Share a Host Directory with VM Instance
Using the VM [name] page, Cockpit Administrators can share files on the managed host system with a VM instance.
Note:
To share files between the host and a VM instance, Cockpit uses thevirtiofs
virtualization feature. Virtiofs is a shared file system
feature that lets virtual machines access a directory tree on the managed host system.
What Do You Need?
- The Cockpit web console must be installed and accessible.
For details, see these topics: Install and Enable Cockpit and Log in to the Cockpit Web Console.
- The Cockpit-machines add-on application must be installed in the web console and the
Oracle Linux virtualization packages must be installed and enabled on the host system.
Note:
Virtiofs is available in most Linux distributions. It works with the virtualization packages (libvirt).For more information, see Install Cockpit-Machines and Enable Virtualization.
- The VM instance that you want to share host files with must have a Linux guest OS.
- The VM instance must be in a Shut off state to add shared directories.
- The host directory that you want to share must already exist.
- The shared host directory must be manually mounted inside the VM. For example:
mount -t virtiofs hostshare [mount point]
In the command, mount point in the mount point inside the VM instance.
For more details, click the question mark icon [?] next to the Shared directories title on the VM [name] page.
Steps
Using the Cockpit web console, follow these steps to add a shared host directory to a VM instance.
- In the Cockpit navigation pane, click Virtual machines.
The Virtual machines page appears.
- In the Virtual machines page, click the name of the virtual
machine of interest.
The Virtual machines [VM name] page appears.
-
In Virtual machines [VM name] page, navigate to the Shared directory section and click Add shared directory.
-
In the Add shared directory dialog, specify the following properties and then click Share.
Source path In the Source path drop-down list box, specify the full host file path that you want to share with the VM instance. Mount tag In the Mount tag list box, specify a tag name that the VM instance uses to mount the source path. Additional Options: Extended attributes Select the Extended attributes checkbox to enable ( xattr
) on the shared directory and files.or
Clear the Extended attributes checkbox to disable this option.
- The newly created shared directory appears in the Shared directory section on the
VM [name] page. You can now open the stored files on the shared
host directory from the VM instance.
Note:
You can remove an existing shared directory from the VM instance by clicking Remove on the VM page.