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.
32 Status: from MSDN description, not tested.
36 This is an IBM SystemZ (or other S/390) mainframe. Additional
37 facts listed below may also be printed.
39 =item B<ibm_systemz-direct>
41 This is Linux running directly on a IBM SystemZ mainframe.
43 This is expected to be a highly unusual configuration - if
44 you see this result you should treat it with suspicion.
48 =item B<ibm_systemz-lpar>
50 This is Linux running directly on an LPAR on an IBM SystemZ mainframe.
54 =item B<ibm_systemz-zvm>
56 This is a z/VM guest running in an LPAR on an IBM SystemZ mainframe.
58 Status: confirmed by RWMJ using a Fedora guest running in z/VM
60 =item B<linux_vserver>
62 This process is running in a Linux VServer container.
64 Status: contributed by Barış Metin
70 Status: confirmed by RWMJ.
74 The guest appears to be running inside an OpenVZ or Virtuozzo
77 Status: contributed by Evgeniy Sokolov
81 The guest is running inside IBM PowerVM Lx86 Linux/x86 emulator.
83 Status: data supplied by Jeffrey Scheel, not confirmed
87 This is QEMU using software emulation.
89 Note that for KVM (hardware accelerated) guests you should I<not> see
92 Status: confirmed by RWMJ.
96 This is a User-Mode Linux (UML) guest.
98 Status: contributed by Laurent Léonard
102 This is Hitachi Virtualization Manager (HVM) Virtage logical partitioning.
104 Status: data supplied by Bhavna Sarathy, not confirmed
108 This is a VirtualBox guest.
110 Status: contributed by Laurent Léonard
114 The guest appears to be running on Microsoft VirtualPC.
116 Status: not confirmed
120 The guest appears to be running on VMware.
122 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
126 The guest appears to be running on Xen.
128 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
132 This is the Xen dom0 (privileged domain).
134 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
138 This is a Xen domU (paravirtualized guest domain).
140 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
144 This is a Xen guest fully virtualized (HVM).
146 Status: confirmed by RWMJ
150 =head1 IMPORTANT NOTE
152 Most of the time, using this program is the I<wrong> thing to do.
153 Instead you should detect the specific features you actually want to
154 use. (As an example, if you wanted to issue Xen hypervisor commands
155 you would look for the C</proc/xen/privcmd> file).
157 However people keep asking for this, so we provide it. There are a
162 =item Bug reporting tool
164 If you think that virtualization could affect how your program runs,
165 then you might use C<virt-what> to report this in a bug reporting
168 =item Status display and monitoring tools
170 You might include this information in status and monitoring programs.
176 L<http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/>,
177 L<http://www.vmware.com/>,
178 L<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc>,
179 L<http://xensource.com/>,
180 L<http://bellard.org/qemu/>,
181 L<http://kvm.qumranet.com/>,
182 L<http://openvz.org/>
186 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones @ redhat . com>
190 (C) Copyright 2008-2011 Red Hat Inc.,
191 L<http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/>
193 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
194 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
195 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
196 (at your option) any later version.
198 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
199 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
200 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
201 GNU General Public License for more details.
203 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
204 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
205 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
207 =head1 REPORTING BUGS
209 Bugs can be viewed on the Red Hat Bugzilla page:
210 L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/>.
212 If you find a bug in virt-what, please follow these steps to report it:
216 =item 1. Check for existing bug reports
218 Go to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and search for similar bugs.
219 Someone may already have reported the same bug, and they may even
222 =item 2. Capture debug and error messages
226 virt-what > virt-what.log 2>&1
228 and keep I<virt-what.log>. It may contain error messages which you
229 should submit with your bug report.
231 =item 3. Get version of virt-what.
237 =item 4. Submit a bug report.
239 Go to L<https://bugzilla.redhat.com/> and enter a new bug.
240 Please describe the problem in as much detail as possible.
242 Remember to include the version numbers (step 3) and the debug
243 messages file (step 2) and as much other detail as possible.
245 =item 5. Assign the bug to rjones @ redhat.com
247 Assign or reassign the bug to B<rjones @ redhat.com> (without the
248 spaces). You can also send me an email with the bug number if you
249 want a faster response.