Machines¶

Deploy¶

sistemo machine deploy debian
# or: sistemo vm deploy debian

sistemo machine deploy ./my-image.rootfs.ext4 --name my-vm

sistemo machine deploy debian --vcpus 4 --memory 2G --storage 10G --name dev-box

sistemo machine deploy debian --attach=mydata

sistemo machine deploy --volume web-root --name web2

sudo sistemo image build nginx:latest
sistemo machine deploy nginx --name my-nginx

sistemo machine deploy https://example.com/images/custom.rootfs.ext4

sistemo machine deploy debian --name web --expose 80 --expose 8443:443

sistemo network create backend
sistemo machine deploy debian --name db1 --network backend

Sistemo automatically resolves images from cache or the registry, injects its SSH key and /init script into every deployed machine, so the browser terminal and exec work out of the box.

List, start, stop, restart, delete¶

sistemo machine list
sistemo machine start debian
sistemo machine stop debian        # keeps the disk, can restart later
sistemo machine restart debian     # stop + start in one command
sistemo machine delete debian      # removes everything
sistemo machine delete debian -y   # skip confirmation prompt

You can use the machine name or UUID interchangeably. restart preserves the machine's IP address and port expose rules.

Aliases: ls for list, rm for delete, show for status:

sistemo machine ls                 # same as sistemo machine list
sistemo machine rm debian -y       # same as sistemo machine delete debian -y
sistemo machine show debian        # same as sistemo machine status debian

JSON output: Add -o json to any list or status command for machine-readable output:

sistemo machine list -o json
sistemo machine status debian -o json

Browser terminal¶

sistemo machine terminal debian

Opens a browser tab at http://localhost:7777/terminals/vm/<id> with xterm.js over WebSocket (SSH under the hood).

SSH into a machine¶

sistemo machine ssh debian

Opens an interactive SSH session using the sistemo SSH key. No password needed.

Run commands¶

For non-interactive commands (scripting, automation):

sistemo machine exec debian uname -a
sistemo machine exec debian df -h
sistemo machine exec debian -- cat /etc/os-release

Commands with flags work directly — sistemo passes everything after the machine name to SSH.

For commands with shell operators, quote the whole thing:

sistemo machine exec debian "ls -la /tmp && echo done"

Logs and status¶

sistemo machine logs debian    # Firecracker boot log
sistemo machine status debian  # machine details: IP, namespace, status, created time

Volumes¶

Every machine gets a root volume automatically when deployed. The root volume holds the OS and is named {machine-name}-root.

Attaching data volumes¶

For persistent data that should survive machine deletes, create and attach a data volume:

sistemo volume create 5G --name pgdata
sistemo machine deploy debian --name db --attach pgdata

The --attach flag accepts comma-separated names for multiple volumes:

sistemo machine deploy debian --attach pgdata,uploads

Volume status¶

Volume information is included in machine status:

sistemo machine status db

This shows attached volumes along with the machine's IP, ports, and resource allocation.

Preserving data on delete¶

By default, deleting a machine removes its root volume. Use --preserve-storage to keep data volumes:

sistemo machine delete db --preserve-storage

Data volumes become available and can be attached to a new machine. See Volumes for full details on creating, resizing, and managing volumes.

Auto-recovery¶

The daemon runs a reconciler every 30 seconds that detects crashed machines and cleans up their network namespaces and resources automatically.