[libvirt] messed up with xml-files and configuration of a VM

[Stefan Hajnoczi]

On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 5:13 PM, Lentes, Bernd
<bernd.lentes at helmholtz-muenchen.de> wrote:
> first, i'm new to kvm. I'm running KVM on a sles 11 sp2, kernel 3.0.13-0.27-default. My guest is an Ubuntu 12.0.4 LTS 64bit.
> The guest has attached a CDROM, using an iso-file from a CIFS-Share. I detached it with the virtual machine manager (0.9.0).
> I don't see the cd-rom anymore in the virtual machine manager. But when i try to start the vm, it complains about the missing iso-file.
> Why ? I detached it.
> When i like to have a look in the xml-files of the guest, i found three ! One in /var/lib/kvm/images, one in /etc/libvirt/qemu and one in /etc/kvm/vm.
> Which one should i use to configure the vm ? In the one in /etc/libvirt/qemu the cifs-share isn't mentioned any longer, in the other two it is still.
> Is it possible to configure the vm editing one of the XML-files ?
> Or shall i use virsh ? Using virsh, does the vm has to be stopped or can i edit the configuration for a running vm ?
> Why three xml-files ? Why is detaching with the virtual machine manager not working ?

Hi Bernd,
This is a libvirt question, I have CCed the libvirt mailing list.

Do not edit the XML files on disk.  Instead, use virsh edit (to
modify) and virsh dumpxml (to view).

Stefan