I'm using libvirt's Java API bindingsa and i've opened a connection : Connect conn=null; Connect conn1=null; Connect conn2=null; Domain testDomain1 = null; //connect to host vm try{ conn = new Connect("qemu:///system", true); System.out.println("exception ONE:"); } catch (LibvirtException e){ System.out.println("exception ONE caught:"+e); System.out.println(e.getError()); } //get the domain in host vm try { testDomain1 = conn.domainLookupByName("hda1"); System.out.println("exception TWO:"); } catch (LibvirtException ex) { System.out.println("exception TWO CAUGHT"); //Logger.getLogger(Migrate.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex); } //check if domain is running try{ System.out.println("Domain:" + testDomain1.getName() + " id " + testDomain1.getID() + " running " + testDomain1.getOSType()); System.out.println("exception THREE:"); } catch (LibvirtException e1){ System.out.println("exception THREE caught: "+e1); System.out.println(e1.getError()); } /*try{ conn1 = new Connect("qemu+ssh://root@10.129.54.254/system", true); //conn2 = new Connect("qemu+ssh://root@10.129.54.254/system", true); Domain migrate1; System.out.println("done with ssh"); String uri="tcp://root@10.129.54.254:49166"; migrate1 = testDomain1.migrate(conn1,1,null,"tcp:// root(a)10.129.54.254",0); //int ret=testDomain1.migrateToURI("tcp:// root@10.129.54.254:49155",1,null,0); System.out.println("exception FOUR:"); }catch (LibvirtException e2){ System.out.println("exception FOUR caught:"+e2); System.out.println(e2.getError()); }*/ try{ testDomain1.destroy(); System.out.println("Destroyed"+testDomain1); } catch(LibvirtException e4){ System.out.println("exception FOUR caught: "+e4); System.out.println(e4.getError()); } The output I'm getting is: exception ONE: exception TWO: Domain:test id 1 running linux exception THREE: libvir: Domain error : operation virDomainDestroy forbidden for read only access exception FOUR caught: org.libvirt.LibvirtException: operation virDomainDestroy forbidden for read only access level:VIR_ERR_ERROR code:VIR_ERR_OPERATION_DENIED domain:VIR_FROM_DOM hasConn:false hasDom:false hasNet:false message:operation virDomainDestroy forbidden for read only access str1:operation %s forbidden for read only access str2:virDomainDestroy str3:null int1:-1 int2:-1 BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 23 minutes 38 seconds) I've used qemu:///system but why is my operation being denied? Thanks!