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Creating virtual machines from the command line

You can create virtual machines (VMs) from the command line by editing or creating a VirtualMachine manifest. You can simplify VM configuration by using an instance type in your VM manifest.

You can also create VMs from instance types by using the web console.

Creating a VM from a VirtualMachine manifest

You can create a virtual machine (VM) from a VirtualMachine manifest. To simplify the creation of these manifests, you can use the virtctl command-line tool.

Prerequisites

  • You must have the virtctl command-line tool installed.

Procedure

  1. Create a VirtualMachine manifest for your VM and save it as a YAML file. For example, to create a minimal Fedora VM, run the following command:

    $ virtctl create vm --name rhel-9-minimal --volume-datasource src:openshift-virtualization-os-images/rhel9

  2. Review the VirtualMachine manifest for your VM:

    This example manifest does not configure VM authentication.
    Example manifest for a Fedora VM
    apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: rhel-9-minimal (1)
spec:
  dataVolumeTemplates:
  - metadata:
      name: imported-volume-mk4lj
    spec:
      sourceRef:
        kind: DataSource
        name: rhel9 (2)
        namespace: openshift-virtualization-os-images (3)
      storage:
        resources: {}
  instancetype:
    inferFromVolume: imported-volume-mk4lj (4)
    inferFromVolumeFailurePolicy: Ignore
  preference:
    inferFromVolume: imported-volume-mk4lj (5)
    inferFromVolumeFailurePolicy: Ignore
  runStrategy: Always
  template:
    spec:
      domain:
        devices: {}
        memory:
          guest: 512Mi
        resources: {}
      terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 180
      volumes:
      - dataVolume:
          name: imported-volume-mk4lj
        name: imported-volume-mk4lj
    1 The VM name.
    2 The boot source for the guest operating system.
    3 The namespace for the boot source. Golden images are stored in the openshift-virtualization-os-images namespace.
    4 The instance type is inferred from the selected DataSource object.
    5 The preference is inferred from the selected DataSource object.

  3. Create a virtual machine by using the manifest file:

    $ oc create -f <vm_manifest_file>.yaml

  4. Optional: Start the virtual machine:

    $ virtctl start <vm_name>
Next steps