Chapter 5. Deploying your customized images

Procedure

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

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

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

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3. Create a file 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

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   This file contains the administrator or root user credentials with no password that you can use to access your system after the first boot and create additional users later. The ssh_authorized_keys field is your SSH public key. You can find your SSH public key in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

Procedure

1. Generate an access token for API queries by following the step in Generating an access token for the Image Builder API queries.

   Important

   Access tokens expire after fifteen (15) minutes. The expiration is included within the JSON response. You must repeat the process of obtaining an access token approximately every ten (10) minutes so that the token is rotated before it expires.

2. In your system, create a file in the .json format to create an image. The following example shows how to create an up-to-date RHEL 9.4 ova image for x86_64 CPU architecture.

   $ request.json
   {
       "image_name": "ova_image_name",
       "distribution": "rhel-94",
       "image_requests": [
           {
               "architecture": "x86_64",
               "image_type": "vsphere-ova",
               "upload_request": {
                   "type": "vmdk",
                   "options": {}
               }
           }
       ],
       "customizations": {
           "users": [
               {
                   "name": "user-name",
                   "ssh_key": "ssh-rsa AAAAB...qfGI+vk",
                   "password": "password"
               }
           ]
       }
   }

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3. Send the compose request to the image builder API:

   $ curl --silent \
       --request POST \
       --header "Authorization: Bearer $access_token" \
       --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
       --data @request.json \
       https://console.redhat.com/api/image-builder/v1/compose

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   If the request is successful, you can see an output similar to the following, that is the image ID:

   {"id":"fd4ecf3c-f0ce-43dd-9fcc-6ad11208b939"}

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4. Check the status of the image building:

   $ curl \
       --silent \
       --header "Authorization: Bearer $access_token" \
       "https://console.redhat.com/api/image-builder/v1/composes/$compose_id" \
     | image_ID.

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   If the request is successful, you can see an output similar to the following, that is the image ID:

   {"id":"fd4ecf3c-f0ce-43dd-9fcc-6ad11208b939"}

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   You can also check the image building progress by accessing Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

   After the image builds, you can see the following output:

   If the request is successful, you can see an output similar to the following, that is the image ID:

   {
       "image_status": {
           "status": "success",
           "upload_status": {
               "options": {
                   "url": "https://image-builder-service-production.s3.amazonaws.com/composer-api-76...-disk.ova?e42..."
               },
               "status": "success",
               "type": "aws.s3"
           }
       }
   }

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5. After finishing the image creation, download the image.

   $ curl --location --output vsphere-ova.vmdk  \
       “https://image-builder-service-production.s3.amazonaws.com/composer-api-76...-disk.ova?e42...”

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   The image is saved to your system and ready to be used.

Procedure

1. 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; })

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2. 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

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   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

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   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"

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   4. Power-on the VM:

      govc vm.power -on vmname

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   5. Retrieve the VM IP address:

      HOST=$(govc vm.ip vmname)

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

      $ ssh admin@HOST

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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

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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

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   • 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)

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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

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   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

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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.