= QEMU Monitor on running KVM guests = Each KVM guests have a [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/wiki/QEMU/Monitor qemu monitor], which allows you to interact with the running guests via the software the powers the guest. To start the qemu monitor, login as the guest user account. For example, to access julia.mayfirst.org, login as julia to julia's host (pietri.mayfirst.org): {{{ ssh julia@pietri.mayfirst.org }}} Then run the following command (chaning julia to the name of the guest in question): {{{ julia@pietri:~$ socat vms/julia/monitor.socket STDIO }}} Here's an example session (see ticket #4254 for context): {{{ julia@pietri:~$ socat vms/julia/monitor.socket STDIO QEMU 0.12.5 monitor - type 'help' for more information (qemu) info balloon info balloon balloon: actual=3072 (qemu) balloon 2500 balloon 2500 (qemu) ^Cjulia@pietri:~$ }}} Note the use of ctrl-C to detach from the monitor -- if you were to do exit or quit instead, you would be effectively asking the kvm process itself to die. You don't want that!