---
title: "Managing virtual machines"
description: "Learn how to manage your VMs on Edge Network: start, stop, restart, suspend, resize and delete virtual machines, and open the browser console."
url: "https://edge.network/docs/compute/managing-vms"
section: "Compute"
---

# Managing virtual machines

Learn how to control, monitor and manage your VMs through the console.

## VM dashboard

Click on any VM to open its dashboard. Here you'll find quick actions, status information and navigation to detailed management pages.

![VM Overview page showing IP address](/media/docs/control-vm-overview.svg)

- **Overview:** quick actions, status and basic VM information
- **Metrics:** CPU, memory, disk and network graphs
- **Networking:** IP addresses, bandwidth and private networks
- **Firewall:** inbound and outbound traffic rules
- **Backups:** snapshots and restore points
- **Resize:** adjust CPU, RAM and storage

## Power actions

Control your VM's power state from the **Overview** page.

### Start

Boot a stopped VM. The VM starts with its current configuration and disk contents.

### Stop

Gracefully shut down the VM. Stop sends an ACPI shutdown signal, giving the OS time to close applications.

Stopped VMs continue to consume disk storage but not CPU/RAM resources.

### Restart

Reboot the VM. Equivalent to a graceful shutdown followed by a start.

### Suspend

Pause the VM and save its memory state. When resumed, the VM continues exactly where it left off.

> [!TIP]
> Suspend is faster than Stop/Start since there's no boot sequence, which makes it useful for development workflows.

## Console access

Access your VM's console directly from the browser. This is useful when SSH is not available or for troubleshooting boot issues.

1. Navigate to your VM's **Overview** page.
2. Click **Console** in the quick actions.
3. A new window opens with VNC console access.

> [!NOTE]
> The console works even when SSH is unavailable, so you can use it for recovery or first-time setup.

## Resizing a VM

Adjust your VM's resources as your needs change. Navigate to the **Resize** tab to modify CPU, RAM or storage.

- **CPU and RAM:** can be changed while the VM is running (hot resize) or stopped. A restart may be required for changes to take effect.
- **Storage:** can be increased at any time, but cannot be decreased. You may need to extend the filesystem inside the VM.

> [!WARNING]
> **After increasing disk**, you'll need to extend the partition and filesystem inside your VM. For Linux, use `growpart` and `resize2fs`.

## Deleting a VM

To delete a VM, go to the VM's settings or use the delete option from the VM list.

> [!CAUTION]
> **This action is permanent.** Deleting a VM destroys all data on the VM's disk. Create a backup first if you need to preserve any data.

1. Navigate to your VM's **Overview** page.
2. Click the **Delete** button.
3. Type the VM name to confirm.
4. Click **Delete VM**.

## VM states

Your VM can be in one of several states:

| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Running | VM is running and accessible |
| Stopped | VM is powered off |
| Starting | VM is booting up |
| Stopping | VM is shutting down |
| Provisioning | VM is being created |
| Error | VM encountered an error (contact support) |