Manage the power state of VMs that use VM Runtime on GDC

This document is intended for application owners that run Google Distributed Cloud. This document shows you how to manage the power state of virtual machines (VMs) that use VM Runtime on GDC.

You can stop, start, and restart VMs as needed to support the lifecycle of your applications. For example, you may want to change the number of assigned vCPUs or amount of memory. After you edit the configuration of your VM, you must cycle the power state to apply the changes.

Before you begin

To complete this document, you need access to the following resources:

A VM that runs in one of your clusters. If needed, create a VM in Google Distributed Cloud.
The virtctl client tool installed as a plugin for kubectl. If needed, install the virtctl client tool.

Stop a VM

When you stop a VM, compute resources such as CPU and memory are freed from the underlying host. The VM is shut down.

To stop a VM that's in a running state, use the following steps.

Use kubectl to stop a VM:
```
  kubectl virt stop VM_NAME
```
Replace VM_NAME with the name of the VM that you want to stop.

Check the STATUS of your VM:

  kubectl get gvm VM_NAME

The following example output shows the VM in a Stopped state:

  NAME   STATUS    AGE   IP
  vm1    Stopped   1m    192.168.2.72

Start a VM

To start a VM that's in a stopped state, use the following steps.

Use kubectl to start a VM:
```
  kubectl virt start VM_NAME
```
Replace VM_NAME with the name of the VM that you want to start.

Check the STATUS of your VM:

  kubectl get gvm VM_NAME

The following example output shows the VM in a Running state:

  NAME   STATUS    AGE   IP
  vm1    Running   1m    192.168.2.72

Restart a VM

To restart a VM that's in a running state, use the following steps.

Use kubectl to restart a VM:
```
  kubectl virt restart VM_NAME
```
Replace VM_NAME with the name of the VM that you want to restart.

Check the STATUS of your VM:

  kubectl get gvm VM_NAME

The following example output shows the VM in a Stopping state:

  NAME   STATUS    AGE   IP
  vm1    Stopping  7s    192.168.2.72

Check the STATUS of your VM again after a minute or two:
```
  kubectl get gvm VM_NAME
```
After the VM has successfully restarted, the following example output shows the VM in a Running state again:
```
  NAME   STATUS    AGE   IP
  vm1    Running   1m    192.168.2.73
```
This example VM uses an ephemeral pod IP address, so the address changes when the VM restarts.

What's next

Edit a VM in Google Distributed Cloud.
When you no longer need VMs, Delete a VM in Google Distributed Cloud.