WebVirtCloud

Python >=3.10 & Django 5.2 LTS (tested on Python 3.10 – 3.13)

WebVirtCloud is a web visualization and management layer for libvirt-based virtualization infrastructure.

libvirt is the single source of truth. WebVirtCloud reads, displays and triggers actions on libvirt state, but it is never the primary orchestrator.

• An administrator can connect to libvirt directly with virt-manager or virsh and create, delete, rename or reconfigure virtual machines. WebVirtCloud detects these changes and updates its database accordingly.
• Virtual machines keep running even when WebVirtCloud is stopped; the application only reflects the current state of libvirt.
• WebVirtCloud is not a full automation platform like Proxmox. Its goal is to expose libvirt's functionality through the browser in an accessible, role-based and secure way.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│               Administrator / User                  │
└────────────┬───────────────────┬────────────────────┘
             │ Web browser        │ virt-manager / virsh
             ▼                   ▼
┌────────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────────────────┐
│   WebVirtCloud     │  │   libvirt API (direct)      │
│   (web UI layer)   │◄─┤   — separate, independent   │
└────────┬───────────┘  └──────────────┬──────────────┘
         │ libvirt API                  │
         ▼                             ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│               libvirtd (hypervisor daemon)           │
│                    QEMU / KVM                        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

WebVirtCloud and virt-manager/virsh can manage the same libvirt host concurrently and independently. WebVirtCloud picks up external changes the next time the instance list page is loaded.

Features

• QEMU/KVM hypervisor management (multiple compute nodes)
• Virtual machine lifecycle: create, delete, power management, clone, migrate
• External change detection: VMs created, deleted or renamed via virt-manager or virsh are reconciled into the database automatically
• Real-time hypervisor and VM statistics (CPU, RAM, disk, network)
• Storage pool and volume management
• Network and interface management
• Browser-based VNC console (noVNC)
• Role-based access control: users only see the VMs assigned to them
• 2FA (OTP / TOTP) and failed-login lockout
• SSH public key and root password management (via guestfs)
• Cloud-init datasource interface (OpenStack metadata compatible)
• REST API — OpenAPI 3.0 (Swagger & ReDoc)
• LDAP / Active Directory integration (optional)

Contents

1. Installation: installer, Docker, manual, first login
2. Adding a Compute Node
3. Configuration: environment variables, HTTPS and reverse proxy, cloud-init datasource, LDAP
4. Updating
5. Usage: users and permissions, REST API, screenshots
6. Development

Installation

The installer supports Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04, Debian 12, RHEL / Rocky Linux / AlmaLinux / Oracle Linux 10, openSUSE Leap 15.x / Tumbleweed and SLES 15; the panel runs on a virtual machine, a physical host or a KVM host itself and needs Python 3.10 or newer. CI tests Python 3.10–3.13 on Ubuntu (sqlite, and PostgreSQL on 3.12) and the Docker image; the distro installs are not tested in CI. Pick one of the three ways below, then do the first login.

Installer

curl -fsSL -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/retspen/webvirtcloud/master/install.sh
chmod 744 install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

The installer writes the server's names and IPs to ALLOWED_HOSTS. Running it again keeps settings.py, the database, the secret key and the main nginx config, but replaces /etc/nginx/conf.d/webvirtcloud.conf and the systemd units; back up your own lines in the nginx config (TLS) first. Put your own service settings in /etc/default/webvirtcloud or in drop-ins (systemctl edit webvirt-cloud), which a re-run keeps.

Docker

# 1. Clone repository:
git clone https://github.com/retspen/webvirtcloud
cd webvirtcloud

# 2. Set the names/IPs the panel is reached by (git pull never touches this file):
cat > docker-compose.override.yml <<'EOF'
services:
  webvirtcloud:
    environment:
      - ALLOWED_HOSTS=wvc.example.com,192.0.2.10
EOF

# 3. Start services:
docker compose up -d

The panel and its console are at http://<server-ip>. The database and secret key live in the webvirtcloud-data volume, the SSH keys in webvirtcloud-ssh. Other settings go in the same environment: list, see Environment variables.

Manual installation

Run the steps from a root shell (sudo -i). In step 3, replace the example ALLOWED_HOSTS with the names/IPs the panel (and the cloud-init datasource) is reached by.

The virtualenv is created with --system-site-packages: libvirt-python comes from the distro packages when its version satisfies conf/requirements.txt; otherwise pip builds it, which needs the -dev/-devel packages listed below. Everything else, including lxml, comes from pip.

Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04, Debian 12

# 1. System packages
apt-get update && apt-get -y install git python3-venv python3-dev python3-lxml python3-libvirt libvirt-dev zlib1g-dev libxslt1-dev nginx libsasl2-modules gcc pkg-config python3-guestfs libssl-dev

# 2. Code
git clone https://github.com/retspen/webvirtcloud /srv/webvirtcloud
cd /srv/webvirtcloud

# 3. Settings, allowed hosts and secret key
cp webvirtcloud/settings.py.template webvirtcloud/settings.py
sed -i 's|^ALLOWED_HOSTS = .*|ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["wvc.example.com", "192.0.2.10", "localhost", "127.0.0.1", "[::1]"]|' webvirtcloud/settings.py
mkdir -p data && python3 conf/runit/secret_generator.py > data/secret_key && chmod 600 data/secret_key

# 4. Virtualenv and dependencies
python3 -m venv --system-site-packages venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r conf/requirements.txt

# 5. Database and static files (the first migrate creates the "admin" user)
python3 manage.py migrate
python3 manage.py collectstatic --noinput

# 6. systemd units (gunicorn, novncd, socketiod and the job worker) and nginx
cp conf/systemd/webvirt-{cloud,novncd,socketiod,worker}.service /etc/systemd/system/
cp conf/nginx/webvirtcloud.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/
rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

# 7. Ownership, private files, start
chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/webvirtcloud
chmod 700 data && chmod 600 webvirtcloud/settings.py db.sqlite3
systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl enable --now webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker
nginx -t && systemctl restart nginx

RHEL / Rocky Linux / AlmaLinux / Oracle Linux 10

# 1. System packages (libvirt-devel is in the CRB repository)
dnf -y install epel-release && crb enable
dnf -y install git python3-devel libvirt-devel python3-libvirt python3-lxml cyrus-sasl-md5 openssl-devel glibc gcc nginx python3-libguestfs iproute-tc

# 2. Code
git clone https://github.com/retspen/webvirtcloud /srv/webvirtcloud
cd /srv/webvirtcloud

# 3. Settings, allowed hosts and secret key
cp webvirtcloud/settings.py.template webvirtcloud/settings.py
sed -i 's|^ALLOWED_HOSTS = .*|ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["wvc.example.com", "192.0.2.10", "localhost", "127.0.0.1", "[::1]"]|' webvirtcloud/settings.py
mkdir -p data && python3 conf/runit/secret_generator.py > data/secret_key && chmod 600 data/secret_key

# 4. Virtualenv and dependencies
python3 -m venv --system-site-packages venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r conf/requirements.txt

# 5. Database and static files (the first migrate creates the "admin" user)
python3 manage.py migrate
python3 manage.py collectstatic --noinput

# 6. systemd units (gunicorn, novncd, socketiod and the job worker, as nginx) and nginx
for u in cloud novncd socketiod worker; do sed 's/^\(User\|Group\)=.*/\1=nginx/' conf/systemd/webvirt-$u.service > /etc/systemd/system/webvirt-$u.service; done
cp conf/nginx/webvirtcloud.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/
# make sure the default server block in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf does not also listen on port 80

# 7. Ownership, private files, SELinux, firewall, start
chown -R nginx:nginx /srv/webvirtcloud
chmod 700 data && chmod 600 webvirtcloud/settings.py db.sqlite3
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/srv/webvirtcloud(/.*)" 2>/dev/null || true
restorecon -R /srv/webvirtcloud 2>/dev/null || true
setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on 2>/dev/null || true
firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent 2>/dev/null || true
firewall-cmd --add-port=6080/tcp --permanent 2>/dev/null || true
firewall-cmd --reload 2>/dev/null || true
systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl enable --now webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker
systemctl enable nginx && nginx -t && systemctl restart nginx

openSUSE Leap 15.x / Tumbleweed, SLES 15

# 1. System packages (Python 3.11 stack)
zypper --non-interactive install -y git hostname python311 python311-base python311-devel python311-pip python311-libvirt-python python311-lxml libvirt-devel libopenssl-devel gcc pkg-config nginx

# 2. Code
git clone https://github.com/retspen/webvirtcloud /srv/webvirtcloud
cd /srv/webvirtcloud

# 3. Settings, allowed hosts and secret key
cp webvirtcloud/settings.py.template webvirtcloud/settings.py
sed -i 's|^ALLOWED_HOSTS = .*|ALLOWED_HOSTS = ["wvc.example.com", "192.0.2.10", "localhost", "127.0.0.1", "[::1]"]|' webvirtcloud/settings.py
mkdir -p data && python3.11 conf/runit/secret_generator.py > data/secret_key && chmod 600 data/secret_key

# 4. Virtualenv and dependencies
python3.11 -m venv --system-site-packages venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r conf/requirements.txt

# 5. Database and static files (the first migrate creates the "admin" user)
python3 manage.py migrate
python3 manage.py collectstatic --noinput

# 6. systemd units (gunicorn, novncd, socketiod and the job worker, as nginx) and nginx
for u in cloud novncd socketiod worker; do sed 's/^\(User\|Group\)=.*/\1=nginx/' conf/systemd/webvirt-$u.service > /etc/systemd/system/webvirt-$u.service; done
cp conf/nginx/webvirtcloud.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/
# make sure the default server block in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf does not also listen on port 80

# 7. Ownership, private files, start
chown -R nginx:nginx /srv/webvirtcloud
chmod 700 data && chmod 600 webvirtcloud/settings.py db.sqlite3
systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl enable --now webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker
systemctl enable nginx && nginx -t && systemctl restart nginx

First login

The first migrate creates a superuser named admin with a random password, written to data/admin_password (mode 0600):

sudo cat /srv/webvirtcloud/data/admin_password            # installer or manual installation
docker compose exec webvirtcloud cat data/admin_password   # Docker

Sign in at http://<server-ip>; you must set a new password at the first login, and the file is then deleted. To choose the name or password yourself, set ADMIN_USERNAME and/or ADMIN_PASSWORD in the environment before that first migrate; a password you set is not written to the file and need not be changed. A lost password is reset with python3 manage.py changepassword admin.

Adding a Compute Node

A compute node is a KVM host the panel manages over libvirt.

1. Install KVM and libvirt. The bootstrap script handles Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux 10, openSUSE and SLES. On RHEL, which needs EPEL from its release RPM, install the qemu-kvm and libvirt packages yourself and enable virtqemud.socket (plus virtproxyd-tcp.socket for TCP):

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/retspen/webvirtcloud/master/dev/libvirt-bootstrap.sh | sudo sh
   # or, from a cloned repository: sudo sh ./dev/libvirt-bootstrap.sh

2. For SSH connections, give the user the panel runs as an SSH key and copy it to the compute node. Use only the block for your installation type: a key set up with the host commands is not seen by the panel in Docker. ssh-copy-id asks for the compute node's root password once. accept-new accepts a new host's key on first connect and refuses a changed one.

   Installer or manual installation, on the panel host:

   U=www-data   # the web service user: www-data on Debian/Ubuntu, nginx on RHEL/openSUSE
   H=$(getent passwd $U | cut -d: -f6)
   sudo install -d -m 700 -o $U -g $U $H/.ssh
   sudo -u $U ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N "" -f $H/.ssh/id_ed25519
   printf 'Host *\n  StrictHostKeyChecking accept-new\n' | sudo -u $U tee $H/.ssh/config > /dev/null
   sudo chmod 600 $H/.ssh/config
   sudo -u $U ssh-copy-id root@<compute-node-ip>
   sudo -u $U ssh root@<compute-node-ip> true   # no password or prompt: ready

   Docker, on the Docker host from the directory with docker-compose.yml; the commands run inside the container (always as www-data: the keys are kept in the webvirtcloud-ssh volume, and a key made as root is not used by the panel):

   docker compose exec -u www-data webvirtcloud ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N "" -f /var/www/.ssh/id_ed25519
   docker compose exec -u www-data webvirtcloud sh -c 'printf "Host *\n  StrictHostKeyChecking accept-new\n" > ~/.ssh/config && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config'
   docker compose exec -u www-data webvirtcloud ssh-copy-id root@<compute-node-ip>
   docker compose exec -u www-data webvirtcloud ssh root@<compute-node-ip> true   # no password or prompt: ready

3. Install or update the gstfsd daemon on the compute node (the bootstrap script does this too). It sets the root password and SSH key of a shut-off VM:

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/retspen/webvirtcloud/master/conf/daemon/gstfsd | sudo tee /usr/local/bin/gstfsd > /dev/null
   sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gstfsd
   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/retspen/webvirtcloud/master/conf/systemd/webvirt-gstfsd.service | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/webvirt-gstfsd.service > /dev/null
   sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable webvirt-gstfsd && sudo systemctl restart webvirt-gstfsd

   It listens on 127.0.0.1:16510 only, which serves a panel on the same host. For a remote panel, run sudo systemctl edit webvirt-gstfsd, add [Service] and Environment=GSTFSD_BIND_HOST=0.0.0.0 GSTFSD_ALLOW_REMOTE=1, and restart it. It is unauthenticated: allow TCP 16510 only from the panel's IP.

   A compute that ran gstfsd under supervisor: remove its program first (/etc/supervisor/conf.d/gstfsd.conf on Debian / Ubuntu, /etc/supervisord.d/gstfsd.ini on RHEL / openSUSE), run sudo supervisorctl update, and remove supervisor once nothing else uses it.

4. Add the compute on the panel's Computes page.

Firewall: the compute's VNC ports (5900–65535) must accept connections only from the panel's IP, never from public networks.

For VM migration between computes, define shared storage as a storage pool on every host (a VM migrates only when its disk, backing and ISO files and block devices are volumes of the destination's pools), and where the hosts cannot resolve each other's names, set each compute's Migration address on its edit page.

If libvirt warns Host SMBIOS information is not available, install dmidecode (apt-get, dnf or zypper install -y dmidecode) and restart libvirtd.

Configuration

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
ALLOWED_HOSTS	extra host names/IPs the panel answers to (comma-separated, * for any); other hosts get 400
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS	extra trusted origins, e.g. https://wvc.example.com
WEBVIRTCLOUD_HTTPS=1	HTTPS profile, see HTTPS and reverse proxy
WEBVIRTCLOUD_SERIAL_CONSOLE=1	serial console, see Serial console
WEBVIRTCLOUD_DB_HOST	use PostgreSQL instead of sqlite (new installs); WEBVIRTCLOUD_DB_PORT/_NAME/_USER/_PASSWORD default to 5432/webvirtcloud/webvirtcloud/empty
EMAIL_HOST, EMAIL_PORT, EMAIL_HOST_USER, EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD, EMAIL_USE_TLS	SMTP for e-mail OTP
WEBVIRTCLOUD_LOG_FILE	log file (default data/webvirtcloud.log, rotated at 10 MB × 5)
SECRET_KEY	Django secret key (default: the data/secret_key file)
WS_PUBLIC_PORT, WS_PUBLIC_HOST, WS_PUBLIC_PATH	Docker only: public console address; WS_PUBLIC_PORT must be the port the panel is published on (default 80)

Where to set them:

• Docker: the environment: list of docker-compose.override.yml; every process in the container gets it.
• Installer and manual installation: edit webvirtcloud/settings.py, or put them in /etc/default/webvirtcloud (root, mode 600), one NAME='value' per line (single quotes: systemd and the shell then read the same value); all four services read it. Then systemctl restart webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker, and load the file before running manage.py: set -a; . /etc/default/webvirtcloud; set +a.
• gunicorn runs at most 8 workers (fewer on hosts with under 4 CPUs); to change it, set GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS=--workers N in a drop-in of webvirt-cloud (systemctl edit webvirt-cloud: [Service] and Environment="GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS=--workers N") or in docker-compose.override.yml.

HTTPS and reverse proxy

For a panel served over HTTPS:

• set WEBVIRTCLOUD_HTTPS=1: session and CSRF cookies become HTTPS-only, HTTP is redirected to HTTPS (except /datasource/, which VMs fetch over HTTP), and HSTS is sent for one year;
• add the HTTPS origin to CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS, e.g. CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS=https://wvc.example.com and WEBVIRTCLOUD_HTTPS=1 in /etc/default/webvirtcloud;
• set the public noVNC port to the proxy's port (the bundled nginx config already proxies /novncd/): WS_PUBLIC_PORT = 443 in webvirtcloud/settings.py, or WS_PUBLIC_PORT=443 in docker-compose.override.yml for Docker;

TLS can end at the bundled nginx or at a proxy in front of it; such a proxy must send X-Forwarded-Proto: https. Failed logins are counted per client address, which the bundled nginx passes in X-Real-IP. A proxy that replaces the bundled nginx must set X-Real-IP itself, and its address must be in LOGIN_TRUSTED_PROXIES in settings.py. With a proxy in front of the bundled nginx, configure nginx's set_real_ip_from / real_ip_header for that proxy, or all clients share its address.

Cloud-init datasource

WebVirtCloud serves cloud-init metadata (root SSH keys and hostname) to guest instances. The host in the URL must be in ALLOWED_HOSTS:

datasource:
  OpenStack:
    metadata_urls: [ "http://wvc.example.com/datasource" ]

LDAP

The options below are set in webvirtcloud/settings.py. Variants for Active Directory and OpenLDAP are shown; this is a minimal config, see the django-auth-ldap documentation for more.

The Docker image includes the LDAP packages. On an installer or manual install, add them to the virtualenv first; pip builds python-ldap against these headers:

apt-get -y install libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev   # Ubuntu / Debian
dnf -y install openldap-devel cyrus-sasl-devel   # RHEL / Rocky / AlmaLinux
zypper --non-interactive install -y openldap2-devel cyrus-sasl-devel   # openSUSE
/srv/webvirtcloud/venv/bin/pip3 install -r /srv/webvirtcloud/conf/requirements-ldap.txt

Enable the LDAP backend:

sudo sed -i "s~#\"django_auth_ldap.backend.LDAPBackend\",~\"django_auth_ldap.backend.LDAPBackend\",~g" /srv/webvirtcloud/webvirtcloud/settings.py

Set the LDAP server and bind DN:

# Active Directory
AUTH_LDAP_SERVER_URI = "ldap://example.com"
AUTH_LDAP_BIND_DN = "username@example.com"
AUTH_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD = "password"

# OpenLDAP
AUTH_LDAP_SERVER_URI = "ldap://example.com"
AUTH_LDAP_BIND_DN = "CN=username,CN=Users,OU=example,OU=com"
AUTH_LDAP_BIND_PASSWORD = "password"

Set the user and group search base and filter:

# Active Directory
AUTH_LDAP_USER_SEARCH = LDAPSearch(
    "CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com", ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE, "(sAMAccountName=%(user)s)"
)
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH = LDAPSearch(
    "CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com", ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE, "(objectClass=group)"
)
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPE = NestedActiveDirectoryGroupType()

# OpenLDAP
AUTH_LDAP_USER_SEARCH = LDAPSearch(
    "CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com", ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE, "(cn=%(user)s)"
)
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH = LDAPSearch(
    "CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com", ldap.SCOPE_SUBTREE, "(objectClass=groupOfUniqueNames)"
)
AUTH_LDAP_GROUP_TYPE = GroupOfUniqueNamesType()  # import needs to be changed at the top of settings.py

Set the group required to access WebVirtCloud (False disables this filter):

AUTH_LDAP_REQUIRE_GROUP = "CN=WebVirtCloud Access,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com"

Populate user fields from LDAP:

AUTH_LDAP_USER_FLAGS_BY_GROUP = {
    "is_staff": "CN=WebVirtCloud Staff,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com",
    "is_superuser": "CN=WebVirtCloud Admins,CN=Users,DC=example,DC=com",
}
AUTH_LDAP_USER_ATTR_MAP = {
    "first_name": "givenName",
    "last_name": "sn",
    "email": "mail",
}

An LDAP user is authenticated by LDAP and authorized through the WebVirtCloud permissions. To move a user from LDAP to WebVirtCloud, change its password in the UI and remove it from the LDAP group.

Two-factor login (OTP)

Set OTP_ENABLED = True in settings.py to ask for a one-time code at login. It is per user: a user without a confirmed device signs in with the password alone.

Serial console

A VM without graphics (no <graphics> device, a <console type='pty'>) opens a serial console (xterm.js) instead of VNC. It is off by default. To turn it on, set WEBVIRTCLOUD_SERIAL_CONSOLE=1 (Docker: in docker-compose.override.yml, then docker compose -p webvirtcloud up -d) or SERIAL_CONSOLE_ENABLED = True in settings.py and systemctl restart webvirt-cloud webvirt-socketiod.

• The VM page's Settings → Console switches a shut-off VM between VNC and serial (Console type). A new VNC console takes the form's other fields; on a TCP or TLS compute it needs Listen on: All interfaces (only SSH computes reach a localhost console).
• The guest must use its serial port: a login prompt needs systemctl enable --now serial-getty@ttyS0, boot messages need the kernel parameter console=ttyS0,115200. The console shows only what the guest writes after it opens; press Enter for a new prompt.
• socketiod listens on 127.0.0.1:6081; the page reaches it through nginx's /socket.io/ location on the panel's own address.
• It accepts the console page's signed token, as noVNC does: whoever gets that token within 120 s gets the console, and an open console stays open after its user loses access to the VM.
• One console per VM, at most 20 at a time; a second one shows "refused".

Updating

Every update starts with a backup in its own directory (mode 700, named by date) that holds the database, the commit it was taken from and, for installer and manual installations, settings.py and the nginx config. The database is copied with SQLite's backup API, which also finishes a write interrupted by a crash. This covers sqlite only; with PostgreSQL (WEBVIRTCLOUD_DB_HOST), back up that database yourself before updating.

Docker

Each new container builds settings.py from the template and runs the migrations at start; the database and the secret key stay in the webvirtcloud-data volume. Keep your settings in docker-compose.override.yml (at least ALLOWED_HOSTS, see Docker).

Run the commands in the directory you installed from. Compose names the deployment after that directory (webvirtcloud), so another clone in a directory of the same name acts on the same containers and volumes.

cd webvirtcloud &&
b=../webvirtcloud-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S) &&
mkdir -m 700 "$b" && git rev-parse HEAD > "$b/commit" &&
git checkout master && git pull &&
docker compose build &&
docker compose stop -t 95 &&
docker compose run --rm --no-deps -T --entrypoint /srv/webvirtcloud/venv/bin/python3 webvirtcloud \
  -c "import sqlite3,sys,tempfile; t=tempfile.mktemp(); sqlite3.connect('data/db.sqlite3').backup(sqlite3.connect(t)); sys.stdout.buffer.write(open(t,'rb').read())" > "$b/db.sqlite3" &&
docker compose up -d

Moving from supervisor to systemd

Versions up to v3.0.0 ran the panel under supervisor. Once, before the update steps below, stop it there, keep its config and remove it:

supervisorctl stop webvirtcloud novncd socketiod webvirt-worker
mv /etc/supervisor/conf.d/webvirtcloud.conf /root/webvirtcloud-supervisor.conf   # Debian / Ubuntu
mv /etc/supervisord.d/webvirtcloud.ini /root/webvirtcloud-supervisor.conf        # RHEL / openSUSE
supervisorctl update

Move the environment= values of that config into /etc/default/webvirtcloud (root, mode 600), one NAME='value' per line; leave out the worker's WEBVIRTCLOUD_LOG_FILE. Step 4 installs and starts the systemd units. Remove supervisor once nothing else uses it; a compute moves gstfsd as in Adding a Compute Node, step 3.

Installer and manual installation

git pull never overwrites webvirtcloud/settings.py or /etc/nginx/conf.d/webvirtcloud.conf; steps 2 and 4 bring them up to date. Run the steps from a root shell; they use $b, so in a new shell set it again to the backup directory.

1. Stop the panel, back up and pull:

   systemctl stop webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker
   # once: root may use the repo, which belongs to the service user
   git config --global --add safe.directory /srv/webvirtcloud
   b=/root/webvirtcloud-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
   cd /srv/webvirtcloud &&
   ! systemctl is-active --quiet webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker &&
   mkdir -m 700 "$b" &&
   venv/bin/python3 -c "import sqlite3,sys; sqlite3.connect('db.sqlite3').backup(sqlite3.connect(sys.argv[1]))" "$b/db.sqlite3" &&
   cp -p webvirtcloud/settings.py /etc/nginx/conf.d/webvirtcloud.conf "$b"/ &&
   { [ ! -f /etc/default/webvirtcloud ] || cp -p /etc/default/webvirtcloud "$b"/; } &&
   git rev-parse HEAD > "$b/commit" &&
   git ls-files -z --others --exclude-standard -- '*/migrations/*.py' | tar --null -T - --remove-files -cf "$b/local-migrations.tar" &&
   git checkout -- $(git ls-files -m -- static/css dev/scss) &&
   git checkout master && git pull

2. Rebuild settings.py from the template (the file keeps its owner and mode), then put back your own values; the diff lists them:

   cat webvirtcloud/settings.py.template > webvirtcloud/settings.py
   diff "$b/settings.py" webvirtcloud/settings.py

   Typical ones are TIME_ZONE, WS_*, ALLOWED_HOSTS, CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS and LDAP. Two need care:

   • a literal SECRET_KEY = "..." (older installers wrote it there): put the value into data/secret_key instead, or every user is signed out;
   • SHOW_PROFILE_EDIT_PASSWORD: keep it for this one migrate if you have it (migration accounts.0008 reads it), then delete it.

3. Install, migrate, and fix ownership and modes (nginx:nginx instead of www-data:www-data on RHEL / openSUSE). With LDAP, also run venv/bin/pip3 install -U -r conf/requirements-ldap.txt (headers: LDAP):

   venv/bin/pip3 install -U -r conf/requirements.txt &&
   { ! tar -tf "$b/local-migrations.tar" | grep -qx accounts/migrations/0006_alter_userattributes_id_alter_userinstance_id_and_more.py ||
     venv/bin/python3 manage.py migrate accounts 0005 --fake; } &&
   venv/bin/python3 manage.py migrate &&
   venv/bin/python3 manage.py collectstatic --noinput &&
   chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/webvirtcloud &&
   chmod -R go-rwx data webvirtcloud/settings.py db.sqlite3

   Installers from before September 2025 generated migrations of their own; step 1 moved them into local-migrations.tar. One of them has the name of a tracked migration, which migrate would skip; the second line marks it unapplied so that the tracked one runs.

4. Update the nginx config the same way as settings.py:

   cp conf/nginx/webvirtcloud.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/webvirtcloud.conf
   diff "$b/webvirtcloud.conf" /etc/nginx/conf.d/webvirtcloud.conf

   Put back your own lines (server_name, TLS, the noVNC port). Install the systemd units; your own service settings stay in /etc/default/webvirtcloud and in drop-ins. Debian / Ubuntu:

   cp conf/systemd/webvirt-{cloud,novncd,socketiod,worker}.service /etc/systemd/system/

   RHEL / openSUSE:

   for u in cloud novncd socketiod worker; do sed 's/^\(User\|Group\)=.*/\1=nginx/' conf/systemd/webvirt-$u.service > /etc/systemd/system/webvirt-$u.service; done

   Then reload nginx and start the panel:

   nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx && systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl enable --now webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker

Older versions collected static files into static/; git clean -n static/ lists the leftovers, which can be deleted.

Restore and rollback

Restoring puts back the database as it was at the backup; changes made since are lost. Migrations are not reversed. This covers sqlite; restore a PostgreSQL database from your own backup before rolling back the code. Set b to the backup directory to restore. To restore the database without rolling back the code, leave out the git checkout and build lines.

Docker, in the directory you installed from:

cd webvirtcloud &&
b=../webvirtcloud-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS &&
docker compose stop -t 95 &&
docker compose run --rm --no-deps -T --entrypoint /srv/webvirtcloud/venv/bin/python3 webvirtcloud \
  -c "import os,sqlite3,sys,tempfile; t=tempfile.mktemp(); open(t,'wb').write(sys.stdin.buffer.read()); [os.remove(p) for p in ('data/db.sqlite3-journal','data/db.sqlite3-wal','data/db.sqlite3-shm') if os.path.exists(p)]; sqlite3.connect(t).backup(sqlite3.connect('data/db.sqlite3'))" < "$b/db.sqlite3" &&
git checkout "$(cat "$b/commit")" &&
docker compose build &&
docker compose up -d    # the container fixes ownership and modes at start

Installer and manual installation, from a root shell (nginx:nginx on RHEL / openSUSE):

b=/root/webvirtcloud-backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS
systemctl stop webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker
cd /srv/webvirtcloud &&
! systemctl is-active --quiet webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker &&
git checkout -- $(git ls-files -m -- static/css dev/scss) &&
git checkout "$(cat "$b/commit")" &&
tar -xf "$b/local-migrations.tar" &&
venv/bin/python3 -c "import os,sqlite3,sys; [os.remove(p) for p in ('db.sqlite3-journal','db.sqlite3-wal','db.sqlite3-shm') if os.path.exists(p)]; sqlite3.connect(sys.argv[1]).backup(sqlite3.connect('db.sqlite3'))" "$b/db.sqlite3" &&
cp "$b/settings.py" webvirtcloud/settings.py &&
cp "$b/webvirtcloud.conf" /etc/nginx/conf.d/webvirtcloud.conf &&
venv/bin/pip3 install -r conf/requirements.txt &&
venv/bin/python3 manage.py collectstatic --noinput &&
chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/webvirtcloud &&
chmod 600 db.sqlite3 webvirtcloud/settings.py

Put back /etc/default/webvirtcloud if the backup has it (cp -p "$b/webvirtcloud" /etc/default/), then reload nginx and start the panel:

nginx -t && systemctl reload nginx && systemctl start webvirt-cloud webvirt-novncd webvirt-socketiod webvirt-worker

A version from before v3.0.0 has no worker: systemctl disable --now webvirt-worker. A rollback keeps the systemd units. A rollback leaves the clone on a detached HEAD at the restored commit; the update steps record that commit before they switch back to master.

Behavior changes

• Requests for a host not in ALLOWED_HOSTS get 400. The installer writes the server's names and IPs; add more with the ALLOWED_HOSTS env var. The cloud-init datasource host must be allowed too.
• Logging out needs a POST; a GET to /accounts/logout/ gets 405.
• The API accepts only a session from the login form (no HTTP Basic), and the API docs need a login. Sessions opened through the old password-only doors skip OTP; end them once after the update (everyone signs in again): python3 manage.py shell -c "from django.contrib.sessions.models import Session; Session.objects.all().delete()".
• Failed logins lock a user (django-axes). The limit and lock time are on the Settings page; unlock with python3 manage.py axes_reset_username <username>.
• Changing one's own password is the "Can change password" permission (per user or group; new users have it); SHOW_PROFILE_EDIT_PASSWORD is gone.
• The admin's first-login password change survives losing data/admin_password (migration accounts.0007); run migrate as a user who can read that file.
• "VM Clone Auto Migrate" is removed; a clone stays on its source host.
• A template VM is changed or deleted only by superusers and staff owners with the matching permission; other owners can still view, open the console and clone it. Power cycle no longer starts a template.
• A VM that vanishes from its compute keeps its owners for INSTANCE_OWNERSHIP_RETENTION_DAYS (30) in case the same UUID comes back; superusers list and remove these records on the "Removed VMs" admin page.
• The log rotates (10 MB × 5) in data/webvirtcloud.log.
• A disk can be grown while its VM runs or is paused, not only when it is shut off. A disk on an LVM pool cannot be grown (libvirt cannot resize its volumes): the resize says so instead of failing, and the VM's other disks still grow.
• Enabling vCPU hot plug keeps the VM's current vCPU count (it enabled all of them up to the maximum).
• A host's CPU graph shows the average since its previous point (normally 5 s) instead of a 1 s sample taken while a worker waits.
• The CPU usage in the new-VM dialog is the current load (over 1 s), read when the dialog opens; it was the average since the host booted.
• A VM's stats are polled every 5 s like the host graph, the first point as soon as the tab opens; each point is the average since the previous one, disk rates in MB/s (they were MiB/s labelled Mb/s); a counter the host does not report shows a gap instead of 0.
• An ISO uploads to an SSH compute about 3.5 times faster (SFTP writes no longer wait for each 32 KiB); a failed write still fails the upload.
• On a host whose libvirt cannot change network interfaces (the udev backend: RHEL 9 and later, Debian 12), the interface pages offer no create, start, stop or delete; they only failed there.
• Deleting a bridge on a host with the netcf backend (RHEL/AlmaLinux 8) keeps the devices it held: each is defined again on its own with the bridge's start mode and, for a single device, its addresses, as virsh iface-unbridge does. They lost their configuration and stayed down after a reboot.
• On a running VM the disk list, its edit form, the QoS table, the title, description, CPU, boot order, video and console fields show the settings as they will be at the next start, so saving an edit no longer reverts another pending change. A boot order that names a device missing from that definition is refused instead of clearing the order. The settings tab of a running VM says so. A QoS edit keeps the inbound floor. Buttons shown as disabled while the VM runs can no longer be submitted with Enter.
• A new disk or CD-ROM on a running VM gets a device name that neither the running VM nor its next-start settings use; it could take the name of a pending disk and stay attached until the next start only.
• The OTP e-mail's QR code is drawn with segno; django-qr-code is no longer required. A settings.py kept from an older version still lists "qr_code" in INSTALLED_APPS: delete that line, or the app does not start in a venv without django-qr-code.
• A disk, NIC or guest agent added to a running VM is requested for both the running VM and its next-start settings in one libvirt call: a disk name or guest agent already pending is refused before anything changes, and a NIC added without a MAC gets the same MAC in both. A failure after the device is plugged can still leave it in the running VM only.
• The VM page shows each NIC's own QoS and each CD-ROM's own pool (they showed the previous device's), and a NIC without a source or model no longer breaks it.
• A volume of an LVM or iSCSI pool can be attached to a VM, and bridge and direct NICs can be boot devices. The NIC model default lets libvirt choose, and rt18139 is rtl8139: a VM with either did not start; a migration corrects the default NIC type setting.
• A paused VM's memory is resized as a running VM's: the current memory changes and the guest takes it once resumed, the maximum stays (both only reached the VM at its next boot).
• Cloning a UEFI VM no longer defines a storage pool on the host's NVRAM directory; the clone gets its own copy of the VM's UEFI variables.
• The console .vv file finds the VM by its UUID; without a listen address or password it gives 127.0.0.1 and an empty password instead of "None".
• A running VM without a guest agent shows the IPv4 address the host learned by ARP (the lookup always failed before).
• After a migration the VM's NVRAM file is deleted on the source, when it is in libvirt's /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram and the destination does not share that directory (a VM created there later with the same name would start with those UEFI variables).
• gstfsd finds the guest's operating system the way libguestfs inspects it, so a root on LVM works, and it always answers (an error when it finds no or several operating systems). Update /usr/local/bin/gstfsd on every compute (see Adding a Compute Node, step 3).
• The themes ship compiled in static/css/themes; picking one on the Settings page only saves its name, so updates, rollbacks and recreated Docker containers keep it, and the "Theme SASS Path" setting is gone. libsass is no longer installed; manage.py build_themes recompiles the themes in a development setup.
• With the bundled nginx config, browsers revalidate static files on each load (304 when unchanged), so an update or a theme change shows without a hard reload. Files cached before this update can stay until a hard reload (Ctrl+F5) of each affected page, or until the site's browser cache is cleared once; an external caching proxy may need a purge.
• External snapshots use libvirt's snapshot API and need libvirt 9.9 or newer on the compute hosts. They work on UEFI VMs and running, paused or shut-off VMs, can save memory too or, on a running VM with a connected QEMU guest agent, freeze the guest's file systems (the default there), and a revert keeps disks added later (it detaches them). A snapshot is refused when a storage pool with the VM's disks has less free space than a share of those disks (10%, at least 1 GiB; both on the Settings page) plus, for the pool of the memory file, the VM's memory; this is checked before the snapshot only, nothing is reserved. A VM's snapshots form one chain: after a revert, delete the newer snapshots before taking another. Snapshot names no longer get an s1. prefix; existing ones keep theirs and can still be reverted and deleted, except that a snapshot an older version took of a UEFI VM can only be deleted. On NFS, libvirt removes merged snapshot files as the qemu user, who needs write access to the image directory; files it could not remove are named in a warning after the delete or revert. Deleting a VM with its data removes its snapshot files too, except a template it grew from and files another VM uses.
• A storage volume a VM still needs (a disk, a backing file or a snapshot's file) is no longer deleted from the storage page or the API; the delete is refused with the reason. Only VMs on the same compute are checked.
• Docker no longer publishes port 6080; the console goes through nginx on the panel's port (WS_PUBLIC_PORT, default 80).
• The serial console works (off by default, see Serial console); SOCKETIO_PUBLIC_HOST/_PORT/_PATH are gone, the page uses the panel's own address.
• Long operations run as jobs in a worker process (manage.py run_worker); follow them on the VM page and on the Jobs page.
• Cloning a VM or a volume and creating a VM run as jobs: the page returns at once and the job panel follows them. The API's VM create answers 202 with the job and needs a new submission_key per request. The create form no longer takes a console password; set it on the VM page.
• Taking and reverting a snapshot run as jobs, like deleting an external snapshot: the page returns at once and the job panel follows them. Deleting an internal snapshot stays immediate.
• Migrating a VM runs as a job: the page returns at once, the job panel shows its progress, and a running migration can be cancelled there (the VM keeps running on its source host). The 540 s limit is gone. The API's migrate answers 202 with the job and needs a new submission_key per request.
• Uploading an ISO is tracked as a job: the storage page's job panel shows it and can cancel it, and the page no longer reloads when it ends. The upload dialog closes once the upload starts; the browser still sends the file, so stay on the page until it ends. An upload left idle for an hour is ended and its partial file deleted.
• A running or paused VM can be cloned: libvirt copies its disks from one instant while it keeps running (file systems are frozen for a moment when the guest agent is ready). It needs libvirt 11.10 or later on the host, local file disks and no TPM; the VM cannot be changed from the panel until the copy ends, and the copy can be cancelled. Cancelling a clone of a shut-off VM has no effect: it shows as cancelling until the copy ends. A target pool that fills up during the copy can pause the source VM; a clone that ends uncertain keeps the VM locked until a superuser resolves the job.
• A shut-off UEFI VM can be migrated: its NVRAM file is copied to the destination host (unless both hosts share the NVRAM directory). A shut-off VM with TPM state still has to be started and migrated live.
• Manual installs that keep their own settings.py copy the SQLite OPTIONS and TEST entries from settings.py.template and add "operations" to INSTALLED_APPS.
• The SQLite database must be on a local file system (WAL).
• Outside compose, stop the Docker container with docker stop -t 95 so the worker can finish running jobs.
• Installer and manual installations run the panel as systemd units (webvirt-cloud, webvirt-novncd, webvirt-socketiod, webvirt-worker) and computes run webvirt-gstfsd, instead of supervisor; see Moving from supervisor to systemd. Service settings go into /etc/default/webvirtcloud, service output into the journal (journalctl -u webvirt-cloud); the app log stays in data/.
• LDAP login's packages are in conf/requirements-ldap.txt and no longer installed by default, nor their build headers by the installer; the Docker image keeps them. An existing virtualenv keeps them, but only installing that file updates them (see LDAP and step 3).

Usage

Users, Roles and Permissions

See doc/permissions.md.

REST API

The REST API (Django REST Framework, documented with drf-spectacular) uses the login session. After logging in:

• Swagger UI: http://<server>/swagger/
• ReDoc UI: http://<server>/redoc/
• OpenAPI 3.0 schema: http://<server>/api/schema/ (JSON or YAML)

Screenshots

Instance Detail

Grouped Instances	Non-Grouped Instances

Compute Hosts	Activity Log

Development

Run every step as your normal user, not with sudo: if manage.py ever runs as root, db.sqlite3 and data/ end up root-owned and later runs fail with "readonly database" or "Permission denied".

1. System packages. The virtualenv reuses the distro's libvirt, lxml and ldap bindings when their versions satisfy conf/requirements.txt; otherwise pip installs or builds newer ones:

   # Rocky Linux / RHEL / Fedora
   sudo dnf -y install git python3-devel libvirt-devel python3-libvirt python3-lxml python3-ldap gcc
   
   # Ubuntu / Debian
   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y install git python3-venv python3-dev python3-lxml python3-libvirt python3-ldap libvirt-dev zlib1g-dev libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev gcc pkg-config
   
   # openSUSE Leap 15.x / Tumbleweed / SLES 15 (use python3.11 instead of python3 below)
   sudo zypper --non-interactive install -y git hostname python311 python311-devel python311-pip python311-libvirt-python python311-lxml python311-ldap libvirt-devel openldap2-devel cyrus-sasl-devel libopenssl-devel gcc pkg-config

2. Virtualenv and dependencies (--system-site-packages is required to see the distro bindings; dev/requirements.txt includes conf/requirements.txt):

   python3 -m venv --system-site-packages .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   pip install -r dev/requirements.txt

3. Settings and secret key:

   cp webvirtcloud/settings.py.template webvirtcloud/settings.py
   mkdir -p data && python conf/runit/secret_generator.py > data/secret_key && chmod 600 data/secret_key

4. Migrate and run the dev server (settings-dev enables DEBUG and the Django Debug Toolbar); the admin password is in data/admin_password, or set ADMIN_PASSWORD beforehand:

   python manage.py migrate
   python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000 --settings=webvirtcloud.settings-dev

   Open http://127.0.0.1:8000. For the browser console, run python console/novncd (port 6080) in a separate terminal.

Running tests

python manage.py test   # all tests, including vrtManager
ruff check .

Each app keeps its tests in a tests/ package, so python manage.py test instances runs one app. The suite includes mocked regression tests and disk/clone tests on libvirt's in-process test:///default driver. Set WEBVIRTCLOUD_DB_HOST (and the other WEBVIRTCLOUD_DB_* variables) to run it against PostgreSQL, as CI does.

The compute tests try a local libvirt and skip when none answers; the instance tests run only when TEST_LIBVIRT_HOST is set. A green result with skips does not establish live KVM compatibility. The instance tests create wvc-test-* VMs and a temporary wvc-test pool (/var/lib/libvirt/wvc-test), remove them afterwards, and fail if any other VM or volume on the host changed:

export TEST_LIBVIRT_HOST=compute1 TEST_LIBVIRT_TYPE=2   # 1 TCP, 2 SSH, 3 TLS, 4 socket
export TEST_LIBVIRT_LOGIN=root TEST_LIBVIRT_PASSWORD=   # login/password for TCP and TLS
export TEST_LIBVIRT_GUEST_IMAGE=/var/lib/libvirt/images/linux.qcow2   # optional, see below
export TEST_LIBVIRT_LVM_DEVICE=/dev/vdb   # optional: an empty disk of 4 GiB or more on the host, wiped by the LVM tests
export TEST_LIBVIRT_ISCSI_TARGET=iqn.2026-10.test.wvc:lun   # optional: a target on the host's 127.0.0.1, open to any initiator, with a LUN
python manage.py test

TEST_LIBVIRT_GUEST_IMAGE enables the tests that need a guest OS (disk and NIC hot-unplug, vCPU hotplug, guest agent, ACPI power off). It must be an installed, BIOS-bootable Linux qcow2 image with qemu-guest-agent, in a storage pool of the host other than wvc-test; the tests boot copies of it from overlays and only read the image. Shut down any VM using it first.

Two disposable compute nodes for these tests come from the Vagrantfile: AlmaLinux 10 with nested KVM, set up by dev/libvirt-bootstrap.sh (with this checkout's gstfsd), a SASL user for TCP (wvc, password wvc-test) and your ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub for root; migration runs between them, and each has an empty second disk (/dev/vdb) for the LVM tests and serves a 1 GiB iSCSI LUN on 127.0.0.1 for the iSCSI test. They accept TLS logins (SASL) with certificates from a throwaway CA that vagrant up makes in .vagrant/tls; the TLS run takes its client certificate from there through HOME. It needs Vagrant with the vagrant-libvirt plugin, a KVM host with qemu-kvm and cyrus-sasl-md5, and a user in the libvirt group. On a host that also runs Docker, let the VMs' network (the bridge of virsh net-info vagrant-libvirt, virbr1 here) through Docker's forward rules (sudo iptables -I DOCKER-USER -i virbr1 -j ACCEPT and sudo iptables -I DOCKER-USER -o virbr1 -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT).

vagrant up --provider=libvirt
C1=$(vagrant ssh compute1 -c "hostname -I" | awk '{print $1}') C2=$(vagrant ssh compute2 -c "hostname -I" | awk '{print $1}')
for h in $C1 $C2; do ssh-keygen -R $h; ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new root@$h true; done   # new VMs, new host keys
export TEST_LIBVIRT_HOST=$C1 TEST_LIBVIRT_TYPE=1 TEST_LIBVIRT_LOGIN=wvc TEST_LIBVIRT_PASSWORD=wvc-test
export TEST_LIBVIRT_SSH_HOST=$C2 TEST_LIBVIRT_SSH_LOGIN=root TEST_LIBVIRT_MIGRATE_ADDRESS=$C2 TEST_LIBVIRT_LVM_DEVICE=/dev/vdb TEST_LIBVIRT_ISCSI_TARGET=iqn.2026-10.test.wvc:lun
python manage.py test
HOME=$PWD/.vagrant/tls TEST_LIBVIRT_TYPE=3 TEST_LIBVIRT_SSH_HOST= python manage.py test   # compute1 again, over TLS
vagrant destroy -f

License

WebVirtCloud is licensed under the Apache Licence, Version 2.0.