virt-up 1.2.0

Create virtual machines quickly with virt-builder

virt-up

virt-up is a command line tool for creating virtual machines quickly on a local KVM hypervisor using virt-builder, virt-sysprep, and virt-install.

Virtual machines are created from existing digitally signed OS images, which are downloaded and cached. A template virtual machine is created from the downloaded image. Virtual machines are cloned from the template machine to create new virtual machines quickly.

A login user and the ssh keys to connect to the new virtual machines are created automatically. The login user is given sudo access. Connection information is stored in a json meta data file for each virtual machine created.

Normally you should run virt-up as a regular user, not root.

By default, virt-up will create image files in the default libvirt storage pool (/var/lib/libvirt/images). See the pool option Settings to change this. Be sure you have read and write access to the configured libvirt storage pool.

System requirements

• Python 3.6 or better

• Local KVM hypervisor

• Python libvirt package

• qemu-img, virt-builder, virt-sysprep, virt-install

Usage

usage: virt-up [--name] <name> [--template <template>] [options]
               --list [--all] | --list-templates
               --login [--name] <name> [--command "<command>"]
               --delete [--name] <name> | --delete --all

positional arguments:
  <name>                instance name

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  --list                list instances
  --list-templates      list template names
  --delete              delete the instance
  -t <template>, --template <template>
                        template name (default: <name>)
  --root-password <root-password>
                        root password (default: random)
  --user <user>         username (default: virt)
  --password <password>
                        password (default: random)
  --size <size>         instance disk size (default: image size)
  --memory <memory>     instance memory (default: 512)
  --vcpus <vcpus>       instance vcpus (default: 1)
  --graphics <graphics>
                        instance graphics type (default: none)
  --command <command>   --login ssh command
  --no-clone            build template instance only
  --all                 include template instances
  --yes                 answer yes to interactive questions
  --quiet               show less output
  --debug               show debug tracing

Settings

virt-up reads settings for INI formatted configuration files. The following files are read in order, if they exist.

• /etc/virt-up/settings.cfg

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/virt-up/settings.cfg ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME is $HOME/.config if not set)

The settings.cfg should contain one section called [site]. The following fields are supported:

pool

The libvirt storage pool to write images. (default: default)

username

The username of the user account created by virt-up when creating new template instances (default: virt)

dns-domain

The DNS domain used for new template instance hostnames. (default: None)

address-source

The method used to detect the instance IP address. Supported values are agent, lease, arp, dns. (default: agent)

image-format

The image format. Supported values are qcow2, and raw. (default: qcow2)

virt-builder-args

Extra arguments for virt-builder. (default: None)

virt-sysprep-args

Extra arguments for virt-sysprep. (default: None)

virt-install-args

Extra arguments for virt-install. (default: None)

Template Defintions

Additional OS types can be created with virt-up by providing template defintions in the following files:

• /etc/virt-up/templates.cfg

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/virt-up/templates.cfg ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME is $HOME/.config if not set)

The templates.cfg files are INI formatted text files. Provide one section for each template definition. The section name is the template name used in virt-up --template option. The following fields are supported:

desc

A text description, show by --list-templates.

os-version

The virt-builder <os_version> name. See virt-builder =-list for available names.

os-type

The virt-install --os-type

os-variant

The virt-install --os-variant. See osquery-info os for available names.

arch

The target architecture.

virt-builder-args

Template specific extra arguments for virt-builder. (default: None)

virt-sysprep-args

Template specific extra arguments for virt-sysprep. (default: None)

virt-install-args =

Template specific extra arguments for virt-install. (default: None)