path: root/man/virt-install.pod

=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.

Many arguments have sub options, specified like opt1=foo,opt2=bar, etc. Try
--option=? to see a complete list of sub options associated with that
argument, example: virt-install --disk=?

=head1 OPTIONS

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

=over 2

=item -h, --help

Show the help message and exit

=item --version

Show program's version number 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 --memory=MEM[,OPT1=VAL][...]

Memory to allocate for the guest, in megabytes. Sub options are available,
like 'maxmemory' and 'hugepages'. This deprecates the -r/--ram option.

Use --memory=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryAllocation>

=item --memorybacking OPT1=yes|no[,OPT2=yes|no][...]

This option will influence how virtual memory pages are backed by host pages.

Use --memorybacking=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryBacking>

=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 --metadata OPT=VAL,[...]

Specify metadata values for the guest. Possible options include name, uuid, title, and description. This option deprecates -u/--uuid and --description.

Use --metadata=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMetadata>

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

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.

'cpuset' sets 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.

Use --vcpus=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCPUAllocation>

=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.

Use --numatune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsNUMATuning>

=item --memtune=SOFT_LIMIT,[hard_limit=HARD_LIMIT,swap_hard_limit=SW_HARD_LIMIT,min_guarantee=MIN_GUARANTEE]

Tune memory policy for the domain process. Example invocations

    --memtune 1000
    --memtune hard_limit=100,soft_limit=60,swap_hard_limit=150,min_guarantee=80

Use --memtune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemoryTuning>

=item --blkiotune=WEIGHT,[device_path=DEVICE_PATH,device_weight=DEVICE_WEIGHT]

Tune blkio policy for the domain process. Example invocations

    --blkiotune 100
    --blkiotune weight=100,device_path=/dev/sdc,device_weight=200

Use --blkiotune=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsBlockTuning>

=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 known to libvirt.

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.

=item B<--cpu host-model-only>

Expose the nearest host CPU model configuration to the guest.
It is the best CPU which can be used for a guest on any of the hosts.

=back

Use --cpu=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCPU>

=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.

Use --security=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#seclabel>

=item --features FEAT=on|off,...

Set elements in the guests <features> XML on or off. Examples include acpi,
apic, eoi, privnet, and hyperv features. Some examples:

=over 2

=item B<--features eoi=on>

Enable APIC PV EOI

=item B<--features hyperv_vapic=on,hyperv_spinlocks=off>

Enable hypver VAPIC, but disable spinlocks

=back

Use --features=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsFeatures>

=item --clock offset=OFFSET,TIMER_OPT=VAL,...

Configure the guest's <clock> XML. Some supported options:

=over 2

=item B<--clock offset=OFFSET>

Set the clock offset, ex. 'utc' or 'localtime'

=item B<--clock TIMER_present=no>

Disable a boolean timer. TIMER here might be hpet, kvmclock, etc.

=item B<--clock TIMER_tickpolicy=VAL>

Set a timer's tickpolicy value. TIMER here might be rtc, pit, etc. VAL
might be catchup, delay, etc. Refer to the libvirt docs for all values.

=back

Use --clock=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsTime>


=item --pm=PMOPTS

Configure guest power management features. Example suboptions include suspend_to_ram=on|off and suspend_to_disk=on|off

Use --pm=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsPowerManagement>



=back

=head2 Installation Method options

=over 2

=item  --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.

--location allows things like --extra-args for kernel arguments, and using --initrd-inject. If you want to use those options with CDROM media, you have a few options:

* Run virt-install as root and do --location ISO

* Mount the ISO at a local directory, and do --location DIRECTORY

* Mount the ISO at a local directory, export that directory over local http, and do --location http://localhost/DIRECTORY

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

=over 4

=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.

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

An NFS server location containing an installable distribution image. This requires running virt-install as root.

=item DIRECTORY

Path to a local directory containing an installable distribution image. Note that the directory will not be accessible by the guest after initial boot, so the OS installer will need another way to access the rest of the install media.

=item ISO

Mount the ISO and probe the directory. This requires running virt-install as root, and has the same VM access caveat as DIRECTORY.

=back

Some distro specific url samples:

=over 4

=item Fedora/Red Hat Based

http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/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  --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-variant=OS_VARIANT

Optimize the guest configuration for a specific operating system (ex.
'fedora18', 'rhel7', 'winxp'). While not requires, specifying this
options is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, as it can greatly increase performance
by specifying virtio among other guest tweaks.

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.

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 kernel=KERNEL,initrd=INITRD,dtb=DTB>

Have guest permanently boot off a local kernel/initrd pair with an
external device tree binary. DTB can be required for some non-x86
configurations like ARM or PPC

=item B<--boot loader=BIOSPATH>

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

=item B<--boot menu=on,useserial=on>

Enable the bios boot menu, and enable sending bios text output over
serial console.

=item B<--boot init=INITPATH>

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

=back

Use --boot=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsOS>

=item --idmap=IDMAPOPTS

If the guest configuration declares a UID or GID mapping,
the 'user' namespace will be enabled to apply these.
A suitably configured UID/GID mapping is a pre-requisite to
make containers secure, in the absence of sVirt confinement.

--idmap can be specified to enable user namespace for LXC containers

Example:
    --idmap uid_start=0,uid_target=1000,uid_count=10,gid_start=0,gid_target=1000,gid_count=10

Use --idmap=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsOSContainer>

=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,...

The simplest invocation to create a new 10G disk image and associated disk device:

    --disk size=10

virt-install will generate a path name, and place it in the default image location for the hypervisor. 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.

Specifying a non-existent path implies attempting to create the new storage,
and will require specifying a 'size' value. Even for remote hosts, virt-install
will try to use libvirt storage APIs to automatically create the given path.

=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<removable>

Sets the removable flag (/sys/block/$dev/removable on Linux). Only
used with QEMU and bus=usb. Value can be 'on' or 'off'.

=item B<readonly>

Set drive as readonly (takes 'on' or 'off')

=item B<shareable>

Set drive as shareable (takes 'on' or 'off')

=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<backing_store>

Path to a disk to use as the backing store for the newly created image.

=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>

Disk image format. 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.

If not specified when creating file images, this will default to 'qcow2'.

If creating storage, this will be the format of the new image. If using an existing image, this overrides libvirt's format auto-detection.

=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

=item B<startup_policy>

It defines what to do with the disk if the source file is not accessible.  See
possible values in L<http://www.libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsDisks>

=back

See the examples section for some uses. This option deprecates -f/--file,
-s/--file-size, and --nonsparse.

Use --disk=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsDisks>

=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

Use --filesystem=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsFilesystems>

=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).

=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 4 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 type=direct,source=IFACE[,source_mode=MODE]

Direct connect to host interface IFACE using macvtap.

=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'.

=item B<filterref>

Controlling firewall and network filtering in libvirt. Value can be any nwfilter
defined by the C<virsh> 'nwfilter' subcommands. Available filters can be listed
by running 'virsh nwfilter-list', e.g.: 'clean-traffic', 'no-mac-spoofing', ...

=back

Use --network=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsNICS>

This option deprecates -m/--mac and -b/--bridge

=item --nonetworks

Request a virtual machine without any network interfaces.

=back





=head2 Graphics Configuration

If no graphics option is specified, C<virt-install> will try to select
the appropriate graphics 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).

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'

=back

Use --graphics=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsGraphics>

This deprecates the following options: --vnc, --vncport, --vnclisten, -k/--keymap, --sdl, --nographics

=item  --noautoconsole

Don't automatically try to connect to the guest console. The default behaviour
is to launch L<virt-viewer(1)> 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.

This deprecates the --accelerate option, which is now the default behavior. To install a plain QEMU guest, use '--virt-type qemu'

=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 values B<usb2> and B<usb3>.

=over 4

=item B<model>

Controller model.  These may vary according to the hypervisor and its
version.  Most commonly used models are e.g. B<auto>, B<virtio-scsi>
for the B<scsi> controller, B<ehci> or B<none> for the B<usb>
controller.  For full list and further details on controllers/models,
see C<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsControllers>.

=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

Examples:

=over 4

=item B<--controller usb,model=ich9-ehci1,address=0:0:4.0,index=0>

Adds a ICH9 EHCI1 USB controller on PCI address 0:0:4.0

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

Adds a ICH9 UHCI2 USB companion controller for the previous master
controller, ports start from port number 2.

The parameter multifunction='on' will be added automatically to the
proper device (if needed).  This applies to all PCI devices.

=back

Use --controller=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsControllers>

=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

Use --host-device=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsHostDev>

=item --sound 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 --soundhw option.

Use --sound=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSound>

=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

Use --watchdog=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsWatchdog>

=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

Use --serial=? or --parallel=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharSerial> and L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharParallel>

=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

Use --channel=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharChannel>

=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

Use --console=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsCharConsole>

=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).

Use --video=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsVideo>

=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

Use --smartcard=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsSmartcard>

=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

Use --redirdev=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsRedir>

=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

Use --memballoon=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMemBalloon>

=item --tpm=TYPE[,OPTS]

Configure a virtual TPM device.

Type must be B<passthrough>. Additional options are:

=over 4

=item B<model>

The device model to present to the guest operating system. Model
must be B<tpm-tis>.

=back

An example invocation:

=over 4

=item B<--tpm passthrough,model=tpm-tis>

Make the host's TPM accessible to a single guest.

=item B<--tpm /dev/tpm>

Convenience option for passing through the hosts TPM.

=back

Use --tpm=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsTpm>

=item --rng=TYPE[,OPTS]

Configure a virtual RNG device.

Type can be B<random> or B<egd>.

If the specified type is B<random> then these values must
be specified:

=over 4

=item B<backend_device>

The device to use as a source of entropy.

=back

Whereas, when the type is B<egd>, these values must be provided:

=over 4

=item B<backend_host>

Specify the host of the Entropy Gathering Daemon to connect to.

=item B<backend_service>

Specify the port of the Entropy Gathering Daemon to connect to.

=item B<backend_type>

Specify the type of the connection: B<tcp> or B<udp>.

=item B<backend_mode>

Specify the mode of the connection.  It is either 'bind' (wait for
connections on HOST:PORT) or 'connect' (send output to HOST:PORT).

=item B<backend_connect_host>

Specify the remote host to connect to when the specified backend_type is B<udp>
and backend_mode is B<bind>.

=item B<backend_connect_service>

Specify the remote service to connect to when the specified backend_type is
B<udp> and backend_mode is B<bind>.

=back

An example invocation:

=over 4

=item B<--rng egd,backend_host=localhost,backend_service=8000,backend_type=tcp>

Connect to localhost to the TCP port 8000 to get entropy data.

=item B<--rng /dev/random>

Use the /dev/random device to get entropy data, this form implicitly uses the
"random" model.

Use --rng=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsRng>

=back

=item --panic OPTS

Attach a panic notifier device to the guest. For the recommended settings, use:

--panic default

Use --panic=? to see a list of all available sub options. Complete details at L<http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsPanic>

=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 harddisk. 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 --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 -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<~/.cache/virt-manager/virt-install.log> even if this parameter is omitted.

=back

=head1 EXAMPLES

Install a Fedora 20 KVM guest with virtio accelerated disk/network,
creating a new 10GB qcow2 file, installing from media in the hosts
CDROM drive. This will use Spice graphics by default, and launch autolaunch
a graphical client.

  # virt-install \
       --connect qemu:///system \
       --virt-type kvm \
       --name demo \
       --memory 500 \
       --disk size=10 \
       --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 \
       --memory 500 \
       --disk path=/dev/HostVG/DemoVM \
       --network network=default \
       --virt-type qemu
       --graphics vnc \
       --os-variant fedora9

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

  # virt-install \
       --hvm \
       --name demo \
       --memory 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 \
        --memory 512 \
        --vcpus 2 \
        --init /usr/bin/httpd

Start a linux container guest(LXC) with a private root filesystem,
using /bin/sh as init.
Container's root will be under host dir /home/LXC.
The host dir "/home/test" will be mounted at
"/mnt" dir inside container:

  # virt-install \
        --connect lxc:/// \
        --name container \
        --memory 128 \
        --filesystem /home/LXC,/ \
        --filesystem /home/test,/mnt \
        --init /bin/sh

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 \
       --memory 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 \
       --memory 512 \
       --disk /home/user/VMs/mydisk.img \
       --import

Start serial QEMU ARM VM, which requires specifying a manual kernel.

  # virt-install \
       --name armtest \
       --memory 1024 \
       --arch armv7l --machine vexpress-a9 \
       --disk /home/user/VMs/myarmdisk.img \
       --boot kernel=/tmp/my-arm-kernel,initrd=/tmp/my-arm-initrd,dtb=/tmp/my-arm-dtb,kernel_args="console=ttyAMA0 rw root=/dev/mmcblk0p3" \
       --nographics

=head1 BUGS

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

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 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