virsh-pool-start

Start the storage pool specified by name or UUID (determine using virsh pool-list) and create the underlying storage system if it doesn't exist

$ virsh pool-start --pool [name|uuid] --build

virsh pool-start <pool-name>

<pool-name>
    The name of the storage pool to be activated. This name must correspond to a storage pool that has already been defined in Libvirt.

The command, correctly written as virsh pool-start, is used to activate a previously defined but inactive storage pool within the Libvirt virtualization management system. When a storage pool is started, its underlying storage (e.g., a directory, a block device, an LVM volume group, or an iSCSI target) becomes accessible to Libvirt, and any virtual disk volumes associated with that pool can then be used by virtual machines. It's a crucial step for making storage available after a system reboot or if the pool was explicitly stopped. The pool must be defined using virsh pool-define or virsh pool-define-as before it can be started, and it needs to be in a 'stopped' or 'inactive' state to be successfully started.

Please note that the command is correctly spelled virsh pool-start (with a space), not virsh-pool-start (with a hyphen). Using the hyphenated version as a standalone command will likely result in a 'command not found' error unless it's a custom script or alias defined in your environment. This analysis assumes the user intended to inquire about the standard Libvirt command virsh pool-start.

Furthermore, a storage pool must be defined before it can be started. Starting a pool only activates it for the current session; to make it start automatically on host boot, you would use the virsh pool-autostart command.

To start a storage pool named 'default', you would execute:
virsh pool-start default

After starting, you can verify its status using:
virsh pool-list --all

The virsh command-line utility is the primary interface for managing virtual machines and other Libvirt objects, including storage pools. Libvirt itself is an open-source API, daemon, and management tool for managing platform virtualization. Its development began in 2005, aiming to provide a common way to manage various virtualization technologies like KVM, Xen, VMware ESX, etc. The storage pool management capabilities, including the ability to start and stop pools, are fundamental features that have been part of Libvirt and virsh since their early stages, evolving with the growing needs for robust virtualization infrastructure management.

virsh(1), virsh pool-define(1), virsh pool-create(1), virsh pool-list(1), virsh pool-destroy(1), virsh pool-autostart(1), virsh pool-info(1)