How to start/stop Virtual Machines in RedHat Virtualization

Starting and Stopping Virtual Machines

Controlling Virtual Machines from the Administration Portal

To start a virtual machine currently in the Down state, navigate to the Virtual Machines tab of the Administration Portal. Select the virtual machine and click the Run icon (an upward-pointing green triangle), or right-click the virtual machine and select Run from the menu.

To start a virtual machine with settings other than its defaults, right-click the virtual machine and select Run Once. This brings up the Run Virtual Machine(s) window discussed in the previous section.

To shut down a virtual machine, there are a number of options:

– Shut it down using the virtual machine’s operating system. For example, on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machine, use its poweroff command.

– In Administration Portal, on the Virtual Machines tab, right-click the virtual machine and select Shutdown. Alternatively, select the virtual machine and click the downward-pointing red triangle icon. This sends a virtual ACPI power button event to the virtual machine.

The virtual machine’s operating system may ignore that event. For example, Microsoft Windows 7 ignores it when displaying a login screen.

– In Administration Portal, on the Virtual Machines tab, right-click the virtual machine and select Power Off from the menu. This effectively pulls the virtual power cables from the machine, resulting in an ungraceful shutdown. Use this method only as a last resort.

A virtual machine can also be suspended by selecting it and clicking the blue crescent moon icon, or by right-clicking it and selecting Suspend from the menu. A suspended virtual machine is put into the Suspended state. Its memory and CPU state is saved to disk and the machine is in hibernate mode.

To resume operation of a suspended virtual machine, right-click the virtual machine and select Run from the menu.

Controlling Virtual Machines from the User Portal

Users without access to the Administration Portal can perform the same basic operations on virtual machines through the User Portal.

If a user has UserRole, they can only use User Portal’s Basic mode. In this mode, the virtual machines that the user can launch are displayed as icons with four buttons:

• An upward-pointing green triangle to Run VM
• A downward-pointing red triangle to Shutdown VM
• A blue crescent moon to Suspend VM
• A green arrow pointing in a circle to Reboot VM

To start a virtual machine from the User Portal that is currently in the Down state, click the Run icon. A user that only has the role UserRole is not able to start a virtual machine with settings other than its defaults.

In the User Portal, when a virtual machine is started, the console for that machine automatically opens in full-screen mode. You can exit full-screen mode using the key combination Shift+F11. If the console has been closed, double-click the virtual machine icon to connect to the console again.

If a user has a role with more permissions, such as PowerUserRole, then they can switch to User Portal’s Extended mode using the tabs in the upper left of the web interface.

In that mode, controls to run, suspend, and shutdown virtual machines use icons like the controls on an audio or video device (play, pause, stop, and so on).

To shut down a virtual machine in the User Portal, there are a number of options, including:
– Shut it down from within the virtual machine itself, for example by using the poweroff command from within a Red Hat Enterprise Linux machine.

– In User Portal, select the virtual machine and click the square stop (Shutdown) icon in Extended mode or the red downward-pointing triangle in Basic mode. This sends a virtual ACPI power button event to the virtual machine. The operating system running on the virtual machine may ignore this event.

– In User Portal’s Extended mode, select the virtual machine and click the power (Power Off) icon. This pulls the virtual power cables from the machine, resulting in an ungraceful shutdown. Use this method only as a last resort.

Virtual machines can also be suspended in the User Portal by selecting them and clicking the Suspend button. A suspended virtual machine is put into hibernate mode. Its memory and CPU state is saved to disk and the machine is suspended. To resume a paused virtual machine, click the Run button.