Start and stop KVM VM from command line

steno

New Member
Aug 4, 2008
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0
1
Hello! Great work guys !

I have a small problem, I want make a small bash script for backup qcow2 files, how can I stop from command line (no web interface) an KVM machine ?

Like vmctl stop/start, but for KVM VMs.

Thanks.
 
Hello! Great work guys !

I have a small problem, I want make a small bash script for backup qcow2 files, how can I stop from command line (no web interface) an KVM machine ?

Like vmctl stop/start, but for KVM VMs.

Thanks.

just type

qm

and you will see the options:

Code:
qm <command> <vmid> [OPTIONS]
qm [create|set] <vmid>
        --memory  <MBYTES>    memory in MB (64 - 8192)
        --smp  <N>            set number of CPUs to <N>
        --ostype NAME         specify OS type
        --onboot [yes|no]     start at boot
        --keyboard XX         set vnc keyboard layout
        --cpuunits <num>      CPU weight for a VM
        --name <text>         Add a name for the VM
        --boot [a|c|d|n]      specify boot order
        --bootdisk <disk>     enable booting from <disk>
        --acpi (yes|no)       enable/disable ACPI
        --localtime (yes|no)  set the RTC to local time

        --vlan[0-9u] MODEL=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX[,MODEL=YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY]

        --ide<N>    [file=]file,][,media=d]
                    [,cyls=c,heads=h,secs=s[,trans=t]]
                    [,snapshot=on|off][,cache=on|off][,format=f]
        --ide<N> <GBYTES>     create new disk
        --ide<N> delete       delete disk
        --cdrom <file>        is an alias for --ide2 <file>,media=cdrom

        --scsi<N>   [file=]file,][,media=d]
                    [,cyls=c,heads=h,secs=s[,trans=t]]
                    [,snapshot=on|off][,cache=on|off][,format=f]
        --scsi<N> <GBYTES>    create new disk
        --scsi<N> delete      delete disk

        --virtio<N> [file=]file,][,media=d]
                    [,cyls=c,heads=h,secs=s[,trans=t]]
                    [,snapshot=on|off][,cache=on|off][,format=f]
        --virtio<N> <GBYTES>  create new disk
        --virtio<N> delete    delete disk

qm monitor <vmid>       connect to vm control monitor
qm start <vmid>         start vm
qm reboot <vmid>        reboot vm (shutdown, start)
qm shutdown <vmid>      gracefully stop vm (send poweroff)
qm stop <vmid>          kill vm (immediate stop)
qm reset <vmid>         reset vm (stop, start)
qm suspend <vmid>       suspend vm
qm resume <vmid>        resume vm
qm destroy <vmid>       destroy vm (delete all files)

qm cdrom <vmid> [<device>] <path>  set cdrom path. <device is ide2 by default>
qm cdrom <vmid> [<device>] eject   eject cdrom

qm unlink <vmid> <file>  delete unused disk images
qm vncproxy <vmid> <ticket>  open vnc proxy
qm list                 list all virtual machines
one problem: if you run a win2003 server you cannot shutdown if no admin is logged in. maybe a windows guy out there have a solution for this? on XP its no problem.
 
Thanks, Tom.

For problem with Windows 2003 server, i'm not a windows guy :rolleyes: but on local policy you must allow shutdown without logon.

  1. Start / Run / gpedit.msc
  2. Drill into Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings / Local Policies / Security Options. Find the entry named "Shutdown: Allow system to be shut down without having to log on". Double click on it, change it to "Enabled".
  3. Drill into Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / System. Find the entry named "Display Shutdown Event Tracker". Double click on it, change it to "Disabled".
Now "qm shutdown VMID" works fine.

Enjoy :p

Warning! Remeber, this "hack" enable shutdown button on login dialog ...

Byez.
 
I've tried to run:
Code:
qm shutdown <vmid>
... but it doesn't seem to shutdown my VMs.

If I run:
Code:
qm stop <vmid>
... it works just fine, though.

But I'd rather not need to kill my machines that way. Any ideas/suggestions?
 
I've tried to run:
Code:
qm shutdown <vmid>
... but it doesn't seem to shutdown my VMs.

If I run:
Code:
qm stop <vmid>
... it works just fine, though.

But I'd rather not need to kill my machines that way. Any ideas/suggestions?

does your guest accept anonymous acpi shutdowns? what OS do you run?
 
install acpid.

Code:
apt-get install acpid
 
I know this is a very old thread but as I can't find a better one, here comes my question:

I'M busy setting up my backup of the proxmox machine with duply and duplicity and duply has a file called pre and one post - I planned to insert "service pve-manager stop" into pre and "service pve-manager start" into post but it only worked half-way:

I manually executed duply from the command line as root and it successfully stopped all VMs but failed to start them. When I re-connected to my screen session, the command service pve-manager start was just displayed on the display without any apparent result. Any ideas?
My next try will be to insert "/etc/init.d/pve-manager start" into post and see if that makes any difference...

Yes, please use

# service pve-manager stop

This stops all VMs and all Containers (we have start/stop ordering now).
 

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