Create Instance Package Virtual Server Beta

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, your Administrator needs to configure an environment where: 

• Instance packages permissions are enabled 

• Instance packages are added to your Control Panel
• Instance packages are added to your bucket

After these steps are completed, 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 guidance on how to create a virtual server but first take a look at the following section. 

On this page: 

See also: 

• Create Virtual Server
• Permissions

• Buckets

Before You Begin

Before you begin to create a virtual server, take into consideration the following: 

• You should have an environment properly configured by your Administrator. The environment must provide 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:

1. Go to your Control Panel and click Create Server on the top bar. 
2. Click Create Virtual Server Beta to launch the wizard.
3. Follow the step-by-step instructions below to complete the wizard.
4. 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 to proceed to the following step of the wizard.

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 to proceed. 

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.

   Additional Consideration for Windows

  • The hostname length should be between 1 and 15 characters.
  • The following symbols are not allowed:
    • 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 Virtual Server for details. 

Click Next to proceed to the following step of the wizard.

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 to proceed to the following step of the wizard. 

Recipes

During this step, you can assign recipes to your virtual server. The availability of recipes depends on your cloud configuration. 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 andprovide 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 to proceed to the final step of the wizard.

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.