to interactively install a Fedora 29 KVM VM
1756 with recommended defaults. virt-viewer(1) will be launched to graphi‐
1757 cally interact with the VM install
1758 # sudo virt-install --install fedora29
1760 Similar, but use libosinfo's unattended install support, which will
1762 perform the fedora29 install automatically without user intervention:
1763 # sudo virt-install --install fedora29 --unattended
1765 Install a Windows 10 VM, using 40GiB storage in the default location
1767 and 4096MiB of ram, and ensure we are connecting to the system libvirtd
1768 instance:
1769 # virt-install \
1771 --connect qemu:///system \
1772 --name my-win10-vm \
1773 --memory 4096 \
1774 --disk size=40 \
1775 --osinfo win10 \
1776 --cdrom /path/to/my/win10.iso
1777 Install a CentOS 7 KVM from a URL, with recommended device defaults and
1779 default required storage, but specifically request VNC graphics instead
1780 of the default SPICE, and request 8 virtual CPUs and 8192 MiB of mem‐
1781 ory:
1782 # virt-install \
1784 --connect qemu:///system \
1785 --memory 8192 \
1786 --vcpus 8 \
1787 --graphics vnc \
1788 --osinfo centos7.0 \
1789 --location http://mirror.centos.org/centos-7/7/os/x86_64/
1790 Create a VM around an existing debian9 disk image:
1792 # virt-install \
1794 --import \
1795 --memory 512 \
1796 --disk /home/user/VMs/my-debian9.img \
1797 --osinfo debian9
1798 Start serial QEMU ARM VM, which requires specifying a manual kernel.
1800 # virt-install \
1802 --name armtest \
1803 --memory 1024 \
1804 --arch armv7l --machine vexpress-a9 \
1805 --disk /home/user/VMs/myarmdisk.img \
1806 --boot kernel=/tmp/my-arm-kernel,initrd=/tmp/my-arm-initrd,dtb=/tmp/my-arm-dtb,kernel_args="console=ttyAMA0 rw root=/dev/mmcblk0p3" \
1807 --graphics none
1808 Start an SEV launch security VM with 4GB RAM, 4GB+256MiB of hard_limit,
1810 with a couple of virtio devices:
1811 Note: The IOMMU flag needs to be turned on with driver.iommu for virtio
1813 devices. Usage of --memtune is currently required because of SEV limi‐
1814 tations, refer to libvirt docs for a detailed explanation.
1815 # virt-install \
1817 --name foo \
1818 --memory 4096 \
1819 --boot uefi \
1820 --machine q35 \
1821 --memtune hard_limit=4563402 \
1822 --disk size=15,target.bus=scsi \
1823 --import \
1824 --controller type=scsi,model=virtio-scsi,driver.iommu=on \
1825 --controller type=virtio-serial,driver.iommu=on \
1826 --network network=default,model=virtio,driver.iommu=on \
1827 --rng /dev/random,driver.iommu=on \
1828 --memballoon driver.iommu=on \
1829 --launchSecurity sev
1830
1832 Please see https://virt-manager.org/bugs
1833
1835 Copyright (C) Red Hat, Inc, and various contributors. This is free
1836 software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU
1837 General Public License https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. There is
1838 NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
1839
1841 virsh(1), virt-clone(1), virt-manager(1), the project website
1842 https://virt-manager.org
1843 VIRT-INSTALL(1)