This tutorial details how to deploy a virtual machine from a virtual machine template in the ITS Private Cloud and reconfigure the operating system (hostname, domain, gateway, dns, etc.) using the VSS CLI. It assumes you already have set up a VSS account with access to the REST API, a virtual machine with operating system and VMware Tools installed which will be marked as template.
If you do not have a virtual machine with operating system installed, please refer to Deploying a Development Environment.
As a best practice and to speed up deployment, a small sized virtual machine is recommended (1vCPU, 1GB memory, 1NIC and 1x10GB disk). A virtual machine template should hold operating system installation and configuration and resulting virtual machines will be modified as required.
Virtual Machine Template
Virtual Machine Templates are useful if you create a virtual machine that you want to clone frequently, offering a more secure way of preserving a virtual machine configuration, since they are more difficult to alter than ordinary virtual machine. Templates are commonly referred as Master Copy of certain virtual machine, thus any virtual machine can be marked as template.
Virtual machines with large disks will take longer to deploy.
Optional. In order to make a virtual machine a template, first obtain the moref of the virtual machine:
This version of the VSS CLI supports managing virtual machines not only using the MOREF or UUID, but using names. In case of multiple results, the CLI prompts to select the right instance.
vss-cli compute vm ls -f name=Front moref name folder.path cpu_count memory_gb power_state ip_address ------- ---------------- ------------------------- ----------- ----------- ------------- ------------ vm-2182 2004T-Frontend-1 VSS > Development > Dev03 1 1 poweredOff
Save the moref in MOREF environment variable.
Then update the template state by running vss-cli compute vm set <name-or-vm_id> template --on:
vss-cli --wait compute vm set $MOREF template --on # or vss-cli --wait compute vm set Front template --on
Once the request has been processed, verify the template state:
vss-cli compute vm get Front template IsTemplate : True
Launch Instance
Launching an instance from-template is simpler than shell since the from-template command carbon copies the specs with just name and --description/-d to provide. However to make this example more realistic, a different logical folder is provided, otherwise the from-template command will use the source virtual machine template folder as default.
Run vss-cli compute vm mk from-template --help to obtain the list of arguments and options required:
Usage: vss-cli compute vm mk from-template [OPTIONS] [NAME]
Deploy virtual machine from template.
Options:
-s, --source TEXT Source virtual machine or template MOREF or
UUID. [required]
-d, --description TEXT A brief description. [required]
-b, --client TEXT Client department.
-a, --admin TEXT Admin name, phone number and email separated
by `:` i.e. "John
Doe:416-123-1234:john.doe@utoronto.ca"
-r, --inform TEXT Informational contact emails in comma
separated
-u, --usage [Test|Prod|Dev|QA] Vm usage.
-o, --os TEXT Guest operating system id.
-m, --memory INTEGER Memory in GB.
-c, --cpu INTEGER Cpu count.
--cores-per-socket INTEGER Cores per socket.
-f, --folder TEXT Logical folder moref name or path.
--scsi TEXT SCSI Controller Spec <type>=<sharing>.
-i, --disk TEXT Disk spec
<capacity>=<backing_mode>=<backing_sharing>.
optional: backing_mode, backing_sharing
-n, --net TEXT Network adapter <moref-or-name>=<nic-type>.
-t, --domain TEXT Target fault domain name or moref.
--notes TEXT Custom notes.
-p, --custom-spec TEXT Guest OS custom specification in JSON
format.
-e, --extra-config TEXT Extra configuration key=value format.
--power-on Power on after successful deployment.
--template Mark the VM as template after deployment.
--vss-service TEXT VSS Service related to VM
--instances INTEGER Number of instances to deploy [default: 1]
-w, --firmware TEXT Firmware type.
--tpm Add Trusted Platform Module device.
--storage-type TEXT Storage type.
--retire-type [timedelta|datetime]
Retirement request type.
--retire-warning INTEGER Days before retirement date to notify
--retire-value TEXT Value for given retirement type. i.e.
<hours>,<days>,<months>
--help Show this message and exit.
Network
Run vss-cli compute net ls to list available network segments to your account. You must have at least VL-1584-VSS-PUBLIC which is the VSS public network.
This version of the VSS CLI supports managing networks not only using the moref, but also using names. In case of multiple results, the CLI prompts to select the right instance.
vss-cli compute net ls -f name=public moref name description subnet ports ----------------- ------------------ ------------------ -------------- ------- dvportgroup-11052 VL-1584-VSS-PUBLIC VSS Public network 142.1.216.0/23 32
Save dvportgroup-11052 in NET environment variable:
export NET=dvportgroup-11052
By default, the network adapter will use vmxnet3 which provides ideal performance, however a few legacy operating systems does not have the drivers. In such case, you can specify which adapter type between: e1000e*, e1000, vmxnet2 or vmxnet3. To do so, append the adapter type to the network adapter network as follows:
export NET=dvportgroup-11052=e1000e
Folder
Logical folders can be listed by running vss-cli compute folder ls. Select the target moref folder to store the virtual machine on:
This version of the VSS CLI supports managing logical folders not only using the moref, but also using names. In case of multiple results, the CLI prompts to select the right instance.
vss-cli compute folder ls -f name=like,API% moref name parent path ----------- ------- -------- ---------------------------- group-v6736 APIDemo jm jm > APIDemo
Set the FOLDER environment variable to the target folder (the folder moref may vary):
export FOLDER=group-v6736
Before proceeding to deploy the virtual machine, a guest operating system customization specification needs to be created.
Customization Spec
Customizing a guest operating system is helpful to prevent conflicts if virtual machines are identical after deployed. To customize the guest operating system, VMware Tools and Perl must be installed in the source virtual machine.
The vss-cli compute vm mk from-template command provides the option -p/--custom-spec to pass the guest os customization spec, which is structured as follows:
{
"hostname": "string",
"domain": "string",
"dns": [
"string"
],
"dns_suffix": [
"string"
],
"interfaces": [{"dhcp": "bool",
"ip": "string",
"mask": "string",
"gateway": ["string"]
}]
}
Since we are running on a DHCP-enabled network, we will just update the hostname and domain. The customization spec added will be:
{
"hostname": "fe1",
"domain": "eis.utoronto.ca",
"interfaces": [{"dhcp": true}]
}
Serializing the above JSON structure would be something like:
'{"hostname": "fe1", "domain": "eis.utoronto.ca", "interfaces": [{"dhcp": true}]}'
Passing above JSON data structure to --custom-spec in Linux, macOS, or Unix and Windows PowerShell use the single quote ' to enclose it. On the Windows command prompt, use the double quote " to enclose the data structure and escape the double quotes from the data structure using the backslash \.
Deployment
At this point, we have all requirements to run vss-cli compute vm mk from-template command to submit a deployment request. For this example, the request is made for 2GB of memory, 2 vCPU, 2x40GB disks and to reconfigure the hostname and domain.
vss-cli compute vm mk --wait from-template --power-on --source Frontend \
--client EIS --folder APIDemo \
--memory 2 --cpu 2 --disk 40 --disk 40 --net VSS \
--custom-spec '{"hostname": "fe2", "domain": "eis.utoronto.ca", "interfaces": [{"dhcp": true}]}' \
--storage-type hdd \
--description "Frontend 3" Frontend3
To wait for the deployment to complete, you could use the --wait flag at the mk command level: i.e. vss-cli compute vm mk --wait from-template ...`
Deploy multiple instances with the --instances flag.
Wait a few minutes until the virtual machine is deployed.
vss-cli request new ls -s created_on=desc -c 1 id created_on updated_on status vm_moref vm_name approval.approved built_from ---- --------------------------- --------------------------- --------- ---------- --------------- ------------------- ------------ 76 2020-04-24 Fri 16:36:15 EDT 2020-04-24 Fri 16:37:31 EDT PROCESSED vm-2184 2004T-Frontend3 True template
Wait a few minutes until the virtual machine is deployed.
vss-cli request new ls -s created_on desc -c 1 id created_on updated_on status vm_name vm_uuid ---- ----------------------- ----------------------- --------- ------------------ ------------------------------------ 1151 2017-03-13 15:24:44 EDT 2017-03-13 15:27:06 EDT Processed 1703T-docker-node1 50124c39-06cd-4971-c4ff-36f95846c810
Access Virtual Machine
Since we added the --power-on option, the virtual machine should have been powered on right after the Guest Operating System Customization task completed.
In a few minutes the virtual machine will show the hostname and ip configuration by running vss-cli compute vm get <name-or-vm-id> guest:
vss-cli compute vm get Frontend3 guest Uuid : 50124c39-06cd-4971-c4ff-36f95846c810 Guest Guest Full Name: Ubuntu Linux (64-bit) Guest Guest Id : ubuntu64Guest Guest Host Name : fe1 Guest Ip Address : 142.1.217.228, fe80::250:56ff:fe92:323f Guest Tools Status : guestToolsUnmanaged
The Guest Host Name shows that the hostname has been changed, and now you will be able to access via either ssh or the virtual machine console:
ssh username@<ip-address>
vss-cli compute vm get Frontend2 vsphere-link -l