GoVM Project

govm is a Docker-based tool that will launch your pet VM inside docker containers. It will use Docker networking layer and will map it to your VM.

Key Features

• Uses Docker networking
• Cloud Init support
• Copy-on-write images
• EFI support
• Cloud-Init and RAW images support
• Multi-Instances Compose
• Custom hypervisor-level and qemu flags

The only Requirement

• Docker

Quick Install (GNU/Linux based distribution)

1. Download the latest govm release from https://github.com/govm-project/govm/releases/latest
2. Install it

tar -xzvf govm_<latest_govm_release>_linux_amd64.tar.gz
sudo cp govm /usr/local/bin/
export PATH=/usr/local/bin/:$PATH

3. Done, you're ready to go.

Build your own govm

Build Requirements

• Go 1.11+

export GO111MODULE=on
mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/govm-project/
cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/govm-project/
git clone https://github.com/govm-project/govm.git
cd govm/
go build -o govm

Launch your first VM (Ubuntu 20.04 cloud image)

• Download Ubuntu 20.04 cloud image

$ curl -Ok https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img

• Launch your VM

$ govm create --image focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img --cloud

• Login into the VM

# You may need to wait some seconds to let the machine boot and be ready for ssh.
govm list
ssh [email protected]

Sub-commands

create

Creates a new Virtual Machine inside a privileged docker container.

Flag	Description	Required
--image value	Path to image	Yes
--user-data value	Path to user data file	No
--efi	Use efi bootloader	No
--cloud	Create config-drive for cloud images	No
--flavor value	VM specs descriptor	Yes
--key value	SSH key to be included in a cloud image	No
--name value	VM name	No
--namespace value	VM namespace (this will normally be the user's username)	No
--cpumodel value	Model of the virtual cpu. See: qemu-system-x86_64 -cpu help	No
--sockets value	Number of sockets. (default: 1)	No
--cpus value	Number of cpus (default: 1)	No
--cores value	Number of cores (default: 2)	No
--threads value	Number of threads (default: 2)	No
--ram value	Allocated RAM (default: 1024)	No
--debug	Debug mode	No

remove

Removes the whole privileged docker container and its virtual machine data.

Flag	Description	Required
value	If the value (name of container) is specified, it will remove it. See: govm list to get name	Yes
--all	Removes all govm created virtual machines	No

start

Starts a stopped GoVM Instance

Flag	Description	Required
value	GoVM instance's name or ID	Yes

list

Lists all virtual machines that were created with the govm tool. It also shows the VNC access url and name.

Flag	Description	Required
--all	Show VMs from all namespaces	No
--namespace value	Show VMs from the given namespace	No
--format value, -f value	String containing the template code to execute	No

Output example

$ govm list
ID         Name                   Namespace IP
b9b5d3a288 test-14731             onmunoz   172.17.0.6
4d6731b571 test-29652             onmunoz   172.17.0.5
ef004385d4 test-20024             onmunoz   172.17.0.4
5e5f42047b happy-poitras          onmunoz   172.17.0.3
e90608db45 wonderful-varahamihira onmunoz   172.17.0.2

Filtered output

$ govm list -f '{{select (filterRegexp . "Name" "test-*") "IP"}}'
172.17.0.6
172.17.0.5
172.17.0.4

compose

Deploys one or multiple virtual machines with a given compose template file.

Flag	Description	Required
-f value	Template file	Yes

YAML template file example:

• 2 VMs deployment

ssh

Connects through ssh to the specified virtual machine.

Flag	Description	Required
--user value	ssh login user	Yes
--key value	private key path (default: ~/.ssh/id_rsa)	No

save

Saves a GoVM Instance

Flag	Description	Required	Default
--stopVM	Stop the VM During the Snapshot	No	false
--out value	Path to backup file	No	backup.img

help

NAME:
   govm - Virtual Machines on top of Docker containers

USAGE:
   govm [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

VERSION:
   0.0.0

COMMANDS:
   create, c                Create a new VM
   list, ls                 List VMs
   remove, delete, rm, del  Remove VMs
   start, up, s             Start a GoVM Instance
   compose, co              Deploy VMs from a compose config file
   ssh                      ssh into a running VM
   stop, down, d            Stop a GoVM Instance
   save, snapshot           Save a GoVM Instance
   help, h                  Shows a list of commands or help for one command

GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --workdir value  Alternate working directory. Default: ~/govm
   --help, -h       show help
   --version, -v    print the version

More cloud init stuff?

If you want to boot cloud images, edit the template files under $HOME/govm/cloud-init/openstack/latest/ to fit your own needs and use the --cloud flag. For more information, please see the cloud-init documentation: https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

based on https://github.com/BBVA/kvm

Questions, issues or suggestions

http://github.com/govm-project/govm/issues

License