Proxmox настройка виртуальной машины на windows

General settings of a VM include

• the Node : the physical server on which the VM will run

• the VM ID: a unique number in this Proxmox VE installation used to identify your VM

• Name: a free form text string you can use to describe the VM

• Resource Pool: a logical group of VMs

When creating a virtual machine (VM), setting the proper Operating System(OS)
allows Proxmox VE to optimize some low level parameters. For instance Windows OS
expect the BIOS clock to use the local time, while Unix based OS expect the
BIOS clock to have the UTC time.

Additionally, the SCSI controller can be changed.
If you plan to install the QEMU Guest Agent, or if your selected ISO image
already ships and installs it automatically, you may want to tick the Qemu
Agent box, which lets Proxmox VE know that it can use its features to show some
more information, and complete some actions (for example, shutdown or
snapshots) more intelligently.

Bus/Controller

Qemu can emulate a number of storage controllers:

Image Format

On each controller you attach a number of emulated hard disks, which are backed
by a file or a block device residing in the configured storage. The choice of
a storage type will determine the format of the hard disk image. Storages which
present block devices (LVM, ZFS, Ceph) will require the raw disk image format,
whereas files based storages (Ext4, NFS, CIFS, GlusterFS) will let you to choose
either the raw disk image format or the QEMU image format.

Cache Mode

Setting the Cache mode of the hard drive will impact how the host system will
notify the guest systems of block write completions. The No cache default
means that the guest system will be notified that a write is complete when each
block reaches the physical storage write queue, ignoring the host page cache.
This provides a good balance between safety and speed.

If you want the Proxmox VE backup manager to skip a disk when doing a backup of a VM,
you can set the No backup option on that disk.

If you want the Proxmox VE storage replication mechanism to skip a disk when starting
a replication job, you can set the Skip replication option on that disk.
As of Proxmox VE 5.0, replication requires the disk images to be on a storage of type
zfspool, so adding a disk image to other storages when the VM has replication
configured requires to skip replication for this disk image.

Trim/Discard

If your storage supports thin provisioning (see the storage chapter in the
Proxmox VE guide), you can activate the Discard option on a drive. With Discard
set and a TRIM-enabled guest OS
[TRIM, UNMAP, and discard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_%28computing%29]
, when the VM’s filesystem
marks blocks as unused after deleting files, the controller will relay this
information to the storage, which will then shrink the disk image accordingly.
For the guest to be able to issue TRIM commands, you must enable the Discard
option on the drive. Some guest operating systems may also require the
SSD Emulation flag to be set. Note that Discard on VirtIO Block drives is
only supported on guests using Linux Kernel 5.0 or higher.

If you would like a drive to be presented to the guest as a solid-state drive
rather than a rotational hard disk, you can set the SSD emulation option on
that drive. There is no requirement that the underlying storage actually be
backed by SSDs; this feature can be used with physical media of any type.
Note that SSD emulation is not supported on VirtIO Block drives.

IO Thread

The option IO Thread can only be used when using a disk with the
VirtIO controller, or with the SCSI controller, when the emulated controller
type is VirtIO SCSI single.
With this enabled, Qemu creates one I/O thread per storage controller,
rather than a single thread for all I/O. This can increase performance when
multiple disks are used and each disk has its own storage controller.

A CPU socket is a physical slot on a PC motherboard where you can plug a CPU.
This CPU can then contain one or many cores, which are independent
processing units. Whether you have a single CPU socket with 4 cores, or two CPU
sockets with two cores is mostly irrelevant from a performance point of view.
However some software licenses depend on the number of sockets a machine has,
in that case it makes sense to set the number of sockets to what the license
allows you.

Resource Limits

In addition to the number of virtual cores, you can configure how much resources
a VM can get in relation to the host CPU time and also in relation to other
VMs.
With the cpulimit (“Host CPU Time”) option you can limit how much CPU time
the whole VM can use on the host. It is a floating point value representing CPU
time in percent, so 1.0 is equal to 100%, 2.5 to 250% and so on. If a
single process would fully use one single core it would have 100% CPU Time
usage. If a VM with four cores utilizes all its cores fully it would
theoretically use 400%. In reality the usage may be even a bit higher as Qemu
can have additional threads for VM peripherals besides the vCPU core ones.
This setting can be useful if a VM should have multiple vCPUs, as it runs a few
processes in parallel, but the VM as a whole should not be able to run all
vCPUs at 100% at the same time. Using a specific example: lets say we have a VM
which would profit from having 8 vCPUs, but at no time all of those 8 cores
should run at full load — as this would make the server so overloaded that
other VMs and CTs would get to less CPU. So, we set the cpulimit limit to
4.0 (=400%). If all cores do the same heavy work they would all get 50% of a
real host cores CPU time. But, if only 4 would do work they could still get
almost 100% of a real core each.

VMs can, depending on their configuration, use additional threads, such as for networking or IO operations but also live migration. Thus a VM can show up to use more CPU time than just its virtual CPUs could use. To ensure that a VM never uses more CPU time than virtual CPUs assigned set the cpulimit setting to the same value as the total core count.

The second CPU resource limiting setting, cpuunits (nowadays often called CPU
shares or CPU weight), controls how much CPU time a VM gets compared to other
running VMs. It is a relative weight which defaults to 100 (or 1024 if the
host uses legacy cgroup v1). If you increase this for a VM it will be
prioritized by the scheduler in comparison to other VMs with lower weight. For
example, if VM 100 has set the default 100 and VM 200 was changed to 200,
the latter VM 200 would receive twice the CPU bandwidth than the first VM 100.

For more information see man systemd.resource-control, here CPUQuota
corresponds to cpulimit and CPUWeight corresponds to our cpuunits
setting, visit its Notes section for references and implementation details.

The third CPU resource limiting setting, affinity, controls what host cores
the virtual machine will be permitted to execute on. E.g., if an affinity value
of 0-3,8-11 is provided, the virtual machine will be restricted to using the
host cores 0,1,2,3,8,9,10, and 11. Valid affinity values are written in
cpuset List Format. List Format is a comma-separated list of CPU numbers and
ranges of numbers, in ASCII decimal.

CPU affinity uses the taskset command to restrict virtual machines to a given set of cores. This restriction will not take effect for some types of processes that may be created for IO. CPU affinity is not a security feature.

For more information regarding affinity see man cpuset. Here the
List Format corresponds to valid affinity values. Visit its Formats
section for more examples.

CPU Type

Qemu can emulate a number different of CPU types from 486 to the latest Xeon
processors. Each new processor generation adds new features, like hardware
assisted 3d rendering, random number generation, memory protection, etc …
Usually you should select for your VM a processor type which closely matches the
CPU of the host system, as it means that the host CPU features (also called CPU
flags ) will be available in your VMs. If you want an exact match, you can set
the CPU type to host in which case the VM will have exactly the same CPU flags
as your host system.

This has a downside though. If you want to do a live migration of VMs between
different hosts, your VM might end up on a new system with a different CPU type.
If the CPU flags passed to the guest are missing, the qemu process will stop. To
remedy this Qemu has also its own CPU type kvm64, that Proxmox VE uses by defaults.
kvm64 is a Pentium 4 look a like CPU type, which has a reduced CPU flags set,
but is guaranteed to work everywhere.

In short, if you care about live migration and moving VMs between nodes, leave
the kvm64 default. If you don’t care about live migration or have a homogeneous
cluster where all nodes have the same CPU, set the CPU type to host, as in
theory this will give your guests maximum performance.

Custom CPU Types

You can specify custom CPU types with a configurable set of features. These are
maintained in the configuration file /etc/pve/virtual-guest/cpu-models.conf by
an administrator. See man cpu-models.conf for format details.

Specified custom types can be selected by any user with the Sys.Audit
privilege on /nodes. When configuring a custom CPU type for a VM via the CLI
or API, the name needs to be prefixed with custom-.

There are several CPU flags related to the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities

[Meltdown Attack https://meltdownattack.com/]
which need to be set
manually unless the selected CPU type of your VM already enables them by default.

There are two requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to use these
CPU flags:

Otherwise you need to set the desired CPU flag of the virtual CPU, either by
editing the CPU options in the WebUI, or by setting the flags property of the
cpu option in the VM configuration file.

For Spectre v1,v2,v4 fixes, your CPU or system vendor also needs to provide a
so-called “microcode update”
[You can use ‘intel-microcode’ /
‘amd-microcode’ from Debian non-free if your vendor does not provide such an
update. Note that not all affected CPUs can be updated to support spec-ctrl.]

for your CPU.

To check if the Proxmox VE host is vulnerable, execute the following command as root:

for f in /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/*; do echo "${f##*/} -" $(cat "$f"); done

A community script is also available to detect is the host is still vulnerable.

[spectre-meltdown-checker https://meltdown.ovh/]

Intel processors

AMD processors

NUMA

You can also optionally emulate a NUMA

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-uniform_memory_access]
architecture
in your VMs. The basics of the NUMA architecture mean that instead of having a
global memory pool available to all your cores, the memory is spread into local
banks close to each socket.
This can bring speed improvements as the memory bus is not a bottleneck
anymore. If your system has a NUMA architecture
[if the command
numactl —hardware | grep available returns more than one node, then your host
system has a NUMA architecture]
we recommend to activate the option, as this
will allow proper distribution of the VM resources on the host system.
This option is also required to hot-plug cores or RAM in a VM.

If the NUMA option is used, it is recommended to set the number of sockets to
the number of nodes of the host system.

vCPU hot-plug

Modern operating systems introduced the capability to hot-plug and, to a
certain extent, hot-unplug CPUs in a running system. Virtualization allows us
to avoid a lot of the (physical) problems real hardware can cause in such
scenarios.
Still, this is a rather new and complicated feature, so its use should be
restricted to cases where its absolutely needed. Most of the functionality can
be replicated with other, well tested and less complicated, features, see
Resource Limits.

In Proxmox VE the maximal number of plugged CPUs is always cores * sockets.
To start a VM with less than this total core count of CPUs you may use the
vpus setting, it denotes how many vCPUs should be plugged in at VM start.

Currently only this feature is only supported on Linux, a kernel newer than 3.10
is needed, a kernel newer than 4.7 is recommended.

You can use a udev rule as follow to automatically set new CPUs as online in
the guest:

SUBSYSTEM=="cpu", ACTION=="add", TEST=="online", ATTR{online}=="0", ATTR{online}="1"

Save this under /etc/udev/rules.d/ as a file ending in .rules.

Note: CPU hot-remove is machine dependent and requires guest cooperation. The
deletion command does not guarantee CPU removal to actually happen, typically
it’s a request forwarded to guest OS using target dependent mechanism, such as
ACPI on x86/amd64.

Fixed Memory Allocation

When setting memory and minimum memory to the same amount
Proxmox VE will simply allocate what you specify to your VM.

Automatic Memory Allocation

When setting the minimum memory lower than memory, Proxmox VE will make sure that the
minimum amount you specified is always available to the VM, and if RAM usage on
the host is below 80%, will dynamically add memory to the guest up to the
maximum memory specified.

Each VM can have many Network interface controllers (NIC), of four different
types:

• Intel E1000 is the default, and emulates an Intel Gigabit network card.

• the VirtIO paravirtualized NIC should be used if you aim for maximum
  performance. Like all VirtIO devices, the guest OS should have the proper driver
  installed.

• the Realtek 8139 emulates an older 100 MB/s network card, and should
  only be used when emulating older operating systems ( released before 2002 )

• the vmxnet3 is another paravirtualized device, which should only be used
  when importing a VM from another hypervisor.

• in the default Bridged mode each virtual NIC is backed on the host by a
  tap device, ( a software loopback device simulating an Ethernet NIC ). This
  tap device is added to a bridge, by default vmbr0 in Proxmox VE. In this mode, VMs
  have direct access to the Ethernet LAN on which the host is located.

• in the alternative NAT mode, each virtual NIC will only communicate with
  the Qemu user networking stack, where a built-in router and DHCP server can
  provide network access. This built-in DHCP will serve addresses in the private
  10.0.2.0/24 range. The NAT mode is much slower than the bridged mode, and
  should only be used for testing. This mode is only available via CLI or the API,
  but not via the WebUI.

Multiqueue

If you are using the VirtIO driver, you can optionally activate the
Multiqueue option. This option allows the guest OS to process networking
packets using multiple virtual CPUs, providing an increase in the total number
of packets transferred.

• std, the default, emulates a card with Bochs VBE extensions.

• cirrus, this was once the default, it emulates a very old hardware module
  with all its problems. This display type should only be used if really
  necessary
  [https://www.kraxel.org/blog/2014/10/qemu-using-cirrus-considered-harmful/
  qemu: using cirrus considered harmful]
  , for example, if using Windows XP or
  earlier

• vmware, is a VMWare SVGA-II compatible adapter.

• qxl, is the QXL paravirtualized graphics card. Selecting this also
  enables SPICE (a remote viewer protocol) for the
  VM.

• virtio-gl, often named VirGL is a virtual 3D GPU for use inside VMs that
  can offload workloads to the host GPU without requiring special (expensive)
  models and drivers and neither binding the host GPU completely, allowing
  reuse between multiple guests and or the host.

  VirGL support needs some extra libraries that aren’t installed by default due to being relatively big and also not available as open source for all GPU models/vendors. For most setups you’ll just need to do: apt install libgl1 libegl1

• Windows needs a device for each monitor, so if your ostype is some
  version of Windows, Proxmox VE gives the VM an extra device per monitor.
  Each device gets the specified amount of memory.

• Linux VMs, can always enable more virtual monitors, but selecting
  a Multi-Monitor mode multiplies the memory given to the device with
  the number of monitors.

• Host USB passthrough

• SPICE USB passthrough

# qm set <vmid> -efidisk0 <storage>:1,format=<format>,efitype=4m,pre-enrolled-keys=1

# qm set <vmid> -tpmstate0 <storage>:1,version=<version>

# qm set <vmid> -ivshmem size=32,name=foo

qm set <vmid> -audio0 device=<device>

• ich9-intel-hda: Intel HD Audio Controller, emulates ICH9

• intel-hda: Intel HD Audio Controller, emulates ICH6

• AC97: Audio Codec ’97, useful for older operating systems like Windows XP

• spice

• none

qm set <vmid> -rng0 source=<source>[,max_bytes=X,period=Y]

• /dev/urandom: Non-blocking kernel entropy pool (preferred)

• /dev/random: Blocking kernel pool (not recommended, can lead to entropy
  starvation on the host system)

• /dev/hwrng: To pass through a hardware RNG attached to the host (if multiple
  are available, the one selected in
  /sys/devices/virtual/misc/hw_random/rng_current will be used)

boot: order=scsi0;net0;hostpci0

This way, the guest would first attempt to boot from the disk scsi0, if that
fails, it would go on to attempt network boot from net0, and in case that
fails too, finally attempt to boot from a passed through PCIe device (seen as
disk in case of NVMe, otherwise tries to launch into an option ROM).

# qm set <vmid> -onboot 1

Start and Shutdown Order

In some case you want to be able to fine tune the boot order of your
VMs, for instance if one of your VM is providing firewalling or DHCP
to other guest systems. For this you can use the following
parameters:

• Start/Shutdown order: Defines the start order priority. For example, set it

• to 1 if
  you want the VM to be the first to be started. (We use the reverse startup
  order for shutdown, so a machine with a start order of 1 would be the last to
  be shut down). If multiple VMs have the same order defined on a host, they will
  additionally be ordered by VMID in ascending order.

• Startup delay: Defines the interval between this VM start and subsequent
  VMs starts. For example, set it to 240 if you want to wait 240 seconds before
  starting other VMs.

• Shutdown timeout: Defines the duration in seconds Proxmox VE should wait
  for the VM to be offline after issuing a shutdown command. By default this
  value is set to 180, which means that Proxmox VE will issue a shutdown request and
  wait 180 seconds for the machine to be offline. If the machine is still online
  after the timeout it will be stopped forcefully.

• install the agent in the guest and make sure it is running

• enable the communication via the agent in Proxmox VE

Install Guest Agent

For most Linux distributions, the guest agent is available. The package is
usually named qemu-guest-agent.

Enable Guest Agent Communication

Communication from Proxmox VE with the guest agent can be enabled in the VM’s
Options panel. A fresh start of the VM is necessary for the changes to take
effect.

It is possible to enable the Run guest-trim option. With this enabled,
Proxmox VE will issue a trim command to the guest after the following
operations that have the potential to write out zeros to the storage:

On a thin provisioned storage, this can help to free up unused space.

Troubleshooting

Once the guest agent is enabled, Proxmox VE will send power commands like
shutdown via the guest agent. If the guest agent is not running, commands
cannot get executed properly and the shutdown command will run into a timeout.

qm set <vmid> -spice_enhancements foldersharing=1,videostreaming=all

Folder Sharing

Share a local folder with the guest. The spice-webdavd daemon needs to be
installed in the guest. It makes the shared folder available through a local
WebDAV server located at http://localhost:9843.

For Windows guests the installer for the Spice WebDAV daemon can be downloaded
from the
official SPICE website.

Most Linux distributions have a package called spice-webdavd that can be
installed.

To share a folder in Virt-Viewer (Remote Viewer) go to File → Preferences.
Select the folder to share and then enable the checkbox.

Folder sharing currently only works in the Linux version of Virt-Viewer.

Experimental! Currently this feature does not work reliably.

Video Streaming

Fast refreshing areas are encoded into a video stream. Two options exist:

A general recommendation if video streaming should be enabled and which option
to choose from cannot be given. Your mileage may vary depending on the specific
circumstances.

Troubleshooting

If the service is running, check the WebDAV server by opening
http://localhost:9843 in a browser in the guest.

It can help to restart the SPICE session.

How it works

Online migration first starts a new QEMU process on the target host with the
incoming flag, which performs only basic initialization with the guest vCPUs
still paused and then waits for the guest memory and device state data streams
of the source Virtual Machine.
All other resources, such as disks, are either shared or got already sent
before runtime state migration of the VMs begins; so only the memory content
and device state remain to be transferred.

Once this connection is established, the source begins asynchronously sending
the memory content to the target. If the guest memory on the source changes,
those sections are marked dirty and another pass is made to send the guest
memory data.
This loop is repeated until the data difference between running source VM
and incoming target VM is small enough to be sent in a few milliseconds,
because then the source VM can be paused completely, without a user or program
noticing the pause, so that the remaining data can be sent to the target, and
then unpause the targets VM’s CPU to make it the new running VM in well under a
second.

Requirements

For Live Migration to work, there are some things required:

Download the Virtual Machine zip

After getting informed about the user agreement, choose the Windows 10
Enterprise (Evaluation — Build) for the VMware platform, and download the zip.

Using the unzip utility or any archiver of your choice, unpack the zip,
and copy via ssh/scp the ovf and vmdk files to your Proxmox VE host.

Import the Virtual Machine

This will create a new virtual machine, using cores, memory and
VM name as read from the OVF manifest, and import the disks to the local-lvm
storage. You have to configure the network manually.

# qm importovf 999 WinDev1709Eval.ovf local-lvm

The VM is ready to be started.

vmdebootstrap --verbose 
 --size 10GiB --serial-console 
 --grub --no-extlinux 
 --package openssh-server 
 --package avahi-daemon 
 --package qemu-guest-agent 
 --hostname vm600 --enable-dhcp 
 --customize=./copy_pub_ssh.sh 
 --sparse --image vm600.raw

# qm create 600 --net0 virtio,bridge=vmbr0 --name vm600 --serial0 socket 
   --boot order=scsi0 --scsihw virtio-scsi-pci --ostype l26 
   --scsi0 pvedir:0,import-from=/path/to/dir/vm600.raw

# qm create 300 -ide0 local-lvm:4 -net0 e1000 -cdrom local:iso/proxmox-mailgateway_2.1.iso

# qm shutdown 300 && qm wait 300

# qm shutdown 300 && qm wait 300 -timeout 40

# qm move-disk 300 scsi0 other-storage

# qm move-disk 300 scsi1 --target-vmid 400 --target-disk scsi3

boot: order=virtio0;net0
cores: 1
sockets: 1
memory: 512
name: webmail
ostype: l26
net0: e1000=EE:D2:28:5F:B6:3E,bridge=vmbr0
virtio0: local:vm-100-disk-1,size=32G

# this is a comment
OPTION: value

VM configuration with snapshot

memory: 512
swap: 512
parent: testsnaphot
...

[testsnaphot]
memory: 512
swap: 512
snaptime: 1457170803
...

acpi: <boolean> (default = 1)

Enable/disable ACPI.

affinity: <string>

List of host cores used to execute guest processes, for example: 0,5,8-11

agent: [enabled=]<1|0> [,fstrim_cloned_disks=<1|0>] [,type=<virtio|isa>]

Enable/disable communication with the Qemu Guest Agent and its properties.

enabled=<boolean> (default = 0)

Enable/disable communication with a Qemu Guest Agent (QGA) running in the VM.

fstrim_cloned_disks=<boolean> (default = 0)

Run fstrim after moving a disk or migrating the VM.

type=<isa | virtio> (default = virtio)

Select the agent type

arch: <aarch64 | x86_64>

Virtual processor architecture. Defaults to the host.

args: <string>

Arbitrary arguments passed to kvm, for example:

args: -no-reboot -no-hpet

this option is for experts only.

audio0: device=<ich9-intel-hda|intel-hda|AC97> [,driver=<spice|none>]

Configure a audio device, useful in combination with QXL/Spice.

device=<AC97 | ich9-intel-hda | intel-hda>

Configure an audio device.

driver=<none | spice> (default = spice)

Driver backend for the audio device.

autostart: <boolean> (default = 0)

Automatic restart after crash (currently ignored).

balloon: <integer> (0 — N)

Amount of target RAM for the VM in MB. Using zero disables the ballon driver.

bios: <ovmf | seabios> (default = seabios)

Select BIOS implementation.

boot: [[legacy=]<[acdn]{1,4}>] [,order=<device[;device…]>]

Specify guest boot order. Use the order= sub-property as usage with no key or legacy= is deprecated.

legacy=<[acdn]{1,4}> (default = cdn)

Boot on floppy (a), hard disk (c), CD-ROM (d), or network (n). Deprecated, use order= instead.

order=<device[;device…]>

The guest will attempt to boot from devices in the order they appear here.

Disks, optical drives and passed-through storage USB devices will be directly
booted from, NICs will load PXE, and PCIe devices will either behave like disks
(e.g. NVMe) or load an option ROM (e.g. RAID controller, hardware NIC).

Note that only devices in this list will be marked as bootable and thus loaded
by the guest firmware (BIOS/UEFI). If you require multiple disks for booting
(e.g. software-raid), you need to specify all of them here.

Overrides the deprecated legacy=[acdn]* value when given.

bootdisk: (ide|sata|scsi|virtio)d+

Enable booting from specified disk. Deprecated: Use boot: order=foo;bar instead.

cdrom: <volume>

This is an alias for option -ide2

cicustom: [meta=<volume>] [,network=<volume>] [,user=<volume>] [,vendor=<volume>]

cloud-init: Specify custom files to replace the automatically generated ones at start.

meta=<volume>

Specify a custom file containing all meta data passed to the VM via»
.» cloud-init. This is provider specific meaning configdrive2 and nocloud differ.

network=<volume>

Specify a custom file containing all network data passed to the VM via cloud-init.

user=<volume>

Specify a custom file containing all user data passed to the VM via cloud-init.

vendor=<volume>

Specify a custom file containing all vendor data passed to the VM via cloud-init.

cipassword: <string>

cloud-init: Password to assign the user. Using this is generally not recommended. Use ssh keys instead. Also note that older cloud-init versions do not support hashed passwords.

citype: <configdrive2 | nocloud | opennebula>

Specifies the cloud-init configuration format. The default depends on the configured operating system type (ostype. We use the nocloud format for Linux, and configdrive2 for windows.

ciuser: <string>

cloud-init: User name to change ssh keys and password for instead of the image’s configured default user.

cores: <integer> (1 — N) (default = 1)

The number of cores per socket.

cpu: [[cputype=]<string>] [,flags=<+FLAG[;-FLAG…]>] [,hidden=<1|0>] [,hv-vendor-id=<vendor-id>] [,phys-bits=<8-64|host>] [,reported-model=<enum>]

Emulated CPU type.

cputype=<string> (default = kvm64)

Emulated CPU type. Can be default or custom name (custom model names must be prefixed with custom-).

flags=<+FLAG[;-FLAG…]>

List of additional CPU flags separated by ;. Use +FLAG to enable, -FLAG to disable a flag. Custom CPU models can specify any flag supported by QEMU/KVM, VM-specific flags must be from the following set for security reasons: pcid, spec-ctrl, ibpb, ssbd, virt-ssbd, amd-ssbd, amd-no-ssb, pdpe1gb, md-clear, hv-tlbflush, hv-evmcs, aes

hidden=<boolean> (default = 0)

Do not identify as a KVM virtual machine.

hv-vendor-id=<vendor-id>

The Hyper-V vendor ID. Some drivers or programs inside Windows guests need a specific ID.

phys-bits=<8-64|host>

The physical memory address bits that are reported to the guest OS. Should be smaller or equal to the host’s. Set to host to use value from host CPU, but note that doing so will break live migration to CPUs with other values.

reported-model=<486 | Broadwell | Broadwell-IBRS | Broadwell-noTSX | Broadwell-noTSX-IBRS | Cascadelake-Server | Cascadelake-Server-noTSX | Conroe | EPYC | EPYC-IBPB | EPYC-Milan | EPYC-Rome | Haswell | Haswell-IBRS | Haswell-noTSX | Haswell-noTSX-IBRS | Icelake-Client | Icelake-Client-noTSX | Icelake-Server | Icelake-Server-noTSX | IvyBridge | IvyBridge-IBRS | KnightsMill | Nehalem | Nehalem-IBRS | Opteron_G1 | Opteron_G2 | Opteron_G3 | Opteron_G4 | Opteron_G5 | Penryn | SandyBridge | SandyBridge-IBRS | Skylake-Client | Skylake-Client-IBRS | Skylake-Client-noTSX-IBRS | Skylake-Server | Skylake-Server-IBRS | Skylake-Server-noTSX-IBRS | Westmere | Westmere-IBRS | athlon | core2duo | coreduo | host | kvm32 | kvm64 | max | pentium | pentium2 | pentium3 | phenom | qemu32 | qemu64> (default = kvm64)

CPU model and vendor to report to the guest. Must be a QEMU/KVM supported model. Only valid for custom CPU model definitions, default models will always report themselves to the guest OS.

cpulimit: <number> (0 — 128) (default = 0)

Limit of CPU usage.

If the computer has 2 CPUs, it has total of 2 CPU time. Value 0 indicates no CPU limit.

cpuunits: <integer> (1 — 262144) (default = cgroup v1: 1024, cgroup v2: 100)

CPU weight for a VM. Argument is used in the kernel fair scheduler. The larger the number is, the more CPU time this VM gets. Number is relative to weights of all the other running VMs.

description: <string>

Description for the VM. Shown in the web-interface VM’s summary. This is saved as comment inside the configuration file.

efidisk0: [file=]<volume> [,efitype=<2m|4m>] [,format=<enum>] [,pre-enrolled-keys=<1|0>] [,size=<DiskSize>]

Configure a Disk for storing EFI vars.

efitype=<2m | 4m> (default = 2m)

Size and type of the OVMF EFI vars. 4m is newer and recommended, and required for Secure Boot. For backwards compatibility, 2m is used if not otherwise specified.

file=<volume>

The drive’s backing volume.

format=<cloop | cow | qcow | qcow2 | qed | raw | vmdk>

The drive’s backing file’s data format.

pre-enrolled-keys=<boolean> (default = 0)

Use am EFI vars template with distribution-specific and Microsoft Standard keys enrolled, if used with efitype=4m. Note that this will enable Secure Boot by default, though it can still be turned off from within the VM.

size=<DiskSize>

Disk size. This is purely informational and has no effect.

freeze: <boolean>

Freeze CPU at startup (use c monitor command to start execution).

hookscript: <string>

Script that will be executed during various steps in the vms lifetime.

hostpci[n]: [host=]<HOSTPCIID[;HOSTPCIID2…]> [,device-id=<hex id>] [,legacy-igd=<1|0>] [,mdev=<string>] [,pcie=<1|0>] [,rombar=<1|0>] [,romfile=<string>] [,sub-device-id=<hex id>] [,sub-vendor-id=<hex id>] [,vendor-id=<hex id>] [,x-vga=<1|0>]

Map host PCI devices into guest.

This option allows direct access to host hardware. So it is no longer possible to migrate such machines — use with special care.

Experimental! User reported problems with this option.

device-id=<hex id>

Override PCI device ID visible to guest

host=<HOSTPCIID[;HOSTPCIID2…]>

Host PCI device pass through. The PCI ID of a host’s PCI device or a list
of PCI virtual functions of the host. HOSTPCIID syntax is:

bus:dev.func (hexadecimal numbers)

You can us the lspci command to list existing PCI devices.

legacy-igd=<boolean> (default = 0)

Pass this device in legacy IGD mode, making it the primary and exclusive graphics device in the VM. Requires pc-i440fx machine type and VGA set to none.

mdev=<string>

The type of mediated device to use.
An instance of this type will be created on startup of the VM and
will be cleaned up when the VM stops.

pcie=<boolean> (default = 0)

Choose the PCI-express bus (needs the q35 machine model).

rombar=<boolean> (default = 1)

Specify whether or not the device’s ROM will be visible in the guest’s memory map.

romfile=<string>

Custom pci device rom filename (must be located in /usr/share/kvm/).

sub-device-id=<hex id>

Override PCI subsystem device ID visible to guest

sub-vendor-id=<hex id>

Override PCI subsystem vendor ID visible to guest

vendor-id=<hex id>

Override PCI vendor ID visible to guest

x-vga=<boolean> (default = 0)

Enable vfio-vga device support.

hotplug: <string> (default = network,disk,usb)

Selectively enable hotplug features. This is a comma separated list of hotplug features: network, disk, cpu, memory, usb and cloudinit. Use 0 to disable hotplug completely. Using 1 as value is an alias for the default network,disk,usb. USB hotplugging is possible for guests with machine version >= 7.1 and ostype l26 or windows > 7.

hugepages: <1024 | 2 | any>

Enable/disable hugepages memory.

ide[n]: [file=]<volume> [,aio=<native|threads|io_uring>] [,backup=<1|0>] [,bps=<bps>] [,bps_max_length=<seconds>] [,bps_rd=<bps>] [,bps_rd_max_length=<seconds>] [,bps_wr=<bps>] [,bps_wr_max_length=<seconds>] [,cache=<enum>] [,cyls=<integer>] [,detect_zeroes=<1|0>] [,discard=<ignore|on>] [,format=<enum>] [,heads=<integer>] [,iops=<iops>] [,iops_max=<iops>] [,iops_max_length=<seconds>] [,iops_rd=<iops>] [,iops_rd_max=<iops>] [,iops_rd_max_length=<seconds>] [,iops_wr=<iops>] [,iops_wr_max=<iops>] [,iops_wr_max_length=<seconds>] [,mbps=<mbps>] [,mbps_max=<mbps>] [,mbps_rd=<mbps>] [,mbps_rd_max=<mbps>] [,mbps_wr=<mbps>] [,mbps_wr_max=<mbps>] [,media=<cdrom|disk>] [,model=<model>] [,replicate=<1|0>] [,rerror=<ignore|report|stop>] [,secs=<integer>] [,serial=<serial>] [,shared=<1|0>] [,size=<DiskSize>] [,snapshot=<1|0>] [,ssd=<1|0>] [,trans=<none|lba|auto>] [,werror=<enum>] [,wwn=<wwn>]

Use volume as IDE hard disk or CD-ROM (n is 0 to 3).

aio=<io_uring | native | threads>

AIO type to use.

backup=<boolean>

Whether the drive should be included when making backups.

bps=<bps>

Maximum r/w speed in bytes per second.

bps_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of I/O bursts in seconds.

bps_rd=<bps>

Maximum read speed in bytes per second.

bps_rd_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of read I/O bursts in seconds.

bps_wr=<bps>

Maximum write speed in bytes per second.

bps_wr_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of write I/O bursts in seconds.

cache=<directsync | none | unsafe | writeback | writethrough>

The drive’s cache mode

cyls=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific cylinder count.

detect_zeroes=<boolean>

Controls whether to detect and try to optimize writes of zeroes.

discard=<ignore | on>

Controls whether to pass discard/trim requests to the underlying storage.

file=<volume>

The drive’s backing volume.

format=<cloop | cow | qcow | qcow2 | qed | raw | vmdk>

The drive’s backing file’s data format.

heads=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific head count.

iops=<iops>

Maximum r/w I/O in operations per second.

iops_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled r/w I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of I/O bursts in seconds.

iops_rd=<iops>

Maximum read I/O in operations per second.

iops_rd_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled read I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_rd_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of read I/O bursts in seconds.

iops_wr=<iops>

Maximum write I/O in operations per second.

iops_wr_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled write I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_wr_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of write I/O bursts in seconds.

mbps=<mbps>

Maximum r/w speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled r/w pool in megabytes per second.

mbps_rd=<mbps>

Maximum read speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_rd_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled read pool in megabytes per second.

mbps_wr=<mbps>

Maximum write speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_wr_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled write pool in megabytes per second.

media=<cdrom | disk> (default = disk)

The drive’s media type.

model=<model>

The drive’s reported model name, url-encoded, up to 40 bytes long.

replicate=<boolean> (default = 1)

Whether the drive should considered for replication jobs.

rerror=<ignore | report | stop>

Read error action.

secs=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific sector count.

serial=<serial>

The drive’s reported serial number, url-encoded, up to 20 bytes long.

shared=<boolean> (default = 0)

Mark this locally-managed volume as available on all nodes.

This option does not share the volume automatically, it assumes it is shared already!

size=<DiskSize>

Disk size. This is purely informational and has no effect.

snapshot=<boolean>

Controls qemu’s snapshot mode feature. If activated, changes made to the disk are temporary and will be discarded when the VM is shutdown.

ssd=<boolean>

Whether to expose this drive as an SSD, rather than a rotational hard disk.

trans=<auto | lba | none>

Force disk geometry bios translation mode.

werror=<enospc | ignore | report | stop>

Write error action.

wwn=<wwn>

The drive’s worldwide name, encoded as 16 bytes hex string, prefixed by 0x.

ipconfig[n]: [gw=<GatewayIPv4>] [,gw6=<GatewayIPv6>] [,ip=<IPv4Format/CIDR>] [,ip6=<IPv6Format/CIDR>]

cloud-init: Specify IP addresses and gateways for the corresponding interface.

IP addresses use CIDR notation, gateways are optional but need an IP of the same type specified.

The special string dhcp can be used for IP addresses to use DHCP, in which case no explicit
gateway should be provided.
For IPv6 the special string auto can be used to use stateless autoconfiguration. This requires
cloud-init 19.4 or newer.

If cloud-init is enabled and neither an IPv4 nor an IPv6 address is specified, it defaults to using
dhcp on IPv4.

gw=<GatewayIPv4>

Default gateway for IPv4 traffic.

Requires option(s): ip

gw6=<GatewayIPv6>

Default gateway for IPv6 traffic.

Requires option(s): ip6

ip=<IPv4Format/CIDR> (default = dhcp)

IPv4 address in CIDR format.

ip6=<IPv6Format/CIDR> (default = dhcp)

IPv6 address in CIDR format.

ivshmem: size=<integer> [,name=<string>]

Inter-VM shared memory. Useful for direct communication between VMs, or to the host.

name=<string>

The name of the file. Will be prefixed with pve-shm-. Default is the VMID. Will be deleted when the VM is stopped.

size=<integer> (1 — N)

The size of the file in MB.

keephugepages: <boolean> (default = 0)

Use together with hugepages. If enabled, hugepages will not not be deleted after VM shutdown and can be used for subsequent starts.

keyboard: <da | de | de-ch | en-gb | en-us | es | fi | fr | fr-be | fr-ca | fr-ch | hu | is | it | ja | lt | mk | nl | no | pl | pt | pt-br | sl | sv | tr>

Keyboard layout for VNC server. This option is generally not required and is often better handled from within the guest OS.

kvm: <boolean> (default = 1)

Enable/disable KVM hardware virtualization.

localtime: <boolean>

Set the real time clock (RTC) to local time. This is enabled by default if the ostype indicates a Microsoft Windows OS.

lock: <backup | clone | create | migrate | rollback | snapshot | snapshot-delete | suspended | suspending>

Lock/unlock the VM.

machine: (pc|pc(-i440fx)?-d+(.d+)+(+pved+)?(.pxe)?|q35|pc-q35-d+(.d+)+(+pved+)?(.pxe)?|virt(?:-d+(.d+)+)?(+pved+)?)

Specifies the Qemu machine type.

memory: <integer> (16 — N) (default = 512)

Amount of RAM for the VM in MB. This is the maximum available memory when you use the balloon device.

migrate_downtime: <number> (0 — N) (default = 0.1)

Set maximum tolerated downtime (in seconds) for migrations.

migrate_speed: <integer> (0 — N) (default = 0)

Set maximum speed (in MB/s) for migrations. Value 0 is no limit.

name: <string>

Set a name for the VM. Only used on the configuration web interface.

nameserver: <string>

cloud-init: Sets DNS server IP address for a container. Create will automatically use the setting from the host if neither searchdomain nor nameserver are set.

net[n]: [model=]<enum> [,bridge=<bridge>] [,firewall=<1|0>] [,link_down=<1|0>] [,macaddr=<XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX>] [,mtu=<integer>] [,queues=<integer>] [,rate=<number>] [,tag=<integer>] [,trunks=<vlanid[;vlanid…]>] [,<model>=<macaddr>]

Specify network devices.

bridge=<bridge>

Bridge to attach the network device to. The Proxmox VE standard bridge
is called vmbr0.

If you do not specify a bridge, we create a kvm user (NATed) network
device, which provides DHCP and DNS services. The following addresses
are used:

10.0.2.2   Gateway
10.0.2.3   DNS Server
10.0.2.4   SMB Server

The DHCP server assign addresses to the guest starting from 10.0.2.15.

firewall=<boolean>

Whether this interface should be protected by the firewall.

link_down=<boolean>

Whether this interface should be disconnected (like pulling the plug).

macaddr=<XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX>

A common MAC address with the I/G (Individual/Group) bit not set.

model=<e1000 | e1000-82540em | e1000-82544gc | e1000-82545em | e1000e | i82551 | i82557b | i82559er | ne2k_isa | ne2k_pci | pcnet | rtl8139 | virtio | vmxnet3>

Network Card Model. The virtio model provides the best performance with very low CPU overhead. If your guest does not support this driver, it is usually best to use e1000.

mtu=<integer> (1 — 65520)

Force MTU, for VirtIO only. Set to 1 to use the bridge MTU

queues=<integer> (0 — 64)

Number of packet queues to be used on the device.

rate=<number> (0 — N)

Rate limit in mbps (megabytes per second) as floating point number.

tag=<integer> (1 — 4094)

VLAN tag to apply to packets on this interface.

trunks=<vlanid[;vlanid…]>

VLAN trunks to pass through this interface.

numa: <boolean> (default = 0)

Enable/disable NUMA.

numa[n]: cpus=<id[-id];…> [,hostnodes=<id[-id];…>] [,memory=<number>] [,policy=<preferred|bind|interleave>]

NUMA topology.

cpus=<id[-id];…>

CPUs accessing this NUMA node.

hostnodes=<id[-id];…>

Host NUMA nodes to use.

memory=<number>

Amount of memory this NUMA node provides.

policy=<bind | interleave | preferred>

NUMA allocation policy.

onboot: <boolean> (default = 0)

Specifies whether a VM will be started during system bootup.

ostype: <l24 | l26 | other | solaris | w2k | w2k3 | w2k8 | win10 | win11 | win7 | win8 | wvista | wxp>

Specify guest operating system. This is used to enable special
optimization/features for specific operating systems:

other	unspecified OS
wxp	Microsoft Windows XP
w2k	Microsoft Windows 2000
w2k3	Microsoft Windows 2003
w2k8	Microsoft Windows 2008
wvista	Microsoft Windows Vista
win7	Microsoft Windows 7
win8	Microsoft Windows 8/2012/2012r2
win10	Microsoft Windows 10/2016/2019
win11	Microsoft Windows 11/2022
l24	Linux 2.4 Kernel
l26	Linux 2.6 — 5.X Kernel
solaris	Solaris/OpenSolaris/OpenIndiania kernel

parallel[n]: /dev/parportd+|/dev/usb/lpd+

Map host parallel devices (n is 0 to 2).

This option allows direct access to host hardware. So it is no longer possible to migrate such machines — use with special care.

Experimental! User reported problems with this option.

protection: <boolean> (default = 0)

Sets the protection flag of the VM. This will disable the remove VM and remove disk operations.

reboot: <boolean> (default = 1)

Allow reboot. If set to 0 the VM exit on reboot.

rng0: [source=]</dev/urandom|/dev/random|/dev/hwrng> [,max_bytes=<integer>] [,period=<integer>]

Configure a VirtIO-based Random Number Generator.

max_bytes=<integer> (default = 1024)

Maximum bytes of entropy allowed to get injected into the guest every period milliseconds. Prefer a lower value when using /dev/random as source. Use 0 to disable limiting (potentially dangerous!).

period=<integer> (default = 1000)

Every period milliseconds the entropy-injection quota is reset, allowing the guest to retrieve another max_bytes of entropy.

source=</dev/hwrng | /dev/random | /dev/urandom>

The file on the host to gather entropy from. In most cases /dev/urandom should be preferred over /dev/random to avoid entropy-starvation issues on the host. Using urandom does not decrease security in any meaningful way, as it’s still seeded from real entropy, and the bytes provided will most likely be mixed with real entropy on the guest as well. /dev/hwrng can be used to pass through a hardware RNG from the host.

sata[n]: [file=]<volume> [,aio=<native|threads|io_uring>] [,backup=<1|0>] [,bps=<bps>] [,bps_max_length=<seconds>] [,bps_rd=<bps>] [,bps_rd_max_length=<seconds>] [,bps_wr=<bps>] [,bps_wr_max_length=<seconds>] [,cache=<enum>] [,cyls=<integer>] [,detect_zeroes=<1|0>] [,discard=<ignore|on>] [,format=<enum>] [,heads=<integer>] [,iops=<iops>] [,iops_max=<iops>] [,iops_max_length=<seconds>] [,iops_rd=<iops>] [,iops_rd_max=<iops>] [,iops_rd_max_length=<seconds>] [,iops_wr=<iops>] [,iops_wr_max=<iops>] [,iops_wr_max_length=<seconds>] [,mbps=<mbps>] [,mbps_max=<mbps>] [,mbps_rd=<mbps>] [,mbps_rd_max=<mbps>] [,mbps_wr=<mbps>] [,mbps_wr_max=<mbps>] [,media=<cdrom|disk>] [,replicate=<1|0>] [,rerror=<ignore|report|stop>] [,secs=<integer>] [,serial=<serial>] [,shared=<1|0>] [,size=<DiskSize>] [,snapshot=<1|0>] [,ssd=<1|0>] [,trans=<none|lba|auto>] [,werror=<enum>] [,wwn=<wwn>]

Use volume as SATA hard disk or CD-ROM (n is 0 to 5).

aio=<io_uring | native | threads>

AIO type to use.

backup=<boolean>

Whether the drive should be included when making backups.

bps=<bps>

Maximum r/w speed in bytes per second.

bps_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of I/O bursts in seconds.

bps_rd=<bps>

Maximum read speed in bytes per second.

bps_rd_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of read I/O bursts in seconds.

bps_wr=<bps>

Maximum write speed in bytes per second.

bps_wr_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of write I/O bursts in seconds.

cache=<directsync | none | unsafe | writeback | writethrough>

The drive’s cache mode

cyls=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific cylinder count.

detect_zeroes=<boolean>

Controls whether to detect and try to optimize writes of zeroes.

discard=<ignore | on>

Controls whether to pass discard/trim requests to the underlying storage.

file=<volume>

The drive’s backing volume.

format=<cloop | cow | qcow | qcow2 | qed | raw | vmdk>

The drive’s backing file’s data format.

heads=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific head count.

iops=<iops>

Maximum r/w I/O in operations per second.

iops_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled r/w I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of I/O bursts in seconds.

iops_rd=<iops>

Maximum read I/O in operations per second.

iops_rd_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled read I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_rd_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of read I/O bursts in seconds.

iops_wr=<iops>

Maximum write I/O in operations per second.

iops_wr_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled write I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_wr_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of write I/O bursts in seconds.

mbps=<mbps>

Maximum r/w speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled r/w pool in megabytes per second.

mbps_rd=<mbps>

Maximum read speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_rd_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled read pool in megabytes per second.

mbps_wr=<mbps>

Maximum write speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_wr_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled write pool in megabytes per second.

media=<cdrom | disk> (default = disk)

The drive’s media type.

replicate=<boolean> (default = 1)

Whether the drive should considered for replication jobs.

rerror=<ignore | report | stop>

Read error action.

secs=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific sector count.

serial=<serial>

The drive’s reported serial number, url-encoded, up to 20 bytes long.

shared=<boolean> (default = 0)

Mark this locally-managed volume as available on all nodes.

This option does not share the volume automatically, it assumes it is shared already!

size=<DiskSize>

Disk size. This is purely informational and has no effect.

snapshot=<boolean>

Controls qemu’s snapshot mode feature. If activated, changes made to the disk are temporary and will be discarded when the VM is shutdown.

ssd=<boolean>

Whether to expose this drive as an SSD, rather than a rotational hard disk.

trans=<auto | lba | none>

Force disk geometry bios translation mode.

werror=<enospc | ignore | report | stop>

Write error action.

wwn=<wwn>

The drive’s worldwide name, encoded as 16 bytes hex string, prefixed by 0x.

scsi[n]: [file=]<volume> [,aio=<native|threads|io_uring>] [,backup=<1|0>] [,bps=<bps>] [,bps_max_length=<seconds>] [,bps_rd=<bps>] [,bps_rd_max_length=<seconds>] [,bps_wr=<bps>] [,bps_wr_max_length=<seconds>] [,cache=<enum>] [,cyls=<integer>] [,detect_zeroes=<1|0>] [,discard=<ignore|on>] [,format=<enum>] [,heads=<integer>] [,iops=<iops>] [,iops_max=<iops>] [,iops_max_length=<seconds>] [,iops_rd=<iops>] [,iops_rd_max=<iops>] [,iops_rd_max_length=<seconds>] [,iops_wr=<iops>] [,iops_wr_max=<iops>] [,iops_wr_max_length=<seconds>] [,iothread=<1|0>] [,mbps=<mbps>] [,mbps_max=<mbps>] [,mbps_rd=<mbps>] [,mbps_rd_max=<mbps>] [,mbps_wr=<mbps>] [,mbps_wr_max=<mbps>] [,media=<cdrom|disk>] [,queues=<integer>] [,replicate=<1|0>] [,rerror=<ignore|report|stop>] [,ro=<1|0>] [,scsiblock=<1|0>] [,secs=<integer>] [,serial=<serial>] [,shared=<1|0>] [,size=<DiskSize>] [,snapshot=<1|0>] [,ssd=<1|0>] [,trans=<none|lba|auto>] [,werror=<enum>] [,wwn=<wwn>]

Use volume as SCSI hard disk or CD-ROM (n is 0 to 30).

aio=<io_uring | native | threads>

AIO type to use.

backup=<boolean>

Whether the drive should be included when making backups.

bps=<bps>

Maximum r/w speed in bytes per second.

bps_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of I/O bursts in seconds.

bps_rd=<bps>

Maximum read speed in bytes per second.

bps_rd_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of read I/O bursts in seconds.

bps_wr=<bps>

Maximum write speed in bytes per second.

bps_wr_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of write I/O bursts in seconds.

cache=<directsync | none | unsafe | writeback | writethrough>

The drive’s cache mode

cyls=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific cylinder count.

detect_zeroes=<boolean>

Controls whether to detect and try to optimize writes of zeroes.

discard=<ignore | on>

Controls whether to pass discard/trim requests to the underlying storage.

file=<volume>

The drive’s backing volume.

format=<cloop | cow | qcow | qcow2 | qed | raw | vmdk>

The drive’s backing file’s data format.

heads=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific head count.

iops=<iops>

Maximum r/w I/O in operations per second.

iops_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled r/w I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of I/O bursts in seconds.

iops_rd=<iops>

Maximum read I/O in operations per second.

iops_rd_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled read I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_rd_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of read I/O bursts in seconds.

iops_wr=<iops>

Maximum write I/O in operations per second.

iops_wr_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled write I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_wr_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of write I/O bursts in seconds.

iothread=<boolean>

Whether to use iothreads for this drive

mbps=<mbps>

Maximum r/w speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled r/w pool in megabytes per second.

mbps_rd=<mbps>

Maximum read speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_rd_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled read pool in megabytes per second.

mbps_wr=<mbps>

Maximum write speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_wr_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled write pool in megabytes per second.

media=<cdrom | disk> (default = disk)

The drive’s media type.

queues=<integer> (2 — N)

Number of queues.

replicate=<boolean> (default = 1)

Whether the drive should considered for replication jobs.

rerror=<ignore | report | stop>

Read error action.

ro=<boolean>

Whether the drive is read-only.

scsiblock=<boolean> (default = 0)

whether to use scsi-block for full passthrough of host block device

can lead to I/O errors in combination with low memory or high memory fragmentation on host

secs=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific sector count.

serial=<serial>

The drive’s reported serial number, url-encoded, up to 20 bytes long.

shared=<boolean> (default = 0)

Mark this locally-managed volume as available on all nodes.

This option does not share the volume automatically, it assumes it is shared already!

size=<DiskSize>

Disk size. This is purely informational and has no effect.

snapshot=<boolean>

Controls qemu’s snapshot mode feature. If activated, changes made to the disk are temporary and will be discarded when the VM is shutdown.

ssd=<boolean>

Whether to expose this drive as an SSD, rather than a rotational hard disk.

trans=<auto | lba | none>

Force disk geometry bios translation mode.

werror=<enospc | ignore | report | stop>

Write error action.

wwn=<wwn>

The drive’s worldwide name, encoded as 16 bytes hex string, prefixed by 0x.

scsihw: <lsi | lsi53c810 | megasas | pvscsi | virtio-scsi-pci | virtio-scsi-single> (default = lsi)

SCSI controller model

searchdomain: <string>

cloud-init: Sets DNS search domains for a container. Create will automatically use the setting from the host if neither searchdomain nor nameserver are set.

serial[n]: (/dev/.+|socket)

Create a serial device inside the VM (n is 0 to 3), and pass through a
host serial device (i.e. /dev/ttyS0), or create a unix socket on the
host side (use qm terminal to open a terminal connection).

If you pass through a host serial device, it is no longer possible to migrate such machines — use with special care.

Experimental! User reported problems with this option.

shares: <integer> (0 — 50000) (default = 1000)

Amount of memory shares for auto-ballooning. The larger the number is, the more memory this VM gets. Number is relative to weights of all other running VMs. Using zero disables auto-ballooning. Auto-ballooning is done by pvestatd.

smbios1: [base64=<1|0>] [,family=<Base64 encoded string>] [,manufacturer=<Base64 encoded string>] [,product=<Base64 encoded string>] [,serial=<Base64 encoded string>] [,sku=<Base64 encoded string>] [,uuid=<UUID>] [,version=<Base64 encoded string>]

Specify SMBIOS type 1 fields.

base64=<boolean>

Flag to indicate that the SMBIOS values are base64 encoded

family=<Base64 encoded string>

Set SMBIOS1 family string.

manufacturer=<Base64 encoded string>

Set SMBIOS1 manufacturer.

product=<Base64 encoded string>

Set SMBIOS1 product ID.

serial=<Base64 encoded string>

Set SMBIOS1 serial number.

sku=<Base64 encoded string>

Set SMBIOS1 SKU string.

uuid=<UUID>

Set SMBIOS1 UUID.

version=<Base64 encoded string>

Set SMBIOS1 version.

smp: <integer> (1 — N) (default = 1)

The number of CPUs. Please use option -sockets instead.

sockets: <integer> (1 — N) (default = 1)

The number of CPU sockets.

spice_enhancements: [foldersharing=<1|0>] [,videostreaming=<off|all|filter>]

Configure additional enhancements for SPICE.

foldersharing=<boolean> (default = 0)

Enable folder sharing via SPICE. Needs Spice-WebDAV daemon installed in the VM.

videostreaming=<all | filter | off> (default = off)

Enable video streaming. Uses compression for detected video streams.

sshkeys: <string>

cloud-init: Setup public SSH keys (one key per line, OpenSSH format).

startdate: (now | YYYY-MM-DD | YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS) (default = now)

Set the initial date of the real time clock. Valid format for date are:’now’ or 2006-06-17T16:01:21 or 2006-06-17.

startup: `[[order=]d+] [,up=d+] [,down=d+] `

Startup and shutdown behavior. Order is a non-negative number defining the general startup order. Shutdown in done with reverse ordering. Additionally you can set the up or down delay in seconds, which specifies a delay to wait before the next VM is started or stopped.

tablet: <boolean> (default = 1)

Enable/disable the USB tablet device. This device is usually needed to allow absolute mouse positioning with VNC. Else the mouse runs out of sync with normal VNC clients. If you’re running lots of console-only guests on one host, you may consider disabling this to save some context switches. This is turned off by default if you use spice (qm set <vmid> —vga qxl).

tags: <string>

Tags of the VM. This is only meta information.

tdf: <boolean> (default = 0)

Enable/disable time drift fix.

template: <boolean> (default = 0)

Enable/disable Template.

tpmstate0: [file=]<volume> [,size=<DiskSize>] [,version=<v1.2|v2.0>]

Configure a Disk for storing TPM state. The format is fixed to raw.

file=<volume>

The drive’s backing volume.

size=<DiskSize>

Disk size. This is purely informational and has no effect.

version=<v1.2 | v2.0> (default = v2.0)

The TPM interface version. v2.0 is newer and should be preferred. Note that this cannot be changed later on.

unused[n]: [file=]<volume>

Reference to unused volumes. This is used internally, and should not be modified manually.

file=<volume>

The drive’s backing volume.

usb[n]: [host=]<HOSTUSBDEVICE|spice> [,usb3=<1|0>]

Configure an USB device (n is 0 to 4, for machine version >= 7.1 and ostype l26 or windows > 7, n can be up to 14).

host=<HOSTUSBDEVICE|spice>

The Host USB device or port or the value spice. HOSTUSBDEVICE syntax is:

'bus-port(.port)*' (decimal numbers) or
'vendor_id:product_id' (hexadeciaml numbers) or
'spice'

You can use the lsusb -t command to list existing usb devices.

This option allows direct access to host hardware. So it is no longer possible to migrate such machines — use with special care.

The value spice can be used to add a usb redirection devices for spice.

usb3=<boolean> (default = 0)

Specifies whether if given host option is a USB3 device or port. For modern guests (machine version >= 7.1 and ostype l26 and windows > 7), this flag is irrelevant (all devices are plugged into a xhci controller).

vcpus: <integer> (1 — N) (default = 0)

Number of hotplugged vcpus.

vga: [[type=]<enum>] [,memory=<integer>]

Configure the VGA Hardware. If you want to use high resolution modes (>= 1280x1024x16) you may need to increase the vga memory option. Since QEMU 2.9 the default VGA display type is std for all OS types besides some Windows versions (XP and older) which use cirrus. The qxl option enables the SPICE display server. For win* OS you can select how many independent displays you want, Linux guests can add displays them self.
You can also run without any graphic card, using a serial device as terminal.

memory=<integer> (4 — 512)

Sets the VGA memory (in MiB). Has no effect with serial display.

type=<cirrus | none | qxl | qxl2 | qxl3 | qxl4 | serial0 | serial1 | serial2 | serial3 | std | virtio | virtio-gl | vmware> (default = std)

Select the VGA type.

virtio[n]: [file=]<volume> [,aio=<native|threads|io_uring>] [,backup=<1|0>] [,bps=<bps>] [,bps_max_length=<seconds>] [,bps_rd=<bps>] [,bps_rd_max_length=<seconds>] [,bps_wr=<bps>] [,bps_wr_max_length=<seconds>] [,cache=<enum>] [,cyls=<integer>] [,detect_zeroes=<1|0>] [,discard=<ignore|on>] [,format=<enum>] [,heads=<integer>] [,iops=<iops>] [,iops_max=<iops>] [,iops_max_length=<seconds>] [,iops_rd=<iops>] [,iops_rd_max=<iops>] [,iops_rd_max_length=<seconds>] [,iops_wr=<iops>] [,iops_wr_max=<iops>] [,iops_wr_max_length=<seconds>] [,iothread=<1|0>] [,mbps=<mbps>] [,mbps_max=<mbps>] [,mbps_rd=<mbps>] [,mbps_rd_max=<mbps>] [,mbps_wr=<mbps>] [,mbps_wr_max=<mbps>] [,media=<cdrom|disk>] [,replicate=<1|0>] [,rerror=<ignore|report|stop>] [,ro=<1|0>] [,secs=<integer>] [,serial=<serial>] [,shared=<1|0>] [,size=<DiskSize>] [,snapshot=<1|0>] [,trans=<none|lba|auto>] [,werror=<enum>]

Use volume as VIRTIO hard disk (n is 0 to 15).

aio=<io_uring | native | threads>

AIO type to use.

backup=<boolean>

Whether the drive should be included when making backups.

bps=<bps>

Maximum r/w speed in bytes per second.

bps_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of I/O bursts in seconds.

bps_rd=<bps>

Maximum read speed in bytes per second.

bps_rd_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of read I/O bursts in seconds.

bps_wr=<bps>

Maximum write speed in bytes per second.

bps_wr_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of write I/O bursts in seconds.

cache=<directsync | none | unsafe | writeback | writethrough>

The drive’s cache mode

cyls=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific cylinder count.

detect_zeroes=<boolean>

Controls whether to detect and try to optimize writes of zeroes.

discard=<ignore | on>

Controls whether to pass discard/trim requests to the underlying storage.

file=<volume>

The drive’s backing volume.

format=<cloop | cow | qcow | qcow2 | qed | raw | vmdk>

The drive’s backing file’s data format.

heads=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific head count.

iops=<iops>

Maximum r/w I/O in operations per second.

iops_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled r/w I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of I/O bursts in seconds.

iops_rd=<iops>

Maximum read I/O in operations per second.

iops_rd_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled read I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_rd_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of read I/O bursts in seconds.

iops_wr=<iops>

Maximum write I/O in operations per second.

iops_wr_max=<iops>

Maximum unthrottled write I/O pool in operations per second.

iops_wr_max_length=<seconds>

Maximum length of write I/O bursts in seconds.

iothread=<boolean>

Whether to use iothreads for this drive

mbps=<mbps>

Maximum r/w speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled r/w pool in megabytes per second.

mbps_rd=<mbps>

Maximum read speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_rd_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled read pool in megabytes per second.

mbps_wr=<mbps>

Maximum write speed in megabytes per second.

mbps_wr_max=<mbps>

Maximum unthrottled write pool in megabytes per second.

media=<cdrom | disk> (default = disk)

The drive’s media type.

replicate=<boolean> (default = 1)

Whether the drive should considered for replication jobs.

rerror=<ignore | report | stop>

Read error action.

ro=<boolean>

Whether the drive is read-only.

secs=<integer>

Force the drive’s physical geometry to have a specific sector count.

serial=<serial>

The drive’s reported serial number, url-encoded, up to 20 bytes long.

shared=<boolean> (default = 0)

Mark this locally-managed volume as available on all nodes.

This option does not share the volume automatically, it assumes it is shared already!

size=<DiskSize>

Disk size. This is purely informational and has no effect.

snapshot=<boolean>

Controls qemu’s snapshot mode feature. If activated, changes made to the disk are temporary and will be discarded when the VM is shutdown.

trans=<auto | lba | none>

Force disk geometry bios translation mode.

werror=<enospc | ignore | report | stop>

Write error action.

vmgenid: <UUID> (default = 1 (autogenerated))

The VM generation ID (vmgenid) device exposes a 128-bit integer value identifier to the guest OS. This allows to notify the guest operating system when the virtual machine is executed with a different configuration (e.g. snapshot execution or creation from a template). The guest operating system notices the change, and is then able to react as appropriate by marking its copies of distributed databases as dirty, re-initializing its random number generator, etc.
Note that auto-creation only works when done through API/CLI create or update methods, but not when manually editing the config file.

vmstatestorage: <string>

Default storage for VM state volumes/files.

watchdog: [[model=]<i6300esb|ib700>] [,action=<enum>]

Create a virtual hardware watchdog device. Once enabled (by a guest action), the watchdog must be periodically polled by an agent inside the guest or else the watchdog will reset the guest (or execute the respective action specified)

action=<debug | none | pause | poweroff | reset | shutdown>

The action to perform if after activation the guest fails to poll the watchdog in time.

model=<i6300esb | ib700> (default = i6300esb)

Watchdog type to emulate.