Creating your first Virtual Machine

After installing the cluster we can start creating VMs. VMs are created from VM Templates, we must have a template to create a VM. VM Templates include details of CPU and virtual hardware and also point to a disk image for the VM.

VMs also attach to the network so we need to ensure a network and IP range is allocated as well. VMs must also be accessed so we must decide what authentication we wish to use with VMs.

Network Setup#

We use virtual networks to manage IP addresses to avoid needing to key in the same data for each VM we deploy.

If you will be using the same network as the dashboard for your VMs then you will only need to add an Address Range and Context for the VMs to get IP addresses and default gateways.

If you want to use a different VLAN for VMs then you will need to create a new Virtual Network and input your VLAN ID and IP information.

VM Authentication#

We support both SSH key-based authentication and password authentication for VMs. SSH keys are more secure but passwords can be easier to get up and running.

Appliances accelerate deployment#

Appliances (apps) are ready-made VM Templates with disk-images provided by SoftIron’s Amplifier service. These apps cover a wide range of operating systems and are ready to run. apps are the fastest way to get a VM running on VM Squared.

That means no wasted time spent building images and faster deployments. Of course if you want to build your own images you are welcome to and we have a guide for that.

Amplifier apps are shown at Storage -> Apps, you will need to have an Internet connection for the App list to be populated.

Select the App you want and import into your local Datastore. Select the default Datastore and click Finish.

Linux apps like Debian are fast to download

Importing will download the disk image, as well as the data needed to run the VM.

Download status is shown in Storage -> Images, the App disk image will be orange while downloading and green when ready to use.

Deploying the App#

Once the download is complete, go to Virtual Machines -> VMs to see a list of available templates and select the one you downloaded.

Pressing the Deploy button will start a VM using the template.

You will be presented with the Configuration dialogue, which covers the main parameters for VM setup such as CPU and RAM allocations.

A name is required but you can accept the other defaults and click Next.

Advanced options are used to hold details of Disks and NICs.

These same options exist in the template, we could edit the template to reduce time in future or edit the individual VM.

Storage Configuration#

In the Advanced options, select the Storage pane. You will see a disk is present, this is part of the App we downloaded.

Click Edit to access the disk properties. We will be expanding the size of this disk.

The first screen in the Attach disk dialogue selects the image to use for that disk. We don’t want to change DISK0 so we click next.

Advanced options contain a setting - Size on instantiate - which controls the size of the disk when the VM is deployed.

Put in a higher value in MiB, such as 10240 for 10GiB. Click Finish.

Network Configuration#

In Advanced options, select the Network pane. We don’t have a NIC yet but adding one is easy.

Click Attach NIC.

Next we will select the network which we added the Address Range to earlier.

Advanced options in Attach NIC can be used to override values from the Virtual Network.

These options allow you to override the Virtual Network’s choice of DNS server and set the next available IP from your range.

Click next to get to the QoS screen, this is not normally required so we can click Finish.

Launching the VM#

Our VM is now ready to deploy. Click Finish and the VM will be allocated to a host, receive a copy of the disk image and be started.

Accessing the VM console#

Once the VM is green the OS has started to run and we will be able to attach a console to interact with it. Click the monitor icon to launch a console.

If you wish to login with a password, the auto-generated password is located in the attributes.

Clicking the console opens a new window or browser tab, login as root using the password from ROOT_PASS