General Options¶

General configuration parameters that apply to all types of guest installs.

-n NAME, --name=NAME

Name of the guest instance

-r MEMORY, --ram=MEMORY

Memory to allocate for guest instance in megabytes. Defaults to "/image/devices/memory" in the XML descriptor.

-u UUID, --uuid=UUID

UUID for the guest; if none is given a random UUID will be generated. If you specify UUID, you should use a 32-digit hexadecimal number.

--vcpus=VCPUS

Number of vcpus to configure for your guest. Defaults to "/image/devices/vcpu" in the XML descriptor. This option can also be used to set CPU topology, please see virt-install(1) for more info.

--cpuset

Set which physical cpus the guest can use. Please see virt-install(1) for more info.

--cpu

Configure the CPU and CPU features exposed to the guest. Please see virt-install(1) for more info.

--check-cpu

Check that vcpus do not exceed physical CPUs and warn if they do.

--os-type=OS_TYPE

Optimize the guest configuration for a type of operating system (ex. 'linux', 'windows'). This will attempt to pick the most suitable ACPI & APIC settings, optimally supported mouse drivers, virtio, and generally accommodate other operating system quirks. See virt-install(1) for valid values.

--os-variant=OS_VARIANT

Further optimize the guest configuration for a specific operating system variant (ex. 'fedora8', 'winxp'). This parameter is optional, and does not require an "--os-type" to be specified. See virt-install(1) for valid values.

Full Virtualization specific options¶

Parameters specific only to fully virtualized guest installs.

--noapic

Force disable APIC for the guest.

--noacpi

Force disable ACPI for the guest.

Networking Configuration¶

-w NETWORK, --network=NETWORK

Connect the guest to the host network. See virt-install(1) for details

-m MAC, --mac=MAC

This is deprecated in favor of "--network ...,mac=MAC,..."

-b BRIDGE, --bridge=BRIDGE

This is deprecated in favor of "--network bridge=BRIDGE"

Graphics Configuration¶

If no graphics option is specified, "virt-image" will default to '--graphics vnc' if the DISPLAY environment variable is set, otherwise '--graphics none' is used.

--graphics TYPE,opt1=arg1,opt2=arg2,...

Specifies the graphical display configuration. This does not configure any virtual hardware, just how the guest's graphical display can be accessed. See virt-install(1) for details usage info.

--vnc

This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics vnc,..."

--vncport=VNCPORT

This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics vnc,port=PORT,..."

--vnclisten=VNCLISTEN

This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics vnc,listen=LISTEN,..."

-k KEYMAP, --keymap=KEYMAP

This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics vnc,keymap=KEYMAP,..."

--sdl

This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics sdl,..."

--nographics

This option is deprecated in favor of "--graphics none"

Miscellaneous Options¶

-p, --print

Print the libvirt XML, but do not start the guest.

--boot=BOOT

The zero-based index of the boot record to use. The XML descriptor can contain multiple "/image/domain/boot" elements for use on different hypervisors. By default, the one that is most appropriate for the current hypervisor is selected.

--replace

Shutdown and remove any existing guest with the passed "--name" before installing from the image.

--noreboot

Prevent the domain automatatically booting after importing the image.

--skip-checksum

Do not check disk images against checksums (if they are listed in the image xml).

-d, --debug

Print debugging information.