[thumbnail="screenshot/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 UTC time.
+When creating a virtual machine (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 UTC time.
+[[qm_system_settings]]
+System Settings
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+On VM creation you can change some basic system components of the new VM. You
+can specify which xref:qm_display[display type] you want to use.
+[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-create-vm-system.png"]
+Additionally, the xref:qm_hard_disk[SCSI controller] can be changed.
+If you plan to install the QEMU Guest Agent, or if your selected ISO image
+already ships and installs it automatically, you may want to tick the 'Qemu
+Agent' box, which lets {pve} know that it can use its features to show some
+more information, and complete some actions (for example, shutdown or
+snapshots) more intelligently.
+
+{pve} allows to boot VMs with different firmware and machine types, namely
+xref:qm_bios_and_uefi[SeaBIOS and OVMF]. In most cases you want to switch from
+the default SeabBIOS to OVMF only if you plan to use
+xref:qm_pci_passthrough[PCIe pass through]. A VMs 'Machine Type' defines the
+hardware layout of the VM's virtual motherboard. You can choose between the
+default https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_440FX[Intel 440FX] or the
+https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/31918/intel-82q35-graphics-and-memory-controller.html[Q35]
+chipset, which also provides a virtual PCIe bus, and thus may be desired if
+one want's to pass through PCIe hardware.
[[qm_hard_disk]]
Hard Disk
~~~~~~~~~
+[[qm_hard_disk_bus]]
+Bus/Controller
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Qemu can emulate a number of storage controllers:
* the *IDE* controller, has a design which goes back to the 1984 PC/AT disk
VirtIO SCSI Controller, in terms of features.
[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-create-vm-hard-disk.png"]
+
+[[qm_hard_disk_formats]]
+Image Format
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
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
* the *VMware image format* only makes sense if you intend to import/export the
disk image to other hypervisors.
+[[qm_hard_disk_cache]]
+Cache Mode
+^^^^^^^^^^
Setting the *Cache* mode of the hard drive will impact how the host system will
notify the guest systems of block write completions. The *No cache* default
means that the guest system will be notified that a write is complete when each
`zfspool`, so adding a disk image to other storages when the VM has replication
configured requires to skip replication for this disk image.
+[[qm_hard_disk_discard]]
+Trim/Discard
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
If your storage supports _thin provisioning_ (see the storage chapter in the
-{pve} guide), and your VM has a *SCSI* controller you can activate the *Discard*
-option on the hard disks connected to that controller. With *Discard* enabled,
-when the filesystem of a VM marks blocks as unused after removing files, the
-emulated SCSI controller will relay this information to the storage, which will
-then shrink the disk image accordingly.
+{pve} guide), you can activate the *Discard* option on a drive. With *Discard*
+set and a _TRIM_-enabled guest OS footnote:[TRIM, UNMAP, and discard
+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_%28computing%29], when the VM's filesystem
+marks blocks as unused after deleting files, the controller will relay this
+information to the storage, which will then shrink the disk image accordingly.
+For the guest to be able to issue _TRIM_ commands, you must enable the *Discard*
+option on the drive. Some guest operating systems may also require the
+*SSD Emulation* flag to be set. Note that *Discard* on *VirtIO Block* drives is
+only supported on guests using Linux Kernel 5.0 or higher.
If you would like a drive to be presented to the guest as a solid-state drive
rather than a rotational hard disk, you can set the *SSD emulation* option on
that drive. There is no requirement that the underlying storage actually be
backed by SSDs; this feature can be used with physical media of any type.
+Note that *SSD emulation* is not supported on *VirtIO Block* drives.
+
-.IO Thread
+[[qm_hard_disk_iothread]]
+IO Thread
+^^^^^^^^^
The option *IO Thread* can only be used when using a disk with the
*VirtIO* controller, or with the *SCSI* controller, when the emulated controller
type is *VirtIO SCSI single*.
With this enabled, Qemu creates one I/O thread per storage controller,
-instead of a single thread for all I/O, so it increases performance when
-multiple disks are used and each disk has its own storage controller.
-Note that backups do not currently work with *IO Thread* enabled.
+instead of a single thread for all I/O, so it can increase performance when
+multiple isks are used and each disk has its own storage controller.
[[qm_cpu]]
cores on a machine with only 8 cores). In that case the host system will
balance the Qemu execution threads between your server cores, just like if you
were running a standard multithreaded application. However, {pve} will prevent
-you from assigning more virtual CPU cores than physically available, as this will
-only bring the performance down due to the cost of context switches.
+you from starting VMs with more virtual CPU cores than physically available, as
+this will only bring the performance down due to the cost of context switches.
[[qm_cpu_resource_limits]]
Resource Limits
This option is also required to hot-plug cores or RAM in a VM.
If the NUMA option is used, it is recommended to set the number of sockets to
-the number of sockets of the host system.
+the number of nodes of the host system.
vCPU hot-plug
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
qemu: using cirrus considered harmful], e.g., if using Windows XP or earlier
* *vmware*, is a VMWare SVGA-II compatible adapter.
* *qxl*, is the QXL paravirtualized graphics card. Selecting this also
-enables SPICE for the VM.
+enables https://www.spice-space.org/[SPICE] (a remote viewer protocol) for the
+VM.
You can edit the amount of memory given to the virtual GPU, by setting
the 'memory' option. This can enable higher resolutions inside the VM,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In order to properly emulate a computer, QEMU needs to use a firmware.
-By default QEMU uses *SeaBIOS* for this, which is an open-source, x86 BIOS
-implementation. SeaBIOS is a good choice for most standard setups.
+Which, on common PCs often known as BIOS or (U)EFI, is executed as one of the
+first steps when booting a VM. It is responsible for doing basic hardware
+initialization and for providing an interface to the firmware and hardware for
+the operating system. By default QEMU uses *SeaBIOS* for this, which is an
+open-source, x86 BIOS implementation. SeaBIOS is a good choice for most
+standard setups.
There are, however, some scenarios in which a BIOS is not a good firmware
to boot from, e.g. if you want to do VGA passthrough. footnote:[Alex Williamson has a very good blog entry about this.
with a press of the ESC button during boot), or you have to choose
SPICE as the display type.
+[[qm_ivshmem]]
+Inter-VM shared memory
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+You can add an Inter-VM shared memory device (`ivshmem`), which allows one to
+share memory between the host and a guest, or also between multiple guests.
+
+To add such a device, you can use `qm`:
+
+ qm set <vmid> -ivshmem size=32,name=foo
+
+Where the size is in MiB. The file will be located under
+`/dev/shm/pve-shm-$name` (the default name is the vmid).
+
+NOTE: Currently the device will get deleted as soon as any VM using it got
+shutdown or stopped. Open connections will still persist, but new connections
+to the exact same device cannot be made anymore.
+
+A use case for such a device is the Looking Glass
+footnote:[Looking Glass: https://looking-glass.hostfission.com/] project,
+which enables high performance, low-latency display mirroring between
+host and guest.
+
+[[qm_audio_device]]
+Audio Device
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+To add an audio device run the following command:
+
+----
+qm set <vmid> -audio0 device=<device>
+----
+
+Supported audio devices are:
+
+* `ich9-intel-hda`: Intel HD Audio Controller, emulates ICH9
+* `intel-hda`: Intel HD Audio Controller, emulates ICH6
+* `AC97`: Audio Codec '97, useful for older operating systems like Windows XP
+
+NOTE: The audio device works only in combination with SPICE. Remote protocols
+like Microsoft's RDP have options to play sound. To use the physical audio
+device of the host use device passthrough (see
+xref:qm_pci_passthrough[PCI Passthrough] and
+xref:qm_usb_passthrough[USB Passthrough]).
+
[[qm_startup_and_shutdown]]
Automatic Start and Shutdown of Virtual Machines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
be enforced between virtual machines running on the same host, not
cluster-wide.
+[[qm_spice_enhancements]]
+SPICE Enhancements
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+SPICE Enhancements are optional features that can improve the remote viewer
+experience.
+
+To enable them via the GUI go to the *Options* panel of the virtual machine. Run
+the following command to enable them via the CLI:
+
+----
+qm set <vmid> -spice_enhancements foldersharing=1,videostreaming=all
+----
+
+NOTE: To use these features the <<qm_display,*Display*>> of the virtual machine
+must be set to SPICE (qxl).
+
+Folder Sharing
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Share a local folder with the guest. The `spice-webdavd` daemon needs to be
+installed in the guest. It makes the shared folder available through a local
+WebDAV server located at http://localhost:9843.
+
+For Windows guests the installer for the 'Spice WebDAV daemon' can be downloaded
+from the
+https://www.spice-space.org/download.html#windows-binaries[official SPICE website].
+
+Most Linux distributions have a package called `spice-webdavd` that can be
+installed.
+
+To share a folder in Virt-Viewer (Remote Viewer) go to 'File -> Preferences'.
+Select the folder to share and then enable the checkbox.
+
+NOTE: Folder sharing currently only works in the Linux version of Virt-Viewer.
+
+CAUTION: Experimental! Currently this feature does not work reliably.
+
+Video Streaming
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Fast refreshing areas are encoded into a video stream. Two options exist:
+
+* *all*: Any fast refreshing area will be encoded into a video stream.
+* *filter*: Additional filters are used to decide if video streaming should be
+ used (currently only small window surfaces are skipped).
+
+A general recommendation if video streaming should be enabled and which option
+to choose from cannot be given. Your mileage may vary depending on the specific
+circumstances.
+
+Troubleshooting
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+.Shared folder does not show up
+
+Make sure the WebDAV service is enabled and running in the guest. On Windows it
+is called 'Spice webdav proxy'. In Linux the name is 'spice-webdavd' but can be
+different depending on the distribution.
+
+If the service is running, check the WebDAV server by opening
+http://localhost:9843 in a browser in the guest.
+
+It can help to restart the SPICE session.
[[qm_migration]]
Migration
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
+NOTE: A full clone needs to read and copy all VM image data. This is
usually much slower than creating a linked clone.
+
Linked Clone::
-Modern storage drivers supports a way to generate fast linked
+Modern storage drivers support 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.
templates can later be used to create linked clones efficiently.
+
-NOTE: You cannot delete the original template while linked clones
-exists.
+NOTE: You cannot delete an original template while linked clones
+exist.
+
It is not possible to change the *Target storage* for linked clones,
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
+To avoid resource conflicts, all network interface MAC addresses get
randomized, and we generate a new 'UUID' for the VM BIOS (smbios1)
setting.
VM Generation ID
----------------
-{pve} supports Virtual Machine Generation ID ('vmgedid') footnote:[Official
+{pve} supports Virtual Machine Generation ID ('vmgenid') footnote:[Official
'vmgenid' Specification
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/hyperv_v2/virtual-machine-generation-identifier]
for virtual machines.
include::qm-cloud-init.adoc[]
endif::wiki[]
+ifndef::wiki[]
+include::qm-pci-passthrough.adoc[]
+endif::wiki[]
+
+Hookscripts
+-----------
+
+You can add a hook script to VMs with the config property `hookscript`.
+
+ qm set 100 -hookscript local:snippets/hookscript.pl
+It will be called during various phases of the guests lifetime.
+For an example and documentation see the example script under
+`/usr/share/pve-docs/examples/guest-example-hookscript.pl`.
Managing Virtual Machines with `qm`
------------------------------------
projects / pve-docs.git / blobdiff