General Settings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-[thumbnail="qm-general-settings.png"]
+[thumbnail="gui-create-vm-general.png"]
General settings of a VM include
OS Settings
~~~~~~~~~~~
+[thumbnail="gui-create-vm-os.png"]
+
When creating a VM, setting the proper Operating System(OS) allows {pve} to
optimize some low level parameters. For instance Windows OS expect the BIOS
clock to use the local time, while Unix based OS expect the BIOS clock to have
the Virtio SCSI controller, is an older type of paravirtualized controller
which has been superseded in features by the Virtio SCSI Controller.
+[thumbnail="gui-create-vm-hard-disk.png"]
On each controller you attach a number of emulated hard disks, which are backed
by a file or a block device residing in the configured storage. The choice of
a storage type will determine the format of the hard disk image. Storages which
CPU
~~~
+[thumbnail="gui-create-vm-cpu.png"]
+
A *CPU socket* is a physical slot on a PC motherboard where you can plug a CPU.
This CPU can then contain one or many *cores*, which are independent
processing units. Whether you have a single CPU socket with 4 cores, or two CPU
{pve} to dynamically allocate memory based on the current RAM usage of the
host.
+.Fixed Memory Allocation
+[thumbnail="gui-create-vm-memory-fixed.png"]
+
When choosing a *fixed size memory* {pve} will simply allocate what you
specify to your VM.
+.Automatic Memory Allocation
+[thumbnail="gui-create-vm-memory-dynamic.png", float="left"]
+
// see autoballoon() in pvestatd.pm
When choosing to *automatically allocate memory*, {pve} will make sure that the
minimum amount you specified is always available to the VM, and if RAM usage on
Network Device
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+[thumbnail="gui-create-vm-network.png"]
+
Each VM can have many _Network interface controllers_ (NIC), of four different
types:
qm set <vmid> -onboot 1
-In some case you want to be able to fine tune the boot order of your VMs, for
-instance if one of your VM is providing firewalling or DHCP to other guest
-systems.
-For this you can use the following parameters:
+.Start and Shutdown Order
+
+[thumbnail="gui-qemu-edit-start-order.png"]
+
+In some case you want to be able to fine tune the boot order of your
+VMs, for instance if one of your VM is providing firewalling or DHCP
+to other guest systems. For this you can use the following
+parameters:
* *Start/Shutdown order*: Defines the start order priority. E.g. set it to 1 if
you want the VM to be the first to be started. (We use the reverse startup
makes sense between the machines running locally on a host, and not
cluster-wide.
+
+[[qm_migration]]
+Migration
+---------
+
+[thumbnail="gui-qemu-migrate.png"]
+
+If you have a cluster, you can migrate your VM to another host with
+
+ qm migrate <vmid> <target>
+
+When your VM is running and it has no local resources defined (such as disks
+on local storage, passed through devices, etc.) you can initiate a live
+migration with the -online flag.
+
+If you have local resources, you can still offline migrate your VMs,
+as long as all disk are on storages, which are defined on both hosts.
+Then the migration will copy the disk over the network to the target host.
+
+[[qm_copy_and_clone]]
+Copies and Clones
+-----------------
+
+[thumbnail="gui-qemu-full-clone.png"]
+
+VM installation is usually done using an installation media (CD-ROM)
+from the operation system vendor. Depending on the OS, this can be a
+time consuming task one might want to avoid.
+
+An easy way to deploy many VMs of the same type is to copy an existing
+VM. We use the term 'clone' for such copies, and distinguish between
+'linked' and 'full' clones.
+
+Full Clone::
+
+The result of such copy is an independent VM. The
+new VM does not share any storage resources with the original.
++
+
+It is possible to select a *Target Storage*, so one can use this to
+migrate a VM to a totally different storage. You can also change the
+disk image *Format* if the storage driver supports several formats.
++
+
+NOTE: A full clone need to read and copy all VM image data. This is
+usually much slower than creating a linked clone.
++
+
+Some storage types allows to copy a specific *Snapshot*, which
+defaults to the 'current' VM data. This also means that the final copy
+never includes any additional snapshots from the original VM.
+
+
+Linked Clone::
+
+Modern storage drivers supports a way to generate fast linked
+clones. Such a clone is a writable copy whose initial contents are the
+same as the original data. Creating a linked clone is nearly
+instantaneous, and initially consumes no additional space.
++
+
+They are called 'linked' because the new image still refers to the
+original. Unmodified data blocks are read from the original image, but
+modification are written (and afterwards read) from a new
+location. This technique is called 'Copy-on-write'.
++
+
+This requires that the original volume is read-only. With {pve} one
+can convert any VM into a read-only <<qm_templates, Template>>). Such
+templates can later be used to create linked clones efficiently.
++
+
+NOTE: You cannot delete the original template while linked clones
+exists.
++
+
+It is not possible to change the *Target storage* for linked clones,
+because this is a storage internal feature.
+
+
+The *Target node* option allows you to create the new VM on a
+different node. The only restriction is that the VM is on shared
+storage, and that storage is also available on the target node.
+
+To avoid resource conflicts, all network interface MAC addresses gets
+randomized, and we generate a new 'UUID' for the VM BIOS (smbios1)
+setting.
+
+
+[[qm_templates]]
+Virtual Machine Templates
+-------------------------
+
+One can convert a VM into a Template. Such templates are read-only,
+and you can use them to create linked clones.
+
+NOTE: It is not possible to start templates, because this would modify
+the disk images. If you want to change the template, create a linked
+clone and modify that.
+
+
Managing Virtual Machines with `qm`
------------------------------------