Change CD-ROM via virsh

Question

I have a KVM virtual machine that is managed via libvirsh. Now I want to use a different ISO image inside the VM.

How do I change the DVD in the virtual drive using virsh?

Answer 1

In libvirt 0.9.12 and maybe earlier, a command change-media exists:

change-media <domain> <path> [<source>] [--eject] [--insert] [--update] [--current] [--live] [--config] [--force]

Change CD:

change-media guest01 hdb /pool/disc.iso

Eject CD:

change-media guest01 hdb --eject

Answer 2

Add CDROM:

attach-disk guest01 /root/disc1.iso hdc --driver file --type cdrom
--mode readonly

Change CDROM:

attach-disk guest01 /root/disc2.iso hdc --driver file --type cdrom
--mode readonly

Remove CDROM:

 attach-disk guest01 " " hdc --driver file --type cdrom
 --mode readonly

Answer 3

I tried the attach-disk command and it didn't work for me. However, I found this doc on fedora which asks you to use the "update-device" command. This worked for me, and you can find it at Attaching and updating a device with virsh. Here are the steps:

• Create an XML file:

  <backingStore/>
  <target dev='hdc' bus='ide'/>
  <readonly/>
  <alias name='ide0-1-0'/>
  <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' target='0' unit='0'/>
  </disk>
  

Make sure you don't have the <source> tag in your definition

• Update the device:

  virsh update-device <guest name> <XML file name>
  

Answer 4

First you have to export existing configuration:

virsh dumpxml guest_name > config.xml

Then you have to open file and copy cdrom section and add the line with iso image path like

<source file='some.iso'/>

So the result is something like

<disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
   <source file='some.iso'/>
   <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
   <backingStore/>
   <target dev='hdb' bus='ide'/>
   <readonly/>
   <alias name='ide0-0-1'/>
   <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='1'/>
 </disk>

and save it as cdrom.xml.

After that:

virsh update-device guest_name cdrom.xml

#Device updated successfully