Installation guide

Chapter 30. Managing guests with virsh

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This command outputs the guest's XML configuration file to standard out (stdout). You can save the

data by piping the output to a file. An example of piping the output to a file called guest.xml:

# virsh dumpxml GuestID > guest.xml

This file guest.xml can recreate the guest (refer to Editing a guest's configuration file. You can edit

this XML configuration file to configure additional devices or to deploy additional guests. Refer to

Section 33.1, “Using XML configuration files with virsh” for more information on modifying files created

with virsh dumpxml.

An example of virsh dumpxml output:

# virsh dumpxml r5b2-mySQL01

<name>r5b2-mySQL01</name>

<bootloader>/usr/bin/pygrub</bootloader>

<os>

<type>linux</type>

<kernel>/var/lib/libvirt/vmlinuz.2dgnU_</kernel>

<initrd>/var/lib/libvirt/initrd.UQafMw</initrd>

<cmdline>ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet</cmdline>

</os>

<on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>

<on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>

<on_crash>restart</on_crash>

</interface>

</devices>

</domain>

Creating a guest from a configuration file

Guests can be created from XML configuration files. You can copy existing XML from previously

created guests or use the dumpxml option (refer to Creating a virtual machine XML dump

(configuration file)). To create a guest with virsh from an XML file:

# virsh create configuration_file.xml

Editing a guest's configuration file

Instead of using the dumpxml option (refer to Creating a virtual machine XML dump (configuration

file)) guests can be edited either while they run or while they are offline. The virsh edit command

provides this functionality. For example, to edit the guest named softwaretesting:

# virsh edit softwaretesting

This opens a text editor. The default text editor is the $EDITOR shell parameter (set to vi by default).