User`s guide

Operations on Virtual Machines and Containers 36
Storing Extended Information on a
Virtual Machine and Container
Sometimes, it may be difficult to remember the information on certain virtual machines and
Containers. The probability of this increases together with the number of virtual machines and
Containers and with the time elapsed since their creation. Parallels Server Bare Metal allows
you to set the description of any virtual machine and Container on the physical server and view
it later on, if required. The description can be any text containing any virtual machine and
Container-related information. For example, you can include the following in the virtual
machine and Container description:
 the owner of the virtual machine and Container
 the purpose of the virtual machine and Container
 the summary description of the virtual machine and Container
Let us assume that you are asked to create a virtual machine for a Mr. Johnson who is going to
use it for hosting the MySQL server. So, you create the MyVM virtual machine and, after that,
execute the following command on the physical server:
# pctl set MyVM --description "MyVM
> owner - Mr. Johnson
> purpose - hosting the MySQL server" -
The VM has been successfully configured.
This command saves the following information related to the virtual machine: its name, owner,
and the purpose of its creation. At any time, you can display this information by issuing the
following command:
# pctl list -o description MyVM
MyVM
owner - Mr. Johnson
purpose - hosting the MySQL server
When working with virtual machine and Container descriptions, keep in mind the following:
 You can use any symbols you like in the virtual machine and Container description (new
lines, dashes, underscores, spaces, etc.).
 If the virtual machine and Container description contains one or more spaces or line breaks
(as in the example above), it must be put in single or double quotes.
 As distinct from a virtual machine and Container name and ID, a description cannot be used
for performing virtual machine and Container-related operations (e.g. for starting or
stopping a virtual machine and Container) and is meant for reference purposes only.