Using virtctl to access virtual machine in Kubernetes

Install the virtctl client tool

Basic VirtualMachineInstance operations can be performed with the stock kubectl utility. However, the virtctl binary utility is required to use advanced features such as:

  • Serial and graphical console access

It also provides convenience commands for:

  • Starting and stopping VirtualMachineInstances
  • Live migrating VirtualMachineInstances
  • Uploading virtual machine disk images

There are two ways to get it:

  • the most recent version of the tool can be retrieved from the official release page
  • it can be installed as a kubectl plugin using krew

Example:

$ export VERSION=v0.48.1
$ wget https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/${VERSION}/virtctl-${VERSION}-linux-amd64
$ ln -s virtctl-v0.48.1-linux-amd64 virtctl
$ chmod +x virtctl-v0.48.1-linux-amd64
$ ./virtctl version
Client Version: version.Info{GitVersion:"v0.48.1", ...}

Access the virtual machine console

$ ./virtctl -h
virtctl controls virtual machine related operations on your kubernetes cluster.

Available Commands:
  addvolume         add a volume to a running VM
  console           Connect to a console of a virtual machine instance.
  expose            Expose a virtual machine instance, virtual machine, or virtual machine instance replica set as a new service.
  fslist            Return full list of filesystems available on the guest machine.
  guestfs           Start a shell into the libguestfs pod
  guestosinfo       Return guest agent info about operating system.
  help              Help about any command
  image-upload      Upload a VM image to a DataVolume/PersistentVolumeClaim.
  migrate           Migrate a virtual machine.
  pause             Pause a virtual machine
  permitted-devices List the permitted devices for vmis.
  port-forward      Forward local ports to a virtualmachine or virtualmachineinstance.
  removevolume      remove a volume from a running VM
  restart           Restart a virtual machine.
  soft-reboot       Soft reboot a virtual machine instance
  ssh               Open a SSH connection to a virtual machine instance.
  start             Start a virtual machine.
  stop              Stop a virtual machine.
  unpause           Unpause a virtual machine
  usbredir          Redirect a usb device to a virtual machine instance.
  userlist          Return full list of logged in users on the guest machine.
  version           Print the client and server version information.
  vnc               Open a vnc connection to a virtual machine instance.

Use "virtctl <command> --help" for more information about a given command.
Use "virtctl options" for a list of global command-line options (applies to all commands).

$ ./virtctl console vm1
[root@vm1 output]# hostname
vm1

Reference