Virtual machines can be created using a free-Form wizard which allows users to pick resources they need but this can be become cumbersome if the user must pick the same option every time there is a need to provision a VM. Hence, at the end of the wizard, users can choose to create a VM or optionally save a blueprint in the App Store so next time user can just provision the VMs in a single click.

Before you begin

• Ensure you have access to at least one resources pool whether you are a tenant admin or a regular user.

Configuring credentials store

Credentials store is a service that allows users to store Credentials in the form of username and password or SSH key-Pair in HyperCloud™ Platform. These credentials are then referenced by Blueprints or Free-Form wizard with the help with HyperCloud™ will provision the VM and setup credentials to access the VM. HyperCloud™ Platform Supports 2 types of Credentials

1. Key-Pair Store – Create a Key-Pair in HyperCloud™ and uploads it to the public cloud provider.
2. Password Store – Saves username and encrypted Password in HyperCloud™ Platform

Note: Password Store is only supported for VMware vSphere, Hyper-V and Microsoft Azure

Creating a Key-Pair Credential Store

• Login to the HyperCloud™ Platform with your credentials  Click on Services Orchestration Tab  Services Click on Credential Store  Click on New & select Key-Pair Store
  • Select the Cloud from the Drop-Down: AWS or Azure or GCP
  • Enter a Suffix value Name: AWS-KP1
  • (AWS Only) From the Resource Pool Drop-Down: Select the Available Resource pool.

Note: If more than 1 AWS Resource pool is available, then repeat this step for each Resource Pool.

• • Click on Generate Keys
  • To allow other users to access this credential : Click on Users and Groups
    • In the Users Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a username you would like to add & select the user
    • In the Groups Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a group name you would like to & and select the group.
  • Click on Save

Creating a Password Credential Store

• Login to the HyperCloud™ Platform with your credentials  Click on Services Orchestration Tab  Services
• Click on Credential Store  Click on New & select Password Store
  • Enter a Name: vm-user
  • Enter a Username: vm-user
  • Enter a Password: M!SuperS3cretpassw0rd!
  • To allow other users to access this credential : Click on Users and Groups
    • In the users Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a username you would like to add & select the user
    • In the Groups Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a group name you would like to add and select the group.
  • Click on Save

Provisioning Microsoft Azure VMs using Blueprints

Virtual Machine blueprints for Microsoft Azure require a Resource Group. All Virtual Machine related objects i.e. disks, ip address, etc. are placed inside this resource group.

Creating a Resource Group

Skip this step, if an existing resource group will be used.

• Login to the HyperCloud™ Platform with your credentials  Click on Services Orchestration Tab  Services  Click on Resource Group  Click on New
  • Select the Resource Pool for e.g. RP.ARM.EAST US.PROD-RP2
  • Enter a Name for e.g. hg-prod-vms-rg
  • Click Create Resource Group

Creating Blueprints for Azure VM Provisioning

Use the following steps to Create a Virtual Machine blueprint for Azure VM

• Login to the HyperCloud™ Platform with your credentials  Click on Services Orchestration Tab  Services
• On the Resource pool page,
  • Select the Azure Resource Pool from the drop down list,

Note: Azure resource pool are identified by the prefix RP.ARM.South East Asia.<ResourcePoolName>

• • Select the Resource Group: hg-prod-vms-rg  Click Next.
  • (Optional) Availability Set: Select an existing or create a new Availability set. This is useful when scaling VMs in a load balancer pool
• Select a Size: for e.g. Basic_A2  click Next.
• Select an Image (Operating System): for e.g. CentOS 7.6  click Next.
• Select the Subnet: for e.g hg-prod-vms-subnet1  Click Next.
• Check Assign Public IP : for e.g Basic
• Select the Security Group: for e.g hg-prod-sg1
• On the Add Credentials details page,
  • Uncheck Skip Agent Install

Note: Unchecking will install HyperCloud Agent, once the VM is provisioned. This is mandatory if you would like to run plugins once the Virtual machine is successfully provisioned.

• • Select Credentials password or Key-Pair store  click Next
• On the Entitle Owner page, Select Only Me  click Next
• On the Advanced page,
  • Enter a prefix: *hg-prod-vms * Click on Review
  • Plugins:(Optional) Select a plugin to be run once the VM is provisioned.

Note: To select multiple plugins to run in a sequence, select one plugin and configure the order of execution for e.g. 1 under the advanced options. Click in plugins drop-down and select another plugin and configure order of execution for e.g. 2

• • Lease: (Optional) : Enter a number and select either mins, hours or days.

Note: On lease expiration, the VM will get deleted automatically and user will receive an email notification

• • Define a VM Start and Stop Schedule (Optional): Choose a start time and duration daily, weekly or monthly
• On the Review page, review the details of the deployment
  • VM Count: Update the count of the VM if required.
  • Click on Save Blueprint Only which will create a blueprint and open it in the HyperCloud™ AppStore.
• Enter a name for the Blueprint for e.g. OpenLogic:Centos7.6
  • Entitled Users:
    • To allow all users to access this Blueprint, Click on Everyone
    • To allow specific users to access this blueprint, Click on Users & Groups
      • In the users Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a username you would like to add & select the user
      • In the Groups Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a group name you would like to add and select the group.
  • Click on Save Changes
• To deploy the VM from the Blueprint, click on the Blueprint and Click on Create Machine and HyperCloud™ Platform will redirect to the Service Orchestration  VMs tab.

Creating Additional Volumes using Blueprints

Use the following steps to edit an existing blueprint and add the YAML for configuring additional volumes post-provisioning of the VM.

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In the YAML Editor pane, append the YAML under vol: as shown below:

• !vol*
  prefix: hg-ub16-dd1
  size: 10
  count: 1|
  Note: Size unit is in GB, Prefix will be used to name the volume/disk.

• Click on Save Changes.

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Note: By default, this volume will be mounted under /var/lib/hypercloud.

• Additional volumes created and attached to the VM will be listed under Service Orchestration  Services  Storage

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Use the following steps to create a Virtual Machine blueprint for Amazon AWS

• Login to the HyperCloud™ Platform with your credentials  Click on Services Orchestration Tab  Services
• On the Resource pool page, Select the Amazon AWS Resource Pool from the drop down list,

Note: AWS resource pool are identified by the prefix RP.AWS.ap-southeast-1.<ResourcePoolName>

• Select a Size: for e.g. t2.micro  click Next.
• Select an Image (Operating System): for e.g. Amazon Linux 2 AMI (HVM)  click Next.
• Select the Subnet: for e.g hg-prod-vms-subnet1  Click Next.
• Select the Security Group: for e.g hg-prod-sg1
• On the Add Credentials details page, Select Key-Pair  click Next
• On the Entitle Owner page, Select Only Me  click Next
• On the Advanced page,
  • Enter a prefix: *hg-prod-vms * Click on Review
  • Plugins:(Optional) Select a plugin to be run once the VM is provisioned.

Note: To select multiple plugins to run in a sequence, select one plugin and configure the order of execution for e.g. 1 under the advanced options. Click in plugins drop-down and select another plugin and configure order of execution for e.g. 2

• • Lease: (Optional) : Enter a number and select either mins, hours or days.

Note: On lease expiration, the VM will get deleted automatically and user will receive an email notification

• • Define a VM Start and Stop Schedule (Optional): Choose a start time and duration daily, weekly or monthly
• On the Review page, review the details of the deployment
  • VM Count: Update the count of the VM if required.
  • Click on Save Blueprint Only which will create a blueprint and open it in the HyperCloud™ AppStore.
• Enter a name for the Blueprint for e.g. AMI Linux 2
  • Entitled Users:
    • To allow all users to access this Blueprint, Click on Everyone
    • To allow specific users to access this blueprint, Click on Users & Groups
      • In the users Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a username you would like to add & select the user
      • In the Groups Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a group name you would like to add and select the group.
  • Click on Save Changes
• To deploy the VM from the Blueprint, click on the Blueprint and Click on Create Machine

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Use the following steps to create a Virtual Machine blueprint for Amazon AWS

• Login to the HyperCloud™ Platform with your credentials  Click on Services Orchestration Tab  Services
• On the Resource pool page,
  • Select the Azure Resource Pool from the drop down list,

Note: Azure resource pool are identified by the prefix RP.VMW.AZ1.<ResourcePoolName>

• Select a Size: cpu=2,memory=4GB,disk=40GB  click Next.
• Select an Image (Operating System): for e.g. VMT-Win2016x64  click Next.
• Select the Subnet: for e.g dvs-vlan-100  Click Next.
• On the Customization page, Select one of the following:
  • Using Cloud Image (Recommended)

Note: This requires VMware Template to be installed and configured with cloud-init.

• • Using SSH via Login Credentials

Note: This will install the HyperCloud Agent via SSH. (Linux VM only)

• • Skip Agent Install

Note: HyperGrid Support can help setup Guest Customization to enable agent installation

• • Click Next
• On the Entitle Owner page, Select Only Me  click Next
• On the Advanced page,
  • Enter a prefix: *hg-prod-vms * Click on Review
  • Plugins:(Optional) Select a plugin to be run once the VM is provisioned.

Note: To select multiple plugins to run in a sequence, select one plugin and configure the order of execution for e.g. 1 under the advanced options. Click in plugins drop-down and select another plugin and configure order of execution for e.g. 2

• • Lease: (Optional) : Enter a number and select either mins, hours or days.

Note: On lease expiration, the VM will get deleted automatically and user will receive an email notification

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• Define a VM Start and Stop Schedule (Optional): Choose a start time and duration daily, weekly or monthly

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• VM Count: Update the count of the VM if required.
• Click on Save Blueprint Only which will create a blueprint and open it in the HyperCloud™ AppStore.

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• Entitled Users:
  • To allow all users to access this Blueprint, Click on Everyone
  • To allow specific users to access this blueprint, Click on Users & Groups
    • In the users Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a username you would like to add & select the user
    • In the Groups Text Box: Type the first alphabet of a group name you would like to add and select the group.
• Click on Save Changes

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Overview

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You can create a Virtual Machine (VM) using the Free-form wizard. You can select and provision as many VMs as you require using the Free-form wizard. Adding multiple resources on an ongoing basis is a cumbersome process. If you have to provision VMs regularly, you can create a VM blueprint using the Free-form wizard and publish it on the HCP App Store. 

Configure Credential Store

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Before you provision a VM, you'll need to configure the Credential Store. You can configure the credentials store using:

• Key-Pair

• Password Store

Provision your Virtual Machines (VMs)

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You can provision VMs for these services providers using blueprints:

• Microsoft Azure

• Amazon Web Services EC2 Instance

• VMware vSphere VM