There are two ways to rename a domain/VM. Let us see how to change the name of a domain or vm under KVM.
Method 1 – Rename KVM VM with virsh
The syntax is:
# virsh domrename {domain} {new-name}
To rename VM from foo to bar, type:
# virsh shutdown foo
Domain foo is being shutdown
Now rename a VM, run:
# virsh domrename foo bar
Domain successfully renamed
Start a VM/domain, enter:
# virsh start bar
Domain bar started
Method 2 – Rename KVM domain with virsh
First get domain information in XML and save it to a new file:
# virsh dumpxml foo > bar.xml
Edit the XML file and change the name between the <name></name>
# vi bar.xml
Update it as follows from foo to bar:
<name>bar</name>
Shutdown the foo domain/vm:
# virsh shutdown foo
Domain foo is being shutdown
You need to undefine the old VM name:
# virsh undefine foo
Domain foo has been undefined
Finally, import the edited XML file to define the VM bar:
# virsh define bar.xml
Domain bar defined from bar.xml
Start the domain bar, enter:
# virsh start bar
Domain bar started
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Thanks for the post. I wouldn’t have discovered “virsh domrename” otherwise which is soooo much easier!
Apparently this useful domrename is not always available – at least not in the CentOS 6 or 7 platform so far, where I have KVM environments. But the alternate procedure works quite fine.
(Or may I be looking in the wrong place for it?)
Thanks!
“Edit the XML file and change the name between the ”
I would not recommend this.
It is much safer to
virsh edit
That will land you in vi too, but the difference is, if you have a typing error, no changes will be saved.
I get error. How can I fix?
sudo virsh listvirsh domrename vm-x86_64 kali