virsh Command Examples

Manage virsh guest domains. (Note: guest_id can be the ID, name or UUID of the guest). Some subcommands such as list have their own usage documentation. More information: https://libvirt.org/manpages/virsh.html.

• Connect to a hypervisor session:

virsh connect {{qemu:///system}}

• List all domains:

virsh list --all

• Dump guest configuration file:

virsh dumpxml {{guest_id}} > {{path/to/guest.xml}}

• Create a guest from a configuration file:

virsh create {{path/to/config_file.xml}}

• Edit a guest's configuration file (editor can be changed with $EDITOR):

virsh edit {{guest_id}}

• Start/reboot/shutdown/suspend/resume a guest:

virsh {{command}} {{guest_id}}

• Save the current state of a guest to a file:

virsh save {{guest_id}} {{filename}}

• Delete a running guest:

virsh destroy {{guest_id}} && virsh undefine {{guest_id}}