Chapter 7. Deploying your customized images

Procedure

1. Access the directory where you downloaded your .vmdk image.

2. Create a file named metadata.yaml. Add the following information to this file:

   instance-id: cloud-vm
   local-hostname: vmname

3. Create a file named userdata.yaml. Add the following information to the file:

   #cloud-config
   users:
   - name: admin
     sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL"
     ssh_authorized_keys:
     - ssh-rsa AAA...fhHQ== your.email@example.com

   • ssh_authorized_keys is your SSH public key. You can find your SSH public key in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

4. Export the metadata.yaml and userdata.yaml files to the environment, compressed with gzip, encoded in base64 as follows. They will be used in further steps.

   export METADATA=$(gzip -c9 <metadata.yaml | { base64 -w0 2>/dev/null || base64; }) \
   USERDATA=$(gzip -c9 <userdata.yaml | { base64 -w0 2>/dev/null || base64; })

5. Launch the image on vSphere with the metadata.yaml and userdata.yaml files:

   1. Import the .vmdk image in to vSphere:

      $ govc import.vmdk ./composer-api.vmdk foldername

   2. Create the VM in vSphere without powering it on:

      govc vm.create \
      -net.adapter=vmxnet3 \
      -m=4096 -c=2 -g=rhel8_64Guest \
      -firmware=bios -disk=”foldername/composer-api.vmdk” \
      -disk.controller=ide -on=false \
       vmname

   3. Change the VM to add ExtraConfig variables, the cloud-init config:

      govc vm.change -vm vmname \
      -e guestinfo.metadata="${METADATA}" \
      -e guestinfo.metadata.encoding="gzip+base64" \
      -e guestinfo.userdata="${USERDATA}" \
      -e guestinfo.userdata.encoding="gzip+base64"

   4. Power-on the VM:

      govc vm.power -on vmname

   5. Retrieve the VM IP address:

      HOST=$(govc vm.ip vmname)

   6. Use SSH to log in to the VM, using the user-data specified in cloud-init file configuration:

      $ ssh admin@HOST

Procedure

1. In the vSphere Client, from the Actions menu, select Deploy OVF Template.
2. On the Deploy OVF Template page, complete the settings for each configuration option and click Next.

3. Click Finish. The .ova image starts to be deployed.

   After the image deployment is complete, you have a new virtual machine (VM) from the .ova image.

4. In the deployed image page, perform the following steps:

   1. From the Actions menu, select Edit Setting.

   2. On the Virtual Hardware tab, configure resources such as CPU, memory, add a new network adapter, between others of your choice.

      1. On the CD/DVD drive 1 option, attach a CD or DVD Drive that contains a cloud-init.iso, to provision a user on startup.

         The VM is now ready to boot with the username and password from the cloud-init.iso file.

Procedure

1. Access the directory where you downloaded your QCOW2 image.

2. Create a file named meta-data. Add the following information to this file:

   instance-id: nocloud
   local-hostname: vmname

3. Create a file named user-data. Add the following information to the file:

   #cloud-config
   user: admin
   password: password
   chpasswd: {expire: False}
   ssh_pwauth: True
   ssh_authorized_keys:
     - ssh-rsa AAA...fhHQ== your.email@example.com

   • ssh_authorized_keys is your SSH public key. You can find your SSH public key in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

4. Use the genisoimage command to create an ISO image that includes the user-data and meta-data files.

   # genisoimage -output cloud-init.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data meta-data
   
   I: -input-charset not specified, using utf-8 (detected in locale settings)
   Total translation table size: 0
   Total rockridge attributes bytes: 331
   Total directory bytes: 0
   Path table size(bytes): 10
   Max brk space used 0
   183 extents written (0 MB)

5. Create a new VM from the KVM Guest Image using the virt-install command. Include the ISO image you created on step 4 as an attachment to the VM image.

   # virt-install \
       --memory 4096 \
       --vcpus 4 \
       --name myvm \
       --disk composer-api.qcow2,device=disk,bus=virtio,format=qcow2 \
       --disk cloud-init.iso,device=cdrom \
       --os-variant rhel1-latest \
       --virt-type kvm \
       --graphics none \
       --import

   Where,

   • --graphics none - indicates that it is a headless RHEL Virtual Machine.
   • --vcpus 4 - indicates that it uses 4 virtual CPUs.
   • --memory 4096 - indicates that it uses 4096 MB RAM.

6. The VM installation starts:

   Starting install...
   Connected to domain myvm
   ...
   [  OK  ] Started Execute cloud user/final scripts.
   [  OK  ] Reached target Cloud-init target.
   
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux 1-latest (Ootpa)
   Kernel 4.18.0-221.el8.x86_64 on an x86_64

Procedure

1. Access the directory where you downloaded your ISO image.
2. Place the bootable ISO image file on a USB flash drive.
3. Connect the USB flash drive to the port of the computer you want to boot.
4. Boot the ISO image from the USB flash drive.

5. Perform the steps to install the customized bootable ISO image.

   The boot screen shows you the following options:

   • Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 1-latest
   • Test this media & install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 1-latest

Procedure

1. In the Oracle Cloud UI dashboard, click Compute > Custom Images.
2. On the Custom Images dashboard, click Import image.

3. On the Import image window, set the following configuration:

   1. Select the Import from an object storage URL option.
   2. In the Object Storage URL field, paste the URL given by Insights Images into it.
   3. Choose the QCOW2 image type.
   4. Under Launch mode, select the Paravirtualized mode option.
4. Click Import Image.