BHYVECTL(8)             FreeBSD System Manager's Manual            BHYVECTL(8)

NAME

     bhyvectl - control utility for bhyve instances

SYNOPSIS

     bhyvectl --vm=<vmname> [--create] [--destroy] [--get-stats]
              [--inject-nmi] [--force-reset] [--force-poweroff]
              [--checkpoint=<file>] [--suspend=<file>]

DESCRIPTION

     The bhyvectl command is a control utility for active bhyve(8) virtual
     machine instances.

     The user-facing options are as follows:

     --vm=<vmname>        Operate on the virtual machine <vmname>.

     --create             Create the specified VM.

     --destroy            Destroy the specified VM.

     --get-stats          Retrieve statistics for the specified VM.

     --inject-nmi         Inject a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) into the VM.

     --force-reset        Force the VM to reset.

     --force-poweroff     Force the VM to power off.

     --checkpoint=<file>  Save a snapshot of a virtual machine.  The guest
                          memory contents are saved in the file given in
                          <file>.  The guest device and vCPU state are saved
                          in the file <file>.kern.

     --suspend=<file>     Save a snapshot of a virtual machine similar to
                          --checkpoint.  The virtual machine will terminate
                          after the snapshot has been saved.

     Note: Most bhyvectl flags are intended for querying and setting the state
     of an active instance.  These commands are intended for development
     purposes, and are not documented here.  A complete list can be obtained
     by executing bhyvectl without any arguments.

EXIT STATUS

     The bhyvectl utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES

     Destroy the VM called fbsd10:

           bhyvectl --vm=fbsd10 --destroy

     Running VMs will be visible in /dev/vmm/.

COMPATIBILITY

     The snapshot file format is not yet stable and is subject to future
     changes.  Backwards compatibility support for the current snapshot file
     format is not guaranteed when future changes are made.

SEE ALSO

     bhyve(8), bhyveload(8)

HISTORY

     The bhyvectl command first appeared in FreeBSD 10.1.

AUTHORS

     The bhyvectl utility was written by Peter Grehan and Neel Natu.

FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD          May 8, 2025                      BHYVECTL(8)