Red Hat Summit Red Hat SummitSupportConsoleDevelopersStart a trialContact

15.5. Methods

15.5.1. Creating a Virtual Machine
Copy link

Creating a new virtual machine requires the name, template, and cluster elements. Identify the template and cluster elements with the id attribute or name element. Identify the CPU profile ID with the cpuprofiles attribute.

Example 15.4. Creating a virtual machine with 512 MB that boots from CD-ROM

POST /ovirt-engine/api/vms HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/xml
Content-type: application/xml

<vm>
    <name>vm2</name>
    <description>Virtual Machine 2</description>
    <type>desktop</type>
    <memory>536870912</memory>
    <cluster>
        <name>default</name>
    </cluster>
    <template>
        <name>Blank</name>
    </template>
    <os>
        <boot dev="cdrom"/>
    </os>
    <cdroms>
        <cdrom>
            <file id="example_windows_7_x64_dvd_u_677543.iso"/>
        </cdrom>
    </cdroms>
    <cpu_profile id="0000001a-001a-001a-001a-00000000035e"/>
</vm>

Example 15.5. Creating a virtual machine with 512 MB that boots from a virtual hard disk

POST /ovirt-engine/api/vms HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/xml
Content-type: application/xml

<vm>
    <name>vm2</name>
    <description>Virtual Machine 2</description>
    <type>desktop</type>
    <memory>536870912</memory>
    <cluster>
        <name>default</name>
    </cluster>
    <template>
        <name>Blank</name>
    </template>
    <os>
      <boot dev="hd"/>
    </os>
    <cpu_profile id="0000001a-001a-001a-001a-00000000035e"/>
</vm>

Note

Memory in the previous example is converted to bytes using the following formula:
512MB * 1024 2 = 536870912 bytes

15.5.2. Updating a Virtual Machine
Copy link

The name, description, cluster, type, memory, cpu, os, high_availability, display, timezone, domain, stateless, placement_policy, memory_policy, usb, payloads, origin and custom_properties elements are updatable post-creation.

Example 15.6. Updating a virtual machine to contain 1 GB of memory

PUT /ovirt-engine/api/vms/082c794b-771f-452f-83c9-b2b5a19c0399 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/xml
Content-type: application/xml

<vm>
    <memory>1073741824</memory>
</vm>

Note

Memory in the previous example is converted to bytes using the following formula:
1024MB * 1024 2 = 1073741824 bytes

Note

Memory hot plug is supported in Red Hat Virtualization. If the virtual machine's operating system supports memory hot plug, you can use the example above to increase memory while the virtual machine is running.

Example 15.7. Hot plugging vCPUs

Add virtual CPUs to a running virtual machine without having to reboot it. In this example, the number of sockets is changed to 2. 
PUT /ovirt-engine/api/vms/082c794b-771f-452f-83c9-b2b5a19c0399 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/xml
Content-type: application/xml

<vm>
    <cpu>
        <topology sockets="2" cores="1"/>
    </cpu>
</vm>

Note

CPU hot unplug is currently not supported in Red Hat Virtualization.

Example 15.8. Pinning a virtual machine to multiple hosts

A virtual machine that is pinned to multiple hosts cannot be live migrated, but in the event of a host failure, any virtual machine configured to be highly available is automatically restarted on one of the other hosts to which the virtual machine is pinned. Multi-host pinning can be used to restrict a virtual machine to hosts with, for example, the same hardware configuration. 
PUT /ovirt-engine/api/vms/082c794b-771f-452f-83c9-b2b5a19c0399 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/xml
Content-type: application/xml

<vm>
    <high_availability>
        <enabled>true</enabled>
        <priority>1</priority>
    </high_availability>
    <placement_policy>
        <hosts>
            <host><name>Host1</name></host>
            <host><name>Host2</name></host>
        </hosts>
        <affinity>pinned</affinity>
    </placement_policy>
</vm>

15.5.3. Removing a Virtual Machine
Copy link

Removal of a virtual machine requires a DELETE request.

Example 15.9. Removing a virtual machine

DELETE /ovirt-engine/api/vms/082c794b-771f-452f-83c9-b2b5a19c0399 HTTP/1.1

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Detach the virtual disk prior to removing the virtual machine. This preserves the virtual disk. Removal of a virtual machine requires a DELETE request.

Example 15.10. Removing a virtual machine

DELETE /ovirt-engine/api/vms/082c794b-771f-452f-83c9-b2b5a19c0399 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/xml
Content-type: application/xml

<action>
    <vm>
        <disks>
            <detach_only>true</detach_only>
        </disks>
    </vm>
</action>
Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust. Explore our recent updates.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

Theme

© 2026 Red HatBack to top