Composing a customized RHEL system image

Procedure

1. Install the Image Builder and other necessary packages on the virtual machine:

   • osbuild-composer
   • composer-cli
   • cockpit-composer
   • bash-completion

   # yum install osbuild-composer composer-cli cockpit-composer bash-completion

   The web console is installed as a dependency of the cockpit-composer package.

2. Enable Image Builder to start after each reboot:

   # systemctl enable --now osbuild-composer.socket
   # systemctl enable cockpit.socket

   The osbuild-composer and cockpit services start automatically on first access.

3. Configure the system firewall to allow access to the web console:

   # firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit && firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit --permanent

4. Load the shell configuration script so that the autocomplete feature for the composer-cli command starts working immediately without reboot:

   $ source  /etc/bash_completion.d/composer-cli

Procedure

1. Remove the osbuild-composer backend.

   # yum remove osbuild-composer

2. In the /etc/yum.conf file, add an exclude entry for osbuild-composer package.

   # cat /etc/yum.conf
   [main]
   gpgcheck=1
   installonly_limit=3
   clean_requirements_on_remove=True
   best=True
   skip_if_unavailable=False
   exclude=osbuild-composer

3. Install the "lorax-composer" package.

   # yum install lorax-composer

1. Export (save) the blueprint definition to a plain text file
2. Edit this file in a text editor
3. Import (push) the blueprint text file back into Image Builder
4. Run a compose to build an image from the blueprint
5. Export the image file to download it

Procedure

1. Create a plain text file with the following contents:

   name = "BLUEPRINT-NAME"
   description = "LONG FORM DESCRIPTION TEXT"
   version = "0.0.1"
   modules = []
   groups = []

   Replace BLUEPRINT-NAME and LONG FORM DESCRIPTION TEXT with a name and description for your blueprint.

   Replace 0.0.1 with a version number according to the Semantic Versioning scheme.

2. For every package that you want to be included in the blueprint, add the following lines to the file:

   [[packages]]
   name = "package-name"
   version = "package-version"

   Replace package-name with name of the package, such as httpd, gdb-doc, or coreutils.

   Replace package-version with a version to use. This field supports dnf version specifications:

   • For a specific version, use the exact version number such as 8.30.
   • For latest available version, use the asterisk *.
   • For a latest minor version, use format such as 8.*.

3. Blueprints can be customized in a number of ways. For this example, Simultaneous Multi Threading (SMT) can be disabled by performing the steps below. For additional customizations available, please see Supported Image Customizations.

   [customizations.kernel]
   append = "nosmt=force"

4. Save the file as BLUEPRINT-NAME.toml and close the text editor.

5. Push (import) the blueprint:

   # composer-cli blueprints push BLUEPRINT-NAME.toml

   Replace BLUEPRINT-NAME with the value you used in previous steps.

6. To verify that the blueprint has been pushed and exists, list the existing blueprints:

   # composer-cli blueprints list

7. Check whether the components and versions listed in the blueprint and their dependencies are valid:

   # composer-cli blueprints depsolve BLUEPRINT-NAME

Procedure

1. Save (export) the blueprint to a local text file:

   # composer-cli blueprints save BLUEPRINT-NAME

2. Edit the BLUEPRINT-NAME.toml file with a text editor of your choice and make your changes.

3. Before finishing with the edits, make sure the file is a valid blueprint:

   1. Remove this line, if present:

      packages = []

   2. Increase the version number. Remember that Image Builder blueprint versions must use the Semantic Versioning scheme. Note also that if you do not change the version, the patch component of version is increased automatically.

   3. Check if the contents are valid TOML specifications. See the TOML documentation for more information.

      Nota

      TOML documentation is a community product and is not supported by Red Hat. You can report any issues with the tool at https://github.com/toml-lang/toml/issues

4. Save the file and close the editor.

5. Push (import) the blueprint back into Image Builder:

   # composer-cli blueprints push BLUEPRINT-NAME.toml

   Note that you must supply the file name including the .toml extension, while in other commands you use only the name of the blueprint.

6. To verify that the contents uploaded to Image Builder match your edits, list the contents of blueprint:

   # composer-cli blueprints show BLUEPRINT-NAME

7. Check whether the components and versions listed in the blueprint and their dependencies are valid:

   # composer-cli blueprints depsolve BLUEPRINT-NAME

Procedure

1. Start the compose:

   # composer-cli compose start BLUEPRINT-NAME IMAGE-TYPE

   Replace BLUEPRINT-NAME with name of the blueprint, and IMAGE-TYPE with the type of image. For possible values, see output of the composer-cli compose types command.

   The compose process starts in the background and the UUID of the compose is shown.

2. Wait until the compose is finished. Please, notice that this may take several minutes.

   To check the status of the compose:

   # composer-cli compose status

   A finished compose shows a status value FINISHED. Identify the compose in the list by its UUID.

3. Once the compose is finished, download the resulting image file:

   # composer-cli compose image UUID

   Replace UUID with the UUID value shown in the previous steps.

   You can also download the logs using the composer-cli compose logs UUID command, or the metadata using the composer-cli compose metadata UUID command.

Procedure

1. Set the image hostname:

   [customizations]
   hostname = "baseimage"

2. User specifications for the resulting system image:

   [[customizations.user]]
   name = "USER-NAME"
   description = "USER-DESCRIPTION"
   password = "PASSWORD-HASH"
   key = "PUBLIC-SSH-KEY"
   home = "/home/USER-NAME/"
   shell = "/usr/bin/bash"
   groups = ["users", "wheel"]
   uid = NUMBER
   gid = NUMBER

   Importante

   To generate the hash, you must install python3 on your system. The following command will install the python3 package.

   # yum install python3

   Replace PASSWORD-HASH with the actual password hash. To generate the hash, use a command such as:

   $ python3 -c 'import crypt,getpass;pw=getpass.getpass();print(crypt.crypt(pw) if (pw==getpass.getpass("Confirm: ")) else exit())'

   Replace PUBLIC-SSH-KEY with the actual public key.

   Replace the other placeholders with suitable values.

   Leave out any of the lines as needed, only the user name is required.

   Repeat this block for every user to include.

3. Group specifications for the resulting system image:

   [[customizations.group]]
   name = "GROUP-NAME"
   gid = NUMBER

   Repeat this block for every group to include.

4. Set an existing users ssh key:

   [[customizations.sshkey]]
   user = "root"
   key = "PUBLIC-SSH-KEY"

   Nota

   This option is only applicable for existing users. To create a user and set an ssh key, use the User specifications for the resulting system image customization.

5. Append a kernel boot parameter option to the defaults:

   [customizations.kernel]
   append = "KERNEL-OPTION"

6. Set the image host name:

   [customizations]
   hostname = "BASE-IMAGE"

7. Add a group for the resulting system image:

   [[customizations.group]]
   name = "USER-NAME"
   gid = "NUMBER"

   Only the name is required and GID is optional.

8. Set the timezone and the Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers for the resulting system image:

   [customizations.timezone]
   timezone = "TIMEZONE"
   ntpservers = "NTP_SERVER"

   If you do not set a timezone, the system uses Universal Time, Coordinated (UTC) as default. Setting NTP servers is optional.

9. Set the locale settings for the resulting system image:

   [customizations.locale]
   languages = ["LANGUAGE"]
   keyboard = "KEYBOARD"

   Setting both language and keyboard options is mandatory. You can add multiple languages. The first language you add will be the primary language and the other languages will be secondary.

10. Set the firewall for the resulting system image:

    [customizations.firewall]
    port = ["PORTS"]

    You can use the numeric ports, or theirs names from the /etc/services file to enable lists.

11. Customize the firewall services:

    Review the available firewall services.

    $ firewall-cmd --get-services

    In the blueprint, under section customizations.firewall.service, specify the firewall services that you want to customize.

    [customizations.firewall.services]
    enabled = ["SERVICES"]
    disabled = ["SERVICES"]

    The services listed in firewall.services are different from the names available in the /etc/services file.

    You can optionally customize the firewall services for the system image that you plan to create.

    Nota

    If you do not want to customize the firewall services, omit the [customizations.firewall] and [customizations.firewall.services] sections from the blueprint.

12. Set which services to enable during the boot time:

    [customizations.services]
    enabled = ["SERVICES"]
    disabled = ["SERVICES"]

    You can control which services to enable during the boot time. Some image types already have services enabled or disabled so that the image works correctly and this setup cannot be overridden.

13. Add files from a git repository to your blueprint:

    [[repos.git]]
    rpmname = "RPM-NAME"
    rpmversion = "RPM-VERSION"
    rpmrelease = "RPM-RELEASE"
    summary = "RPM-SUMMARY"
    repo = "REPO-URL"
    ref = "GIT-REF"
    destination = "SERVICES"

    You can use entries to add files from a git repository to the created image.

    For example, to create an RPM package named server-config-1.0-1.noarch.rpm, add the following information to your blueprint:

    Replace _RPM-NAME with the name of the RPM package to create. This is also the prefix name in the resulting tar archive.

    Replace RPM-VERSION with the version of the RPM package, for example, "1.0.0".

    Replace RPM-RELEASE with the version of the RPM package release, for example, "1".

    Replace RPM-SUMMARY with the summary string for the RPM package.

    Replace REPO-URL with the URL of the get repository to clone and create the archive from it.

    Replace GIT-REF with the git reference to check out, for example, origin/branch-name, git tag, or git commit hash.

    Replace SERVICES with the path to install the directory of the git repository when installing the RPM package.

    As a consequence, the git repository you provided is cloned, the specified git reference is checked out and an RPM package is created to install the files to a destination path, for example, /opt/server/. The RPM includes a summary with the details of the repository and reference used to create it. The RPM package is also included in the image build metadata.

    Nota

    Each time a build starts, it clones the repository. If you refer to a repository with a large amount of history, it might take a while to clone and use a significant amount of disk space. Also, the clone is temporary and is removed once the RPM package is created.

Procedure

1. Open https://localhost:9090/ in a web browser on the system where Image Builder is installed.

   For more information how to remotely access Image Builder, see Managing systems using the RHEL 8 web console document.

2. Log into the web console with credentials for an user account with sufficient privileges on the system.

3. To display the Image Builder controls, click the Image Builder icon, which is in the upper-left corner of the window.

   The Image Builder view opens, listing existing blueprints.

Procedure

1. Click Create Blueprint in the top right corner.

   A pop-up appears with fields for the blueprint name and description.

2. Fill in the name of the blueprint, its description, then click Create.

   The screen changes to blueprint editing mode.

3. Add components that you want to include in the system image:

   1. On the left, enter all or part of the component name in the Available Components field and press Enter.

      The search is added to the list of filters under the text entry field, and the list of components below is reduced to these that match the search.

      If the list of components is too long, add further search terms in the same way.

   2. The list of components is paged. To move to other result pages, use the arrows and entry field above the component list.
   3. Click the name of the component you intend to use to display its details. The right pane fills with details of the components, such as its version and dependencies.
   4. Select the version you want to use in the Component Options box, with the Version Release dropdown.
   5. Click Add in the top left.
   6. If you added a component by mistake, remove it by clicking the …​ button at the far right of its entry in the right pane, and select Remove in the menu.

   Nota

   If you do not intend to select a version for some components, you can skip the component details screen and version selection by clicking the + buttons on the right side of the component list.

4. To save the blueprint, click Commit in the top right. A dialog with a summary of the changes pops up. Click Commit.

   A small pop-up on the right informs you of the saving progress and then the result.

5. To exit the editing screen, click Back to Blueprints in the top left.

   The Image Builder view opens, listing existing blueprints.

Procedure

1. Locate the blueprint that you want to edit by entering its name or a part of it into the search box at top left, and press Enter.

   The search is added to the list of filters under the text entry field, and the list of blueprints below is reduced to these that match the search.

   If the list of blueprints is too long, add further search terms in the same way.

2. On the right side of the blueprint, press the Edit Blueprint button that belongs to the blueprint.

   The view changes to the blueprint editing screen.

3. Remove unwanted components by clicking their ⫶ button at the far right of its entry in the right pane, and select Remove in the menu.

4. Change version of existing components:

   1. On the Blueprint Components search field, enter component name or a part of it into the field under the heading Blueprint Components and press Enter.

      The search is added to the list of filters under the text entry field, and the list of components below is reduced to these that match the search.

      If the list of components is too long, add further search terms in the same way.

   2. Click the ⫶ button at the far right of the component entry, and select View in the menu.

      A component details screen opens in the right pane.

   3. Select the desired version in the Version Release drop-down menu and click Apply Change in top right.

      The change is saved and the right pane returns to listing the blueprint components.

5. Add new components:

   1. On the left, enter component name or a part of it into the field under the heading Available Components and press Enter.

      The search is added to the list of filters under the text entry field, and the list of components below is reduced to these that match the search.

      If the list of components is too long, add further search terms in the same way.

   2. The list of components is paged. To move to other result pages, use the arrows and entry field above the component list.
   3. Click the name of the component you intend to use to display its details. The right pane fills with details of the components, such as its version and dependencies.
   4. Select the version you want to use in the Component Options box, with the Version Release drop-down menu.
   5. Click Add in the top right.

   6. If you added a component by mistake, remove it by clicking the ⫶ button at the far right of its entry in the right pane, and select Remove in the menu.

      Nota

      If you do not intend to select a version for some components, you can skip the component details screen and version selection by clicking the + buttons on the right side of the component list.

6. Commit a new version of the blueprint with your changes:

   1. Click the Commit button in top right.

      A pop-up window with a summary of your changes appears.

   2. Review your changes and confirm them by clicking Commit.

      A small pop-up on the right informs you of the saving progress and the results. A new version of the blueprint is created.

   3. In the top left, click Back to Blueprints to exit the editing screen.

      The Image Builder view opens, listing existing blueprints.

Procedure

1. Find out the name of the blueprint: Open the Image Builder (Image builder) tab on the left in the RHEL 8 web console to see the name of the blueprint.
2. Navigate to the CLI in web console: Open the system administration tab on the left, then select the last item Terminal from the list on the left.

3. Enter the super-user (root) mode:

   $ sudo bash

   Provide your credentials when asked. Note that the terminal does not reuse your credentials you entered when logging into the web console.

   A new shell with root privileges starts in your home directory.

4. Export the blueprint to a file:

   # composer-cli blueprints save BLUEPRINT-NAME

5. Edit the file BLUEPRINT-NAME.toml with a CLI text editor of your choice and add the users and groups.

   Importante

   RHEL 8 web console does not have any built-in feature to edit text files on the system, so the use of a CLI text editor is required for this step.

   1. For every user to be added, add this block to the file:

      [[customizations.user]]
      name = "USER-NAME"
      description = "USER-DESCRIPTION"
      password = "PASSWORD-HASH"
      key = "ssh-rsa (...) key-name"
      home = "/home/USER-NAME/"
      shell = "/usr/bin/bash"
      groups = ["users", "wheel"]
      uid = NUMBER
      gid = NUMBER

      Replace PASSWORD-HASH with the actual password hash. To generate the hash, use a command such as this:

      $ python3 -c 'import crypt,getpass;pw=getpass.getpass();print(crypt.crypt(pw) if (pw==getpass.getpass("Confirm: ")) else exit())'

      Replace ssh-rsa (…​) key-name with the actual public key.

      Replace the other placeholders with suitable values.

      Leave out any of the lines as needed, only the user name is required.

   2. For every user group to be added, add this block to the file:

      [[customizations.group]]
      name = "GROUP-NAME"
      gid = NUMBER

   3. Increase the version number.
   4. Save the file and close the editor.

6. Import the blueprint back into Image Builder:

   # composer-cli blueprints push BLUEPRINT-NAME.toml

   Note that you must supply the file name including the .toml extension, while in other commands you use only the name of the blueprint.

7. To verify that the contents uploaded to Image Builder match your edits, list the contents of blueprint:

   # composer-cli blueprints show BLUEPRINT-NAME

   Check if the version matches what you put in the file and if your customizations are present.

   Importante

   The Image Builder plugin for RHEL 8 web console does not show any information that could be used to verify that the changes have been applied, unless you edited also the packages included in the blueprint.

8. Exit the privileged shell:

   # exit

9. Open the Image Builder (Image builder) tab on the left and refresh the page, in all browsers and all tabs where it was opened.

   This prevents state cached in the loaded page from accidentally reverting your changes.

Procedure

1. Locate the blueprint that you want to build an image by entering its name or a part of it into the search box at top left, and press Enter.

   The search is added to the list of filters under the text entry field, and the list of blueprints below is reduced to these that match the search.

   If the list of blueprints is too long, add further search terms in the same way.

2. On the right side of the blueprint, press the Create Image button that belongs to the blueprint.

   A pop-up window appears.

3. Select the image type and press Create.

   A small pop-up in the top right informs you that the image creation has been added to the queue.

4. Click the name of the blueprint.

   A screen with details of the blueprint opens.

5. Click the Images tab to switch to it. The image that is being created is listed with the status In Progress.

   Nota

   Image creation takes a longer time, measured in minutes. There is no indication of progress while the image is created.

   To abort image creation, press its Stop button on the right.

6. Once the image is successfully created, the Stop button is replaced by a Download button. Click this button to download the image to your system.

Procedure

1. Click the ⫶ Manage Sources button in the top right corner.

   

   A pop-up window appears with the available sources, their names and descriptions.

   

2. On the right side of the pop-up window, click the Add Source button.

3. Add the desired Source name, the Source path, and the Source Type. The Security field is optional.

   

4. Click Add Source button. The screen shows the available sources window and list the source you have added.

Procedure

1. Locate the blueprint that you want to create a user account for by entering its name or a part of it into the search box at the top left, and press Enter.

   The search is added to the list of filters under the text entry field, and the list of blueprints below is reduced to those that match the search.

2. Click on the blueprint name to display the blueprint details.

   

3. Click Create User Account.

   This will open a window with fields for user account creation.

   
4. Fill in the details. Notice that when you insert the name, the User name field autocompletes, suggesting a username.
5. Once you have inserted all the desired details, click Create.

6. The created user account appears showing all the information you have inserted.

   
7. To create further user accounts for the blueprint, repeat the process.

Procedure

1. Locate the blueprint that you want to create a user account for by entering its name or a part of it into the search box at the top left, and press Enter.

   The search is added to the list of filters under the text entry field, and the list of blueprints below is reduced to those that match the search.

2. Click on the blueprint name to display the blueprint details.

   

3. Click Create User Account.

   This will open a window with fields for user account creation

   

4. Fill in the details. Notice that when you insert the name, the User name field autocompletes, suggesting a username.

   If you want to provide administrators rights to the user account you are creating, check the Role field.

   Paste the content of your public SSH key file.

5. Once you have inserted all the desired details, click Create.

6. The new user account will appear in the user list, showing all the information you have inserted.

   
7. If you want to create more user accounts for the blueprint, repeat the process.

Procedure

1. Install Python 3 and the pip tool:

   # yum install python3
   # yum install python3-pip

2. Install the AWS command-line tools with pip:

   # pip3 install awscli

3. Run the following command to set your profile. The terminal prompts you to provide your credentials, region and output format:

   $ aws configure
   AWS Access Key ID [None]:
   AWS Secret Access Key [None]:
   Default region name [None]:
   Default output format [None]:

4. Define a name for your bucket and use the following command to create a bucket:

   $ BUCKET=bucketname
   $ aws s3 mb s3://$BUCKET

   Replace bucketname with the actual bucket name. It must be a globally unique name. As a result, your bucket is created.

5. Then, to grant permission to access the S3 bucket, create a vmimport S3 Role in IAM, if you have not already done so in the past:

   $ printf '{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "Service": "vmie.amazonaws.com" }, "Action": "sts:AssumeRole", "Condition": { "StringEquals":{ "sts:Externalid": "vmimport" } } } ] }' > trust-policy.json
   $ printf '{ "Version":"2012-10-17", "Statement":[ { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "s3:GetBucketLocation", "s3:GetObject", "s3:ListBucket" ], "Resource":[ "arn:aws:s3:::%s", "arn:aws:s3:::%s/*" ] }, { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ec2:ModifySnapshotAttribute", "ec2:CopySnapshot", "ec2:RegisterImage", "ec2:Describe*" ], "Resource":"*" } ] }' $BUCKET $BUCKET > role-policy.json
   $ aws iam create-role --role-name vmimport --assume-role-policy-document file://trust-policy.json
   $ aws iam put-role-policy --role-name vmimport --policy-name vmimport --policy-document file://role-policy.json

Procedure

1. Push the image to S3:

   $ AMI=8db1b463-91ee-4fd9-8065-938924398428-disk.ami
   $ aws s3 cp $AMI s3://$BUCKET
   Completed 24.2 MiB/4.4 GiB (2.5 MiB/s) with 1 file(s) remaining
   ...

2. After the upload to S3 ends, import the image as a snapshot into EC2:

   $ printf '{ "Description": "my-image", "Format": "raw", "UserBucket": { "S3Bucket": "%s", "S3Key": "%s" } }' $BUCKET $AMI > containers.json
   $ aws ec2 import-snapshot --disk-container file://containers.json

   Replace my-image with the name of the image.

   To track progress of the import, run:

   $ aws ec2 describe-import-snapshot-tasks --filters Name=task-state,Values=active

3. Create an image from the uploaded snapshot by selecting the snapshot in the EC2 console, right clicking on it and selecting Create Image:

   

4. Select the Virtualization type of Hardware-assisted virtualization in the image you create:

   

5. Now you can run an instance using whatever mechanism you like (CLI or AWS Console) from the snapshot. Use your private key via SSH to access the resulting EC2 instance. Log in as ec2-user.

Procedure

1. Click Create blueprint to create a blueprint. See Creating an Image Builder blueprint in the web console interface.
2. Select the components and packages that you want as part of the image you are creating.

3. Click Commit to commit the changes you made to the blueprint.

   A small pop-up on the superior right side informs you of the saving progress and then the result of the changes you commited.

4. Click blueprint name link on the left banner.
5. Select the tab Images.

6. Click Create Image to create your customized image.

   A pop-up window opens.

   1. From the "Type" drop-down menu list, select the `"Amazon Machine Image Disk (.ami)"' image.
   2. Check the "Upload to AWS" check box to upload your image to the AWS Cloud and click Next.

   3. To authenticate your access to AWS, type your "AWS access key ID" and "AWS secret access key" in the corresponding fields. Click Next.

      Nota

      You can view your AWS secret access key only when you create a new Access Key ID. If you do not know your Secret Key, generate a new Access Key ID.

   4. Type the name of the image in the "Image name" field, type the Amazon bucket name in the "Amazon S3 bucket name" field and type the "AWS region" field for the bucket you are going to add your customized image to. Click Next.

   5. Review the information you provided and once you are satisfied, click Finish.

      Optionally, you can click Back to modify any incorrect detail.

      Nota

      You must have the correct IAM settings for the bucket you are going to send your customized image. We are using the IAM Import and Export, so you have to setup a policy to your bucket before you are able to upload images to it. For more information, see Required Permissions for IAM Users.

7. A small pop-up on the superior right side informs you of the saving progress. It also informs that the image creation has been initiated, the progress of this image creation and the subsequent upload to the AWS Cloud.

   Once the process is complete, you can see the "Image build complete" status.

8. Click Service→EC2 on the menu and choose the correct region in the AWS console. The image must have the "Available" status, to indicate that it is uploaded.
9. On the dashboard, select your image and click Launch.
10. A new window opens. Choose an instance type according to the resources you need to launch your image. Click Review and Launch.
11. Review your instance launch details. You can edit each section if you need to make any change. Click Launch

12. Before you launch the instance, you must select a public key to access it.

    You can either use the key pair you already have or you can create a new key pair. Alternatively, you can use Image Builder to add a user to the image with a preset public key. See Creating a user account with SSH key for more details.

    Follow the next steps to create a new key pair in EC2 and attach it to the new instance.

    1. From the drop-down menu list, select "Create a new key pair".
    2. Enter the name to the new key pair. It generates a new key pair.
    3. Click "Download Key Pair" to save the new key pair on your local system.

13. Then, you can click Launch Instance to launch your instance.

    You can check the status of the instance, it shows as "Initializing".

14. Once the instance status is "running", the Connect button turns available.

15. Click Connect. A popup window appears with instructions on how to connect using SSH.

    1. Select the preferred connection method to "A standalone SSH client" and open a terminal.

    2. In the location you store your private key, make sure that your key is publicly viewable for SSH to work. To do so, run the command:

       $ chmod 400 <your-instance-name.pem>_

    3. Connect to your instance using its Public DNS:

       $ ssh -i "<_your-instance-name.pem_"> ec2-user@<_your-instance-IP-address_>

    4. Type "yes" to confirm that you want to continue connecting.

       As a result, you are connected to your instance using SSH.

Verification steps

1. Check if you are able to perform any action while connected to your instance using SSH.

Procedure

1. Install python2:

   # yum install python2

   Nota

   python2 package must be installed because since the AZ CLI depends specifically on python 2.7

2. Import the Microsoft repository key:

   # rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc

3. Create a local azure-cli repository information:

   # sh -c 'echo -e "[azure-cli]\nname=Azure CLI\nbaseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/azure-cli\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc" > /etc/yum.repos.d/azure-cli.repo'

4. Install the Azure CLI:

   # yumdownloader azure-cli
   # rpm -ivh --nodeps azure-cli-2.0.64-1.el7.x86_64.rpm

   Nota

   The downloaded version of the Azure CLI package may vary depending on the current downloaded version.

5. Run the Azure CLI:

   $ az login

   The terminal shows the message 'Note, we have launched a browser for you to login. For old experience with device code, use "az login --use-device-code"' and opens a browser where you can login.

   Nota

   If you are running a remote (SSH) session, the link will not open in the browser. In this case, you can use the link provided and thus be able to login and autenticate your remote session. To sign in, use a web browser to open the page https://microsoft.com/devicelogin and enter the code XXXXXXXXX to authenticate.

6. List the keys for the storage account in Azure:

   $ GROUP=resource-group-name
   $ ACCOUNT=storage-account-name
   $ az storage account keys list --resource-group $GROUP --account-name $ACCOUNT

   Replace resource-group-name with name of the Azure resource group and storage-account-name with name of the Azure storage account.

   Nota

   You can list the available resources using the command:

   $ az resource list

7. Make note of value key1 in the output of the previous command, and assign it to an environment variable:

   $ KEY1=value

8. Create a storage container:

   $ CONTAINER=storage-account-name
   $ az storage container create --account-name $ACCOUNT \
   --account-key $KEY1 --name $CONTAINER

   Replace storage-account-name with name of the storage account.

Procedure

1. Push the image to Azure and create an instance from it:

   $ VHD=25ccb8dd-3872-477f-9e3d-c2970cd4bbaf-disk.vhd
   $ az storage blob upload --account-name $ACCOUNT --container-name $CONTAINER --file $VHD --name $VHD --type page
   ...

2. Once the upload to the Azure BLOB completes, create an Azure image from it:

   $ az image create --resource-group $GROUP --name $VHD --os-type linux --location eastus --source https://$ACCOUNT.blob.core.windows.net/$CONTAINER/$VHD
    - Running ...

3. Create an instance either with the Azure portal, or a command similar to the following:

   $ az vm create --resource-group $GROUP --location eastus --name $VHD --image $VHD --admin-username azure-user --generate-ssh-keys
    - Running ...

4. Use your private key via SSH to access the resulting instance. Log in as azure-user.

Procedure

1. Upload the image into vSphere via HTTP. Click on Upload Files in the vCenter:

   

2. When you create a VM, on the Device Configuration, delete the default New Hard Disk and use the drop-down to select an Existing Hard Disk disk image:

   

3. Make sure you use an IDE device as the Virtual Device Node for the disk you create. The default value SCSI results in an unbootable virtual machine.

   

Procedure

1. Click Create blueprint to create a blueprint. See more at Creating an Image Builder blueprint in the web console interface.
2. Select the components and packages that you want as part of the image you are creating.

3. Click Commit to commit the changes you made to the blueprint.

   A small pop-up on the upper right side informs you of the saving progress and then the result of the changes you commited.

4. Click blueprint name link on the left banner.
5. Select the tab Images.

6. Click Create Image to create your customized image.

   A pop-up window opens.

   1. From the "Type" drop-down menu list, select the Azure Disk Image (.vhd) image.
   2. Check the "Upload to Azure" check box to upload your image to the Azure Cloud and click Next.

   3. To authenticate your access to Azure, type your "Storage account" and "Storage access key" in the corresponding fields. Click Next.

      You can find your Storage account details in the Settings→Access Key menu list.

   4. Type a "Image name" to be used for the image file that will be uploaded and the Blob "Storage container" in which the image file you want to push the image into. Click Next.

   5. Review the information you provided and once you are satisfied, click Finish.

      Optionally, you can click Back to modify any incorrect detail.

7. A small pop-up on the upper right side displays when the image creation process starts with the message: "Image creation has been added to the queue".

   Once the image process creation is complete, click the blueprint you created an image from. You can see the "Image build complete" status for the image you created within the Images tab.

8. To access the image you pushed into Azure Cloud, access Azure Portal.
9. On the search bar, type Images and select the first entry under Services. You are redirected to the Image dashboard.

10. Click +Add. You are redirected to the Create an Image dashboard.

    Insert the below details:

    1. Name: Choose a name for your new image.
    2. Resource Group: Select a resource group.
    3. Location: Select the location that matches the regions assigned to your storage account. Otherwise you will not be able to select a blob.
    4. OS Type: Set the OS type to Linux.
    5. VM Generation: Keep the VM generation set on Gen 1.

    6. Storage Blob: Click Browse on the right of Storage blob input. Use the dialog to find the image you uploaded earlier.

       Keep the remaining fields as in the defaults choice.

11. Click Create to create the image. Once the image is created, you can see the message "Successfully created image" in the upper right corner.
12. Click Refresh to see your new image and open your newly created image.
13. Click + Create VM. You are redirected to the Create a virtual machine dashboard.

14. In the Basic tab, under Project Details, your *Subscription and the Resource Group are already pre-set.

    If you want to create a new resource Group

    1. Click Create new.

       A pop-up prompts you to create the Resource Group Name container.

    2. Insert a name and click OK.

       If you want to keep the Resource Group that are already pre-set.

15. Under Instance Details, insert:

    1. Virtual machine name
    2. Region
    3. Image: The image you created is pre-selected by default.

    4. Size: Choose a VM size that better suits your needs.

       Keep the remaining fields as in the defaults choice.

16. Under Administrator account, enter the below details:

    1. Username: the name of the account administrator.

    2. SSH public key source: from the drop-down menu, select Generate new key pair.

       You can either use the key pair you already have or you can create a new key pair. Alternatively, you can use Image Builder to add a user to the image with a preset public key. See Creating a user account with SSH key for more details.

    3. Key pair name: insert a name for the key pair.

17. Under Inbound port rules, select:

    1. Public inbound ports: Allow selected ports.
    2. Select inbound ports: Use the default set SSH (22).
18. Click Review + Create. You are redirected to the Review + create tab and receive a confirmation that the validation passed.

19. Review the details and click Create.

    Optionally, you can click Previous to fix previous options selected.

20. A pop-up generates new key pair window opens. Click Download private key and create resources.

    Save the key file as "yourKey.pem".

21. Once the deployment is complete, click Go to resource.
22. You are redirected to a new window with your VM details. Select the public IP address on the top right side of the page and copy it to your clipboard.

1. Open a terminal.

2. At your prompt, open an SSH connection to your virtual machine. Replace the IP address with the one from your VM, and replace the path to the .pem with the path to where the key file was downloaded.

   # ssh -i ./Downloads/yourKey.pem azureuser@10.111.12.123

3. You are required to confirm if you want to continue to connect. Type yes to continue.

Procedure

1. Upload the image to OpenStack and start an instance from it. Use the Images interface to do this:

   

2. Start an instance with that image:

   

3. You can run the instance using any mechanism (CLI or OpenStack web UI) from the snapshot. Use your private key via SSH to access the resulting instance. Log in as cloud-user.

Procedure

1. Connect to the system containing the image you want to check it by the Alibaba image_check tool.

2. Download the image_check tool:

   $ curl -O http://docs-aliyun.cn-hangzhou.oss.aliyun-inc.com/assets/attach/73848/cn_zh/1557459863884/image_check

3. Change the file permission of the image compliance tool:

   # chmod +x image_check

4. Run the command to start the image compliance tool checkup:

   # ./image_check

   The tool verifies the system configuration and generate a report that is displayed on your screen. The image_check tool saves this report in the same folder where the image compliance tool is running.

5. If any of the Detection Items fail, follow the instructions to correct it. For more information, see link: Detection items section.

Procedure

1. Log in to the OSS console.
2. On the left side Bucket menu, select the bucket to which you want to upload an image.
3. On the right upper menu, click Files tab.

4. Click Upload. A window dialog opens on the right side. Choose the following information:

   • Upload To: Choose to upload the file to the Current directory or to a Specified directory.
   • File ACL: Choose the type of permission of the uploaded file.
5. Click Upload.
6. Choose the image you want to upload.
7. Click Open.

Procedure

1. Log in to the ECS console.

   1. On the left side menu, click Images.
   2. On the right upper side, click Import Image. A window dialog opens.

   3. Confirm that you have set up the correct region where the image is located. Enter the following information:

      1. OSS Object Address: See how to obtain OSS Object Address.
      2. Image Name:
      3. Operating System:
      4. System Disk Size:
      5. System Architecture:
      6. Platform: Red Hat

   4. Optionally, provide the following details:

      7. Image Format: qcow2 or ami, depending on the uploaded image format.
      8. Image Description:

      9. Add Images of Data Disks:

         The address can be determined in the OSS management console after selecting the required bucket in the left menu, select Files section and then click on Details link on the right for the appropriate image. A window will appear on the right side of the screen, showing image details. The OSS object address is in the URL box.

2. Click OK.

   Nota

   The importing process time can vary depending on the image size.

Procedure

1. Log in to the ECS console.
2. On the left side menu, choose Instances.
3. In the top corner, click Create Instance. You are redirected to a new window.
4. Fill in all the required information. See Creating an instance by using the wizard for more details.

5. Click Create Instance and confirm the order.

   Nota

   You can see the option Create Order instead of Create Instace, depending on your subscription.