Chapter 5. Managing virtual machines in the web console

To manage virtual machines in a graphical interface on a RHEL 8 host, you can use the Virtual Machines pane in the RHEL 8 web console.

web console overview

The following sections describe the web console’s virtualization management capabilities and provide instructions for using them.

5.1. Overview of virtual machine management using the web console

The RHEL 8 web console is a web-based interface for system administration. With the installation of a web console plug-in, the web console can be used to manage virtual machines (VMs) on connected servers. It provides a graphical view of VMs on a host system to which the web console can connect, and allows monitoring system resources and adjusting configuration with ease.

For a comprehensive list of VM management actions that the web console provides, see Section 5.3, “Virtual machine management features available in the web console”.

Note

The Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager) application is still supported in RHEL 8 but has been deprecated. The web console is intended to become its replacement in a subsequent release. It is, therefore, recommended that you get familiar with the web console for managing virtualization in a GUI.

However, in RHEL 8, some features may only be accessible from either virt-manager or the command line. For details, see Section 5.4, “Differences between virtualization features in Virtual Machine Manager and the web console”.

For more information on the Virtual Machine Manager, see RHEL 7 documentation.

5.2. Setting up the web console to manage virtual machines

Before using the RHEL 8 web console to manage VMs, you must install the web console virtual machine plug-in.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that the web console is installed on your machine. 

    $ yum info cockpit
Installed Packages
Name         : cockpit
[...]

    If the web console is not installed, see the Managing systems using the web console guide for more information about installing the web console.

Procedure

  • Install the cockpit-machines plug-in. 

    # yum install cockpit-machines

    If the installation is successful, Virtual Machines appears in the web console side menu.

    cockpit vms info

Additional resources

5.3. Virtual machine management features available in the web console

Using the RHEL 8 web console, you can perform the following actions to manage the virtual machines (VMs) on your system.

5.4. Differences between virtualization features in Virtual Machine Manager and the web console

The deprecated Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager) application and its replacement, the RHEL 8 web console, do not have the same functionality. The following table highlights the features that are available in virt-manager but not available in the RHEL 8.0 web console.

If a feature is available in a later version of RHEL 8, the minimum RHEL 8 version appears in the Web console column.

Feature

Web console

Alternative method using CLI

Setting a virtual machine to start when the host boots

8.1

virsh autostart

Suspending a virtual machine

8.1

virsh suspend

Resuming a suspended virtual machine

8.1

virsh resume

Creating new storage pools of the following types:

• Filesystem Directory

• Network File System

• iSCSI Target

• Physical Disk Device

• LVM Volume Group

8.1

virsh pool-define

Creating new storage pools of the following types:

• Partition-based

• GlusterFS-based

• vHBA-based with SCSI devices

• Multipath-based

• RBD-based

UNAVAILABLE

virsh pool-define

Creating a new storage volume

8.1

virsh vol-create

Adding a new virtual network

8.1

virsh net-create or virsh net-define

Deleting a virtual network

8.1

virsh net-undefine

Creating a bridge from a host machine’s interface to a virtual machine

UNAVAILABLE

virsh iface-bridge

Creating a snapshot

UNAVAILABLE

virsh snapshot-create-as

Reverting to a snapshot

UNAVAILABLE

virsh snapshot-revert

Deleting a snapshot

UNAVAILABLE

virsh snapshot-delete

Cloning a virtual machine

UNAVAILABLE

virt-clone

Migrating a virtual machine to another host machine

UNAVAILABLE

virsh migrate