2010/11/13 MargoAndTodd <margoandtodd at gmail.com>: > On 11/11/2010 01:50 PM, Kenni Lund wrote: >> You'll never need to run it from the command line, use the available >> management tools (libvirt+virsh from the command line, >> libvirt+virt-manager from X11), it makes your life much much easier. >> I've been running qemu-kvm from the command line for several years, >> and while it's fine to know how the system works, then you definitely >> don't want to manage your enterprise virtual machines that way. For >> example, if you start qemu-kvm twice in parallel, with the same HDD >> image, you'll damage or destroy your HDD image. Libvirt takes care of >> such banalities and many others. > > Thank you! > > These are small business servers. The CentOS server is the only server > on the network. I start my VM's in rc.local and shut them down in > rd.shutdown (I wrote my own). So, I am stuck with the command line. > Thank you for the heads up on running them twice! > > But, on my new office machine, I will be running them headed, so I > will be using your instructions there. Running from the command line doesn't mean you can't use the management tools: Quick'n'dirty overview: Install new guests: virt-install Start guest: virsh start $guestname List running guests: virsh list virsh list --all Shutdown guest (sends an ACPI signal to the guest, telling it to shutdown correctly - same a clicking on the power button for 1 sec on most computers): virsh shutdown $guestname Shutdown guest immediately (like pulling the power cable from a computer): virsh destroy $guestname Edit a guest: virsh edit $guestname etc. etc...run virsh --help and virt-install --help for more options. Best regards Kenni