How do I make a persistent domain with virsh?

Question

virsh create somefile.xml creates my machine just fine but when I shut the machine down the whole thing disappears. Machines I made with the virt-manager GUI are persistent (stick around after shutdown) and the xml file is derived from those virt-manager created machines.

score 32 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 27 '12 at 08:56

32

Use virsh define somefile.xml and virsh start domain-name, doing this the VM will be persistent. I can't check right now, but I think you can use virsh define on an already started VM and this will make it persistent.

answered Jun 27 '12 at 08:56

Francesco

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I can confirm this works with a domain started with the 'create' command – Pete Jul 31 '13 at 17:05
The best tip I read today – Chris Reid Dec 23 '20 at 16:49

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered May 12 '16 at 10:08

If you don't have the xml for the running vm (eg. after transient migration), you can do

virsh dumpxml vm_name > vm_name.xml
virsh define vm_name.xml

To check:

virsh list --all --persistent

The VM should now be listed. Or

virsh dominfo vm_name

There should be a line with 'Persistent: yes'.

How do I make a persistent domain with virsh?

2 Answers2