Managing Xen using the xm Command-line Tool

In previous chapters we have covered the steps necessary to install and configure Xen and Xen based guest operating systems. This chapter is dedicated to explaining the xm tool, and how it can be used to manage guest operating systems from the command-line. If you prefer to use the graphical virt-manager tool to administer your Xen configuration see Managing and Monitoring Fedora based Xen Guest Systems.

Listing Guest System Status

The status of the host and guest systems may be viewed at any time using the list option of the xm tool. For example:

su - 
xm list

The above command will display output containing a line for the host system and a line for each guest similar to the following:

Name                                      ID   Mem VCPUs      State   Time(s)
Domain-0                                   0   389     1     r-----   1414.9
XenFed                                         305     1               349.9
myFedoraXen                                    300     1                 0.0
myXenGuest                                 6   300     1     -b----     10.6

Starting a Xen Guest System

A system can be started using the xm tool with the start option followed by the name of the guest operating system to be launched. For example:

su -
xm start XenFed

Connecting to a Running Xen Guest System

Once the guest operating system has started, a connection to the guest may be established using either the vncviewer tool or the virt-manager console. To use virt-manager, select Applications->System Tools->Virtual Machine Manager, select the desired system and click Open.

To connect using vncviewer enter the following command in Terminal window:

vncviewer

When prompted for a server enter localhost:5900.