5 virt-what - detect if we are running in a virtual machine
13 C<virt-what> is a shell script which can be used to detect if the
14 program is running in a virtual machine.
16 The program prints out a list of "facts" about the virtual machine,
17 derived from heuristics. One fact is printed per line.
19 If nothing is printed and the script exits with code 0 (no error),
20 then it can mean I<either> that the program is running on bare-metal
21 I<or> the program is running inside a type of virtual machine which we
22 don't know about or cannot detect.
30 This is Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor.
32 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
36 This is an IBM SystemZ (or other S/390) hardware partitioning system.
37 Additional facts listed below may also be printed.
39 =item B<ibm_systemz-direct>
41 This is Linux running directly on a IBM SystemZ hardware partitioning
44 This is expected to be a highly unusual configuration - if
45 you see this result you should treat it with suspicion.
49 =item B<ibm_systemz-lpar>
51 This is Linux running directly on an LPAR on an IBM SystemZ
52 hardware partitioning system.
56 =item B<ibm_systemz-zvm>
58 This is a z/VM guest running in an LPAR on an IBM SystemZ
59 hardware partitioning system.
61 Status: confirmed by RWMJ using a Fedora guest running in z/VM
63 =item B<linux_vserver>
65 This process is running in a Linux VServer container.
67 Status: contributed by Barış Metin
71 This guest is running on the KVM hypervisor using hardware
74 Note that if the hypervisor is using software acceleration
75 you should I<not> see this, but should see the C<qemu> fact
78 Status: confirmed by RWMJ.
82 The guest appears to be running inside an OpenVZ or Virtuozzo
85 Status: contributed by Evgeniy Sokolov
89 The guest is running inside Parallels Virtual Platform
90 (Parallels Desktop, Parallels Server).
92 Status: contributed by Justin Clift
96 The guest is running inside IBM PowerVM Lx86 Linux/x86 emulator.
98 Status: data supplied by Jeffrey Scheel, not confirmed
102 This is QEMU hypervisor using software emulation.
104 Note that for KVM (hardware accelerated) guests you should I<not> see
107 Status: confirmed by RWMJ.
111 This is a User-Mode Linux (UML) guest.
113 Status: contributed by Laurent Léonard
117 This is Hitachi Virtualization Manager (HVM) Virtage
118 hardware partitioning system.
120 Status: data supplied by Bhavna Sarathy, not confirmed
124 This is a VirtualBox guest.
126 Status: contributed by Laurent Léonard
130 The guest appears to be running on Microsoft VirtualPC.
132 Status: not confirmed
136 The guest appears to be running on VMware hypervisor.
138 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
142 The guest appears to be running on Xen hypervisor.
144 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
148 This is the Xen dom0 (privileged domain).
150 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
154 This is a Xen domU (paravirtualized guest domain).
156 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
160 This is a Xen guest fully virtualized (HVM).
162 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
168 Programs that use or wrap C<virt-what> should check that the exit
169 status is 0 before they attempt to parse the output of the command.
171 A non-zero exit status indicates some error, for example, an
172 unrecognized command line argument. If the exit status is non-zero
173 then the output "facts" (if any were printed) cannot be guaranteed and
176 The exit status does I<not> have anything to do with whether the
177 program is running on baremetal or under virtualization, nor with
178 whether C<virt-what> managed detection "correctly" (which is basically
179 unknowable given the large variety of virtualization systems out there
180 and that some systems deliberately emulate others).
182 =head1 IMPORTANT NOTE
184 Most of the time, using this program is the I<wrong> thing to do.
185 Instead you should detect the specific features you actually want to
186 use. (As an example, if you wanted to issue Xen hypervisor commands
187 you would look for the C</proc/xen/privcmd> file).
189 However people keep asking for this, so we provide it. There are a
194 =item Bug reporting tool
196 If you think that virtualization could affect how your program runs,
197 then you might use C<virt-what> to report this in a bug reporting
200 =item Status display and monitoring tools
202 You might include this information in status and monitoring programs.
208 L<http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/>,
209 L<http://www.vmware.com/>,
210 L<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc>,
211 L<http://xensource.com/>,
212 L<http://bellard.org/qemu/>,
213 L<http://kvm.qumranet.com/>,
214 L<http://openvz.org/>
218 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones @ redhat . com>
222 (C) Copyright 2008-2011 Red Hat Inc.,
223 L<http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/>
225 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
226 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
227 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
228 (at your option) any later version.
230 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
231 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
232 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
233 GNU General Public License for more details.
235 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
236 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
237 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
239 =head1 REPORTING BUGS
241 Bugs can be viewed on the Red Hat Bugzilla page:
242 L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/>.
244 If you find a bug in virt-what, please follow these steps to report it:
248 =item 1. Check for existing bug reports
250 Go to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and search for similar bugs.
251 Someone may already have reported the same bug, and they may even
254 =item 2. Capture debug and error messages
258 virt-what > virt-what.log 2>&1
260 and keep I<virt-what.log>. It may contain error messages which you
261 should submit with your bug report.
263 =item 3. Get version of virt-what.
269 =item 4. Submit a bug report.
271 Go to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and enter a new bug.
272 Please describe the problem in as much detail as possible.
274 Remember to include the version numbers (step 3) and the debug
275 messages file (step 2) and as much other detail as possible.
277 =item 5. Assign the bug to rjones @ redhat.com
279 Assign or reassign the bug to B<rjones @ redhat.com> (without the
280 spaces). You can also send me an email with the bug number if you
281 want a faster response.