Create VM with ssh access (sys-admin nomination required)¶

Table of Contents

Create VM with ssh access (sys-admin nomination required)

Prerequisites ¶

The user has to be registered in the IAM system for INFN-Cloud https://iam.cloud.infn.it/. Only registered users can login into the INFN-Cloud dashboard https://my.cloud.infn.it.

For more details regarding registration please see Getting Started

The solution described in this guide consists on instantiation of a Virtual Machine on the INFN-CLOUD infrastructure. The instantiation of a VM comes with the responsibility of maintaining it and all the services it hosts.

Please read the INFN Cloud AUP in order to understand the responsibilities you have in managing this service.

Selection of the Deployment type ¶

Note

If you belong to multiple projects, aka multiple IAM-groups, after login into the dashboard, from the bottom left corner, select the one to be used for the deployment you intend to perform. Not all solutions are available for all projects. The resources used for the deployment will be accounted to the respective project, and impact on their available quota. See figure below.

Once selected the project choose the “Virtual Machine” button from the list of solutions available for your group:

Figure 1: Use-cases panel in the Dashboard

A menu is available, as in the figure below:

Figure 2: Select type of VM to deploy

The first choice gives the possibility to deploy a simple VM with a certain amount of resources, expressed in terms of CPU and RAM, accessible via ssh. The second one is similar with the difference that it gives also the possibility to attach to the VM an additional disk with a specified size.

Select the one you are interested in and follow the corresponding section below in order to understand what parameters need to be set for each use case.

Deploy a VM with no additional storage ¶

The parameters to be used for the creation of the VM are split in two tabs: “CONFIGURATION” and “ADVANCED”. Some of them are mandatory, you need to specify their value before moving to the “ADVANCED” tab.

CONFIGURATION ¶

Figure 3: VM configuration parameters

You need to specify:

DEPLOYMENT DESCRIPTION:
- a human readable name for the deployment (max 50 characters).
- this is a mandatory field.
PORTS: ports to open on the VM to access the service(s). By default only SSH port (22) is opened. Please consult INFN Cloud Rules of participation the “Networking” section in order to see what are the ports that you can specify in this field. If the port you intend to use is in the list of closed-ports, you have to formally request its opening and motivate the request by following the How To: Request to open ports on deployed VMs
- you have to specify one port, list of ports or range of ports per line
- multiple lines are allowed

Important

INFN Cloud has a clearly defined list of open ports (see reference in the Networking section). The opening of any port that is not present in the above mentioned list must be formally requested through the INFN Cloud ServiceDesk

Figure 4: Open Ports configuration

FLAVOR:
- resources needed in terms of CPUs and RAM for the new VM

Figure 5: Flavor selection

OPERATING SYSTEM:
- Operating system to be installed. Possible values are Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04, CentOS 7, and Alma Linux 9.

Figure 6: Operating system selection

ADVANCED ¶

In this section you can

Set deployment creation timeout (minutes)
- amount of time to wait until the deployment should be considered failed
Do not delete the deployment in case of failure
- in case further debugging is needed
The automatic (default) or manual scheduling, allowing the user to perform the deployment by:
- taking advantage of the PaaS Orchestrator scheduling capabilities (the recommended way), or
- performing a direct submission towards one of the providers available, to be selected from the drop-down menu
send, or not, a confirmation email when deployment is complete

Figure 7: Advanced configuration tab

Deploy a VM with block storage ¶

This use case allows the deployment of a simple VM with an additional disk space attached.

As in the previous use case, the parameters are split in two tabs: “CONFIGURATION” and “ADVANCED”, you cannot pass to the “ADVANCED” tab without filling all the mandatory information present in the “CONFIGURATION” tab.

CONFIGURATION ¶

Figure 8: VM configuration parameters

You need to specify:

DEPLOYMENT DESCRIPTION:
- a human readable name for the deployment (max 50 characters).
- this is a mandatory field.
PORTS:
- Service ports to be open on the new VM. Only the ssh port (22) is opened by default.
  - you have to specify one port, list of ports or range of ports per line
  - multiple lines are allowed

Important

INFN Cloud has a clearly defined list of open ports (see reference in the Networking section). The opening of any port that is not present in the above mentioned list must be formally requested through the INFN Cloud ServiceDesk

Figure 9: List of ports to be opened

MOUNTPOINT and VOLUME SIZE:
- local directory where to mount the volume and the desired size, in GB, of the volume to be created. Maximum size allowed is 100GB.

Figure 10: Mount point and storage size configuration

FLAVOR:
- resources needed in terms of CPUs and RAM for the new VM

Figure 11: Flavor selection

OPERATING SYSTEM:
- Operating system to be installed. Possible values are Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04, CentOS 7, and Alma Linux 9.

Figure 12: Operating system selection

ADVANCED ¶

In this section you can

Set deployment creation timeout (minutes)
- amount of time to wait until the deployment should be considered failed
Do not delete the deployment in case of failure
- in case further debugging is needed
The automatic (default) or manual scheduling, allowing the user to perform the deployment by:
- taking advantage of the PaaS Orchestrator scheduling capabilities (the recommended way), or
- performing a direct submission towards one of the providers available, to be selected from the drop-down menu
send, or not, a confirmation email when deployment is complete

Figure 13: Advanced configuration tab

Deployment results ¶

To check the status of the deployment and its details select the “Deployments” button. You’ll find there the list of all your deployments.

Figure 14: My deployments view - creation of the new deployment in progress

After the deployment is complete it will appear as shown below:

Figure 15: My deployments view - creation of the new deployment complete

For each deployment the button “Details” in the “Action” column (fig. 16) allows you:

Figure 16: Available actions for each deployment

to get the details of deployment: overview info, input values and output values, once the deployment finishes (see fig.15)
to show the TOSCA template of the deployment
to retrieve the deployment log file that contains error messages in case of failure
to request additional ports to be opened
to show the details of the VMs created
to lock it
to delete the VM

Clicking on the DEPLOYMENT IDENTIFIER you can see its details:

OVERVIEW of the cluster - where you can find information on the location of your deployment
The INPUT VALUES you give to create the VM
The OUTPUT VALUES you can use to access to the VM and user to use for accessing the VM. The public key is the one you’ve uploaded on the dashboard.

Figure 17: deployment output values