bcvk-libvirt-run - Man Page

bcvk libvirt run [Options]

Run a bootable container as a persistent VM

IMAGE

Container image to run as a bootable VM

This argument is required.

--name=NAME

Name for the VM (auto-generated if not specified)

-R, --replace

Replace existing VM with same name (stop and remove if exists)

--itype=ITYPE

Instance type (e.g., u1.nano, u1.small, u1.medium). Overrides cpus/memory if specified.

--memory=MEMORY

Memory size (e.g. 4G, 2048M, or plain number for MB)

Default: 4G

--cpus=CPUS

Number of virtual CPUs for the VM (overridden by --itype if specified)

Default: 2

--disk-size=DISK_SIZE

Disk size for the VM (e.g. 20G, 10240M, or plain number for bytes)

Default: 20G

--filesystem=FILESYSTEM

Root filesystem type (e.g. ext4, xfs, btrfs)

--root-size=ROOT_SIZE

Root filesystem size (e.g., '10G', '5120M')

--storage-path=STORAGE_PATH

Path to host container storage (auto-detected if not specified)

--target-transport=TARGET_TRANSPORT

The transport; e.g. oci, oci-archive, containers-storage.  Defaults to `registry`

--karg=KARG

Set a kernel argument

--composefs-backend

Default to composefs-native storage

-p, --port=PORT_MAPPINGS

Port mapping from host to VM (format: host_port:guest_port, e.g., 8080:80)

-v, --volume=RAW_VOLUMES

Volume mount from host to VM (raw virtiofs tag, for manual mounting)

--bind=BIND_MOUNTS

Bind mount from host to VM (format: host_path:guest_path)

--bind-ro=BIND_MOUNTS_RO

Bind mount from host to VM as read-only (format: host_path:guest_path)

--network=NETWORK

Network mode for the VM

Default: user

--detach

Keep the VM running in background after creation

--ssh

Automatically SSH into the VM after creation

--ssh-wait

Wait for SSH to become available and verify connectivity (for testing)

--bind-storage-ro

Mount host container storage (RO) at /run/host-container-storage

--update-from-host

Implies --bind-storage-ro, but also configure to update from the host container storage by default

--firmware=FIRMWARE

Firmware type for the VM (defaults to uefi-secure)

Possible values:
- uefi-secure
- uefi-insecure
- bios

Default: uefi-secure

--disable-tpm

Disable TPM 2.0 support (enabled by default)

--secure-boot-keys=SECURE_BOOT_KEYS

Directory containing secure boot keys (required for uefi-secure)

--label=LABEL

User-defined labels for organizing VMs (comma not allowed in labels)

--transient

Create a transient VM that disappears on shutdown/reboot

Create and start a persistent VM:

bcvk libvirt run --name my-server quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:42

Create a VM with custom resources:

bcvk libvirt run --name webserver --memory 8192 --cpus 8 --disk-size 50G quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream10

Create a VM with port forwarding:

bcvk libvirt run --name webserver --port 8080:80 quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream10

Create a VM with volume mount:

bcvk libvirt run --name devvm --volume /home/user/code:/workspace quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:42

Create a VM and automatically SSH into it:

bcvk libvirt run --name testvm --ssh quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:42

Create a VM with access to host container storage for bootc upgrade:

bcvk libvirt run --name upgrade-test --bind-storage-ro quay.io/fedora/fedora-bootc:42

Server management workflow:

# Create a persistent server VM
bcvk libvirt run --name production-server --memory 8192 --cpus 4 --disk-size 100G my-server-image

# Check status
bcvk libvirt list

# Access for maintenance
bcvk libvirt ssh production-server

bcvk(8)

v0.1.0

bcvk-ephemeral(8).