Creating a Virtual Machine and Container

This section explains how to create a new Parallels virtual machine and Container. The options you should pass to this command differ depending on whether you want to create a virtual machine or Container.

Creating a Container

To create a Container, you can use the pctl create command. This command requires the following parameters:

Argument	Description
Container ID	A numeric ID associated with a Container (101, 403, and so on). The Container ID should be an integer greater than 100 and unique for a given Parallels server.
OS template name	The name of the OS template to base your Container on. Parallels Server Bare Metal is shipped with a number of ready-to-use OS templates. To find out the names of the available templates, use the `vzpkg list -O` command. For the list of operating systems you can run in your virtual machines and Containers, see Supported Guest Operating Systems .
Configuration file	The name of the sample configuration file that will be used for setting all the Container resource control parameters. The sample configuration files are residing in the `/etc/vz/conf` directory on the physical server and have names with the following mask: `ve-<` `configname` `>.conf-sample` . The most commonly used sample is the `ve-basic.conf-sample` file. This sample file has resource control parameters suitable for most Containers.

Thus, for example, you can create a new Container by executing the following command:

# pctl create 101 --ostemplate fedora-core-9-x86 -–config basic

Creating Container private area (fedora-core-9-x86)

...

Container private area was created

In this case Parallels Server Bare Metal will create a Container with ID 101, the Fedora 9 OS installed inside, and the configuration parameters taken from the ve-basic.conf-sample sample configuration file.

Note : For more information on options you can pass to pctl create when creating Containers, see the Parallels Command Line Reference Guide .

Creating a Virtual Machine

The process of creating a new virtual machine includes the following steps:

Creating a virtual machine configuration. To create a virtual machine configuration, you can use either the pctl create command or Parallels Management Console.
Installing an operating system in the virtual machine. This operation can be performed using Parallels Management Console only.
Installing Parallels Tools in the virtual machine, a set of special utilities that facilitate your work with virtual machines. This operation can be performed using Parallels Management Console only.

Note : For detailed information on completing steps 2 and 3, consult the Parallels Management Console User's Guide .

The example below shows you how to create a new virtual machine configuration using pctl create :

# pctl create MyVM --distribution win-2008 --location /vz/VMs

Creating the virtual machine...

Generate the VM configuration for win-2008.

The VM has been successfully created.

This will create a virtual machine with the name of MyVM , adjust its configuration for installing the Windows Server 2008 operating system in it, and place all virtual-machine-related files in the /vz/VMs directory. Now you can use Parallels Management Console to install Windows Server 2008 OS and Parallels Tools in this virtual machine.

Note : For more information on options you can pass to pctl create when creating virtual machines, see the Parallels Command Line Reference Guide .

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