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Cluster Management

Managing the cluster is principally accomplished via Glasshouse, the management GUI. In some cases, the user will need to SSH in to the dashboard console or host consoles.

Glasshouse Management GUI

Using your web browser of choice, navigate to the URL which points to your VM Squared installation e.g. https://<dashboard IP>/ This will open Glasshouse, the VM Squared management GUI (Graphical User Interface). Glasshouse is used administer the cluster and to create, manage, and share Virtual Machines.

Enter your login credentials into the relevant text fields.

  1. Loggin in

Example

The dashboard IP & cluster admin password are specified in the dashboard configuration step of the Installation guide.

GUI

Dashboard Console

The dashboard console is an alternate way to manage the VM Squared cluster.

To login to the dashboard console, an appropriate SSH key must first be added as one of the Cluster SSH Authorized Keys.

The dashboard IP is specified in the dashboard configuration step of the Installation guide.

Log in as root: ssh root@<dashboard IP>

~ % ssh root@10.127.4.18
Warning: Permanently added '10.127.4.18' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Welcome to your new VM Squared cluster!
Last login: Wed Mar 20 14:10:44 2024 from 192.168.11.225
Welcome to VMSquared!
Run "help" for supported commands

VMsquared:VM Squared Test\dashboard>

VM Squared License

To update the VM Squared License navigate to the Cluster/General panel in the Glasshouse GUI.

LICENSE

Select 'edit' in the VM Squared License panel and paste the license into text box. Finally click on the 'save changes' button

Cluster Authorized Keys

The Dashboard Console is authenticated using SSH keys. Add your public SSH key to the Cluster SSH Authorized Keys, or create a new key, using the following steps.

SSHKEYS

  1. Navigate to the Cluster/SSH Keys panel in the Glasshouse GUI.
  2. Add the appropriate SSH keys to the Cluster SSH Authorized Keys text box.
  3. Click the add button to apply.

The new SSH keys will take a short time to propagate through the cluster.

Create a Public SSH Key

Before you can use key-based authentication, you will need to have a key on your own system.

UNIX

From your local machine's terminal, use the following command to create a private (id_rsa) and public (id_rsa.pub) key pair:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

Where -t rsa enforces the RSA encryption algorithm and -b 4096 sets the key's length in bits.

You will be prompted to choose where to save the files and if you would like to protect the key with a passphrase. Press enter to skip these steps.

Once the command has finished, navigate to .ssh/id_rsa.pub and open the file in your text editor of choice.

Windows

You can generate an SSH key on Windows 10 or later using the ssh-keygen command.

  • Open a Powershell terminal window
  • Run ssh-keygen -b 4096
  • Enter the passphrase if desired, or hit Enter to continue without a passphrase
  • To get the contents of your public key, run get-content against the full path of the newly created public key
PS C:\Users\Administrator> ssh-keygen -b 4096
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (C:\Users\Administrator/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory 'C:\Users\Administrator/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in C:\Users\Administrator/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in C:\Users\Administrator/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:Kmos01FGD1/vYliJRwOczRQtoVwOlnNUk1MLgxU0p1M administrator@company
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 4096]----+
|     .+O*OX+E    |
|    oo==X +O .   |
|* = o.o=ooo=   . |
|+O.o o o..o.     |
|   o   +S.       |
|  .   ..o .      |
| o .. .. .       |
|o +. .           |
| +.              |
+----[SHA256]-----+

Host Console

The host console is a limited way to manage some of the host-specific functions of the VM Squared cluster.

Host console access is typically through a hardware connection to the node. However, if the Dashboard is running then the ssh command is available as an alternative.

Example

Moving on you may wish to: