vms.conf(5) - vms per user configuration file format</p>

vms.conf(5)
vms
vms.conf(5)

NAME

vms.conf - vms per user configuration file format

vms.conf(5) -- vms per user configuration file format

SYNOPSIS

The vms.conf is a per user configuration file that is located at ~/.vms/vms.conf. It is used by the vms(1) command. It stores bash(1) associative arrays, one for each virtual machine.

DESCRIPTION

An example vms.conf is located at /usr/share/vms/vms.conf.example. A typical vms.conf(5) can be like this

#!/bin/bash

VMSTORE=/path/to/directory

declare -A avm
avm[name]=avm
avm[uuid]='xxxxxxxx-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff'
avm[arch]=x86_64
avm[mem]=2048
avm[smp]=2
avm[disk0]="$VMSTORE/avm-system.img"
avm[bootcd]="$VMSTORE/install-dvd.iso"

# declare -A bvm
# bvm[name]=bvm
# bvm[...

A set of predefined keys are supported by a very simple parser (vms-parse). The keys name, uuid and arch are required for each virtual machine. Some keys can be numbered, like disk0, disk1, nic0, nic1, etc.These are referred as disk# and nic#. Some keys are boolean, these can be set to yes or no.

REQUIRED KEYS

name: The name of the virtual machine
uuid: A uuid for the virtual machine, see uuidgen(1)
arch: The virtual machine architecture, eg. x86_64, arm

SUPPORTED KEYS

disk#: A path to a disk to attach to the virtual machine
vde#: A VDE network device
br#: A bridge network device
nic#: A network interface device
extra#: Raw qemu command line options
cpu: The qemu cpu type
mem: The amount of virtual machine memory
smp: SMP configuration for the virtual machine
rtc: The virtual machine's RTC configuration
bootcd: A path to an disk.iso
vnc: The VNC number to use for qemu's VNC console
kvm: Enable KVM, boolean
log: Enable logging, boolean
serial: Enable serial console, boolean
monitor: Enable monitor console, boolean
daemon: Run qemu as a daemon, boolean
secure: Run qemu as a daemon, as user nobody inside an empty chroot, boolean

EXAMPLE

Expanding upon the avm example from above, declare the bvm virtual machine. Let's attach the bvm[disk0] to virtio.

declare -A bvm
bvm[name]=bvm
bvm[uuid]='xxxxxxxx-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff'
bvm[arch]=x86_64
bvm[mem]=2048
bvm[smp]=2
bvm[bootcd]="$VMSTORE/install-dvd.iso"
bvm[disk0]="$VMSTORE/bvm-system.img,if=virtio,index=0"

Enable KVM and configure the guest cpu. Notice that for some options like cpu, anything can be passed to qemu, like the -M q35. See vms-parse for more details. Alternatively, the same can be done by using the extra# keys.

bvm[kvm]=yes
bvm[cpu]='host -M q35'

## Or comment the above and use the next line to emulate a specific
## Intel model with kvm disabled on the guest, overriding the cpu
## vendor for the guest, even when qemu is running on an AMD host.
#bvm[cpu]='Penryn,kvm=off,vendor=GenuineIntel'

Connect to two network bridges on the host. One with a virtio-net interface and the other with an e1000 on the guest.

bvm[br0]=net0
bvm[nic0]='virtio-net-pci,mac=52:54:00:XX:XX:XX,netdev=net0'
bvm[br1]='net1,br=br1'
bvm[nic1]='e1000,mac=52:54:00:XX:XX:XX,netdev=net1'

Connect to two VDE switches running on the host.

bvm[vde0]=net2
bvm[nic2]='virtio-net-pci,mac=52:54:00:XX:XX:XX,netdev=net2'
bvm[vde1]=net3,sock=/path/to/vde.sock
bvm[nic3]='e1000,mac=52:54:00:XX:XX:XX,netdev=net3'

Start VNC server and run as a daemon

bvm[vnc]=7
bvm[daemon]=yes

Now, one can start bvm and display it's status by using

vms start bvm
vms status bvm

Assuming the user that owns bvm is called joe, bvm can be configured to start during the host's boot sequence like this

echo 'joe bvm' >> /etc/rc.d/rc.vms.conf`. See rc.vms(1).

AUTHOR

Nikos Giotis nikos.giotis@gmail.com

August 2018
vms.conf(5)