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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/system/managed-startup.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/system/managed-startup.rst | 35 |
1 files changed, 35 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/system/managed-startup.rst b/docs/system/managed-startup.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..9bcf98ea79 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/system/managed-startup.rst @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +Managed start up options +======================== + +In system mode emulation, it's possible to create a VM in a paused +state using the ``-S`` command line option. In this state the machine +is completely initialized according to command line options and ready +to execute VM code but VCPU threads are not executing any code. The VM +state in this paused state depends on the way QEMU was started. It +could be in: + +- initial state (after reset/power on state) +- with direct kernel loading, the initial state could be amended to execute + code loaded by QEMU in the VM's RAM and with incoming migration +- with incoming migration, initial state will be amended with the migrated + machine state after migration completes + +This paused state is typically used by users to query machine state and/or +additionally configure the machine (by hotplugging devices) in runtime before +allowing VM code to run. + +However, at the ``-S`` pause point, it's impossible to configure options +that affect initial VM creation (like: ``-smp``/``-m``/``-numa`` ...) or +cold plug devices. The experimental ``--preconfig`` command line option +allows pausing QEMU before the initial VM creation, in a "preconfig" state, +where additional queries and configuration can be performed via QMP +before moving on to the resulting configuration startup. In the +preconfig state, QEMU only allows a limited set of commands over the +QMP monitor, where the commands do not depend on an initialized +machine, including but not limited to: + +- ``qmp_capabilities`` +- ``query-qmp-schema`` +- ``query-commands`` +- ``query-status`` +- ``x-exit-preconfig`` |