virt-manager/man/virt-install.pod.in

=pod

=head1 NAME

virt-install - provision new virtual machines

=head1 SYNOPSIS

B<virt-install> [OPTION]...

=head1 DESCRIPTION

B<virt-install> is a command line tool for creating new KVM, Xen, or Linux
container guests using the C<libvirt> hypervisor management library.
See the EXAMPLES section at the end of this document to quickly get started.

B<virt-install> tool supports graphical installations using (for example)
VNC or SPICE, as well as text mode installs over serial console. The guest
can be configured to use one or more virtual disks, network interfaces,
audio devices, physical USB or PCI devices, among others.

The installation media can be held locally or remotely on NFS, HTTP, FTP
servers. In the latter case C<virt-install> will fetch the minimal files
necessary to kick off the installation process, allowing the guest
to fetch the rest of the OS distribution as needed. PXE booting, and importing
an existing disk image (thus skipping the install phase) are also supported.

Given suitable command line arguments, C<virt-install> is capable of running
completely unattended, with the guest 'kickstarting' itself too. This allows
for easy automation of guest installs. An interactive mode is also available
with the --prompt option, but this will only ask for the minimum required
options.

=head1 OPTIONS

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

=over 2

=item -h, --help

Show the help message and exit

=item  --connect=URI

Connect to a non-default hypervisor. If this isn't specified, libvirt
will try and choose the most suitable default.

Some valid options here are:

=over 4

=item qemu:///system

For creating KVM and QEMU guests to be run by the system libvirtd instance.
This is the default mode that virt-manager uses, and what most KVM users
want.

=item qemu:///session

For creating KVM and QEMU guests for libvirtd running as the regular user.

=item xen:///

For connecting to Xen.

=item lxc:///

For creating linux containers

=back

=back

=head2 General Options

General configuration parameters that apply to all types of guest installs.

=over 2

=item -n NAME, --name=NAME

Name of the new guest virtual machine instance. This must be unique amongst
all guests known to the hypervisor on the connection, including those not
currently active. To re-define an existing guest, use the C<virsh(1)> tool
to shut it down ('virsh shutdown') & delete ('virsh undefine') it prior to
running C<virt-install>.

=item -r MEMORY, --ram=MEMORY

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

=item  --arch=ARCH

Request a non-native CPU architecture for the guest virtual machine.
If omitted, the host CPU architecture will be used in the guest.

=item --machine=MACHINE

The machine type to emulate. This will typically not need to be specified
for Xen or KVM, but is useful for choosing machine types of more exotic
architectures.

=item -u UUID, --uuid=UUID

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

=item --vcpus=VCPUS[,maxvcpus=MAX][,sockets=#][,cores=#][,threads=#]

Number of virtual cpus to configure for the guest. If 'maxvcpus' is specified,
the guest will be able to hotplug up to MAX vcpus while the guest is running,
but will startup with VCPUS.

CPU topology can additionally be specified with sockets, cores, and threads.
If values are omitted, the rest will be autofilled preferring sockets over
cores over threads.

=item --cpuset=CPUSET

Set which physical cpus the guest can use. C<CPUSET> is a comma separated list of numbers, which can also be specified in ranges or cpus to exclude. Example:

    0,2,3,5     : Use processors 0,2,3 and 5
    1-5,^3,8    : Use processors 1,2,4,5 and 8

If the value 'auto' is passed, virt-install attempts to automatically determine
an optimal cpu pinning using NUMA data, if available.

=item --numatune=NODESET,[mode=MODE]

Tune NUMA policy for the domain process. Example invocations

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

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

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

=item --cpu MODEL[,+feature][,-feature][,match=MATCH][,vendor=VENDOR]

Configure the CPU model and CPU features exposed to the guest. The only
required value is MODEL, which is a valid CPU model as listed in libvirt's
cpu_map.xml file.

Specific CPU features can be specified in a number of ways: using one of
libvirt's feature policy values force, require, optional, disable, or forbid,
or with the shorthand '+feature' and '-feature', which equal 'force=feature'
and 'disable=feature' respectively

Some examples:

=over 2

=item B<--cpu core2duo,+x2apic,disable=vmx>

Expose the core2duo CPU model, force enable x2apic, but do not expose vmx

=item B<--cpu host>

Expose the host CPUs configuration to the guest. This enables the guest to
take advantage of many of the host CPUs features (better performance), but
may cause issues if migrating the guest to a host without an identical CPU.

=back

=item --description

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

=item --security type=TYPE[,label=LABEL][,relabel=yes|no]

Configure domain security driver settings. Type can be either 'static' or
'dynamic'. 'static' configuration requires a security LABEL. Specifying
LABEL without TYPE implies static configuration.

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

=back





=head2 Installation Method options

=over 2

=item  -c CDROM, --cdrom=CDROM

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

=item  -l LOCATION, --location=LOCATION

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

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

The C<LOCATION> can take one of the following forms:

=over 4

=item DIRECTORY

Path to a local directory containing an installable distribution image

=item nfs:host:/path or nfs://host/path

An NFS server location containing an installable distribution image

=item http://host/path

An HTTP server location containing an installable distribution image

=item ftp://host/path

An FTP server location containing an installable distribution image

=back

Some distro specific url samples:

=over 4

=item Fedora/Red Hat Based

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

=item Debian/Ubuntu

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

=item Suse

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

=item Mandriva

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

=item Mageia

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

=back

=item  --pxe

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

=item  --import

Skip the OS installation process, and build a guest around an existing
disk image. The device used for booting is the first device specified via
C<--disk> or C<--filesystem>.

=item --init=INITPATH

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

=item  --livecd

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

=item  -x EXTRA, --extra-args=EXTRA

Additional kernel command line arguments to pass to the installer when
performing a guest install from C<--location>. One common usage is specifying
an anaconda kickstart file for automated installs, such as
--extra-args "ks=http://myserver/my.ks"

=item  --initrd-inject=PATH

Add PATH to the root of the initrd fetched with C<--location>. This can be
used to run an automated install without requiring a network hosted kickstart
file:

--initrd-inject=/path/to/my.ks --extra-args "ks=file:/my.ks"

=item  --os-type=OS_TYPE

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

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

See C<--os-variant> for valid options.

=item --os-variant=OS_VARIANT

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

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

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

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

Values for some recent OS options are:

::VARIANT VALUES::

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

=item --boot=BOOTOPTS

Optionally specify the post-install VM boot configuration. This option allows
specifying a boot device order, permanently booting off kernel/initrd with
option kernel arguments, and enabling a BIOS boot menu (requires libvirt
0.8.3 or later)

--boot can be specified in addition to other install options
(such as --location, --cdrom, etc.) or can be specified on its own. In
the latter case, behavior is similar to the --import install option: there
is no 'install' phase, the guest is just created and launched as specified.

Some examples:

=over 2

=item B<--boot cdrom,fd,hd,network,menu=on>

Set the boot device priority as first cdrom, first floppy, first harddisk,
network PXE boot. Additionally enable BIOS boot menu prompt.

=item B<--boot kernel=KERNEL,initrd=INITRD,kernel_args="console=/dev/ttyS0">

Have guest permanently boot off a local kernel/initrd pair, with the
specified kernel options.

=item B<--boot loader=BIOSPATH>

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

=back

=back





=head2 Storage Configuration

=over 2

=item --disk=DISKOPTS

Specifies media to use as storage for the guest, with various options. The
general format of a disk string is

    --disk opt1=val1,opt2=val2,...

To specify media, the command can either be:

    --disk /some/storage/path,opt1=val1

or explicitly specify one of the following arguments:

=over 4

=item B<path>

A path to some storage media to use, existing or not. Existing media can be
a file or block device. If installing on a remote host, the existing media
must be shared as a libvirt storage volume.

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

=item B<pool>

An existing libvirt storage pool name to create new storage on. Requires
specifying a 'size' value.

=item B<vol>

An existing libvirt storage volume to use. This is specified as
'poolname/volname'.

=back

Other available options:

=over 4

=item B<device>

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

=item B<bus>

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

=item B<perms>

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

=item B<size>

size (in GB) to use if creating new storage

=item B<sparse>

whether to skip fully allocating newly created storage. Value is 'true' or
'false'. Default is 'true' (do not fully allocate) unless it isn't
supported by the underlying storage type.

The initial time taken to fully-allocate the guest virtual disk (sparse=false)
will be usually balanced by faster install times inside the guest. Thus
use of this option is recommended to ensure consistently high performance
and to avoid I/O errors in the guest should the host filesystem fill up.

=item B<cache>

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

=item B<format>

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

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

=item B<driver_name>

Driver name the hypervisor should use when accessing the specified
storage. Typically does not need to be set by the user.

=item B<driver_type>

Driver format/type the hypervisor should use when accessing the specified
storage. Typically does not need to be set by the user.

=item B<io>

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

=item B<error_policy>

How guest should react if a write error is encountered. Can be one of
"stop", "ignore", or "enospace"

=item B<serial>

Serial number of the emulated disk device. This is used in linux guests
to set /dev/disk/by-id symlinks. An example serial number might be:
WD-WMAP9A966149

=back

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

=item --filesystem

Specifies a directory on the host to export to the guest. The most simple
invocation is:

    --filesystem /source/on/host,/target/point/in/guest

Which will work for recent QEMU and linux guest OS or LXC containers. For
QEMU, the target point is just a mounting hint in sysfs, so will not be
automatically mounted.

The following explicit options can be specified:

=over 4

=item B<type>

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

=item B<mode>

The access mode for the source directory from the guest OS. Only used with
QEMU and type=mount. Valid modes are 'passthrough' (the default), 'mapped',
or 'squash'. See libvirt domain XML documentation for more info.

=item B<source>

The directory on the host to share.

=item B<target>

The mount location to use in the guest.

=back

=item --nodisks

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

=item -f DISKFILE, --file=DISKFILE

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--disk path=DISKFILE>.

=item -s DISKSIZE, --file-size=DISKSIZE

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--disk ...,size=DISKSIZE,...>

=item --nonsparse

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--disk ...,sparse=false,...>

=back





=head2 Networking Configuration

=over 2

=item -w NETWORK, --network=NETWORK,opt1=val1,opt2=val2

Connect the guest to the host network. The value for C<NETWORK> can take
one of 3 formats:

=over 4

=item bridge=BRIDGE

Connect to a bridge device in the host called C<BRIDGE>. Use this option if
the host has static networking config & the guest requires full outbound
and inbound connectivity  to/from the LAN. Also use this if live migration
will be used with this guest.

=item network=NAME

Connect to a virtual network in the host called C<NAME>. Virtual networks
can be listed, created, deleted using the C<virsh> command line tool. In
an unmodified install of C<libvirt> there is usually a virtual network
with a name of C<default>. Use a virtual network if the host has dynamic
networking (eg NetworkManager), or using wireless. The guest will be
NATed to the LAN by whichever connection is active.

=item user

Connect to the LAN using SLIRP. Only use this if running a QEMU guest as
an unprivileged user. This provides a very limited form of NAT.

=back

If this option is omitted a single NIC will be created in the guest. If
there is a bridge device in the host with a physical interface enslaved,
that will be used for connectivity. Failing that, the virtual network
called C<default> will be used. This option can be specified multiple
times to setup more than one NIC.

Other available options are:

=over 4

=item B<model>

Network device model as seen by the guest. Value can be any nic model supported
by the hypervisor, e.g.: 'e1000', 'rtl8139', 'virtio', ...

=item B<mac>

Fixed MAC address for the guest; If this parameter is omitted, or the value
C<RANDOM> is specified a suitable address will be randomly generated. For
Xen virtual machines it is required that the first 3 pairs in the MAC address
be the sequence '00:16:3e', while for QEMU or KVM virtual machines it must
be '52:54:00'.

=back

=item --nonetworks

Request a virtual machine without any network interfaces.

=item -b BRIDGE, --bridge=BRIDGE

This parameter is deprecated in favour of
C<--network bridge=bridge_name>.

=item -m MAC, --mac=MAC

This parameter is deprecated in favour of C<--network NETWORK,mac=12:34...>

=back





=head2 Graphics Configuration

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

=over 2

=item --graphics TYPE,opt1=arg1,opt2=arg2,...

Specifies the graphical display configuration. This does not configure any
virtual hardware, just how the guest's graphical display can be accessed.
Typically the user does not need to specify this option, virt-install will
try and choose a useful default, and launch a suitable connection.

General format of a graphical string is

    --graphics TYPE,opt1=arg1,opt2=arg2,...

For example:

    --graphics vnc,password=foobar

The supported options are:

=over 4

=item B<type>

The display type. This is one of:

vnc

Setup a virtual console in the guest and export it as a VNC server in
the host. Unless the C<port> parameter is also provided, the VNC
server will run on the first free port number at 5900 or above. The
actual VNC display allocated can be obtained using the C<vncdisplay>
command to C<virsh> (or L<virt-viewer(1)> can be used which handles this
detail for the use).

sdl

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

spice

Export the guest's console using the Spice protocol. Spice allows advanced
features like audio and USB device streaming, as well as improved graphical
performance.

Using spice graphic type will work as if those arguments were given:

    --video qxl --channel spicevmc

none

No graphical console will be allocated for the guest. Fully virtualized guests
(Xen FV or QEmu/KVM) will need to have a text console configured on the first
serial port in the guest (this can be done via the --extra-args option). Xen
PV will set this up automatically. The command 'virsh console NAME' can be
used to connect to the serial device.

=item B<port>

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

=item B<tlsport>

Specify the spice tlsport.

=item B<listen>

Address to listen on for VNC/Spice connections. Default is typically 127.0.0.1
(localhost only), but some hypervisors allow changing this globally (for
example, the qemu driver default can be changed in /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf).
Use 0.0.0.0 to allow access from other machines. This is use by 'vnc' and
'spice'

=item B<keymap>

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

=item B<password>

Request a VNC password, required at connection time. Beware, this info may
end up in virt-install log files, so don't use an important password. This
is used by 'vnc' and 'spice'

=item B<passwordvalidto>

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

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

=back

=item  --vnc

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--graphics vnc,...>

=item  --vncport=VNCPORT

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--graphics vnc,port=PORT,...>

=item --vnclisten=VNCLISTEN

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--graphics vnc,listen=LISTEN,...>

=item  -k KEYMAP, --keymap=KEYMAP

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--graphics vnc,keymap=KEYMAP,...>

=item  --sdl

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--graphics sdl,...>

=item  --nographics

This option is deprecated in favor of C<--graphics none>

=item  --noautoconsole

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

=back




=head2 Virtualization Type options

Options to override the default virtualization type choices.

=over 2

=item  -v, --hvm

Request the use of full virtualization, if both para & full virtualization are
available on the host. This parameter may not be available if connecting to a
Xen hypervisor on a machine without hardware virtualization support. This
parameter is implied if connecting to a QEMU based hypervisor.

=item  -p, --paravirt

This guest should be a paravirtualized guest. If the host supports both
para & full virtualization, and neither this parameter nor the C<--hvm>
are specified, this will be assumed.

=item --container

This guest should be a container type guest. This option is only required
if the hypervisor supports other guest types as well (so for example this
option is the default behavior for LXC and OpenVZ, but is provided for
completeness).

=item --virt-type

The hypervisor to install on. Example choices are kvm, qemu, xen, or kqemu.
Available options are listed via 'virsh capabilities' in the <domain> tags.

=item  --accelerate

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

=item  --noapic

Force disable APIC for the guest.

=item  --noacpi

Force disable ACPI for the guest.

=back





=head2 Device Options

=over 2

=item --controller=TYPE[,OPTS]

Attach a controller device to the guest. TYPE is one of:
B<ide>, B<fdc>, B<scsi>, B<sata>, B<virtio-serial>, or B<usb>.

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

=over 4

=item B<model>

Controller model.

=item B<address>

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

=item B<index>

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

=item B<master>

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

=back

Example:

=over 4

=item B<--controller usb,model=ich9-uhci2,address=0:0:4.7,index=0,master=2>

Adds a ICH9 USB companion controller on PCI address 0:0:4.7 with
master bus 0 and first port 2.

=back

=item --host-device=HOSTDEV

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

=over 2

=item B<--host-device pci_0000_00_1b_0>

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

=item B<--host-device 001.003>

USB by bus, device (via lsusb).

=item B<--host-device 0x1234:0x5678>

USB by vendor, product (via lsusb).

=item B<--host-device 1f.01.02>

PCI device (via lspci).

=back

=item --soundhw MODEL

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

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

=item --watchdog MODEL[,action=ACTION]

Attach a virtual hardware watchdog device to the guest. This requires a
daemon and device driver in the guest. The watchdog fires a signal when
the virtual machine appears to hung. ACTION specifies what libvirt will do
when the watchdog fires. Values are

=over 4

=item B<reset>

Forcefully reset the guest (the default)

=item B<poweroff>

Forcefully power off the guest

=item B<pause>

Pause the guest

=item B<none>

Do nothing

=item B<shutdown>

Gracefully shutdown the guest (not recommended, since a hung guest probably
won't respond to a graceful shutdown)

=back

MODEL is the emulated device model: either i6300esb (the default) or ib700.
Some examples:

Use the recommended settings:

--watchdog default

Use the i6300esb with the 'poweroff' action

--watchdog i6300esb,action=poweroff

=item --parallel=CHAROPTS

=item --serial=CHAROPTS

Specifies a serial device to attach to the guest, with various options. The
general format of a serial string is

    --serial type,opt1=val1,opt2=val2,...

--serial and --parallel devices share all the same options, unless otherwise
noted. Some of the types of character device redirection are:

=over 4

=item B<--serial pty>

Pseudo TTY. The allocated pty will be listed in the running guests XML
description.

=item B<--serial dev,path=HOSTPATH>

Host device. For serial devices, this could be /dev/ttyS0. For parallel
devices, this could be /dev/parport0.

=item B<--serial file,path=FILENAME>

Write output to FILENAME.

=item B<--serial pipe,path=PIPEPATH>

Named pipe (see pipe(7))

=item B<--serial tcp,host=HOST:PORT,mode=MODE,protocol=PROTOCOL>

TCP net console. MODE is either 'bind' (wait for connections on HOST:PORT)
or 'connect' (send output to HOST:PORT), default is 'bind'. HOST defaults
to '127.0.0.1', but PORT is required. PROTOCOL can be either 'raw' or 'telnet'
(default 'raw'). If 'telnet', the port acts like a telnet server or client.
Some examples:

Wait for connections on any address, port 4567:

--serial tcp,host=0.0.0.0:4567

Connect to localhost, port 1234:

--serial tcp,host=:1234,mode=connect

Wait for telnet connection on localhost, port 2222. The user could then
connect interactively to this console via 'telnet localhost 2222':

--serial tcp,host=:2222,mode=bind,protocol=telnet

=item B<--serial udp,host=CONNECT_HOST:PORT,bind_host=BIND_HOST:BIND_PORT>

UDP net console. HOST:PORT is the destination to send output to (default
HOST is '127.0.0.1', PORT is required). BIND_HOST:BIND_PORT is the optional
local address to bind to (default BIND_HOST is 127.0.0.1, but is only set if
BIND_PORT is specified). Some examples:

Send output to default syslog port (may need to edit /etc/rsyslog.conf
accordingly):

--serial udp,host=:514

Send output to remote host 192.168.10.20, port 4444 (this output can be
read on the remote host using 'nc -u -l 4444'):

--serial udp,host=192.168.10.20:4444

=item B<--serial unix,path=UNIXPATH,mode=MODE>

Unix socket, see unix(7). MODE has similar behavior and defaults as
--serial tcp,mode=MODE

=back

=item --channel

Specifies a communication channel device to connect the guest and host
machine. This option uses the same options as --serial and --parallel
for specifying the host/source end of the channel. Extra 'target' options
are used to specify how the guest machine sees the channel.

Some of the types of character device redirection are:

=over 4

=item B<--channel SOURCE,target_type=guestfwd,target_address=HOST:PORT>

Communication channel using QEMU usermode networking stack. The guest can
connect to the channel using the specified HOST:PORT combination.

=item B<--channel SOURCE,target_type=virtio[,name=NAME]>

Communication channel using virtio serial (requires 2.6.34 or later host and
guest). Each instance of a virtio --channel line is exposed in the
guest as /dev/vport0p1, /dev/vport0p2, etc. NAME is optional metadata, and
can be any string, such as org.linux-kvm.virtioport1.
If specified, this will be exposed in the guest at
/sys/class/virtio-ports/vport0p1/NAME

=item B<--channel spicevmc,target_type=virtio[,name=NAME]>

Communication channel for QEMU spice agent, using virtio serial
(requires 2.6.34 or later host and guest). NAME is optional metadata,
and can be any string, such as the default com.redhat.spice.0 that
specifies how the guest will see the channel.

=back

=item --console

Connect a text console between the guest and host. Certain guest and
hypervisor combinations can automatically set up a getty in the guest, so
an out of the box text login can be provided (target_type=xen for xen
paravirt guests, and possibly target_type=virtio in the future).

Example:

=over 4

=item B<--console pty,target_type=virtio>

Connect a virtio console to the guest, redirected to a PTY on the host.
For supported guests, this exposes /dev/hvc0 in the guest. See
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtioSerial for more info. virtio
console requires libvirt 0.8.3 or later.

=back

=item --video=VIDEO

Specify what video device model will be attached to the guest. Valid values
for VIDEO are hypervisor specific, but some options for recent kvm are
cirrus, vga, qxl, or vmvga (vmware).

=item --smartcard=MODE[,OPTS]

Configure a virtual smartcard device.

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

=over 4

=item B<type>

Character device type to connect to on the host. This is only applicable
for B<passthrough> mode.

=back

An example invocation:

=over 4

=item B<--smartcard passthrough,type=spicevmc>

Use the smartcard channel of a SPICE graphics device to pass smartcard info
to the guest

=back

See C<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSmartcard> for complete
details.

=item --redirdev=BUS[,OPTS]

Add a redirected device.

=over 4

=item B<type>

The redirection type, currently supported is B<tcp> or B<spicevmc>.

=item B<server>

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

=back

Examples of invocation:

=over 4

=item B<--redirdev usb,type=tcp,server=localhost:4000>

Add a USB redirected device provided by the TCP server on 'localhost'
port 4000.

=item B<--redirdev usb,type=spicevmc>

Add a USB device redirected via a dedicated Spice channel.

=back

=item --memballoon MODEL

Attach a virtual memory balloon device to the guest. If the memballoon device
needs to be explicitly disabled, MODEL='none' is used.

MODEL is the type of memballoon device provided. The value can be 'virtio',
'xen' or 'none'.
Some examples:

Use the recommended settings:

--memballoon virtio

Do not use memballoon device:

--memballoon none

=back

=head2 Miscellaneous Options

=over 2

=item --autostart

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

=item --print-xml

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

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

=item --print-step

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

=item --noreboot

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

=item --wait=WAIT

Amount of time to wait (in minutes) for a VM to complete its install.
Without this option, virt-install will wait for the console to close (not
necessarily indicating the guest has shutdown), or in the case of
--noautoconsole, simply kick off the install and exit. Any negative
value will make virt-install wait indefinitely, a value of 0 triggers the
same results as noautoconsole. If the time limit is exceeded, virt-install
simply exits, leaving the virtual machine in its current state.

=item --force

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

=item --dry-run

Proceed through the guest creation process, but do NOT create storage devices,
change host device configuration, or actually teach libvirt about the guest.
virt-install may still fetch install media, since this is required to
properly detect the OS to install.

=item --prompt

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

=item --check-cpu

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

=item -q, --quiet

Only print fatal error messages.

=item  -d, --debug

Print debugging information to the terminal when running the install process.
The debugging information is also stored in C<$HOME/.virtinst/virt-install.log>
even if this parameter is omitted.

=back

=head1 EXAMPLES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

=head1 AUTHORS

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

=head1 BUGS

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

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2006-2011 Red Hat, Inc, and various contributors.
This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License C<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. There
is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

=head1 SEE ALSO

C<virsh(1)>, C<virt-clone(1)>, C<virt-manager(1)>, the project website C<http://virt-manager.org>

=cut