How to deploy a new Virtual Machine with PyVSS

Deploying a virtual machine interacting directly with thee EIS Virtual Cloud RESTful API could somehow be overwhelming due to its multiple resources to check such as networks, folders, disks, etc. In order to simplify the interaction with the API we created a Python Client named pyvss with many self-descriptive methods and available in the Python Package Index.

This tutorial uses pyvss to create a virtual machine with no operating system and which will be installed manually by mounting an ISO image from the VSS Catalog. The full specification is listed below:

name: VMfromPyVss
built process: os install
billing department: VSS
description: virtual machine created from vss
usage: QA
cpu and memory: 2
disks: 1GB, 2GB and 3GB
networks: any available network in your account
folders: any folder available in your account
iso: ubuntu 12.04 i386
os: ubuntuGuest

Pre-requirements

Python 2.7.10+
Ptpython
Access to the EIS Virtual Cloud RESTful API
Python client for the EIS Virtual Cloud RESTful API: pyvss
```
pip install pyvss
```
ptpython (optional) - usual python console can be used
```
pip install ptpython
```
httpie (optional) - curl or wget can be used as well
```
pip install httpie
```

Step-by-step guide

Generate an API access token and save it to tk.json file:

http POST https://vss-api.eis.utoronto.ca/auth/request-token -a jm > tk.json
http: password for jm@vss-api.eis.utoronto.ca:

Start ptpython or python console:
```
ptpython
```

Import VssManager and json libraries and load tk.json into a variable

from pyvss.manager import VssManager
import json 
 
token = json.load(open('tk.json'))

Create a VssManager instance with the previously loaded token:
```
vss = VssManager(tk=token.get('token'))
```
Refer to the official docs or use the help built in function to display what parameters are required by the create_vm function:
```
help(vss.create_vm)
```

Define the following variables

name = 'VMfromPyVss'
built = 'os_install' # it could be either clone or image as well
bill_dept = 'VSS'
description = 'Virtual machine created from pyVss'
usage = 'QA' # could be either Prod, Test, QA or Dev
cpu = 2
memory = 2 # this value is in GB
disks = [1, 2, 3]  # three disks of 1GB, 2GB and 3GB

Get target folder, networks, operating system and iso image to mount for the installation

networks = vss.get_networks(name='1102') # filtering by name
networks = [net.get('moref') for net in networks] # we need only a moref and networks has to be a list
 
folders = vss.get_folders(name='APIDemo') # filtering by name
folder = folders[0].get('moref')

isos = vss.get_isos(name='ubuntu') # filtering by name
iso = isos[0].get('path')

os_list = vss.get_os(name='ubuntu') # filtering by name
os = os_list[0].get('guestFullName')

Create new vm request

r = vss.create_vm(name=name, os=os, built=built, bill_dept=bill_dept, description=description, 
				  folder=folder, networks=networks, disks=disks, usage=usage, 
				  cpu=cpu, memoryGB=memory, iso=iso)

We will use wait_for_request function to get new virtual machine Uuid when provisioned:
```
uuid = vss.wait_for_request(r.get('_links').get('request'), 'vm_uuid', 'Processed')
```

Once you get the uuid, get a summary of the VM:

vm = vss.get_vm(uuid)
vm.get('state').get('powerState')
u'poweredOff'

Power on VM
```
vss.power_on_vm(uuid)
```

Validate new VM state:

vss.get_vm_state(uuid).get('powerState')
u'poweredOn'

Generate a one-time VM console link to start the OS installation
```
link = vss.get_vm_console()
```

Pre-requirements

Step-by-step guide

AsciiCast

Related articles