Chapter 6. Converting virtual machines to the Q35 machine type

Prerequisites

• A VM on your RHEL 10 host is using the i440fx machine type. To confirm this, use the following command:

  # virsh dumpxml <vm-name> | grep machine

  Example output for an i440fx VM:

  <type arch='x86_64' *machine='pc-i440fx-10.0.0'*>hvm</type>

• You have backed up the original configuration of the VM, so you can use it for conversion and disaster recovery, if necessary.

  # virsh dumpxml <vm-name> > <vm-name>-backup.xml

Procedure

• For undefined VMs, do the following:

  1. Adjust the configuration of the VM to use Q35. As the source configuration, use the backup file that you created previously.

     # cat <vm-name>-backup.xml | virt-xml --edit --convert-to-q35 > <vm-name-q35>.xml

  2. Define the VM.

     # virsh define <vm-name-q35>.xml

• For defined VMs, do the following:

  1. Adjust the configuration of the VM to use Q35.

     # virt-xml <vm-name> --edit --convert-to-q35

  2. If the VM is running, shut it down.

     # virsh shutdown <vm-name>

Troubleshooting

• If you are using a Windows guest operating system, and the VM cannot find the boot device after the conversion, boot into safe mode, then reboot the VM.

• If changing the machine type has made the VM not functional, define a new VM based on the backed-up configuration.

  # virsh define <vm-name>-backup.xml