Help understanding "guestPortRange" and "hostPortRange" in instance YAML template file

[amansharma-mo]

I added the below to the debian-12.yaml template file, but when I run limactl start debian-12.yaml, I am not seeing any logs related to these ports being forwarded. Perhaps I am not understanding the comments in default.yaml template file for portForwards properly. Is this not the right way to forward these specified ports from host to guest?

System Info:

Apple M1
Sonoma 14.7
limactl version 0.23.2

EDIT: Template file

# This template requires Lima v0.7.0 or later
images:
# Try to use release-yyyyMMdd image if available. Note that release-yyyyMMdd will be removed after several months.
- location: "https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/20240717-1811/debian-12-genericcloud-amd64-20240717-1811.qcow2"
  arch: "x86_64"
  digest: "sha512:0f0075d53749dba4c9825e606899360626bb20ac6bab3dbdeff40041b051d203eb1a56e68d377c9fac0187faa0aea77fd543ef4a883fff2304eac252cce01b44"
- location: "https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/20240717-1811/debian-12-genericcloud-arm64-20240717-1811.qcow2"
  arch: "aarch64"
  digest: "sha512:a68fe32c459d6d33cd8f6798fe7e2278d32add2b9506f4a6c434328a0a9cd176e532a93d0184173720023db5edfd93061082fadcb91bb3e95988564c63f139a6"
# Fallback to the latest release image.
# Hint: run `limactl prune` to invalidate the cache
- location: "https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-genericcloud-amd64.qcow2"
  arch: "x86_64"
- location: "https://cloud.debian.org/images/cloud/bookworm/latest/debian-12-genericcloud-arm64.qcow2"
  arch: "aarch64"

cpus: 2
memory: 1GiB
disk: 20G
mounts:
- location: "~"
- location: "/tmp/lima"
  writable: true
portForwards:
- guestPortRange: [10279, 10281]
  hostPortRange: [10279, 10281]

[jandubois]

You did not add your full debian-12.yaml file, so it is hard to say, but if the snippet was copied verbatim, then I don't see how your template would verify. It has an extra [ bracket and is missing a # in front of the comment:

-  hostPortRange: [[10279, 10281] (must specify same number of ports as guestPortRange)
+  hostPortRange: [10279, 10281] # (must specify same number of ports as guestPortRange)

[amansharma-mo]

Updated to include template file. I copied the yaml snippet from another template file, and must have edited it wrong in the discussion comment. Sorry about that. Thanks for catching that.

[jandubois]

Do you have anything listening on a port in that range inside the VM? There are only messages about ports being forwarded once a process binds to the port inside the VM.

[amansharma-mo]

Yes, I had a k3s service listening on port 10280. I guess I jumped the gun on posting this without actually trying to see if I could access the service.
Initially, when starting the VM there are logs that print which ports are being forwarded and I did not see 10280, and I also tried lsof to see if port 10280 was being listened on and didn't see anything, so I assumed it was not being forwarded, but turns out it was.
Appreciate your quick response! I am new to lima and am trying to setup multi-node k3s for a tutorial I am working on.
Thank you for the help!

[jandubois]

am trying to setup multi-node k3s for a tutorial

There is an example setup for something similar in #2633 to give you some inspiration.