VM Management

OpenFactory includes a web-based interface for managing KVM/QEMU virtual machines, powered by CTO-GUI. This enables testing, development, and manual verification of your builds.

Features

Network Topology Visualization - Interactive D3.js graph showing VMs and networks
VM Lifecycle Management - Create, start, stop, and delete virtual machines
Real-time Updates - WebSocket-based live status updates
VNC Console Access - Direct console access to running VMs
Machine Templates - Pre-configured VM types for quick deployment

Architecture


┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   VM Management                          │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                          │
│  ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌─────────┐ │
│  │   React      │────▶│   Backend    │────▶│  KVM    │ │
│  │  Frontend    │     │   (Python)   │     │ libvirt │ │
│  └──────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └─────────┘ │
│         │                    │                          │
│         └────WebSocket───────┘                          │
│                                                          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Use Cases

Build Testing

Manually test your OpenFactory builds:

Build creates an ISO
Create a VM from the ISO
Access the console via VNC
Verify configuration interactively

Multi-VM Testing

Test client-server architectures:

Create multiple VMs
Configure virtual networks
Test inter-VM communication
Verify network services

Development

Develop and debug configurations:

Boot your custom image
Make changes interactively
Iterate on configuration
Export working configuration

Quick Links

Topic	Description
Network Topology	Visualize your VM network
Creating VMs	Create and manage VMs
VNC Console	Access VM consoles

Prerequisites

VM Management requires:

KVM/QEMU installed on the host
libvirt running and configured
User permissions for libvirt group

For containerized deployments, privileged access to /dev/kvm is required.

Getting Started

Navigate to VM Management in the sidebar
View the network topology
Create a VM from your build
Access the console to verify

The interface updates in real-time as VMs start, stop, and change state.