NAME
virt-what - detect if we are running in a virtual machine
SUMMARY
virt-what [options]
DESCRIPTION
"virt-what" is a shell script which can be used to detect if the
program is running in a virtual machine.
The program prints out a list of "facts" about the virtual machine,
derived from heuristics. One fact is printed per line.
If nothing is printed and the script exits with code 0 (no error), then
it can mean either that the program is running on bare-metal or the
program is running inside a type of virtual machine which we don’t know
about or cannot detect.
FACTS
openvz
The guest appears to be running inside an OpenVZ or Virtuozzo
container.
Status: contributed by Evgeniy Sokolov
kvm This is KVM.
Status: confirmed by RWMJ.
qemu
This is QEMU.
Status: confirmed by RWMJ.
uml This is a User-Mode Linux (UML) guest.
Status: contributed by Laurent Leonard
virtualbox
This is a VirtualBox guest.
Status: contributed by Laurent Leonard
virtualpc
The guest appears to be running on Microsoft VirtualPC.
Status: not confirmed
vmware
The guest appears to be running on VMware.
Status: confirmed by RWMJ
xen The guest appears to be running on Xen.
Status: confirmed by RWMJ
xen-dom0
This is the Xen dom0 (privileged domain).
Status: confirmed by RWMJ
xen-domU
This is a Xen domU (paravirtualized guest domain).
Status: confirmed by RWMJ
xen-hvm
This is a Xen guest fully virtualized (HVM).
Status: confirmed by RWMJ
IMPORTANT NOTE
Most of the time, using this program is the wrong thing to do. Instead
you should detect the specific features you actually want to use. (As
an example, if you wanted to issue Xen hypervisor commands you would
look for the "/proc/xen/privcmd" file).
However people keep asking for this, so we provide it. There are a few
legitimate uses:
Bug reporting tool
If you think that virtualization could affect how your program
runs, then you might use "virt-what" to report this in a bug
reporting tool.
Status display and monitoring tools
You might include this information in status and monitoring
programs.
SEE ALSO
<http://www.libvirt.org/>, <http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/>,
<http://www.vmware.com/>,
<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc>,
<http://xensource.com/>, <http://bellard.org/qemu/>,
<http://kvm.qumranet.com/>, <http://openvz.org/>
AUTHORS
Richard W.M. Jones <rjones @ redhat . com>
COPYRIGHT
(C) Copyright 2008 Red Hat Inc., <http://libvirt.org/>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
REPORTING BUGS
Bugs can be viewed on the Red Hat Bugzilla page:
<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/>.
If you find a bug in virt-what, please follow these steps to report it:
1. Check for existing bug reports
Go to <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and search for similar bugs.
Someone may already have reported the same bug, and they may even
have fixed it.
2. Capture debug and error messages
Run
virt-what > virt-what.log 2>&1
and keep virt-what.log. It may contain error messages which you
should submit with your bug report.
3. Get version of virt-what and version of libvirt.
Run
virt-what --version
4. Submit a bug report.
Go to <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and enter a new bug. Please
describe the problem in as much detail as possible.
Remember to include the version numbers (step 3) and the debug
messages file (step 2).
5. Assign the bug to rjones @ redhat.com
Assign or reassign the bug to rjones @ redhat.com (without the
spaces). You can also send me an email with the bug number if you
want a faster response.