Provision Blueprints

Overview

Once you set up a credential store, you can provision your Virtual Machines (VMs) and create Blueprints for these resources:

Microsoft Azure

Before you begin

To provision a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine (VM) using a blueprint, you’ll need to create a Resource Group on the HyperCloud^TM Platform (HCP.)
All objects for a VM like the number of Disks, IP addresses, etc. are stored on the Resource Group.

To provision a Microsoft Azure VM using blueprints, follow these steps:

Create a Resource Group

Before you provision a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine (VM), you’ll need to create a Resource Group. Skip this step if you’ve already created a Resource Group. To create a Resource Group for Microsoft Azure, follow these steps:

Login to your HyperCloud™ Platform (HCP) account.
Click Service Orchestration and navigate to Services > Resource Group > New.
Select your Resource Pool.
Enter a Name for your Resource Group.
Click Create Resource Group.

Provision your Microsoft Azure VM

Once you create a Resource Group, you can create a Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine (VM) using blueprints.

Before you begin
Ensure that you have created a resource group.

To provision your Microsoft Azure VM:

Login to your HyperCloud™ Platform (HCP) account.
Click Service Orchestration and navigate to Services > Click New.
Fill up these details in the Create a VM dialog:
1. Select your Azure Resource Pool from the Resource Pool drop-down list.^[1]
2. Select the Resource Group and click Next.
3. Select an Availability Set. Availability sets are helpful when you have to scale your VMs using a load balancer tool. If you have not created an Availability Set already, you’ll have to create one.
4. Select the VM size and click Next.
5. Select an Image and click Next.
6. Select your Subnet and choose Assign Public IP.
7. Select the Security Group.
8. Select the Password Credential Store for authenticating your VM.
  1. Uncheck Skip Agent Install from the Add Credentials dialog. ^[2]
  2. Click Next.
9. From the Entitle Virtual Machine Owner page, select the entitlement you wish to provide and click Next.
10. Enter these details in the Advanced page dialog:
  1. Enter a prefix for your VM and click Review.
    Example: hg-prod-vm
  2. You may configure these optional settings:
    1. Enter the Lease term in minutes, hours, and days. ^[3]
    2. Select a Plugin to run once your VM is provisioned. ^{Refer to notes [4]}
    3. Select Define a VM Start and Stop Schedule to run your VM at scheduled timings. You can set the start time and duration to daily, weekly, or monthly.
Click Review.
Once you click Review, you’ll see the summary of your VM deployment.
You can deploy multiple VMs with the same configuration.
- Click + next to How Many VMs, to add VMs.
- Click - next to How Many VMs, to remove VMs.
You can click:
- Create to create your VM or,
- Click Save Blueprint Only to create a blueprint.
If you choose to save the blueprint, you’ll be able to access it via Service Orchestration > App Store.
Click open the blueprint you created and click Edit.
Enter the following details in the </>Machine Compose Blueprint dialog:
1. Enter a Name for your Blueprint.
2. You can Entitle Users to your Blueprint in one of the following ways:
  - Select Everyone to provide access to all users.
  - Select Groups & Users to provide access to specific users.
    - Enter the first three alphabets of the username in the Users drop-down and select the username.
    - Type the first three alphabets of the Group Name in the Groups drop-down and select the group name.
Click Save Changes.
To deploy a VM using the Blueprint:
1. Click open your Blueprint.
2. Click on Create Machine.
3. You’ll be redirected to Service Orchestration > VM.

Notes

^[1] Azure resource pools are identified by their regions.
Example: RP.ARM.SouthEastAsia.<ResourcePoolName>
^[2]If you uncheck the Skip Agent Install option, the HCP portal will install the HyperCloud Agent right after provisioning a VM.
- You’ll need to uncheck this option if you want to run plugins after provisioning a VM.
^[3] Once the lease period expires, your VM will be automatically deleted, and you will receive an email notification for the same.
^[4] If you want to run multiple plugins on a VM, you can select the order in which they run and exit.
1. Select a Plugin from the Plugins drop-down.
2. Click + Advanced Configurations.
  1. Enter the Valid Exit Codes for your Plugin.
  2. Enter the Plugin execution order.
  3. Click + Advanced Configurations to collapse the configuration menu.
3. To add another Plugin:
  1. Select your plugin from the Plugins drop-down list.
  2. Configure Advance Configurations as you did in step 2.
4. Once you’ve added and configured all the Plugins, click Review.

Create additional volumes using Blueprints

Once you provision a VM, you can create additional volumes using the YAML editor. You can access the YAML editor by editing a Blueprint. To create additional volumes using Blueprints:

Login to your HyperCloud™ Platform (HCP) account.
Click Service Orchestration and navigate to the AppStore.
Click open your Blueprint.
Click Edit.
Append the vol: in the YAML editor. Refer to the sample code below. ^[1]
Click Save Changes.
Once you’ve made changes to your YAML code, click open your Blueprint.
Click Create Machine.
Once your VM is provisioned, the HCP creates additional volumes under the same resource group and attached it to your newly provisioned VM. ^[2]

Sample Code

Machine:
region: westus
group: hg-ub16
image:
instanceType: Basic_A3
resourceGroup: hg-vm-rg
network: hg-vm-vnet1
subnet: hg-vm-vnet1-subnet1
securityGroup: hg-vm-nsg
skipAgentInstall: false
assignFloatingIP: true
publicIPSku: basic
password:2c9180866a79b909016ba03eca9b308c
count:1
terminationProtection:DISABLED
vols:!vol*
prefix:hg-ub16-dd1
size:10
Count 1

Amazon Web Services EC2 Instance

You can provision Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2 instances using a HyperCloud^TM (HCP) Blueprint. Follow these steps to create an AWS EC2 instance Blueprint:

Login to your HCP portal account.
Click Services Orchestration and navigate to Services > New.
1. Select your AWS Resource Pool from the drop-down list. ^[1]
2. Select your instance Size and click Next.
3. Select your Image and click Next.
4. Select the Subnet for the instance and click Next.
5. Select the Security Group.
6. Select your Key-Pair from the Add Credentials page and click Next.
7. Choose the entitled users from the Entitle Virtual Machine Owner page and click Next.
8. Enter these details in the Advanced page dialog:
  1. Enter a Prefix for your VM and click Review.
    Example: *hg-prod-vms*
  2. You may configure these optional settings:
    1. Enter the Lease term in minutes, hours, and days. ^[2]
    2. Select a Plugin to run once your VM is provisioned.^[3]
    3. Select Define a VM Start and Stop Schedule to run your VM at scheduled timings. You can set the start time and duration to daily, weekly, or monthly.
    4. Click Review.
    5. Once you click Review, you’ll see the summary of your VM deployment.
    6. You can deploy multiple VMs with the same configuration.
      - Click + next to How Many VMs, to add VMs.
      - Click - next to How Many VMs, to remove VMs.
    7. You can click:
      - Create to create your VM or,
      - Click Save Blueprint Only to create a blueprint.
    8. If you choose to save the blueprint, you’ll be able to access it via Service Orchestration > App Store.
    9. Click open the blueprint you created and click Edit.
    10. Enter the following details in the </>Machine Compose Blueprint dialog:
      1. Enter a Name for your Blueprint.
      2. You can Entitle Users to your Blueprint in one of the following ways:
        Select Everyone to provide access to all users.
        Select Groups & Users to provide access to specific users.
        Enter the first three alphabets of the username in the Users drop-down and select the username.
        Type the first three alphabets of the Group Name in the Groups drop-down and select the group name.
    11. Click Save Changes.
    12. To deploy a VM using the Blueprint:
      1. Click open your Blueprint.
      2. Click on Create Machine.
      3. You’ll be redirected to Service Orchestration > VM.

VMware vSphere VM

You can provision a VMware VSphere Virtual Machine (VM) using Blueprints. Follow these steps to create a VMware vSphere VM Blueprint:

Login to your HyperCloud™ Platform (HCP) account.
Click Service Orchestration and navigate to Services > VMs > New.
Enter these details in the Create A New VM dialog:
1. Select your Resource Pool from the drop-down list.
2. Select the VM Size from the drop-down list and click Next.
3. Select your Image from the drop-down list and click Next.
4. Select the Subnet and click Next.
5. Select one of these options from the Customization page:
  - Using Cloud Image: we recommend that you select this field. ^[1]
  - Using SSH via Login Credentials. ^[2]
  - Skip Agent Install. ^[3]
6. Click Next.
7. Choose the entitled users from the Entitle Virtual Machine Owner page and click Next.
8. Enter these details in the Advanced page dialog:
  1. Enter a Prefix for your VM and click Review.
    Example: *hg-prod-vms*
  2. You may configure these optional settings:
    1. Enter the Lease term in minutes, hours, and days. ^[4]
    2. Select a Plugin to run once your VM is provisioned.^[5]
    3. Select Define a VM Start and Stop Schedule to run your VM at scheduled timings. You can set the start time and duration to daily, weekly, or monthly.
    4. Click Review.
    5. Once you click Review, you’ll see the summary of your VM deployment.
    6. You can deploy multiple VMs with the same configuration.
      - Click + next to How Many VMs, to add VMs.
      - Click - next to How Many VMs, to remove VMs.
    7. You can click:
      - Create to create your VM or,
      - Click Save Blueprint Only to create a blueprint.
    8. If you choose to save the blueprint, you’ll be able to access it via Service Orchestration > App Store.
    9. Click open the blueprint you created and click Edit.
    10. Enter the following details in the </>Machine Compose Blueprint dialog:
      1. Enter a Name for your Blueprint.
      2. You can Entitle Users to your Blueprint in one of the following ways:
        Select Everyone to provide access to all users.
        Select Groups & Users to provide access to specific users.
        Enter the first three alphabets of the username in the Users drop-down and select the username.
        Type the first three alphabets of the Group Name in the Groups drop-down and select the group name.
    11. Click Save Changes.
    12. To deploy a VM using the Blueprint:
      1. Click open your Blueprint.
      2. Click on Create Machine.
      3. You’ll be redirected to Service Orchestration > VM.