vm startall on boot?

[alexander-potemkin]

The Readme.md says:

On host boot, vm-bhyve will use the 'vm startall' command to start all machines.

But in my case, every time I reboot the server none of the vms are autostarted - am I missing something?

[michael-o]

You need to modify your rc.conf

[alexander-potemkin]

You need to modify your rc.conf

I understand that. But I don't understand how exactly.

$ grep vm /etc/rc.conf
vm_enable="YES"
vm_dir="zfs:zroot/vm"

In a way I read the doc - is that by default vm bhyve will do start all - so if I have vm_enable -> YES: then after restart all my VMs will start automatically. But that is not the case.

So I wonder what am I missing or how the doc shall be updated, to make it clear for - what appears to be an infrequent - readings like mine.

[alexander-potemkin]

Just tried vm startall after the reboot with 3 VMs and nothing has happened.

The man says:

 startall
        The list of virtual machines should be specified using the
        $vm_list variable in /etc/rc.conf.  ...

Which means that if I want to start all my vms on startup I have to specify those VMs manually in rc.conf and there is no way to have VMs started all automatically?

[michael-o]

Just tried vm startall after the reboot with 3 VMs and nothing has happened.

The man says:

 startall
        The list of virtual machines should be specified using the
        $vm_list variable in /etc/rc.conf.  ...

Which means that if I want to start all my vms on startup I have to specify those VMs manually in rc.conf and there is no way to have VMs started all automatically?

It seems so. It is a deliberate design choice that you have to explicitly list all autostart machines. Bastille does actually the same.

[metalefty]

I like the Bastille's new method (setting boot flag in each jail) but personally, I would not implement the same thing with vm-bhyve. Such breaking changes are unlikely to be welcomed by users.

[metalefty]

Oops, I pressed the wrong button.

[michael-o]

Do we need to improve docs?

[alexander-potemkin]

I would love to have that behavior documented, if you could?

I'm a newbie, I'm accepting all of the choices made by a settled community, just would love to see them stated a bit more transparent... for a newbie... :)

[michael-o]

I would love to have that behavior documented, if you could?

I'm a newbie, I'm accepting all of the choices made by a settled community, just would love to see them stated a bit more transparent... for a newbie... :)

Please find the docs which you find incomplete.