an iso image as a parameter to Qemu, and the OS running in the emulated computer
will see a real CDROM inserted in a CD drive.
-Qemu can emulates a great variety of hardware from ARM to Sparc, but {pve} is
+Qemu can emulate a great variety of hardware from ARM to Sparc, but {pve} is
only concerned with 32 and 64 bits PC clone emulation, since it represents the
overwhelming majority of server hardware. The emulation of PC clones is also one
of the fastest due to the availability of processor extensions which greatly
NOTE: You may sometimes encounter the term _KVM_ (Kernel-based Virtual Machine).
It means that Qemu is running with the support of the virtualization processor
extensions, via the Linux kvm module. In the context of {pve} _Qemu_ and
-_KVM_ can be use interchangeably as Qemu in {pve} will always try to load the kvm
+_KVM_ can be used interchangeably as Qemu in {pve} will always try to load the kvm
module.
Qemu inside {pve} runs as a root process, since this is required to access block
the guest OS recognizes it is running inside Qemu and cooperates with the
hypervisor.
-Qemu relies on the virtio virtualization standard, and is thus able to presente
+Qemu relies on the virtio virtualization standard, and is thus able to present
paravirtualized virtio devices, which includes a paravirtualized generic disk
controller, a paravirtualized network card, a paravirtualized serial port,
a paravirtualized SCSI controller, etc ...
General Settings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-[thumbnail="qm-general-settings.png"]
+[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-create-vm-general.png"]
General settings of a VM include
OS Settings
~~~~~~~~~~~
-[thumbnail="qm-os-settings.png"]
+[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 wants 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
-controller. Even if this controller has been superseded by more more designs,
-each and every OS you can think has support for it, making it a great choice
+controller. Even if this controller has been superseded by recent designs,
+each and every OS you can think of has support for it, making it a great choice
if you want to run an OS released before 2003. You can connect up to 4 devices
on this controller.
hardware, and can connect up to 14 storage devices. {pve} emulates by default a
LSI 53C895A controller.
+
-A SCSI controller of type _Virtio_ is the recommended setting if you aim for
+A SCSI controller of type _VirtIO SCSI_ is the recommended setting if you aim for
performance and is automatically selected for newly created Linux VMs since
{pve} 4.3. Linux distributions have support for this controller since 2012, and
FreeBSD since 2014. For Windows OSes, you need to provide an extra iso
containing the drivers during the installation.
// https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Paravirtualized_Block_Drivers_for_Windows#During_windows_installation.
+If you aim at maximum performance, you can select a SCSI controller of type
+_VirtIO SCSI single_ which will allow you to select the *IO Thread* option.
+When selecting _VirtIO SCSI single_ Qemu will create a new controller for
+each disk, instead of adding all disks to the same controller.
+
+* The *VirtIO Block* controller, often just called VirtIO or virtio-blk,
+is an older type of paravirtualized controller. It has been superseded by the
+VirtIO SCSI Controller, in terms of features.
-* The *Virtio* controller, also called virtio-blk to distinguish from
-the Virtio SCSI controller, is an older type of paravirtualized controller
-which has been superseded in features by the Virtio SCSI Controller.
+[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-create-vm-hard-disk.png"]
-[thumbnail="qm-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
present block devices (LVM, ZFS, Ceph) will require the *raw disk image format*,
-whereas files based storages (Ext4, NFS, GlusterFS) will let you to choose
+whereas files based storages (Ext4, NFS, CIFS, GlusterFS) will let you to choose
either the *raw disk image format* or the *QEMU image format*.
* the *QEMU image format* is a copy on write format which allows snapshots, and
thin provisioning of the disk image.
* the *raw disk image* is a bit-to-bit image of a hard disk, similar to what
you would get when executing the `dd` command on a block device in Linux. This
- format do not support thin provisioning or snapshotting by itself, requiring
- cooperation from the storage layer for these tasks. It is however 10% faster
- than the *QEMU image format*. footnote:[See this benchmark for details
- http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/CloudOpen2013_Khoa_Huynh_v3.pdf]
+ format does not support thin provisioning or snapshots by itself, requiring
+ cooperation from the storage layer for these tasks. It may, however, be up to
+ 10% faster than the *QEMU image format*. footnote:[See this benchmark for details
+ https://events.static.linuxfound.org/sites/events/files/slides/CloudOpen2013_Khoa_Huynh_v3.pdf]
* 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
If you want the {pve} backup manager to skip a disk when doing a backup of a VM,
you can set the *No backup* option on that disk.
-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.
+If you want the {pve} storage replication mechanism to skip a disk when starting
+ a replication job, you can set the *Skip replication* option on that disk.
+As of {pve} 5.0, replication requires the disk images to be on a storage of type
+`zfspool`, so adding a disk image to other storages when the VM has replication
+configured requires to skip replication for this disk image.
-.IO Thread
-The option *IO Thread* can only be enabled when using a disk with the *VirtIO* controller,
-or with the *SCSI* controller, when the emulated controller type is *VirtIO SCSI*.
-With this enabled, Qemu uses one thread per disk, instead of one thread for all,
-so it should increase performance when using multiple disks.
-Note that backups do not currently work with *IO Thread* enabled.
+[[qm_hard_disk_discard]]
+Trim/Discard
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+If your storage supports _thin provisioning_ (see the storage chapter in the
+{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.
+
+
+[[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,
+rather than a single thread for all I/O. This can increase performance when
+multiple disks are used and each disk has its own storage controller.
[[qm_cpu]]
CPU
~~~
-[thumbnail="qm-cpu-settings.png"]
+[thumbnail="screenshot/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
sockets with two cores is mostly irrelevant from a performance point of view.
-However some software is licensed depending on the number of sockets you have in
-your machine, in that case it makes sense to set the number of of sockets to
-what the license allows you, and increase the number of cores.
+However some software licenses depend on the number of sockets a machine has,
+in that case it makes sense to set the number of sockets to what the license
+allows you.
Increasing the number of virtual cpus (cores and sockets) will usually provide a
performance improvement though that is heavily dependent on the use of the VM.
execution on the host system. If you're not sure about the workload of your VM,
it is usually a safe bet to set the number of *Total cores* to 2.
-NOTE: It is perfectly safe to set the _overall_ number of total cores in all
-your VMs to be greater than the number of of cores you have on your server (ie.
-4 VMs with each 4 Total cores running in a 8 core machine is OK) 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 to allocate on a _single_ machine more vcpus than
-physically available, as this will only bring the performance down due to the
-cost of context switches.
+NOTE: It is perfectly safe if the _overall_ number of cores of all your VMs
+is greater than the number of cores on the server (e.g., 4 VMs with each 4
+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 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
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+In addition to the number of virtual cores, you can configure how much resources
+a VM can get in relation to the host CPU time and also in relation to other
+VMs.
+With the *cpulimit* (``Host CPU Time'') option you can limit how much CPU time
+the whole VM can use on the host. It is a floating point value representing CPU
+time in percent, so `1.0` is equal to `100%`, `2.5` to `250%` and so on. If a
+single process would fully use one single core it would have `100%` CPU Time
+usage. If a VM with four cores utilizes all its cores fully it would
+theoretically use `400%`. In reality the usage may be even a bit higher as Qemu
+can have additional threads for VM peripherals besides the vCPU core ones.
+This setting can be useful if a VM should have multiple vCPUs, as it runs a few
+processes in parallel, but the VM as a whole should not be able to run all
+vCPUs at 100% at the same time. Using a specific example: lets say we have a VM
+which would profit from having 8 vCPUs, but at no time all of those 8 cores
+should run at full load - as this would make the server so overloaded that
+other VMs and CTs would get to less CPU. So, we set the *cpulimit* limit to
+`4.0` (=400%). If all cores do the same heavy work they would all get 50% of a
+real host cores CPU time. But, if only 4 would do work they could still get
+almost 100% of a real core each.
+
+NOTE: VMs can, depending on their configuration, use additional threads e.g.,
+for networking or IO operations but also live migration. Thus a VM can show up
+to use more CPU time than just its virtual CPUs could use. To ensure that a VM
+never uses more CPU time than virtual CPUs assigned set the *cpulimit* setting
+to the same value as the total core count.
+
+The second CPU resource limiting setting, *cpuunits* (nowadays often called CPU
+shares or CPU weight), controls how much CPU time a VM gets in regards to other
+VMs running. It is a relative weight which defaults to `1024`, if you increase
+this for a VM it will be prioritized by the scheduler in comparison to other
+VMs with lower weight. E.g., if VM 100 has set the default 1024 and VM 200 was
+changed to `2048`, the latter VM 200 would receive twice the CPU bandwidth than
+the first VM 100.
+
+For more information see `man systemd.resource-control`, here `CPUQuota`
+corresponds to `cpulimit` and `CPUShares` corresponds to our `cpuunits`
+setting, visit its Notes section for references and implementation details.
+
+CPU Type
+^^^^^^^^
Qemu can emulate a number different of *CPU types* from 486 to the latest Xeon
processors. Each new processor generation adds new features, like hardware
but is guaranteed to work everywhere.
In short, if you care about live migration and moving VMs between nodes, leave
-the kvm64 default. If you don’t care about live migration, set the CPU type to
-host, as in theory this will give your guests maximum performance.
+the kvm64 default. If you don’t care about live migration or have a homogeneous
+cluster where all nodes have the same CPU, set the CPU type to host, as in
+theory this will give your guests maximum performance.
+
+Custom CPU Types
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+You can specify custom CPU types with a configurable set of features. These are
+maintained in the configuration file `/etc/pve/virtual-guest/cpu-models.conf` by
+an administrator. See `man cpu-models.conf` for format details.
+
+Specified custom types can be selected by any user with the `Sys.Audit`
+privilege on `/nodes`. When configuring a custom CPU type for a VM via the CLI
+or API, the name needs to be prefixed with 'custom-'.
+
+Meltdown / Spectre related CPU flags
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+There are several CPU flags related to the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities
+footnote:[Meltdown Attack https://meltdownattack.com/] which need to be set
+manually unless the selected CPU type of your VM already enables them by default.
+
+There are two requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to use these
+CPU flags:
+
+* The host CPU(s) must support the feature and propagate it to the guest's virtual CPU(s)
+* The guest operating system must be updated to a version which mitigates the
+ attacks and is able to utilize the CPU feature
+
+Otherwise you need to set the desired CPU flag of the virtual CPU, either by
+editing the CPU options in the WebUI, or by setting the 'flags' property of the
+'cpu' option in the VM configuration file.
+
+For Spectre v1,v2,v4 fixes, your CPU or system vendor also needs to provide a
+so-called ``microcode update'' footnote:[You can use `intel-microcode' /
+`amd-microcode' from Debian non-free if your vendor does not provide such an
+update. Note that not all affected CPUs can be updated to support spec-ctrl.]
+for your CPU.
+
+
+To check if the {pve} host is vulnerable, execute the following command as root:
+
+----
+for f in /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/*; do echo "${f##*/} -" $(cat "$f"); done
+----
+
+A community script is also available to detect is the host is still vulnerable.
+footnote:[spectre-meltdown-checker https://meltdown.ovh/]
+
+Intel processors
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+* 'pcid'
++
+This reduces the performance impact of the Meltdown (CVE-2017-5754) mitigation
+called 'Kernel Page-Table Isolation (KPTI)', which effectively hides
+the Kernel memory from the user space. Without PCID, KPTI is quite an expensive
+mechanism footnote:[PCID is now a critical performance/security feature on x86
+https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/mechanical-sympathy/L9mHTbeQLNU].
++
+To check if the {pve} host supports PCID, execute the following command as root:
++
+----
+# grep ' pcid ' /proc/cpuinfo
+----
++
+If this does not return empty your host's CPU has support for 'pcid'.
+
+* 'spec-ctrl'
++
+Required to enable the Spectre v1 (CVE-2017-5753) and Spectre v2 (CVE-2017-5715) fix,
+in cases where retpolines are not sufficient.
+Included by default in Intel CPU models with -IBRS suffix.
+Must be explicitly turned on for Intel CPU models without -IBRS suffix.
+Requires an updated host CPU microcode (intel-microcode >= 20180425).
++
+* 'ssbd'
++
+Required to enable the Spectre V4 (CVE-2018-3639) fix. Not included by default in any Intel CPU model.
+Must be explicitly turned on for all Intel CPU models.
+Requires an updated host CPU microcode(intel-microcode >= 20180703).
+
+
+AMD processors
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-You can also optionally emulate a *NUMA* architecture in your VMs. The basics of
-the NUMA architecture mean that instead of having a global memory pool available
-to all your cores, the memory is spread into local banks close to each socket.
+* 'ibpb'
++
+Required to enable the Spectre v1 (CVE-2017-5753) and Spectre v2 (CVE-2017-5715) fix,
+in cases where retpolines are not sufficient.
+Included by default in AMD CPU models with -IBPB suffix.
+Must be explicitly turned on for AMD CPU models without -IBPB suffix.
+Requires the host CPU microcode to support this feature before it can be used for guest CPUs.
+
+
+
+* 'virt-ssbd'
++
+Required to enable the Spectre v4 (CVE-2018-3639) fix.
+Not included by default in any AMD CPU model.
+Must be explicitly turned on for all AMD CPU models.
+This should be provided to guests, even if amd-ssbd is also provided, for maximum guest compatibility.
+Note that this must be explicitly enabled when when using the "host" cpu model,
+because this is a virtual feature which does not exist in the physical CPUs.
+
+
+* 'amd-ssbd'
++
+Required to enable the Spectre v4 (CVE-2018-3639) fix.
+Not included by default in any AMD CPU model. Must be explicitly turned on for all AMD CPU models.
+This provides higher performance than virt-ssbd, therefore a host supporting this should always expose this to guests if possible.
+virt-ssbd should none the less also be exposed for maximum guest compatibility as some kernels only know about virt-ssbd.
+
+
+* 'amd-no-ssb'
++
+Recommended to indicate the host is not vulnerable to Spectre V4 (CVE-2018-3639).
+Not included by default in any AMD CPU model.
+Future hardware generations of CPU will not be vulnerable to CVE-2018-3639,
+and thus the guest should be told not to enable its mitigations, by exposing amd-no-ssb.
+This is mutually exclusive with virt-ssbd and amd-ssbd.
+
+
+NUMA
+^^^^
+You can also optionally emulate a *NUMA*
+footnote:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-uniform_memory_access] architecture
+in your VMs. The basics of the NUMA architecture mean that instead of having a
+global memory pool available to all your cores, the memory is spread into local
+banks close to each socket.
This can bring speed improvements as the memory bus is not a bottleneck
anymore. If your system has a NUMA architecture footnote:[if the command
`numactl --hardware | grep available` returns more than one node, then your host
system has a NUMA architecture] we recommend to activate the option, as this
-will allow proper distribution of the VM resources on the host system. This
-option is also required in {pve} to allow hotplugging of cores and RAM to a VM.
+will allow proper distribution of the VM resources on the host system.
+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
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Modern operating systems introduced the capability to hot-plug and, to a
+certain extent, hot-unplug CPUs in a running systems. Virtualisation allows us
+to avoid a lot of the (physical) problems real hardware can cause in such
+scenarios.
+Still, this is a rather new and complicated feature, so its use should be
+restricted to cases where its absolutely needed. Most of the functionality can
+be replicated with other, well tested and less complicated, features, see
+xref:qm_cpu_resource_limits[Resource Limits].
+
+In {pve} the maximal number of plugged CPUs is always `cores * sockets`.
+To start a VM with less than this total core count of CPUs you may use the
+*vpus* setting, it denotes how many vCPUs should be plugged in at VM start.
+
+Currently only this feature is only supported on Linux, a kernel newer than 3.10
+is needed, a kernel newer than 4.7 is recommended.
+
+You can use a udev rule as follow to automatically set new CPUs as online in
+the guest:
+
+----
+SUBSYSTEM=="cpu", ACTION=="add", TEST=="online", ATTR{online}=="0", ATTR{online}="1"
+----
+
+Save this under /etc/udev/rules.d/ as a file ending in `.rules`.
+
+Note: CPU hot-remove is machine dependent and requires guest cooperation.
+The deletion command does not guarantee CPU removal to actually happen,
+typically it's a request forwarded to guest using target dependent mechanism,
+e.g., ACPI on x86/amd64.
[[qm_memory]]
For each VM you have the option to set a fixed size memory or asking
{pve} to dynamically allocate memory based on the current RAM usage of the
-host.
+host.
.Fixed Memory Allocation
-[thumbnail="qm-memory-fixed.png"]
+[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-create-vm-memory.png"]
-When choosing a *fixed size memory* {pve} will simply allocate what you
-specify to your VM.
+When setting memory and minimum memory to the same amount
+{pve} will simply allocate what you specify to your VM.
+
+Even when using a fixed memory size, the ballooning device gets added to the
+VM, because it delivers useful information such as how much memory the guest
+really uses.
+In general, you should leave *ballooning* enabled, but if you want to disable
+it (e.g. for debugging purposes), simply uncheck
+*Ballooning Device* or set
+
+ balloon: 0
+
+in the configuration.
.Automatic Memory Allocation
-[thumbnail="qm-memory-auto.png", float="left"]
// see autoballoon() in pvestatd.pm
-When choosing to *automatically allocate memory*, {pve} will make sure that the
+When setting the minimum memory lower than memory, {pve} will make sure that the
minimum amount you specified is always available to the VM, and if RAM usage on
the host is below 80%, will dynamically add memory to the guest up to the
maximum memory specified.
-When the host is becoming short on RAM, the VM will then release some memory
+When the host is running low on RAM, the VM will then release some memory
back to the host, swapping running processes if needed and starting the oom
killer in last resort. The passing around of memory between host and guest is
done via a special `balloon` kernel driver running inside the guest, which will
When multiple VMs use the autoallocate facility, it is possible to set a
*Shares* coefficient which indicates the relative amount of the free host memory
-that each VM shoud take. Suppose for instance you have four VMs, three of them
-running a HTTP server and the last one is a database server. To cache more
+that each VM should take. Suppose for instance you have four VMs, three of them
+running an HTTP server and the last one is a database server. To cache more
database blocks in the database server RAM, you would like to prioritize the
database VM when spare RAM is available. For this you assign a Shares property
of 3000 to the database VM, leaving the other VMs to the Shares default setting
-of 1000. The host server has 32GB of RAM, and is curring using 16GB, leaving 32
+of 1000. The host server has 32GB of RAM, and is currently using 16GB, leaving 32
* 80/100 - 16 = 9GB RAM to be allocated to the VMs. The database VM will get 9 *
3000 / (3000 + 1000 + 1000 + 1000) = 4.5 GB extra RAM and each HTTP server will
-get 1/5 GB.
+get 1.5 GB.
All Linux distributions released after 2010 have the balloon kernel driver
included. For Windows OSes, the balloon driver needs to be added manually and can
incur a slowdown of the guest, so we don't recommend using it on critical
-systems.
+systems.
// see https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/solved-hyper-threading-vs-no-hyper-threading-fixed-vs-variable-memory.20265/
-When allocating RAMs to your VMs, a good rule of thumb is always to leave 1GB
+When allocating RAM to your VMs, a good rule of thumb is always to leave 1GB
of RAM available to the host.
Network Device
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-create-vm-network.png"]
+
Each VM can have many _Network interface controllers_ (NIC), of four different
types:
performance. Like all VirtIO devices, the guest OS should have the proper driver
installed.
* the *Realtek 8139* emulates an older 100 MB/s network card, and should
-only be used when emulating older operating systems ( released before 2002 )
+only be used when emulating older operating systems ( released before 2002 )
* the *vmxnet3* is another paravirtualized device, which should only be used
when importing a VM from another hypervisor.
{pve} will generate for each NIC a random *MAC address*, so that your VM is
addressable on Ethernet networks.
-The NIC you added to the VM can follow one of two differents models:
+The NIC you added to the VM can follow one of two different models:
* in the default *Bridged mode* each virtual NIC is backed on the host by a
_tap device_, ( a software loopback device simulating an Ethernet NIC ). This
tap device is added to a bridge, by default vmbr0 in {pve}. In this mode, VMs
have direct access to the Ethernet LAN on which the host is located.
* in the alternative *NAT mode*, each virtual NIC will only communicate with
-the Qemu user networking stack, where a builting router and DHCP server can
-provide network access. This built-in DHCP will serve adresses in the private
+the Qemu user networking stack, where a built-in router and DHCP server can
+provide network access. This built-in DHCP will serve addresses in the private
10.0.2.0/24 range. The NAT mode is much slower than the bridged mode, and
-should only be used for testing.
+should only be used for testing. This mode is only available via CLI or the API,
+but not via the WebUI.
You can also skip adding a network device when creating a VM by selecting *No
network device*.
If you are using the VirtIO driver, you can optionally activate the
*Multiqueue* option. This option allows the guest OS to process networking
packets using multiple virtual CPUs, providing an increase in the total number
-of packets transfered.
+of packets transferred.
//http://blog.vmsplice.net/2011/09/qemu-internals-vhost-architecture.html
When using the VirtIO driver with {pve}, each NIC network queue is passed to the
-host kernel, where the queue will be processed by a kernel thread spawn by the
+host kernel, where the queue will be processed by a kernel thread spawned by the
vhost driver. With this option activated, it is possible to pass _multiple_
network queues to the host kernel for each NIC.
When using Multiqueue, it is recommended to set it to a value equal
to the number of Total Cores of your guest. You also need to set in
the VM the number of multi-purpose channels on each VirtIO NIC with the ethtool
-command:
+command:
-`ethtool -L eth0 combined X`
+`ethtool -L ens1 combined X`
where X is the number of the number of vcpus of the VM.
process a great number of incoming connections, such as when the VM is running
as a router, reverse proxy or a busy HTTP server doing long polling.
+[[qm_display]]
+Display
+~~~~~~~
+
+QEMU can virtualize a few types of VGA hardware. Some examples are:
+
+* *std*, the default, emulates a card with Bochs VBE extensions.
+* *cirrus*, this was once the default, it emulates a very old hardware module
+with all its problems. This display type should only be used if really
+necessary footnote:[https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2014/10/qemu-using-cirrus-considered-harmful/
+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 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,
+especially with SPICE/QXL.
+
+As the memory is reserved by display device, selecting Multi-Monitor mode
+for SPICE (e.g., `qxl2` for dual monitors) has some implications:
+
+* Windows needs a device for each monitor, so if your 'ostype' is some
+version of Windows, {pve} gives the VM an extra device per monitor.
+Each device gets the specified amount of memory.
+
+* Linux VMs, can always enable more virtual monitors, but selecting
+a Multi-Monitor mode multiplies the memory given to the device with
+the number of monitors.
+Selecting `serialX` as display 'type' disables the VGA output, and redirects
+the Web Console to the selected serial port. A configured display 'memory'
+setting will be ignored in that case.
+
+[[qm_usb_passthrough]]
USB Passthrough
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are two different types of USB passthrough devices:
-* Host USB passtrough
+* Host USB passthrough
* SPICE USB passthrough
Host USB passthrough works by giving a VM a USB device of the host.
If a device is present in a VM configuration when the VM starts up,
but the device is not present in the host, the VM can boot without problems.
-As soon as the device/port ist available in the host, it gets passed through.
+As soon as the device/port is available in the host, it gets passed through.
-WARNING: Using this kind of USB passthrough, means that you cannot move
+WARNING: Using this kind of USB passthrough means that you cannot move
a VM online to another host, since the hardware is only available
on the host the VM is currently residing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
http://vfio.blogspot.co.at/2014/08/primary-graphics-assignment-without-vga.html]
-In such cases, you should rather use *OVMF*, which is an open-source UEFI implemenation. footnote:[See the OVMF Project http://www.tianocore.org/ovmf/]
+In such cases, you should rather use *OVMF*, which is an open-source UEFI implementation. footnote:[See the OVMF Project http://www.tianocore.org/ovmf/]
If you want to use OVMF, there are several things to consider:
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.io/] 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
+
+There are two backends available:
+
+* 'spice'
+* 'none'
+
+The 'spice' backend can be used in combination with xref:qm_display[SPICE] while
+the 'none' backend can be useful if an audio device is needed in the VM for some
+software to work. 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]). Remote protocols like Microsoft’s RDP
+have options to play sound.
+
+
+[[qm_virtio_rng]]
+VirtIO RNG
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A RNG (Random Number Generator) is a device providing entropy ('randomness') to
+a system. A virtual hardware-RNG can be used to provide such entropy from the
+host system to a guest VM. This helps to avoid entropy starvation problems in
+the guest (a situation where not enough entropy is available and the system may
+slow down or run into problems), especially during the guests boot process.
+
+To add a VirtIO-based emulated RNG, run the following command:
+
+----
+qm set <vmid> -rng0 source=<source>[,max_bytes=X,period=Y]
+----
+
+`source` specifies where entropy is read from on the host and has to be one of
+the following:
+
+* `/dev/urandom`: Non-blocking kernel entropy pool (preferred)
+* `/dev/random`: Blocking kernel pool (not recommended, can lead to entropy
+ starvation on the host system)
+* `/dev/hwrng`: To pass through a hardware RNG attached to the host (if multiple
+ are available, the one selected in
+ `/sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current` will be used)
+
+A limit can be specified via the `max_bytes` and `period` parameters, they are
+read as `max_bytes` per `period` in milliseconds. However, it does not represent
+a linear relationship: 1024B/1000ms would mean that up to 1 KiB of data becomes
+available on a 1 second timer, not that 1 KiB is streamed to the guest over the
+course of one second. Reducing the `period` can thus be used to inject entropy
+into the guest at a faster rate.
+
+By default, the limit is set to 1024 bytes per 1000 ms (1 KiB/s). It is
+recommended to always use a limiter to avoid guests using too many host
+resources. If desired, a value of '0' for `max_bytes` can be used to disable
+all limits.
+
+[[qm_bootorder]]
+Device Boot Order
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+QEMU can tell the guest which devices it should boot from, and in which order.
+This can be specified in the config via the `boot` property, e.g.:
+
+----
+boot: order=scsi0;net0;hostpci0
+----
+
+[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-qemu-edit-bootorder.png"]
+
+This way, the guest would first attempt to boot from the disk `scsi0`, if that
+fails, it would go on to attempt network boot from `net0`, and in case that
+fails too, finally attempt to boot from a passed through PCIe device (seen as
+disk in case of NVMe, otherwise tries to launch into an option ROM).
+
+On the GUI you can use a drag-and-drop editor to specify the boot order, and use
+the checkbox to enable or disable certain devices for booting altogether.
+
+NOTE: If your guest uses multiple disks to boot the OS or load the bootloader,
+all of them must be marked as 'bootable' (that is, they must have the checkbox
+enabled or appear in the list in the config) for the guest to be able to boot.
+This is because recent SeaBIOS and OVMF versions only initialize disks if they
+are marked 'bootable'.
+
+In any case, even devices not appearing in the list or having the checkmark
+disabled will still be available to the guest, once it's operating system has
+booted and initialized them. The 'bootable' flag only affects the guest BIOS and
+bootloader.
+
+
[[qm_startup_and_shutdown]]
Automatic Start and Shutdown of Virtual Machines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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="screenshot/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
order for shutdown, so a machine with a start order of 1 would be the last to
-be shut down)
+be shut down). If multiple VMs have the same order defined on a host, they will
+additionally be ordered by 'VMID' in ascending order.
* *Startup delay*: Defines the interval between this VM start and subsequent
VMs starts . E.g. set it to 240 if you want to wait 240 seconds before starting
other VMs.
* *Shutdown timeout*: Defines the duration in seconds {pve} should wait
for the VM to be offline after issuing a shutdown command.
-By default this value is set to 60, which means that {pve} will issue a
-shutdown request, wait 60s for the machine to be offline, and if after 60s
-the machine is still online will notify that the shutdown action failed.
+By default this value is set to 180, which means that {pve} will issue a
+shutdown request and wait 180 seconds for the machine to be offline. If
+the machine is still online after the timeout it will be stopped forcefully.
+
+NOTE: VMs managed by the HA stack do not follow the 'start on boot' and
+'boot order' options currently. Those VMs will be skipped by the startup and
+shutdown algorithm as the HA manager itself ensures that VMs get started and
+stopped.
Please note that machines without a Start/Shutdown order parameter will always
-start after those where the parameter is set, and this parameter only
-makes sense between the machines running locally on a host, and not
+start after those where the parameter is set. Further, this parameter can only
+be enforced between virtual machines running on the same host, not
cluster-wide.
+
+[[qm_qemu_agent]]
+Qemu Guest Agent
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The Qemu Guest Agent is a service which runs inside the VM, providing a
+communication channel between the host and the guest. It is used to exchange
+information and allows the host to issue commands to the guest.
+
+For example, the IP addresses in the VM summary panel are fetched via the guest
+agent.
+
+Or when starting a backup, the guest is told via the guest agent to sync
+outstanding writes via the 'fs-freeze' and 'fs-thaw' commands.
+
+For the guest agent to work properly the following steps must be taken:
+
+* install the agent in the guest and make sure it is running
+* enable the communication via the agent in {pve}
+
+Install Guest Agent
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+For most Linux distributions, the guest agent is available. The package is
+usually named `qemu-guest-agent`.
+
+For Windows, it can be installed from the
+https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/stable-virtio/virtio-win.iso[Fedora
+VirtIO driver ISO].
+
+Enable Guest Agent Communication
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Communication from {pve} with the guest agent can be enabled in the VM's
+*Options* panel. A fresh start of the VM is necessary for the changes to take
+effect.
+
+It is possible to enable the 'Run guest-trim' option. With this enabled,
+{pve} will issue a trim command to the guest after the following
+operations that have the potential to write out zeros to the storage:
+
+* moving a disk to another storage
+* live migrating a VM to another node with local storage
+
+On a thin provisioned storage, this can help to free up unused space.
+
+Troubleshooting
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+.VM does not shut down
+
+Make sure the guest agent is installed and running.
+
+Once the guest agent is enabled, {pve} will send power commands like
+'shutdown' via the guest agent. If the guest agent is not running, commands
+cannot get executed properly and the shutdown command will run into a timeout.
+
+[[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
+---------
+
+[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-qemu-migrate.png"]
+
+If you have a cluster, you can migrate your VM to another host with
+
+ qm migrate <vmid> <target>
+
+There are generally two mechanisms for this
+
+* Online Migration (aka Live Migration)
+* Offline Migration
+
+Online Migration
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+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.
+
+How it works
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This starts a Qemu Process on the target host with the 'incoming' flag, which
+means that the process starts and waits for the memory data and device states
+from the source Virtual Machine (since all other resources, e.g. disks,
+are shared, the memory content and device state are the only things left
+to transmit).
+
+Once this connection is established, the source begins to send the memory
+content asynchronously to the target. If the memory on the source changes,
+those sections are marked dirty and there will be another pass of sending data.
+This happens until the amount of data to send is so small that it can
+pause the VM on the source, send the remaining data to the target and start
+the VM on the target in under a second.
+
+Requirements
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+For Live Migration to work, there are some things required:
+
+* The VM has no local resources (e.g. passed through devices, local disks, etc.)
+* The hosts are in the same {pve} cluster.
+* The hosts have a working (and reliable) network connection.
+* The target host must have the same or higher versions of the
+ {pve} packages. (It *might* work the other way, but this is never guaranteed)
+
+Offline Migration
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+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="screenshot/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 needs 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 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.
++
+
+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 an original template while linked clones
+exist.
++
+
+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 get
+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.
+
+VM Generation ID
+----------------
+
+{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.
+This can be used by the guest operating system to detect any event resulting
+in a time shift event, for example, restoring a backup or a snapshot rollback.
+
+When creating new VMs, a 'vmgenid' will be automatically generated and saved
+in its configuration file.
+
+To create and add a 'vmgenid' to an already existing VM one can pass the
+special value `1' to let {pve} autogenerate one or manually set the 'UUID'
+footnote:[Online GUID generator http://guid.one/] by using it as value,
+e.g.:
+
+----
+ qm set VMID -vmgenid 1
+ qm set VMID -vmgenid 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
+----
+
+NOTE: The initial addition of a 'vmgenid' device to an existing VM, may result
+in the same effects as a change on snapshot rollback, backup restore, etc., has
+as the VM can interpret this as generation change.
+
+In the rare case the 'vmgenid' mechanism is not wanted one can pass `0' for
+its value on VM creation, or retroactively delete the property in the
+configuration with:
+
+----
+ qm set VMID -delete vmgenid
+----
+
+The most prominent use case for 'vmgenid' are newer Microsoft Windows
+operating systems, which use it to avoid problems in time sensitive or
+replicate services (e.g., databases, domain controller
+footnote:[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/get-started/virtual-dc/virtualized-domain-controller-architecture])
+on snapshot rollback, backup restore or a whole VM clone operation.
+
+Importing Virtual Machines and disk images
+------------------------------------------
+
+A VM export from a foreign hypervisor takes usually the form of one or more disk
+ images, with a configuration file describing the settings of the VM (RAM,
+ number of cores). +
+The disk images can be in the vmdk format, if the disks come from
+VMware or VirtualBox, or qcow2 if the disks come from a KVM hypervisor.
+The most popular configuration format for VM exports is the OVF standard, but in
+practice interoperation is limited because many settings are not implemented in
+the standard itself, and hypervisors export the supplementary information
+in non-standard extensions.
+
+Besides the problem of format, importing disk images from other hypervisors
+may fail if the emulated hardware changes too much from one hypervisor to
+another. Windows VMs are particularly concerned by this, as the OS is very
+picky about any changes of hardware. This problem may be solved by
+installing the MergeIDE.zip utility available from the Internet before exporting
+and choosing a hard disk type of *IDE* before booting the imported Windows VM.
+
+Finally there is the question of paravirtualized drivers, which improve the
+speed of the emulated system and are specific to the hypervisor.
+GNU/Linux and other free Unix OSes have all the necessary drivers installed by
+default and you can switch to the paravirtualized drivers right after importing
+the VM. For Windows VMs, you need to install the Windows paravirtualized
+drivers by yourself.
+
+GNU/Linux and other free Unix can usually be imported without hassle. Note
+that we cannot guarantee a successful import/export of Windows VMs in all
+cases due to the problems above.
+
+Step-by-step example of a Windows OVF import
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Microsoft provides
+https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines/[Virtual Machines downloads]
+ to get started with Windows development.We are going to use one of these
+to demonstrate the OVF import feature.
+
+Download the Virtual Machine zip
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+After getting informed about the user agreement, choose the _Windows 10
+Enterprise (Evaluation - Build)_ for the VMware platform, and download the zip.
+
+Extract the disk image from the zip
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Using the `unzip` utility or any archiver of your choice, unpack the zip,
+and copy via ssh/scp the ovf and vmdk files to your {pve} host.
+
+Import the Virtual Machine
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This will create a new virtual machine, using cores, memory and
+VM name as read from the OVF manifest, and import the disks to the +local-lvm+
+ storage. You have to configure the network manually.
+
+ qm importovf 999 WinDev1709Eval.ovf local-lvm
+
+The VM is ready to be started.
+
+Adding an external disk image to a Virtual Machine
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+You can also add an existing disk image to a VM, either coming from a
+foreign hypervisor, or one that you created yourself.
+
+Suppose you created a Debian/Ubuntu disk image with the 'vmdebootstrap' tool:
+
+ vmdebootstrap --verbose \
+ --size 10GiB --serial-console \
+ --grub --no-extlinux \
+ --package openssh-server \
+ --package avahi-daemon \
+ --package qemu-guest-agent \
+ --hostname vm600 --enable-dhcp \
+ --customize=./copy_pub_ssh.sh \
+ --sparse --image vm600.raw
+
+You can now create a new target VM for this image.
+
+ qm create 600 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 --name vm600 --serial0 socket \
+ --bootdisk scsi0 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci --ostype l26
+
+Add the disk image as +unused0+ to the VM, using the storage +pvedir+:
+
+ qm importdisk 600 vm600.raw pvedir
+
+Finally attach the unused disk to the SCSI controller of the VM:
+
+ qm set 600 --scsi0 pvedir:600/vm-600-disk-1.raw
+
+The VM is ready to be started.
+
+
+ifndef::wiki[]
+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`.
+
+[[qm_hibernate]]
+Hibernation
+-----------
+
+You can suspend a VM to disk with the GUI option `Hibernate` or with
+
+ qm suspend ID --todisk
+
+That means that the current content of the memory will be saved onto disk
+and the VM gets stopped. On the next start, the memory content will be
+loaded and the VM can continue where it was left off.
+
+[[qm_vmstatestorage]]
+.State storage selection
+If no target storage for the memory is given, it will be automatically
+chosen, the first of:
+
+1. The storage `vmstatestorage` from the VM config.
+2. The first shared storage from any VM disk.
+3. The first non-shared storage from any VM disk.
+4. The storage `local` as a fallback.
+
Managing Virtual Machines with `qm`
------------------------------------
CLI Usage Examples
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Create a new VM with 4 GB IDE disk.
+Using an iso file uploaded on the 'local' storage, create a VM
+with a 4 GB IDE disk on the 'local-lvm' storage
- qm create 300 -ide0 4 -net0 e1000 -cdrom proxmox-mailgateway_2.1.iso
+ qm create 300 -ide0 local-lvm:4 -net0 e1000 -cdrom local:iso/proxmox-mailgateway_2.1.iso
Start the new VM
qm shutdown 300 && qm wait 300 -timeout 40
+Destroying a VM always removes it from Access Control Lists and it always
+removes the firewall configuration of the VM. You have to activate
+'--purge', if you want to additionally remove the VM from replication jobs,
+backup jobs and HA resource configurations.
+
+ qm destroy 300 --purge
+
+
[[qm_configuration]]
Configuration
.Example VM Configuration
----
+boot: order=virtio0;net0
cores: 1
sockets: 1
memory: 512
name: webmail
ostype: l26
-bootdisk: virtio0
net0: e1000=EE:D2:28:5F:B6:3E,bridge=vmbr0
virtio0: local:vm-100-disk-1,size=32G
----
relationship between snapshots. `snaptime` is the snapshot creation
time stamp (Unix epoch).
+You can optionally save the memory of a running VM with the option `vmstate`.
+For details about how the target storage gets chosen for the VM state, see
+xref:qm_vmstatestorage[State storage selection] in the chapter
+xref:qm_hibernate[Hibernation].
[[qm_options]]
Options
no longer running.
+ifdef::wiki[]
+
+See Also
+~~~~~~~~
+
+* link:/wiki/Cloud-Init_Support[Cloud-Init Support]
+
+endif::wiki[]
+
+
ifdef::manvolnum[]
Files
projects / pve-docs.git / blobdiff