how to rename a VM using libvirt+KVM

Question

How can I rename a VM on KVM+libvirt?

I would like it to change the name in the 'inventory' as well as change the name of the storage etc.

Solution 1

run

virsh dumpxml name_of_vm > name_of_vm.xml

Undefine the old vm to prevent an error because of an duplicate UUID.

virsh undefine name-of-vm

Edit the xml file then import it.

virsh define name_of_vm.xml

Of course you will have to stop and start the vm for the changes to take effect

virsh destroy name_of_vm
virsh start name_of_vm

Solution 2

virsh dumpxml myvm > foo.xml
<edit foo.xml, change the name, move storage>
virsh undefine myvm
virsh define foo.xml

Source: https://www.redhat.com/archives/libvirt-users/2010-October/msg00072.html

Solution 3

virsh implemented domrename in release 1.2.19: Sep 02 2015. So the current best practice is just:

 virsh domrename oldname newname

As you might expect, thedomain must be stopped, but also it cannot have any snapshots.

Solution 4

To change many machines you can use this:

virsh shutdown old-name

Wait for above to finish and run:

virsh dumpxml old-name > old-name.xml
virsh undefine old-name

Wait for above to finish and run:

sed -i 's/<name>old-name<\/name>/<name>new-name<\/name>/g' old-name.xml
virsh define old-name.xml

Run this one-by-one for each machine. You can use this RegExp if you have a list containing old-name new-name:

([^\r\n]+?)[ \t]+([^\r\n]+)
virsh shutdown $1\n#WAIT!\nvirsh dumpxml $1 > $1.xml\nvirsh undefine $1\n\#WAIT!\nsed -i 's/<name>$1<\\/name>/<name>$2<\\/name>/g' $1.xml\nvirsh define $1.xml\n

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Comments

[Kevin Son]

after I asked this question the fine folks on the libvirt project have added the 'virsh edit my-vm-name' command.

[Kevin Son]

need to add one step: (before defining the vm with the new name) "virsh undefine name-of-vm" otherwise it complains about duplicate UUID.

[Kevin Son]

i also had to rename the hd.img file and edit the line in the xml file

[hachi]

Correct order is in the other answer. You don't have to rename img if you don't use the old machine.

[reedstrm]

This answer is now out of date. See my answer below. tldr; virsh now has domrename.

[Dennis Williamson]

+1 - you can virsh edit newname and change the file path and mv oldname newname to rename the directory if you want everything to match.

[MaxiReglisse]

in other words, you also have to 1) rename /var/lib/libvirt/images/oldname.qcow2 in /var/lib/libvirt/images/newname.qcow2 ; and 2) edit /etc/libvirt/qemu/newname.xml to set the correct source file balise <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/newname.qcow2'

[reedstrm]

but only if you need the filenames to match the domainnames (which I admit, is convenient) - this avoids a destroy/create cycle, though still requires a stop (and no snapshots)