Options

VM options control host startup behavior, guest firmware and clock, graceful shutdown, initialization data, and bhyve integration features.

Option availability

Command	May run while VM is active	Behavior
config autostart	Yes	Replaces enabled state and start order together.
config clock	No	Replaces guest clock offset.
config shutdown	Yes	Replaces graceful-shutdown wait.
config boot-rom	No	Replaces firmware choice.
config cloud-init	No	Completely replaces or clears cloud-init content.
config bhyve-options	No	Completely replaces or clears extra options.
config unknown-msr	No	Replaces unknown-MSR handling state.
config qga	No	Replaces QEMU Guest Agent integration state.
config wol	Yes	Replaces Wake-on-LAN state.

Configure host autostart

Autostart requires both state and order because Sylve updates them together:

doas sylve vms config autostart \
  --rid 301 \
  --enabled=true \
  --order 7 \
  --json

Start order must be zero or greater. Lower ordering values are considered earlier when the node starts configured VMs.

Set the guest clock

Choose utc or localtime:

doas sylve vms config clock \
  --rid 301 \
  --time-offset localtime \
  --json

UTC is the normal choice for Unix-like guests. Some operating systems expect the emulated real-time clock to use local time.

Set graceful-shutdown wait

Configure how long Sylve waits after requesting graceful shutdown:

doas sylve vms config shutdown \
  --rid 301 \
  --wait-seconds 20 \
  --json

The accepted range is 1 through 3600 seconds. If the guest is still running when the wait expires, Sylve force-stops the domain and completes the shutdown task.

Choose boot firmware

Set uefi, uboot, or none:

doas sylve vms config boot-rom \
  --rid 301 \
  --boot-rom uefi \
  --json

Availability depends on host and guest architecture. Loki returned "updated": false because VM 301 already used UEFI.

Replace cloud-init configuration

Cloud-init replacement requires data and metadata files plus exactly one network choice:

doas sylve vms config cloud-init \
  --rid 301 \
  --data-file /root/cloud-init/user-data \
  --metadata-file /root/cloud-init/meta-data \
  --network-config-file /root/cloud-init/network-config \
  --json

Use --no-network-config instead when intentionally storing an empty network configuration:

doas sylve vms config cloud-init \
  --rid 301 \
  --data-file /tmp/sylve-docs-cloud-init/user-data \
  --metadata-file /tmp/sylve-docs-cloud-init/meta-data \
  --no-network-config \
  --json

Files are read on the Sylve host. Replacement is complete, so omitted previous content is not preserved. Clear all three values with --clear alone:

doas sylve vms config cloud-init --rid 301 --clear --json

Replace extra bhyve options

Repeat --option to provide the complete option list:

doas sylve vms config bhyve-options \
  --rid 301 \
  --option=-S \
  --json

Clear every extra option explicitly:

doas sylve vms config bhyve-options --rid 301 --clear --json

Extra options can prevent startup

These values are passed to bhyve and can duplicate or conflict with arguments managed by Sylve. Use them only when the effect of the bhyve option is understood, and verify VM startup afterward.

Handle unknown MSRs

Toggle unknown Model-Specific Register handling:

doas sylve vms config unknown-msr \
  --rid 301 \
  --enabled=true \
  --json

Enable this only for a guest that requires unknown MSR accesses to be ignored. The setting changes generated bhyve configuration and requires the VM to be powered off.

Enable QEMU Guest Agent integration

Enable the QGA channel in the VM definition:

doas sylve vms config qga --rid 301 --enabled=true --json

This configures the host-side guest-agent transport. It does not install or start an agent inside the guest. The access guide uses vms qga info to distinguish configured, running, reachable, and capability states.

Configure Wake-on-LAN

Wake-on-LAN state may be changed while the VM is running:

doas sylve vms config wol --rid 301 --enabled=true --json

The surrounding network must deliver the magic packet to the relevant MAC address. Enabling the VM option alone does not configure upstream switching or routing.

Real autostart, clock, shutdown, cloud-init, bhyve, QGA, and Wake-on-LAN configuration responses.

Use the interactive console

The console places the RID after the leaf command:

vms config autostart 301 --enabled=true --order 7
vms config clock 301 --time-offset utc
vms config shutdown 301 --wait-seconds 20
vms config boot-rom 301 --boot-rom uefi
vms config cloud-init 301 --data-file /root/user-data --metadata-file /root/meta-data --no-network-config
vms config bhyve-options 301 --option=-S
vms config unknown-msr 301 --enabled=true
vms config qga 301 --enabled=true
vms config wol 301 --enabled=true

Boolean flags accept explicit true and false. Omission is not a request to disable a setting.