---
title: "TIR Virtual Machine"
description: "A TIR Virtual Machine is a Linux machine on a GPU, CPU, or private cluster plan, with its own kernel, root access over SSH, and a disk that keeps your files."
content_type: "overview"
product: "tir-vm"
platform: "TIR"
url: "/tir/tir-vm/"
---

# TIR Virtual Machine

A TIR Virtual Machine (VM) is a full operating system with its own Linux kernel and root access. Use it
for work that needs changes to the operating system or kernel modules. You sign in over SSH with
your own key. A VM runs on a GPU plan, a CPU plan, or your own TIR private cluster. It has one disk,
which keeps your files when the VM stops, starts, or restarts.

Choose a VM when you want a whole machine to sign in to as `root` and set up your own way. Choose a
[TIR Instance](/tir/tir-instance/) when a container started from a ready-made image, often with an app
such as JupyterLab, already has what you need.

## Where to find it

In TIR, open your project. In the side menu, under **Compute**, select **Virtual Machines**. Your
VMs are listed in **Manage VMs**, and **Create VM** starts a new one.

## What you can do

Start with [Get started with TIR Virtual Machines](/tir/tir-vm/get-started/), which launches a CPU VM
and signs in to it over SSH.

### Create and connect

- [Create a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/create-a-vm/) on a GPU, CPU, or private cluster plan, one or
  several at once.
- [Connect to a VM over SSH](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/connect-to-a-vm-over-ssh/) as `root`.
- [Manage SSH keys on a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/manage-ssh-keys-on-a-vm/): add, replace, or remove
  keys while the VM keeps running.
- [Add startup scripts to a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/add-startup-scripts-to-a-vm/) that set it up each
  time it boots.

### Power and lifecycle

- [Stop, start, and restart a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/stop-start-and-restart-a-vm/).
- [Retry a failed VM launch](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/retry-a-failed-vm-launch/).
- [Change the plan of a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/change-the-plan-of-a-vm/) to give it more or fewer
  GPUs, vCPUs, or memory.
- [Clone a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/clone-a-vm/) to launch a new VM with the same settings.
- [Delete a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/delete-a-vm/) when you have finished with it.

### Pay for a fixed term

- [Convert a VM to a committed plan](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/convert-a-vm-to-committed/) to pay for a
  fixed term upfront at a lower price. [Billing options for TIR Virtual
  Machines](/tir/tir-vm/concepts/billing-options/) compares hourly and committed billing.

### Data

- [Resize the disk of a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/resize-the-disk-of-a-vm/) when it fills up.
- [Mount datasets and file systems on a
  VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/mount-datasets-and-file-systems-on-a-vm/) to work on data that lives
  outside the VM's disk.

### Network

- [Attach a reserved IP to a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/attach-a-reserved-ip-to-a-vm/) to give it an
  address that stays yours.
- [Attach a VPC to a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/attach-a-vpc-to-a-vm/) to give a CPU VM a private address
  in your own network.
- [Attach security groups to a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/attach-security-groups-to-a-vm/) to decide
  which traffic reaches it, and to open a port for an app.

### Protect

- [Create a VM snapshot](/tir/tir-snapshots/how-to/create-a-vm-snapshot/) to keep a copy of the
  disk, then [restore the VM from it](/tir/tir-snapshots/how-to/restore-a-vm-from-a-snapshot/) or
  [create a new VM from it](/tir/tir-snapshots/how-to/create-a-vm-from-a-snapshot/). Snapshots have
  their own section, [TIR Snapshots](/tir/tir-snapshots/).

### Monitor

- [Monitor a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/monitor-a-vm/): its CPU, memory, disk, network, and GPU charts.
- [Set up alerts for a VM](/tir/tir-vm/how-to/set-up-alerts-for-a-vm/) to hear when a figure crosses
  a limit.

To run several identical VMs that grow and shrink with demand or on a schedule, see [TIR Auto
Scaling Groups](/tir/tir-auto-scaling/). A group starts from a snapshot of one of your VMs.

You can also create, start, stop, and delete VMs through [the compute operations in the TIR
API](/api/tir/compute/).

For help with a message, see [Troubleshooting TIR Virtual
Machines](/tir/tir-vm/troubleshooting/tir-vm/), and for short answers, the [TIR Virtual Machine
FAQ](/tir/tir-vm/faq/).