Rename VM under libvirt

It’s very convenient to manage all VM with libvirt under Linux. And virsh — is a program to make this managing even more convenient. Today I faced with a task of renaming VM under libvirt.

Assume we define some VM in my_favourite_vm.xml and want to rename it from my_favourite_vm to old_fashioned.

sudo virsh shutdown my_favourite_vm
sudo virsh undefine my_favourite_vm

Rename my_favourite_vm.xml to old_fashioned_vm.xml and change <name>my_favourite_vm</name> to <name>old_fashioned_vm</name> inside xml

sudo virsh create old_fashioned_vm.xml
sudo virsh list

Seems, it’s done. But if you could ssh to your vm earlier you may face that now it’s unavailable by new name.

ssh root@old_fashioned_vm

So you need to fix hostname. Use virsh console to connect to vm

user@host: sudo virsh console tcu
Connected to domain tcu
Escape character is ^]

Login, then:

cat old_fashioned_vm > /etc/hostname
vim /etc/hosts #and fix all occurences
reboot

Press escape character to exit console mode. In my case it’s ctrl + ]

Now the task is done and vm is renamed altogether with it’s hostname! :)