Autostarting KVM instances

Once a KVM instance has been defined and started, it will run until the host OS is up. Once the host OS restarts, instances build with libvirt will not automatically start once the host is up and the libvirt daemon is running. In this recipe, we are going to change this behavior and ensure virtual instance start when the libvirt daemon starts.

Getting ready

For this recipe, we are going to need a single KVM instance build with libvirt.

How to do it...

To configure a KVM guest to automatically start after a server, or libvirtd restart, run the following:

1. Enable the VM autostart:

root@kvm:~# virsh autostart kvm1
Domain kvm1 marked as autostarted

root@kvm:~#

2. Obtain information for the instance:

root@kvm:~# virsh dominfo kvm1
Id: 31
Name: kvm1
UUID: 6ad84d8a-229d-d1f6-ecfc-d29a25fcfa03
OS Type: hvm
State: running
CPU(s): 2
CPU time: 10.9s
Max memory: 2097152 KiB
Used memory: 1048576 KiB
Persistent: yes
Autostart: enable
Managed save: no
Security model: none
Security DOI:...