7.7. Accessing virtual machine consoles
OpenShift Virtualization provides different virtual machine consoles that you can use to accomplish different product tasks. You can access these consoles through the web console and by using CLI commands.
7.7.1. Virtual machine console sessions
You can connect to the VNC and serial consoles of a running virtual machine from the Consoles tab in the Virtual Machine Details screen of the web console.
There are two consoles available: the graphical VNC Console and the Serial Console. The VNC Console opens by default whenever you navigate to the Consoles tab. You can switch between the consoles using the VNC Console Serial Console list.
Console sessions remain active in the background unless they are disconnected. When the Disconnect before switching checkbox is active and you switch consoles, the current console session is disconnected and a new session with the selected console connects to the virtual machine. This ensures only one console session is open at a time.
Options for the VNC Console
The Send Key button lists key combinations to send to the virtual machine.
Options for the Serial Console
Use the Disconnect button to manually disconnect the Serial Console session from the virtual machine.
Use the Reconnect button to manually open a Serial Console session to the virtual machine.
7.7.2. Connecting to the virtual machine with the web console
7.7.2.1. Connecting to the terminal
You can connect to a virtual machine by using the web console.
Procedure
- Ensure you are in the correct project. If not, click the Project list and select the appropriate project.
-
Click Workloads
Virtualization from the side menu. - Click the Virtual Machines tab.
- Select a virtual machine to open the Virtual Machine Overview screen.
-
In the Details tab, click the
virt-launcher-<vm-name>
pod. - Click the Terminal tab. If the terminal is blank, select the terminal and press any key to initiate connection.
7.7.2.2. Connecting to the serial console
Connect to the Serial Console of a running virtual machine from the Console tab in the Virtual Machine Overview screen of the web console.
Procedure
-
In the OpenShift Virtualization console, click Workloads
Virtualization from the side menu. - Click the Virtual Machines tab.
- Select a virtual machine to open the Virtual Machine Overview screen.
- Click Console. The VNC console opens by default.
- Click the VNC Console drop-down list and select Serial Console.
7.7.2.3. Connecting to the VNC console
Connect to the VNC console of a running virtual machine from the Console tab in the Virtual Machine Overview screen of the web console.
Procedure
-
In the OpenShift Virtualization console, click Workloads
Virtualization from the side menu. - Click the Virtual Machines tab.
- Select a virtual machine to open the Virtual Machine Overview screen.
- Click the Console tab. The VNC console opens by default.
7.7.2.4. Connecting to the RDP console
The desktop viewer console, which utilizes the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), provides a better console experience for connecting to Windows virtual machines.
To connect to a Windows virtual machine with RDP, download the console.rdp
file for the virtual machine from the Consoles tab in the Virtual Machine Details screen of the web console and supply it to your preferred RDP client.
Prerequisites
-
A running Windows virtual machine with the QEMU guest agent installed. The
qemu-guest-agent
is included in the VirtIO drivers. - A layer-2 NIC attached to the virtual machine.
- An RDP client installed on a machine on the same network as the Windows virtual machine.
Procedure
-
In the OpenShift Virtualization console, click Workloads
Virtualization from the side menu. - Click the Virtual Machines tab.
- Select a Windows virtual machine to open the Virtual Machine Overview screen.
- Click the Console tab.
- In the Console list, select Desktop Viewer.
- In the Network Interface list, select the layer-2 NIC.
-
Click Launch Remote Desktop to download the
console.rdp
file. Open an RDP client and reference the
console.rdp
file. For example, using remmina:$ remmina --connect /path/to/console.rdp
- Enter the Administrator user name and password to connect to the Windows virtual machine.
7.7.3. Accessing virtual machine consoles by using CLI commands
7.7.3.1. Accessing a virtual machine instance via SSH
You can use SSH to access a virtual machine after you expose port 22 on it.
The virtctl expose
command forwards a virtual machine instance port to a node port and creates a service for enabled access. The following example creates the fedora-vm-ssh
service that forwards port 22 of the <fedora-vm>
virtual machine to a port on the node:
Prerequisites
- You must be in the same project as the virtual machine instance.
-
The virtual machine instance you want to access must be connected to the default Pod network by using the
masquerade
binding method. - The virtual machine instance you want to access must be running.
-
Install the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Run the following command to create the
fedora-vm-ssh
service:$ virtctl expose vm <fedora-vm> --port=20022 --target-port=22 --name=fedora-vm-ssh --type=NodePort 1
- 1
<fedora-vm>
is the name of the virtual machine that you run thefedora-vm-ssh
service on.
Check the service to find out which port the service acquired:
$ oc get svc
Example output
NAME TYPE CLUSTER-IP EXTERNAL-IP PORT(S) AGE fedora-vm-ssh NodePort 127.0.0.1 <none> 20022:32551/TCP 6s
+ In this example, the service acquired the 32551
port.
Log in to the virtual machine instance via SSH. Use the
ipAddress
of the node and the port that you found in the previous step:$ ssh username@<node_IP_address> -p 32551
7.7.3.2. Accessing the serial console of a virtual machine instance
The virtctl console
command opens a serial console to the specified virtual machine instance.
Prerequisites
-
The
virt-viewer
package must be installed. - The virtual machine instance you want to access must be running.
Procedure
Connect to the serial console with
virtctl
:$ virtctl console <VMI>
7.7.3.3. Accessing the graphical console of a virtual machine instances with VNC
The virtctl
client utility can use the remote-viewer
function to open a graphical console to a running virtual machine instance. This capability is included in the virt-viewer
package.
Prerequisites
-
The
virt-viewer
package must be installed. - The virtual machine instance you want to access must be running.
If you use virtctl
via SSH on a remote machine, you must forward the X session to your machine.
Procedure
Connect to the graphical interface with the
virtctl
utility:$ virtctl vnc <VMI>
If the command failed, try using the
-v
flag to collect troubleshooting information:$ virtctl vnc <VMI> -v 4
7.7.3.4. Connecting to a Windows virtual machine with an RDP console
The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) provides a better console experience for connecting to Windows virtual machines.
To connect to a Windows virtual machine with RDP, specify the IP address of the attached L2 NIC to your RDP client.
Prerequisites
-
A running Windows virtual machine with the QEMU guest agent installed. The
qemu-guest-agent
is included in the VirtIO drivers. - A layer 2 NIC attached to the virtual machine.
- An RDP client installed on a machine on the same network as the Windows virtual machine.
Procedure
Log in to the OpenShift Virtualization cluster through the
oc
CLI tool as a user with an access token.$ oc login -u <user> https://<cluster.example.com>:8443
Use
oc describe vmi
to display the configuration of the running Windows virtual machine.$ oc describe vmi <windows-vmi-name>
Example output
... spec: networks: - name: default pod: {} - multus: networkName: cnv-bridge name: bridge-net ... status: interfaces: - interfaceName: eth0 ipAddress: 198.51.100.0/24 ipAddresses: 198.51.100.0/24 mac: a0:36:9f:0f:b1:70 name: default - interfaceName: eth1 ipAddress: 192.0.2.0/24 ipAddresses: 192.0.2.0/24 2001:db8::/32 mac: 00:17:a4:77:77:25 name: bridge-net ...
-
Identify and copy the IP address of the layer 2 network interface. This is
192.0.2.0
in the above example, or2001:db8::
if you prefer IPv6. - Open an RDP client and use the IP address copied in the previous step for the connection.
- Enter the Administrator user name and password to connect to the Windows virtual machine.