qemu-init user tools

The user tools are for interactive usage at the command line. They use the functionality of the library. How to use each of these user tools is described in the man pages:

However, below are some more internal information and examples.

qemu-adm

qemu-adm is the administration tool of qemu-init. It is designed to do all the tasks which are implemented in the qemu-init library.

qemud-reg - register and unregister virtual machines, show short status (running or not) of registered virtual machines

Examples

We use pluto as <name> (unique identifier) in the examples below.

Register a virtual machine

To register a virtual machine located in /path/to/vm run

 $> qemu-adm -r /path/to/vm/pluto [-f]

Afterwards the virtual machine could be called by it's name “pluto”. Inside the folder /path/to/vm the files pluto-qemud.rc (rc-file), pluto-qemu.cfg (cfg-file) and optional (-f) a default (empty) disk image pluto-qemu.img will be created if not exists. The folder will be created if not exists.

Un-register a virtual machine

The opposite is to un-register a virtual machine:

 $> qemu-adm -u pluto

This action removes pluto from registered virtual machines. It does not remove any files!

Start a virtual machine

 $> qemu-adm -S pluto

Similar -D stops a and -R restarts a virtual machine.

Change AUTOSTART option

This command reverts the autostart option of pluto (used by qemud):

 $> qemu-adm -a pluto

If AUTOSTART is OFF it will be set to ON and vice versa. This option requires root privileges.

List registered virtual machines

To show all registered machines run:

 $> qemu-adm -l

Show status

This shows the actual status of a virtual machine:

 $> qemu-adm -s pluto

If the virtual machine is up and running the actual runtime configuration will be printed additional.

To get the status of all registered virtual machines run:

 $> qemu-adm -s [all]

This executes internal sudo qemud status - thus the user have to be in the qemu-init group (default: kvm ).

Remote access

qemu-init is designed to work at the host system local only. For remote access ssh is recommended. More complex commands needs to be quoted properly. Example:

 $> ssh <remote_host> 'qemu-adm -c "info name" pluto'

Especially a remote connection to the monitor requires that ssh have to be used with the -t option.

 $> ssh -t <remote_host> 'qemu-adm -m pluto'

It is important to use ssh -t here to be able to pipe CTRL-C through the ssh command (to disconnect from the monitor)!