Virtualization

Running and managing virtual machines from the command line — VMware ESXi via esxcli and vim-cmd, KVM and QEMU via virsh.

VMware and ESXi

List VM processes

Find a VM's process World ID.

esxcli vm process list

Manage VM processes

Kill an unresponsive VM — soft, then hard, then force.

esxcli vm process kill

Power on, off or reboot a VM

Look up the vmid, check power state, then change it.

vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on

Shut down or reboot the host

From the ESX service console, and what each command does to running VMs.

poweroff

KVM and QEMU

Using virsh

Listing, editing, starting, stopping and undefining guests.

virsh list --all

Share folder between guest and host

Pass a host directory into a guest with virtiofs by editing the VM's XML.

virsh edit

Cloned VM gets the same DHCP address

The clone kept its machine-id. Regenerate it.

systemd-machine-id-setup