A minimalist, idempotent command-line tool for managing local virtual machines
Love your virtual machines. Or low key vm manager, or
local vm. lovm is a minimalist, idempotent command-line tool for
managing local virtual machines (i.e. VMs you run on your computer).
I use regularly use VMs during development to test deployment scripts and
configuration, and to install things I don’t want to commingle with my desktop
environment.
I used to use Vagrant but I found that I spent enormous amounts of time building
and maintaining Vagrant boxes; ultimately, not the best use of my time.
I want to satisfy these minimum requirements for day-to-day use:
lovm, we’ll justWith go:
go get github.com/cbednarski/lovm
lovm clone <source> Clone a VM. Start here!lovm start Start the VMlovm stop Stop the VMlovm restart Stop and then start the VMlovm ssh Open an SSH session to the VMlovm ip Write the VM's IP address to stdoutlovm mount <host path> <guest path> Mount a host folder into the VMlovm delete Delete the VM; get your space back
How do I ssh to my box?
lovm ssh calls ssh with the IP address returned by lovm ip, but will pass
through any additional flags directly to the underlying ssh command. The SSH
prompt is interactive, so you can also type in your password in response to a
prompt. For example:
lovm ssh -l root -i ~/.ssh/my_key.pem
Since you can’t use user@ip syntax to change the ssh login, use -l instead.
Do I have to use VMware Workstation Pro or Fusion Pro?
Yes. lovm uses linked clones, which use copy-on-write to make cloning
extremely fast. The non-Pro versions of these products do not (at time of
writing) support linked clones. You may also use VirtualBox, which is free.
How do I create my own VM?
There are many options. The easiest way is to use the GUI for VMware or
VirtualBox. VMware has an “easy install” option that will automatically install
popular operating systems for you. You can use a VM image created using Packer
or provided by a third party. You can even use a Vagrant Box, though you will
need to unpack it first.
In order to clone the VM, the source VM must be in a powered-off state (not
suspended), or must have a powered-off snaphot. Since the original VM is non-
destructively cloned each time you run it, you only need to create it once.
How do I clone a snapshot?
You can clone a snapshot by adding : and the snapshot name to the clone
source. For example:
lovm clone /path/to/vm:snapshot-name
What is the
lovm-clonesnapshot?
Linked clones in VirtualBox and VMware require a snapshot so lovm creates
one called lovm-clone the first time it clones a VM. If you make changes to
the original VM afterward, be sure to delete this snapshot so the next clone
operation will create a new snapshot with the latest change. You can also create
this snapshot manually.
Having more than one snapshot named lovm-clone on a single VM will result in
unspecified behavior.
What about all the other virtualization tools, like bhyve and kvm?
I don’t use those. I only use VMware, and most people I know only use
VirtualBox.
What about Windows?
lovm doesn’t currently run on Windows, though it can run Windows VMs on Linux.
I don’t currently develop on Windows, but I know a lot of people do, so I may
add Windows host support later.
What about managing snapshots, multiple VMs, or [feature X], or
[platform Y]?
There are a lot of features and platforms I don’t use and don’t have time to
support. Feel free to clone or fork the project for your own needs. :)
Vagrant has many more features like Vagrantfiles (ruby), packaging (Vagrant
Boxes), upload / download of boxes, provisioning, plugins, triggers, remote VM
access (sharing), management of multiple machines, and more. Vagrant has
numerous workflows for working with teams, mass-distribution of VMs, and support
for custom behavior. Vagrant supports VMware through a paid plugin.
lovm only supports SSH and basic VM controls. However, it works with VMs that
you already have and does not require extra packaging. VMware is supported out
of the box.
Docker Desktop runs a Linux VM and installs some host-native client tools (like
the Docker CLI) to make docker workflows easy. Docker desktop does not support
other guest operating systems and does not support power management workflows
(instead it runs the VM like an application).
lovm manages VMs and does not have any docker-specific features.
lovm wraps the CLI tools included with VMware and VirtualBox. lovm improves
on the native CLI’s ergonomics, speeds things up by using linked clones, and
also quickly identifies the IP address when you start a VM.
I built this for my own use, and I only intend to maintain this program so I can
use it. Please do feel free to open bugs or PRs or ask questions, but don’t
feel bad if I don’t respond or don’t merge your PR. It’s not you. It’s me! :)
This is not a roadmap.