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14.5.21. Converting QEMU Arguments to Domain XML

The virsh domxml-from-native provides a way to convert an existing set of QEMU arguments into a guest description using libvirt Domain XML that can then be used by libvirt. Note that this command is intended to be used only to convert existing qemu guests previously started from the command line in order to allow them to be managed through libvirt. The method described here should not be used to create new guests from scratch. New guests should be created using either virsh or virt-manager. Additional information can be found here.
Suppose you have a QEMU guest with the following args file:
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 $ cat demo.args
LC_ALL=C
PATH=/bin
HOME=/home/test
USER=test
LOGNAME=test /usr/bin/qemu -S -M pc -m 214 -smp 1 -nographic -monitor pty -no-acpi -boot c -hda /dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1 -net none -serial none -parallel none -usb
To convert this to a domain XML file so that the guest can be managed by libvirt, run:
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$ virsh domxml-from-native qemu-argv demo.args
This command turns the args file above, into this domain XML file:
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<domain type='qemu'>
  <uuid>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</uuid>
  <memory>219136</memory>
  <currentMemory>219136</currentMemory>
  <vcpu>1</vcpu>
  <os>
    <type arch='i686' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
  </os>
  <clock offset='utc'/>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
    <disk type='block' device='disk'>
      <source dev='/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
    </disk>
  </devices>
</domain>
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