You can connect to a running machine from the command line and from the web interface, while the run policy controls whether the machine is running at all.

Connecting to a virtual machine

You can connect to a virtual machine (VM) in four ways. The first is a remote management protocol such as SSH, which you configure in the guest OS yourself. The second is the serial console. The third is VNC. The fourth is SPICE, if it is enabled for the machine.

  • Using the CLI
  • Using the web interface

Serial console:

d8 v console linux-vm

Example output:

Successfully connected to linux-vm console. The escape sequence is ^]
linux-vm login: cloud
Password: cloud

To exit the console, press Ctrl+].

Connecting over VNC:

d8 v vnc linux-vm

Connecting over SPICE:

d8 v spice linux-vm

Connecting over SSH:

d8 v ssh cloud@linux-vm
  1. Go to the Projects tab and select the project you need.
  2. Go to Virtualization → Virtual machines.
  3. Select the VM you need from the list and click its name.
  4. Go to the TTY tab to work with the serial console, or to the VNC tab to connect over VNC.

The serial console and VNC are exclusive, only one user works in them, and a new connection disconnects whoever is already working with the machine.

Before connecting, d8 v console and d8 v vnc report who took the stream and since when, and offer a choice:

The serial console of linux-vm is in use:
  user       serviceaccount default/alice
  connected  12 minutes ago (14:32), from the d8 v command line

Connect and disconnect them? [y] yes  [N] no  [w] wait until free:

The w answer means waiting until the other user disconnects and connecting automatically. Pressing Enter cancels the connection, because the safe option is selected by default. The --force flag connects without asking, and it’s also what you need for a non-interactive run in a script.

The serial console doesn’t resize the terminal automatically. If the command output wraps incorrectly, set the size manually with the stty rows <ROWS> cols <COLUMNS> command, for example stty rows 50 cols 200. When the xterm package is installed in the system, the resize command does the same job.

SPICE

SPICE is a second remote display protocol that, unlike VNC, brings the sound of the guest system, redirects USB devices from your computer into it, and shares a clipboard with it. It works alongside VNC, so open VNC sessions and the web interface keep working.

SPICE is disabled by default. To turn it on, set the .spec.spice.enabled parameter and restart the machine:

spec:
  spice:
    enabled: true

Together with SPICE, the machine gets a virtio-gpu video adapter. If the guest system has no driver for it, as in Windows 7 and Windows XP, set another adapter model with the virtualization.deckhouse.io/video annotation, using the vga, bochs, or ramfb value.

A shared clipboard, a resize to the client window, and a local cursor are added by the SPICE guest agent. Install it in the guest system, on Linux it’s the spice-vdagent package, on Windows it’s spice-guest-tools.

Connecting requires the remote-viewer client from the virt-viewer package, and the d8 v spice command opens it for you. If you don’t have such a client, run the proxy alone and connect with your own client to the port the command prints:

d8 v spice linux-vm --proxy-only

The SPICE display is exclusive the same way the serial console and VNC are, and d8 v spice warns you before disconnecting whoever is already connected.

SPICE reserves memory whether a client is connected or not. This memory is part of the machine overhead, so on the node the machine takes more memory than its specification asks for.

Startup policy and VM state management

The startup policy determines how Deckhouse Platform (DP) maintains the machine state. It’s set by the .spec.runPolicy parameter:

  • AlwaysOnUnlessStoppedManually: The default option. The machine always runs, and you can stop it only manually.
  • AlwaysOn: The machine always runs, and even after a shutdown from the guest OS DP starts it again.
  • Manual: You manage the machine state yourself.
  • AlwaysOff: The machine is always off, and you can’t start it.

You can manage the machine state in two ways, by creating a VirtualMachineOperation resource or by using the d8 utility. The resource describes the action declaratively, and the utility creates the same resource for you.

d8 command Operation type Action
d8 v stop Stop Stop the VM
d8 v start Start Start the VM
d8 v restart Restart Restart the VM
d8 v evict Evict Evict the VM to another node
d8 v migrate Migrate Migrate the VM to another node

The following example shows how to perform an operation on a virtual machine:

  • Using the CLI
  • Using the web interface

The easiest way to restart a machine is with the d8 utility:

d8 v restart linux-vm

The same operation with a resource:

d8 k create -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: virtualization.deckhouse.io/v1alpha2
kind: VirtualMachineOperation
metadata:
  generateName: restart-linux-vm-
spec:
  virtualMachineName: linux-vm
  # Type of the operation to perform.
  type: Restart
EOF

The list of operations shows the result:

d8 k get virtualmachineoperation

# Short form of the command.
d8 k get vmop

The startup policy is set on the machine page:

  1. Go to the Projects tab and select the project you need.
  2. Go to Virtualization → Virtual machines.
  3. Select the VM you need from the list and click its name.
  4. On the Configuration tab, scroll down to the Life cycle section.
  5. Select the policy you need from the Startup policy list.

Operations are available from the machine list:

  1. Go to Virtualization → Virtual machines.
  2. Select the virtual machine you need from the list and click the ellipsis button.
  3. In the menu that opens, select the operation.

Only one operation runs at a time for a single machine. A new operation either supersedes the active one or fails, and which of the two happens depends on the pair of types:

Active operation What can supersede it
Start Stop
Stop or Restart without force Stop or Restart with force: true
Migrate, Evict Stop, Restart
Stop or Restart with force: true nothing

A superseded operation moves to the Superseded phase. An operation that can’t supersede the active one moves to the Failed phase, so you have to create it again after the active one finishes. Restore and clone operations don’t supersede other operations.

Additional resources