hv administrator manual
hv is a distribution for running and administering virtual machines on Xen. A Host runs Xen 4.22, Alpine Linux 3.24 in the control domain, the upstream xapi toolstack and hv-agent. The control domain, called dom0, manages the physical hardware and the VM lifecycle. hv adds a web console, CLI, JSON API, MCP server, installer, storage plugins and update tools. Its own management components are written in OCaml.
This manual is for people installing servers, granting access to teams and keeping VMs available. It assumes access to the server's local or out-of-band console and familiarity with IP addressing. Application administrators can begin with Projects and VMs; Fleet administrators also need the Host, storage, networking and recovery chapters. Concepts explains these scopes before any access is granted.
Find a procedure
Choose the task that matches the system's current state. For a new machine, follow the installation sequence in order; for an existing deployment, inspect its inventory and current Tasks before changing anything.
- Getting started, requirements, installation and first boot.
- Concepts, Projects and users and access.
- VMs, networking, storage and live migration.
- Hosts and Pools, backups, updates and security.
- Monitoring and logs, CLI and API, troubleshooting and glossary.
Procedures describe prerequisites, actions, checks and failure handling. Uppercase command arguments such as POOL, VM and TASK_ID are placeholders. Replace them with identifiers from your own inventory. Example addresses and domains are documentation values, not services to contact. A command returning a Task means the work was accepted; inspect its final result before relying on it.
Documentation versions
The manual is installed with each hv release and appears in the console's Docs section in the Account's language, English or Spanish. Updating hv also updates the manual, so the instructions match the installed version. The public website shows the manual for the latest release.
When administering an older installation, use its console manual. Before copying a command from another system, compare the installed versions and consult the CLI reference. During a rolling update, check each Host's version before using a Host-local recovery command. Updates explains how to follow the rollout and verify its result.