VM Management

This guide covers the core operations for managing VMs with Lume.

Listing VMs

# List all VMs
lume ls

# Output includes: name, state, CPU, memory, disk size

Getting VM Details

# Get detailed information about a VM
lume get my-vm

This shows:

VM state (running, stopped)
Resource allocation (CPU, memory, disk)
Network configuration
Display settings

Running VMs

# Run with display window
lume run my-vm

# Run headless (no display)
lume run my-vm --no-display

# Run with shared directory
lume run my-vm --shared-dir /path/to/local/folder

# Run with USB storage device
lume run my-vm --usb-storage /path/to/disk.img

Stopping VMs

# Graceful stop (sends shutdown signal)
lume stop my-vm

# Force stop (immediate termination)
lume stop my-vm --force

Modifying VM Settings

# Change CPU allocation
lume set my-vm --cpu 8

# Change memory
lume set my-vm --memory 16GB

# Resize disk (can only increase)
lume set my-vm --disk-size 100GB

# Change display resolution
lume set my-vm --display 1920x1080

The VM must be stopped before changing settings. Disk size can only be increased, not decreased.

Cloning VMs

Create a copy of an existing VM:

# Clone within same storage
lume clone source-vm cloned-vm

# Clone to different storage location
lume clone source-vm cloned-vm --source-storage default --dest-storage external-ssd

Deleting VMs

# Delete a VM
lume delete my-vm

# Delete from specific storage
lume delete my-vm --storage external-ssd

Multiple Storage Locations

Lume supports storing VMs in different locations (e.g., internal drive, external SSD).

Configure Storage

# List storage locations
lume config storage list

# Add a new storage location
lume config storage add external-ssd /Volumes/ExternalSSD/lume

# Set default storage
lume config storage default external-ssd

# Remove a storage location
lume config storage remove old-storage

Using Storage Locations

# Create VM in specific storage
lume create my-vm --os macos --ipsw latest --storage external-ssd

# Run VM from specific storage
lume run my-vm --storage external-ssd

# Move VM between storage locations
lume clone source-vm dest-vm --source-storage default --dest-storage external-ssd
lume delete source-vm --storage default

Image Caching

When pulling VM images from the registry, Lume can cache the downloaded layers locally to speed up future pulls of the same or similar images. Caching is disabled by default to save disk space.

Enable Caching

If you frequently pull images and want faster downloads:

# Enable image caching
lume config set cachingEnabled true

# Set custom cache directory (optional)
lume config set cacheDirectory /path/to/cache

View Cache Settings

# View current configuration
lume config get

This displays:

Default VM storage location
Cache directory path
Whether caching is enabled

Clear Cache

To free up disk space used by cached image layers:

# Remove cached images
lume prune

With caching disabled (default), each lume pull downloads all image layers fresh. Enable caching if you frequently pull the same images or images that share common base layers.

Next Steps

Unattended Setup - Automate macOS setup
HTTP Server - Use the REST API
CLI Reference - Full command reference

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