Accessing virtual machine consoles

In the OKD console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.

Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.

Click the Console tab. The VNC console opens by default.

Click Disconnect to ensure that only one console session is open at a time. Otherwise, the VNC console session remains active in the background.

Click the VNC Console drop-down list and select Serial Console.

Click Disconnect to end the console session.

Optional: Open the serial console in a separate window by clicking Open Console in New Window.

In the OKD console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.

Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.

Click the Console tab. The VNC console opens by default.

Optional: Open the VNC console in a separate window by clicking Open Console in New Window.

Optional: Send key combinations to the virtual machine by clicking Send Key.

Click outside the console window and then click Disconnect to end the session.

In the OKD console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.

Click a Windows virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.

Click the Console tab.

From the list of consoles, select Desktop viewer.

Click Launch Remote Desktop to download the console.rdp file.

Reference the console.rdp file in your preferred RDP client to connect to the Windows virtual machine.

In the OKD console, click Virtualization → VirtualMachines

Select a Windows virtual machine to open the Overview screen.

Click the Console tab.

From the list of consoles, select VNC console.

Choose the appropriate key combination from the Send Key list:

Use the ssh-keygen command to generate an SSH public key pair:

$ ssh-keygen -f <key_file> (1)

Create an SSH authentication secret which contains the SSH public key to access the VM:

$ oc create secret generic my-pub-key --from-file=key1=<key_file>.pub

Add a reference to the secret in the VirtualMachine manifest. For example:

apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: testvm
spec:
  running: true
  template:
    spec:
      accessCredentials:
      - sshPublicKey:
          source:
            secret:
              secretName: my-pub-key (1)
          propagationMethod:
            configDrive: {} (2)
# ...

Restart the VM to apply your changes.

Run the following command to access the VM via SSH:

$ virtctl ssh -i <key_file> <vm_username>@<vm_name>

Optional: To securely transfer files to or from the VM, use the following commands:

$ virtctl scp -i <key_file> <filename> <vm_username>@<vm_name>:

$ virtctl scp -i <key_file> <vm_username@<vm_name>:<filename> .

Connect to the graphical interface with the virtctl utility:

$ virtctl vnc <VMI>

If the command failed, try using the -v flag to collect troubleshooting information:

$ virtctl vnc <VMI> -v 4

Edit the VirtualMachine manifest to add the label for service creation:

apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: vm-ephemeral
  namespace: example-namespace
spec:
  running: false
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        special: key (1)
# ...

Save the VirtualMachine manifest file to apply your changes.

Create a Service manifest to expose the VM:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: rdpservice (1)
  namespace: example-namespace (2)
spec:
  ports:
  - targetPort: 3389 (3)
    protocol: TCP
  selector:
    special: key (4)
  type: NodePort (5)
# ...

Save the Service manifest file.

Create the service by running the following command:

$ oc create -f <service_name>.yaml

Start the VM. If the VM is already running, restart it.

Query the Service object to verify that it is available:

$ oc get service -n example-namespace

NAME        TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)            AGE
rdpservice   NodePort    172.30.232.73   <none>       3389:30000/TCP    5m

Run the following command to obtain the IP address for the node:

$ oc get node <node_name> -o wide

NAME    STATUS   ROLES   AGE    VERSION  INTERNAL-IP      EXTERNAL-IP
node01  Ready    worker  6d22h  v1.24.0  192.168.55.101   <none>

Specify the node IP address and the assigned port in your preferred RDP client.

Enter the user name and password to connect to the Windows virtual machine.