27.9.1 QM Manager

With the QM Manager (activate on the console using qm), you can access the machine directly (without the web interface). The QM Manager is very powerful, hence the help texts which you will initially see if you access qm without further parameters.

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>         set a name for the VM
	--description <text>  set VM description
	--boot [a|c|d|n]      specify boot order
	--bootdisk <disk>     enable booting from <disk>
	--acpi (yes|no)       enable/disable ACPI
	--kvm (yes|no)        enable/disable KVM
	--tdf (yes|no)        enable/disable time drift fix
	--localtime (yes|no)  set the RTC to local time
	--vga (gd5446|vesa)   specify VGA type
	--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
	--format <format>     qcow|raw|raw2 => type of disk format
	--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 shutdown <vmid>      gracefully stop vm (send poweroff)
qm wait <vmid> [time]   wait until vm is stopped
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 cad <vmid>           sendkey ctrl-alt-delete
qm destroy <vmid>       destroy vm (delete all files)
qm status <vmid>        shows the container status

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 vnc <vmid>           start (X11) vncviewer (experimental)
qm showcmd <vmid>       show command line (debug info)
qm list                 list all virtual machines

qm startall             start all virtual machines (when onboot=1)
qm stopall [timeout]    stop all virtual machines (default timeout is 3 minutes)

Here are a few commands. With qm list you will see a list of the currently defined instances.

Image avvm-qm1

With qm showcmd 101 you will receive the command with which an instance is started (in our case the instance is 101).

Image avvm-qm2

With qm start 101 you can start an instance. Then you can use qm list to verify that the machine has actually started.

Image avvm-qm3

With qm stop 101 you can perform a hard shutdown on the machine. This is not really recommended since, in certain cases, the (virtual) disk must subsequently be reorganised. With qm shutdown 101 you can shut down Machine 101 in a controlled manner. It may be the case, however, that the operating system (instance) prevents this, in which case you will have to use qm stop 101 nonetheless.