Virsh Commands

The libvirt toolkit is focused primarily on KVM virtual machines, but it is intended to be usable for multiple virtualization technologies, including the Xen Project Hypervisor. As a result, some commands are essential when using Xen Project software, but others do not apply as they are targeted for KVM concepts.

Some of the essential virsh commands for manipulating Xen Project VMs include:

virsh dumpxml
virsh start

VIRSH commands:
help	print help
list	list domains
create	create a domain from an XML file
start	start a previously created inactive domain
destroy	destroy a domain
define	define (but do not start) a domain from an XML file
domid	convert a domain name or UUID to domain id
domuuid	convert a domain name or id to domain UUID
dominfo	domain information
domname	convert a domain id or UUID to domain name
domstate	domain state
quit	quit this interactive terminal
reboot	reboot a domain
restore	restore a domain from a saved state in a file
resume	resume a domain
save	save a domain state to a file
shutdown	gracefully shutdown a domain
suspend	suspend a domain
undefine	undefine an inactive domain
setmem	changes the allocated memory.
setmaxmem	changes maximum memory limit.
setvcpus	changes number of virtual CPUs.
vcpuinfo	domain vcpu information.
vcpupin	control the domain vcpu affinity.
version	show version
dumpxml	domain information in XML
nodeinfo	node information