kcli VM Operations

VM Lifecycle Commands

Create VM

From image

kcli create vm -i fedora40 myvm

With parameters

kcli create vm -i centos9stream -P memory=4096 -P numcpus=4 -P disks=[20,50] myvm

From profile

kcli create vm -p myprofile myvm

List VMs

kcli list vm # All VMs kcli list vm -o yaml # YAML output kcli list vm -o json # JSON output

VM Info

kcli info vm myvm # Full info kcli info vm myvm -f ip # Specific field kcli info vm myvm -o yaml # YAML format

Start/Stop/Restart

kcli start vm myvm kcli stop vm myvm kcli restart vm myvm

Delete VM

kcli delete vm myvm # With confirmation kcli delete vm myvm --yes # Skip confirmation kcli delete vm myvm --snapshots # Delete snapshots too

SSH Access

kcli ssh myvm # SSH as default user kcli ssh -u root myvm # SSH as specific user kcli ssh -l myvm # List SSH command only

Console Access

kcli console myvm # Graphical console (VNC/SPICE) kcli console myvm --serial # Serial console

Disk Operations

Add disk

kcli create disk -s 20 -p default myvm # 20GB disk kcli create disk -s 50 --thin myvm # Thin provisioned

Delete disk

kcli delete disk myvm-disk1 myvm

List disks

kcli list disk

NIC Operations

Add NIC

kcli create nic -n mynetwork myvm

Delete NIC

kcli delete nic eth1 myvm

Update NIC

kcli update nic -n newnetwork myvm --index 0

Snapshots

Create snapshot

kcli create snapshot myvm mysnapshot

List snapshots

kcli list snapshot myvm

Revert to snapshot

kcli revert snapshot myvm mysnapshot

Delete snapshot

kcli delete snapshot myvm mysnapshot

VM Configuration

Configuration Hierarchy

Parameters are resolved in order (later overrides earlier):

• kvirt/defaults.py

• Built-in defaults

• ~/.kcli/config.yml default section

• Provider-specific section in config.yml

• Profile definition (~/.kcli/profiles.yml )

• Plan file parameters

• Command-line -P overrides

Common Parameters

Compute

numcpus: 2 # CPU count memory: 512 # Memory in MB cpumodel: host-model # CPU model

Storage

pool: default # Storage pool disks: # Disk configuration

• size: 20 # Size in GB
• size: 50 pool: otherpool thin: true

Network

nets: # Network configuration

• default # Simple: network name only
• name: mynet # Advanced: with options ip: 192.168.1.10 netmask: 255.255.255.0 gateway: 192.168.1.1 mac: aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

OS Customization

image: fedora40 # Base image cloudinit: true # Enable cloud-init keys: # SSH public keys

• ssh-rsa AAAA... user@host cmds: # Post-boot commands
• dnf -y update
• systemctl enable nginx files: # Files to inject
• path: /etc/myconfig content: | key=value

Images

List available images

kcli list image

Download image

kcli download image fedora40 kcli download image centos9stream -p mypool

Delete image

kcli delete image fedora40

List all available images (from kcli catalog)

kcli list available-images

Profiles

Profiles in ~/.kcli/profiles.yml :

small: numcpus: 1 memory: 1024 disks: - size: 10

medium: numcpus: 2 memory: 2048 disks: - size: 20

webserver: image: centos9stream numcpus: 2 memory: 4096 nets: - default cmds: - dnf -y install nginx - systemctl enable --now nginx

Usage:

kcli create vm -p webserver myweb

Update Operations

Update memory

kcli update vm myvm -P memory=8192

Update CPUs

kcli update vm myvm -P numcpus=4

Update metadata

kcli update vm myvm -P information="Production server"

Clone VM

kcli clone vm myvm myclone kcli clone vm myvm myclone --full # Full clone (not linked)

Export VM

kcli export vm myvm # Export to image kcli export vm myvm --image myimage # Custom image name

Troubleshooting

VM Won't Start

kcli -d start vm myvm # Debug output sudo virsh list --all # Check libvirt state sudo virsh start myvm # Try direct start

No IP Address

Check DHCP is enabled on network

kcli info network default

Check cloud-init completed

kcli ssh myvm cat /var/log/cloud-init.log

SSH Connection Issues

Get SSH command details

kcli ssh -l myvm

Check VM has IP

kcli info vm myvm -f ip

Try direct SSH

ssh -i ~/.kcli/id_rsa user@<ip>