3.3. Performing Actions on Virtual Environments¶

Use virsh to manage virtual environments. By default virsh connects to the qemu:///system hypervisor used for virtual machines. To manage containers, connect to the vzct:///system hypervisor instead with --connect vzct:///system.

• To start a virtual machine, use virsh start. For example:

  # virsh start mylinuxvm
  Domain mylinuxvm started
  

  To start a container, use the same command with the corresponding hypervisor. For example:

  # virsh --connect vzct:///system start mylinuxct
  Domain mylinuxct started
  

  Note

  You may need to install the prl-vzvncserver.x86_64 package to be able to start containers.

• To connect to a running virtual environment via VNC, use the port you provided in the creation command in the --graphics option, e.g., port=5901.

• To connect to a running container, use vzctl enter <CT_name_or_ID>.

• To stop a virtual environment, use either virsh shutdown (graceful) or virsh destroy (forced, which may corrupt virtual environment’s hard disks). For example:

  # virsh shutdown mylinuxvm
  Domain mylinuxvm is being shutdown
  # virsh --connect vzct:///system destroy mylinuxct
  Domain mylinuxct destroyed
  

• To delete a stopped virtual environment, use virsh undefine. This command will only delete the virtual environment’s configuration. The hard disks will not be deleted. For example:

  # virsh undefine mylinuxvm
  Domain mylinuxvm has been undefined