VM settings

Each VM's settings are in a window of their own. Select the VM and click the sliders in the toolbar, press ⌘I, or choose Settings… in its … menu. A VM whose settings are open brings its window forward. ⌘W closes it.

Every change is saved as you make it; there is no Save button.

What changes when

A suspended VM's saved state only fits the hardware it was saved from, so its processors, memory and disk are locked until it is shut down. The window says why when they are.

General

• Name: what the library, the VM's window and the Dock tooltip show. Type a new one; it is saved as you type, and a running VM's window takes it at once. The VM's folder keeps the name it was made with.
• System: the system the VM runs, such as macOS 27.0.1 (26A434).
• Installer: the ISO or IPSW the VM was installed from, while it is still attached, with Eject to take it out (when the VM is not running). A catalog VM that hasn't started yet shows what it will download.
• Elyra VM Tools, while the VM runs: whether Elyra VM Tools runs in it, its version and the guest's host name.
• Login, for a system ready to use from the catalog: the user and password it was set up with (Linux guests).

Hardware

The framework sets its own limits too: values outside what this Mac allows are brought within them when the VM starts. A macOS version may ask for more than the minimum; installing says so.

3D graphics

Linux VMs only, on by default. On macOS 27, a Linux VM with 3D graphics gets Elyra VM's own GPU, on which the guest's desktop, browsers and apps draw with your Mac's GPU (OpenGL, and WebGL in browsers), and whose display is as large as the window and scaled as macOS scales it. It needs Elyra VM Tools in the VM, through which the keyboard and pointer go: a VM gets it from the start after Tools has first run in it, and not while an installer is attached. Until then, and on older macOS, the VM has Apple's GPU, which draws in software.

A VM with 3D graphics can't be suspended (its graphics live on your Mac, outside the VM): closing its window offers to shut it down instead. Turn 3D graphics off for a VM you want to suspend.

Nested virtualization

Windows VMs only, off by default, on a Mac with an M3 or later (greyed out on others). Windows gets the processor's virtualization, for WSL 2 and Hyper-V, from its next start (Windows guests). A VM with it shuts down rather than suspends.

A larger disk

Larger… offers the next sizes up. A disk takes space on your Mac only as the VM fills it, so a larger one costs nothing until it is used, but it can't be made smaller again.

The system in the VM sees the extra room once its partition is extended:

• macOS: in Terminal in the VM, diskutil list shows the APFS container on the VM's disk; sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer <container> 0 grows it to fill the disk.
• Linux: sudo growpart /dev/vda <partition>, then sudo resize2fs /dev/vda<partition> for ext4 or sudo xfs_growfs / for XFS. Many desktop distributions do this from their disk utility too.

Network

• Shared: the VM is behind your Mac, with a private address (NAT). It reaches the internet and your network through the Mac, and the Mac reaches it at its address. The default.
• Bridged: the VM is on your network as a device of its own. This needs a permission Apple grants to signed apps on request; until Elyra VM has it, Bridged works as Shared.
• None: no network at all.

While a VM runs, None disconnects it at once and Shared connects it again. A VM that started with no network gets one at its next start.

Address shows the VM's address on the shared network, such as 192.168.64.6, once it has run with Shared networking: the one Elyra VM Tools reports when it runs, or else the one leased to the VM's MAC address. Your Mac reaches the VM there directly.

Forwarded ports

A forwarded port on your Mac reaches a port in the VM: 2222 → 22 makes ssh -p 2222 user@localhost reach the VM's SSH server, and 8080 → 80 makes http://localhost:8080 its web server.

• Forward a port: the port on your Mac, the port in the VM, TCP or UDP, then Add. A forward from the same Mac port and protocol is replaced.
• From other devices: off, only this Mac reaches the port (it listens on 127.0.0.1 and ::1); on, other devices on your network do too, over IPv4 and IPv6.
• Remove stops it.

Forwards work while the VM runs, and change at once when you add, change or remove one. Ports below 1024 need administrator rights on the Mac; use one above. If a port on your Mac is already in use, the VM says so, and the other forwards work.

A VM keeps its MAC address from start to start, so it keeps its DHCP lease and address.

Shared folders

Add Folder… shares one or more Mac folders; each row has a Read only switch and Remove. While the VM runs, folders added or removed appear or go in the guest at once.

• macOS guests show them in /Volumes/My Shared Files, and in Finder.
• Linux guests mount them by the tag elyravm (Linux guests).

Snapshots

The VM's snapshots, newest first, each with Rename, Roll Back and Delete, and Take Snapshot. See Snapshots.

Permissions

• Microphone: the guest gets a sound input from your Mac's microphone. macOS asks you, by the VM's name, the first time the VM starts with it; each VM is allowed on its own (System Settings › Privacy & Security › Microphone). While the guest takes sound in, the VM's title bar shows an orange microphone. A macOS guest asks too, for the app in it that records.
• Shared clipboard: copy and paste between the Mac and a Linux guest, through the SPICE agent (spice-vdagent in the guest). The framework doesn't share the clipboard with macOS guests, so the switch is off for them.

Both take effect at the VM's next start.

config.json

Everything here is kept in the VM's config.json (The .elyravm bundle). Edit it by hand only while the VM is stopped; or, while it runs, follow an edit with elyravm reload <vm>, which makes the VM take in its name, shared folders and network as the settings window does.