VMs

VM Info

From the Web-UI

The experiment must be started; click on the experiment name to enter the Running Experiment component. Within that component, click on the VM name and you will be presented with a VM information modal.

Available commands

• restore a snapshot by clicking the play button next to the desired snapshot name.

Buttons from left to right:

• pause a running VM
• Create a memory snapshot of a running VM
• Create a backing image of a running VM
• Create a snapshot of a running VM
• record screenshot of a running VM
• modify state opens another toolbar of buttons

Modify State Toolbar

Buttons from left to right:

• redeploy a running VM
• reset disk state of a running VM
• restart a running VM
• shutdown a running VM
• kill a running VM
• close modify state toolbar

From the Command Line Binary

There are two options for displaying the information for VMs in an experiment. First run the following command to see information for all VMs in a given experiment.

phenix vm info <experiment name>

Or, run the following to see the information for a specific VM in an experiment.

phenix vm info <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

Create a Backing Image

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the create backing image button as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Command Line Binary

Not applicable.

Create a Memory Snapshot

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the memory snapshot button as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Command Line Binary

To create an ELF memory dump, run the following command.

phenix vm memory-snapshot <experiment name> <vm name> <snapshot file path>

Create a VM Snapshot

From the Web-UI

Click on a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the vm snapshot button as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Command Line Binary

Not applicable.

VM VNC Access

From the Web-UI

The experiment must be started; click on the VM screenshot to open a new browser tab that provides VNC access to the VM.

From the Command Line Binary

Not applicable.

Packet Capture

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of the network tap on a running VM in a started experiment to start a packet capture. The name of the network tap will turn green once a packet capture has started. It is possible to start captures on multiple network taps. However, when you stop packet capture, it will stop captures on all network taps.

From the Command Line Binary

To start a packet capture, run the following command.

phenix vm capture start <experiment name> <vm name> <iface index> </path/to/out file>

To stop all packet captures on a running VM, use the following command.

phenix vm capture stop <experiment name> <vm name>

Kill a VM

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the modify state button on the far right to open the modify state toolbar. Click the kill button as shown in the screenshot below.

Note: if you stop and then start the experiment again, that VM will run again per the experiment configuration.

From the Command Line Binary

To kill a VM, run the following command.

phenix vm kill <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

Modify the Network Connectivity

From the Web-UI

Click on the network for the desired VM in the Running Component to modify the settings. Select from a pull down what network you want to switch the VM interface you clicked on to. To revert back to previous setting, simply repeat selecting the network interface you wish to change, and select the previous network setting.

From the Command Line Binary

To connect a VM network interface to a different network, run the following command.

phenix vm net connect <experiment name> <vm name> <iface index> <vlan id>

To disconnect a VM network interface, run the following command.

phenix vm net disconnect <experiment name> <vm name> <iface index>

Pause a VM

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. To pause a VM, click on the pause button as shown in the screenshot below. To start a paused VM, that same button will become a green play button; simply click it to start.

From the Command Line Binary

To pause a VM, run the following command.

phenix vm pause <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

To resume a paused VM, run the following command.

phenix vm resume <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

Redeploy a VM

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the modify state button on the far right to open the modify state toolbar. Click the redeploy button as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Command Line Binary

To redploy a VM, run the following command.

phenix vm redeploy <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

Reset Disk State

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the modify state button on the far right to open the modify state toolbar. Click the reset disk state button as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Command Line Binary

To reset the first disk to the initial pre-boot state, run the following command.

phenix vm reset-disk <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

Restart a VM

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the modify state button on the far right to open the modify state toolbar. Click the restart button as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Command Line Binary

To restart a VM, run the following command.

phenix vm restart <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

Resume a VM

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of the paused VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the green play button (previously the pause button, furthest button to the left).

From the Command Line Binary

To resume a paused VM, run the following command.

phenix vm resume <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

Shutdown a VM

From the Web-UI

Click on the name of a running VM in a started experiment to access the VM information modal. Click the modify state button on the far right to open the modify state toolbar. Click the shutdown button as shown in the screenshot below.

From the Command Line Binary

To shutdown a VM, run the following command.

phenix vm shutdown <experiment name> [vm name] [--label <label>]

Modify VM Settings

From the Web-UI

There are two ways to modify VM settings:

1. Click on a stopped experiment to access the Stopped Component. You are able to edit the following:
   • Host name
   • CPUs
   • Memory
   • Disk
   • Do not boot flag
2. From a running experiment, click on the VM name and then the redeploy button (yellow power button, second from the right on the modal footer). You are able to edit the following:
   • CPU
   • Memory
   • Disk
   • Replication of original injections

From the Command Line Binary

To modify VM settings, run the following command, specifying one or more of the configuration flags described below.

phenix vm set <experiment name> [<vm name>] [flags]

Only the flags that are explicitly provided will be applied; any setting whose flag is omitted is left unchanged. The following flags are supported:

Flag	Description
-c, --cpu	Number of VM CPUs (1-8 is valid).
-m, --mem	Amount of memory in megabytes (512, 1024, 2048, 3072, 4096, 8192, 12288, 16384 are valid).
-d, --disk	VM backing disk image.
-p, --partition	Partition of disk to inject files into.
--do-not-boot	Set the do-not-boot flag for the VM.
--snapshot	Set the snapshot (non-persistent) flag for the VM.
-L, --label-changes key=value	VM label to set, in key=value form. May be repeated to set multiple labels.
--append-label	Append the provided labels to the VM's existing labels instead of replacing them.
-l, --label	Apply the change to every VM whose label matches the provided label (supports glob patterns). Use all to select every VM in the experiment. May be repeated.

For example, to set the CPU count to 4 and memory to 2048 MB for a VM named my-vm in an experiment named my-exp:

phenix vm set my-exp my-vm --cpu 4 --mem 2048

To set the role=server labels on VMs whose existing labels matches tier=web* in the same experiment, without clearing the existing labels:

phenix vm set my-exp --label "tier=web*" -L role=server --append-labels

To set two labels on the VM my-vm and replace the existing labels on the VM:

phenix vm set my-exp my-vm -L val1=true -L val2=roger

Note

Only label updates and interface VLAN connections can be modified while an experiment is running. To change CPU, memory, disk, partition, do-not-boot, or snapshot settings, the experiment must be stopped. Use phenix vm net to modify interface VLAN connections on a running experiment.

Applying Actions to Multiple VMs

Note

See VM Multi Action for documentation on applying actions to multiple VMs at once.