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14.5.23. Creating a Virtual Machine XML Dump (Configuration File)

Output a guest virtual machine's XML configuration file with virsh: 
# virsh dumpxml {guest-id, guestname or uuid}
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This command outputs the guest virtual machine's XML configuration file to standard out (stdout). You can save the data by piping the output to a file. An example of piping the output to a file called guest.xml: 
# virsh dumpxml GuestID > guest.xml
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This file guest.xml can recreate the guest virtual machine (refer to Section 14.6, “Editing a Guest Virtual Machine's configuration file”. You can edit this XML configuration file to configure additional devices or to deploy additional guest virtual machines.
An example of virsh dumpxml output: 
# virsh dumpxml guest1-rhel6-64
<domain type='kvm'>
  <name>guest1-rhel6-64</name>
  <uuid>b8d7388a-bbf2-db3a-e962-b97ca6e514bd</uuid>
  <memory>2097152</memory>
  <currentMemory>2097152</currentMemory>
  <vcpu>2</vcpu>
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='rhel6.2.0'>hvm</type>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <pae/>
  </features>
  <clock offset='utc'/>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='none' io='threads'/>
      <source file='/home/guest-images/guest1-rhel6-64.img'/>
      <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
      <shareable/<
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/>
    </disk>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:b9:35:a9'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <model type='virtio'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <target port='0'/>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty'>
      <target type='serial' port='0'/>
    </console>
    <input type='tablet' bus='usb'/>
    <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
    <graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes'/>
    <sound model='ich6'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>
    </sound>
    <video>
      <model type='cirrus' vram='9216' heads='1'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
    </video>
    <memballoon model='virtio'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/>
    </memballoon>
  </devices>
</domain>
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Note that the <shareable/> flag is set. This indicates the device is expected to be shared between domains (assuming the hypervisor and OS support this), which means that caching should be deactivated for that device.
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