You can create a virtual server from a ready-made instance package. The instance package is a preconfigured environment with a specific compute, storage, and network capacity. For instance packages to be available in the wizard, you need to follow the next procedures: 

After you complete these steps, you can create virtual servers from instance packages in the wizard. The wizard walks you through several steps to get your virtual server up and running. In this document, you can find a detailed guide on how to create a virtual server, but first take a look at the following section. 

Before You Begin 

Before you begin to create a virtual server from an instance package, take into consideration the following: 

  • You should have at least one compute resource configured and attached to a compute zone, a data store – to a data store zone and compute resource or zone, a network – to a network zone and compute resource or zone, a backup server – to a backup server zone and compute resource or zone, and a bucket – to a user who creates a virtual server. 

  • If an instance package applies only to certain compute zones in a bucket, a virtual server is created on one of the compute resources within one of those zones. If an instance package is not limited to certain zones, the compute zone and compute resource are selected automatically from the ones available to a user.

  • Instance package virtual servers can be created only in compute zones where all compute resources are assigned the same number of CPU units. If there are compute resources with different number of CPU units, it's not possible to create instance package virtual servers in such zones. The reason is that CPU priority for instance package virtual servers in this configuration cannot be set to 100%, which is the default value for such virtual servers.

  • If there are no available IP addresses, all instance packages are dimmed in the wizard. 

  • Instance packages that have resources incompatible with the available compute zones are dimmed in the wizard. 

  • Auto-scaling and Accelerator are not supported for virtual servers created from instance packages.

To create a virtual server, follow the next procedure:

Go to your Control Panel and click Create Server on the top bar.

Click Create Virtual Server Beta to launch the wizard.

Follow the step-by-step instructions below to complete the wizard.

After you are finished, click the Create Virtual Server button. 

Cloud Locations

The Cloud Locations step is available for users whose bucket includes сompute zones assigned to location groups. If Cloud Locations are not available, the wizard starts from the Templates step. The Cloud Locations step is present in the wizard if the following requirements are satisfied:

  • All compute zones that are added to a user's bucket are assigned to location groups.
  • Compute zones that are added to a user's bucket are not assigned to the same location group.

When you are at the Cloud Locations step, select a location for your virtual server: 

  • Country - select a country where the cloud is located
  • City - select a city from the country where the cloud is located

Click Next.

Templates

The Templates step allows you to select a template from which to build your virtual server. The template is extracted when a virtual server is provisioned or when a backup is taken, using this template. While a template is being extracted, it is locked so that it can't be used simultaneously in other transactions. After the extraction is finished, the template is unlocked. If another transaction requires the locked template, the transaction will fail after five minutes of standby. If a transaction that locked a template eventually failed, it means that the extracted template is broken. The templates are stored at /onapp/templates/your_template.tgz, extracted templates – at /onapp/backups/templates/your_template, and locked templates – at /onapp/backups/templates/your_template.lock.

To select a template, follow the next procedure:

  1. Click a Template Store icon on the left to see templates that are available in this store. You can see the following details for each template: 
    • Label
    • Min memory size that is required to create a VS from this template
    • Min disk size that is required to create a VS from this template
    • Virtualization type that is XEN or KVM
    • Estimated Price per Hour that is calculated for a VS in Mode ON and Mode OFF
  2. Click a template to select it. 

  3. Click Next. 

Additional Information for Windows Templates

The Windows Licensing Type box appears for Windows templates and includes license options that you configure for a corresponding template store. You can select one of the following license types:

  • MAK - the default licensing type applicable to all Windows-based virtual servers. If you don't select the licensing type, MAK is set by default.
  • KMS - the licensing type applicable to every virtual server since Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and the following Windows versions. Click KMS and then select a licensing server.
  • User license - type your license key

When you create a virtual server from a Windows template, consider the following:

  • You can create Windows-based virtual servers without running Sysprep. Disable the Run Sysprep option while creating or editing a destination compute zone.
  • If multiple virtual servers are deployed from the same template without running Sysprep, they will have identical security identifiers (SIDs) that can result in the system conflict.
  • You can't select KMS or your own license when you create a Windows virtual server from a custom template. As a workaround, you can create a virtual server from a template used for custom template creation.

  • You can build a Windows 10/Windows Server 2016 virtual server on KVM CentOS 6 and CentOS 7 compute resources that run at least on the following processor:

Properties

There are some obligatory and optional properties that you can provide for your virtual server. The obligatory properties are marked with an asterisk on the list and the optional properties you can edit after creating a virtual server.

Enter the following properties for your virtual server: 

  • Label* - enter a label of the virtual server

  • Hostname* - enter a hostname of the virtual server. The hostname can consist of letters [A-Z a-z], digits [0-9], and dash [ - ]. For more info on hostname validation, refer to RFC documentation.

    The following symbols are not allowed for Windows-based virtual servers:

    • percent sign [%]
    • double quotation marks [“]
    • brackets [<,>]
    • vertical bar [|]
    • caret [^]
    • ampersand [&]
    • parentheses [(,)]

  • Domain - enter a domain of the virtual server. For example, in test.onapp.com the test is a hostname and onapp.com is a domain. If you don't enter a domain, the default value localdomain is used as follows test.localdomain. This parameter is not applicable to Windows virtual servers. 

  • Time zone (Windows) - select a time zone for a Windows virtual server. Most operating systems implies that the hardware clock is in UTC, however, Windows implies a localtime. Therefore, you need to select a time zone for it to be properly handled on a compute resource level. 

  • Password - enter a secure password for the virtual server. It can consist of 6-99 symbols, including letters [A-Z a-z], digits [0-9], dash [ - ], underscore [ _ ], and the following special characters: ~ ! @ # $ * _ - + = ` \\ { } [ ] : ; ' , . ? /. You can use both lower and uppercase letters. If you don't enter a password, it will be generated automatically.

  • Password confirmation - repeat the password to confirm it

  • Encrypt password - move the slider to the right to encrypt your password. For more information on password encryption, see FAQ.

  • Encryption passphrase - enter a passphrase for encryption

  • Encryption passphrase confirmation - repeat the passphrase for encryption

  • I want to create a VS with custom resources - select the checkbox to create a virtual server based on a set of custom resources. The checkbox is displayed only if the Select resources manually on virtual server creation permission is enabled. See Create Custom Virtual Server for details. 

Click Next.

Instance Packages

To create a virtual server from an instance package, click a box for a corresponding package. The instance package box includes the following details:

  • CPUs - the number of CPU cores available in this instance package
  • Memory - the number of RAM in MB or GB available in the instance package
  • Disk Size - the number of disk size in MB or GB available in this instance package
  • Bandwidth - the number of bandwidth in MB or GB available in this instance package
  • Price per Hour:
    • Mode ON - an estimated hourly price if the virtual server is powered on
    • Mode OFF - an estimated hourly price if the virtual server is powered off
  • Price per Month:
    • Mode ON - an estimated monthly price if the virtual server is powered on
    • Mode OFF - an estimated monthly price if the virtual server is powered off

After you click an instance package box, it becomes highlighted in green. Click Next. 

Service Add-Ons or Recipes

During this step, you can assign service add-ons or recipes to your virtual server. The availability of service add-ons or recipes depends on your cloud configuration. 

Service Add-ons

Service add-ons are available under the following conditions:

  • The Replace Recipes with Service Add-ons on VS Creation permission is enabled.
  • Service add-on groups are available in a bucket.
  • The On Provisioning option is enabled for all or some of the service add-ons available to you within a bucket. 

If these conditions are not satisfied, you will see the Recipes step instead. 

You can create a virtual server without service add-ons and add them afterwards. To assign a service add-on to your virtual server in the wizard, follow the next steps:

  1. Click a service add-on group on the left to expand the list of service add-ons on the right. You can see the following details about each service add-on:
    • Label
    • Description
    • Price per hour
    • Compatible with, for example, Unix, Windows, etc.
  2. Click the service add-on to select it. You can select several add-ons from different service add-on groups. Click View Selected Add-ons to see the list of selected service add-ons. To remove the selected service add-on from the list, click the  button.
  3. Click Next.


Recipes

The Recipes step is available in the wizard if there are some recipes created in the cloud. You can create a virtual server without a recipe and add them afterwards. To assign a recipe to your virtual server in the wizard, follow the next steps:

  1. Drag and drop a recipe from the Available recipes to Assigned for provisioning box. 
  2. To add a custom variable, click the "+" button next to Custom Recipe Variables and provide the following details:
    • Name & Value - enter a name and value for the custom variable
    • Enabled - move the slider to the right to allow use of this variable
  3. Click Next.

Confirmation

The Confirmation step provides the configuration summary of the virtual server, including information about CPU, memory, and disk size. Here you can also apply the following settings: 

  • Enable Automated Backup - move the slider to the right to create automatic backups of the virtual server based on the settings from Auto-Backup Presets.
  • Build Virtual Server- move the slider to the to the right if you want the system to automatically build the virtual server. If you don't select this checkbox, you have to build your server manually after it is created.
  • Boot Virtual Server - move the slider to the right if you want the virtual server to be started up automatically.

When you are finished, click the Create Virtual Server button to start the creation process. After you click the button, several transactions are run to complete the process. You can check a status of each transaction in Activity Log of the virtual server. 

See also: 

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