Virtual Machine Management Skill

Create, manage, and optimize virtual machines in your Proxmox environment.

What this skill does

This skill enables you to:

• List virtual machines on specific nodes
• Get detailed VM configuration and status
• Start, stop, reboot, suspend, and resume virtual machines
• Create new virtual machines with basic or advanced configuration
• Clone existing virtual machines
• Delete virtual machines
• Modify VM resource allocation
• Monitor VM performance metrics
• Manage VM snapshots
• Plan VM deployment strategies
• Optimize resource allocation

When to use this skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Check VM status and configuration
• Manage VM lifecycle (start/stop/reboot)
• Monitor VM performance and resource usage
• Adjust VM resources (CPU, memory, storage)
• Create new virtual machines
• Troubleshoot VM issues
• Plan VM migrations
• Optimize VM placement

Available Tools

• get_vms - List all VMs on a specific node
• get_vm_status - Get detailed VM status and configuration
• get_vm_config - Get full VM configuration details
• start_vm - Start a virtual machine
• stop_vm - Stop a VM immediately
• shutdown_vm - Gracefully shutdown a VM
• reboot_vm - Reboot a virtual machine
• suspend_vm - Suspend (pause) a running VM
• resume_vm - Resume a suspended VM
• create_vm - Create a new virtual machine with basic configuration
• create_vm_advanced - Create a VM with advanced configuration options
• clone_vm - Clone an existing virtual machine
• update_vm_config - Update VM configuration (resources, options, mark as template)
• delete_vm - Delete a virtual machine

Template VM Creation

Creating template VMs allows you to quickly deploy preconfigured virtual machines:

Workflow: Create a Template VM

1. Create or prepare a base VM

   • Use create_vm_advanced or clone from an existing VM
   • Install and configure the OS and applications
   • Test thoroughly before templating

2. Update VM as Template

   • Use update_vm_config with template: 1 to mark as template

   {
     "template": 1
   }
   

3. Clone from Template

   • Use clone_vm to create instances from the template
   • Template VMs cannot be directly used as running instances
   • Each clone becomes a full, independent VM

Example: Mark VM as Template

# First, prepare your VM (install OS, apps, configure)
# Then mark it as a template:
update_vm_config(node="pve2", vmid=100, config={"template": 1})

Example: Clone from Template

# Clone the template to create a new VM
clone_vm(node="pve2", source_vmid=100, new_vmid=200, new_name="web-server-01", full=true)

Typical Workflows

VM Lifecycle Management

1. Use get_vms to list available VMs
2. Use get_vm_status or get_vm_config to check VM state
3. Use start/stop/reboot/suspend/resume to manage VM operations
4. Monitor VM health during changes

VM Creation & Configuration

1. Use create_vm or create_vm_advanced to provision new VM
2. Use get_vm_status to verify configuration
3. Use clone_vm to create copies for testing or deployment
4. Use get_vm_config to review detailed settings
5. Document VM details for reference

VM Lifecycle Operations

1. Use suspend_vm to pause a running VM (preserves state)
2. Use resume_vm to resume operations from suspended state
3. Use shutdown_vm for graceful shutdown
4. Use reboot_vm to restart VM
5. Use stop_vm for immediate termination if needed

VM Troubleshooting

1. Use get_vm_status to check VM health
2. Use reboot/restart to recover from issues
3. Use snapshots to rollback problematic changes
4. Analyze performance metrics for root cause

Example Questions

• "List all VMs on the production node"
• "What's the status and resource usage of VM 100?"
• "Get the full configuration of VM 105"
• "Start the web server VM"
• "Create a new VM with 4 cores and 8GB RAM"
• "Clone VM 100 to create a test copy"
• "Mark VM 100 as a template for future deployments"
• "Clone the template VM 100 to create web-server-01"
• "Update VM 105 to use 16GB RAM"
• "Suspend VM 200 for maintenance"
• "Resume VM 200 to continue operations"
• "Gracefully shutdown VM 150"
• "Delete VM 199 and remove all data"

Response Format

When using this skill, I provide:

• VM listings with status and resource allocation
• Detailed VM configuration and performance metrics
• Status confirmations for VM operations
• Resource utilization analysis
• Optimization recommendations

Best Practices

• Monitor VM performance regularly
• Use cloning for quick VM deployment
• Create VMs with appropriate resource allocation
• Use suspend/resume for temporary pauses
• Use graceful shutdown to minimize data loss
• Plan resource allocation carefully
• Balance VMs across nodes
• Implement high-availability for critical VMs
• Keep VM templates updated
• Document VM configuration and purpose
• Test changes in non-production first
• Monitor disk usage to prevent full disks
• Clean up unused VMs to conserve resources