Create and manage a VM
A virtual machine (VM) is software that mimics the behavior of a stand-alone computer. You can use a VM to:
- Install an operating system.
- Install and run applications.
Instead of physical hardware, a VM uses virtual hardware such as virtual CPU (vCPU), virtual RAM (vRAM), virtual network interface card (vNIC), and virtual disks (vDisk) to complete operations. Because a single physical device can include multiple VMs, using VMs helps you to optimize hardware resources.
This chapter contains the following sections:
Create a virtual machine from a template
Create a VM when you want to deploy a new service or application. As a best practice, install a new service or application on its own VM. If you need to restart the VM, you impact all applications on that VM.
VMs can be standalone or created within vApps.
Note: Operating systems have different prices.
Before you begin
Before you begin, ensure that you:
- Decide which VM template you want to use. To view a list of VM templates:
- Log in to the Rackspace SDDC Flex portal.
- Click Libraries > vApp templates.
- Review the list of templates.
- Create a VDC.
- Create a data center group network.
How to get started
Complete the following steps to start creating a VM from a template:
- Log in to the Rackspace SDDC Flex portal.
- Click the VDC to which you want to add a VM.
- Click New VM and complete the Name, Computer name, and Description fields.
- In the Type field, select From Template.
Best practice guidelines
Consider the following guidelines when you create a VM from a template:
| Field name | Guideline |
|---|---|
| Power on | Leave the Power on checkbox selected if you want the VM to power on immediately after you create it. Clear the Power on checkbox if you intend to edit the VM or add it to a vApp before you power it on. |
| Template | Select a template. Typically, there is one template per OS. Note: Rackspace Technology creates and manages templates. |
| Storage policy | Select one of the following storage policies: Standard: Based on shared SAN. Capacity: Based on all-flash vSAN. |
| Compute sizing policy | Select from the list of compute sizes. The compute size defines the amount of vRAM and several assigned vCPUs. You cannot customize the sizing policy. |
| NICs | Primary NIC: If you have multiple NICs, you must designate one of the NICs as the Primary NIC. Because the system pushes DNS and gateway settings to only the Primary NIC, you must select a connection that needs these settings the most for external communication. Connected: Select this option unless you want to keep the interface disconnected for now. You can always change this setting later. Network adapter type: We recommend that you select VMXNET3 for most modern operating systems. Network: Select the network to which you want to connect this network adapter. IP mode: Select between DHCP, IP Pool, or IP Manual. In most cases, we recommend that you select IP Pool. > Note: You are responsible for creating the IP pool. Rackspace Technology does not impose a limit on IP pools. |
Locate your VM password
When you create a VM from a template, the system generates a password.
The following steps help you access the password.
Before you begin
Before you begin, ensure githat you:
- Identify the VM for which you want to locate the system-generated password.
Steps
Complete the following steps to access the random generated password for your VM:
- Log in to the Rackspace SDDC Flex portal.
- Click the VDC that contains the VM.
- Click Details on the VM you want to access.
- Click Guest OS Customization > Edit.
The Password field contains the system-generated password.
Perform additional actions on a VM
Based on the needs of your business, you can perform several additional actions on a VM.
Before you begin
Before you begin, ensure that you create a VM from a template.
How to get started
Follow the steps below to manage an existing virtual machine.
- Log in to the Rackspace SDDC Flex portal.
- Click the VDC that contains the VM.
- In the tile that displays the VM, click Actions and select a VM action.
Best practice guidelines
Consider the following guidelines when you perform additional actions on a VM:
| Field name | Guideline |
|---|---|
| Power | Power on: When you power on a VM, pay-as-you-go billing and alerting begins. Power off: This option abruptly shuts down the VM, which we do not recommend. Whenever possible, use the Shut down guest OS option to shut down the VM. Power on, force recustomization: If you have not synchronized the settings on a guest VM with vCloud Director or your attempt to perform guest customization fails, you can power on and force the recustomization of the VM. Shut down guest OS: Gracefully shuts down a VM when you do not need it. This option suspends pay-as-you-go billing and alerting for the VM. You can power on the VM later. Suspend: This option puts the VM in a suspended state where it does not respond, but you can resume it from the same point. Note: When you suspend a VM, you do not incur RAM charges, but you still incur storage charges. Reset: This option forcefully resets the VM. Reset the VM as a last resort if the guest OS is not responding. Discard suspended state: This option is only available for suspended VMs. When you discard a suspended state: The operation discards the contents of vRAM, so you can no longer resume the VM. The VM transitions into a powered-off state. Suspending a VM and then discarding its suspended state is equivalent to powering off the VM. |
| Renew Lease | Your Rackspace VM has a permanent lease. You do not need to use this option. |
| Snapshot | A snapshot stores the state and data of a VM at the time of the snapshot. The system limits you to one snapshot for each VM. A snapshot is useful if you make a potentially risky change to your applications, operating system, or data and require a convenient way to roll back those changes. For example, create a snapshot before you upgrade your applications. Create snapshot: Creates a new point-in-time VM snapshot. Includes OS and application configuration and all other data stored on the VM. A new snapshot replaces any existing snapshot. Snapshot the memory of the virtual machine: Use this option to perform actions after which you might need to revert the VM to its previous state. If you later revert to a snapshot without memory, the reverted VM is in a powered-off state. Quiesce the guest file system (requires installed VMware Tools): Quiescing a file system is a process of bringing the on-disk data of a physical or virtual computer into a state suitable for backups. This process might include such operations as flushing dirty buffers from the operating system in-memory cache to disk or other higher-level application-specific tasks. Quiescing indicates pausing or altering the state of running processes on a computer, particularly those that might modify information stored on the disk. Revert to snapshot: Reverts the VM to a point in time when you took the snapshot. This option is useful when you want to roll back your application upgrade. > Caution: You also lose any intentional changes, including data that has been written to disks since you created the snapshot. Remove snapshot: Select this option after verifying that your changes succeeded and you do not need to roll back. The operation commits any changes made to the VM since snapshot creation to VM disks. |
| VM console | The VM console displays the contents of your VM and lets you manage your guest OS. Launch web console: Open the console in a browser. Launch remote console: Open the console in a dedicated desktop application. Download VM remote console: Download the application required for the remote console function. |
| Install VMware tools | Install VMware tools to improve the management and performance of the VM. VMWare tools replace the operating system with VMware drivers optimized for use with VMs. Refer to VMware documentation for more information about how to install VMware tools. |
| Move | Move the VM to another vApp. This removes the VM from the original vApp. |
| Copy | Copy the VM to another vApp. This copies the VM to a vApp, and the copied VM remains in the original vApp. Use the copy feature when you want another instance of the same VM in a different vApp. |
| Change owner | You can change the owner of the vApp, such as when a vApp owner leaves the company or changes roles within the company. |
| Share | You can share your VM with other groups or users within your organization. If you are managing your VMs as a team, we recommend sharing a VM. |
| Create template | If you want to re-use the current state of the VM as a golden image, you can add it to a catalog as a template. You can then create VMs based on the VM template. |
| Convert to vApp | Create a new vApp and add this VM to it. |
| Edit badges | Add a badge to your VM. This operation stores badges as object metadata. Use badges to monitor specific conditions related to your VM, such as operational status and workload. |
| Delete | Delete the VM. Important: You cannot reverse a delete VM action. |
Edit or add hard disks to a VM
If your VM is running out of disk space, you can increase the storage capacity of existing hard disks, or you can add hard disks to your VM.
The following limitations apply to editing or adding hard disks to a VM:
- If the VM has an active snapshot, you cannot edit the size of existing hard disks.
- You can only increase and not decrease the size of existing hard disks.
- You cannot modify some hard disk properties when you have the VM powered on.
Before you begin
Before you begin, ensure that you:
- Power off the VM, depending on what you are changing. Hard disk expansions do not typically require you to power off the VM.
- Determine what you want to change about the hard disk, including its size and storage policy.
How to get started
Complete the following steps to start creating a VM from a template:
- Log in to the Rackspace SDDC Flex portal.
- Click Data Centers and select the VDC that contains the VM you want to edit.
- From the Compute drop-down menu, click Virtual Machines and then click the VM you want to edit.
- Click Hardware > Hard Disks > Edit.
Best practice guidelines
Consider the following guidelines when you edit or add hard disks to a VM:
| Field name | Guideline |
|---|---|
| Size | If the OS indicates that the VM is running low on free space, you might need to increase the size of a hard disk. Important: This change has pay-as-you-go billing implications. |
| Policy | You can change the storage policy for the vDisk. This might have performance and pay-as-you-go billing implications. |
| Bus number | Leave the default setting. |
| Unit number | Leave the default setting. |
Edit VM compute resources
You might need to increase the compute resources if the OS data indicates that the currently allocated resources are insufficient or if you believe that the amount of allocated CPU or RAM is a performance bottleneck.
If you have excess compute capacity, you can reduce compute resources to save money.
Before you begin
Before you begin, ensure that you:
- Determine the type of compute resource change you want to make.
- Understand that the change you want to make might have pay-as-you-go billing implications.
How to get started
Complete the following steps to begin editing VM compute resources:
- Log in to the Rackspace SDDC Flex portal.
- Click Data Centers and select the VDC that contains the VM you want to edit.
- From the Compute drop-down menu, click Virtual Machines and then click the VM you want to edit.
- Click Compute and then click the top Edit button.
Best practice guidelines
Consider the following guidelines when you edit VM compute resources.
| Field name | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Placement policy | This feature is currently disabled. |
| Sizing policy | Select from a pre-defined list of VM sizes. |
| Number of virtual CPUs | The number of virtual CPUs is a function of the sizing policy you selected. Calculate the virtual CPU value by multiplying the number of sockets by the number of cores per socket. |
| Cores per socket | The number of cores per socket is a function of the sizing policy you selected. Having more cores means your VM can independently run more applications or threads. |
| Number of sockets | The number of sockets is a function of the sizing policy you selected. You cannot directly change this setting. |
| Virtual CPU hot add | The CPU hot-add feature enables you to add CPU resources to a running VM. Before you enable CPU hot add, ensure that: The guest OS supports hot add. You install the latest release of VMware tools. * You power off the VM. |
| Expose hardware-assisted CPU virtualization to guest OS | This setting allows exposure of the full CPU virtualization to the guest operating system so that applications that require hardware virtualization can run on VMs without binary translation or paravirtualization. |
| Memory | The amount of memory is a function of the sizing policy you selected. You cannot directly change this setting. |
| Memory hot add | The memory hot-add feature enables you to add memory resources to a running VM. Before you enable memory hot add, ensure that: The guest OS supports hot add. You install the latest release of VMware tools. * You power off the VM. |
Edit a network interface card
You can edit a network interface to change the adapter type, IP address, or change its connection status.
Important: Changes might result in communication failure for the VM. If you are working in a production environment, we recommend making NIC changes during a maintenance window.
Before you begin
Before you begin, ensure that you identify the VM and the vNIC you want to edit.
How to get started
Complete the following steps to begin editing a NIC:
- Log in to the Rackspace SDDC Flex portal.
- Click Data Centers and select the VDC that contains the VM you want to edit.
- From the Compute drop-down menu, click Virtual Machines and then click the VM you want to edit.
- Click NICs > Edit.
Best practice guidelines
Consider the following guidelines when you edit a NIC:
| Field name | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Primary NIC checkbox | If you have multiple NICs, you must designate one of the NICs as the Primary NIC. Because the system pushes DNS and gateway settings to only the Primary NIC, you must select a connection that needs these settings the most for external communication. |
| Connected checkbox | This setting is equivalent to connecting or disconnecting a physical cable. Your VM cannot communicate over a disconnected interface. |
| Adapter type | We recommend that you select VMXNET3 for most modern operating systems. |
| Network | Select the network to which you want to connect this network adapter. |
| IP mode | Select DHCP, IP Pool, or IP Manual. In most cases, we recommend that you select IP Pool. |
Delete a VM
In this version of vCloud Director, the following error message appears when you delete a standalone VM that is not associated with a vApp:
The requested operation could not be executed on vApp “VM-Name-xxxxxxx”. Stop the vApp and try again.
The next release of vCloud Director resolves this limitation.
The steps in this section provide a workaround for deleting a VM that is not associated with a vApp.
Before you begin
Before you begin, ensure that you:
- Power off the VM you want to delete.
- Log in to Rackspace SDDC Flex with user-granted Organization Administrator permissions.
Steps
Complete the following steps to delete a VM:
-
Click Data Centers and select the VDC that contains the VM you want to delete.
-
Click Compute > Virtual Machines and click the name of the VM you want to delete.
-
Click All Actions > Convert to vApp.
-
Click Save.
Rackspace SDDC Flex converts the VM to a vApp.
-
Click NICs > Edit.
-
Select the NIC, click Delete, and click Save.
After you delete the NIC, you can delete the vApp and the associated VM.
-
Click Compute > vApp and click ACTIONS on the vApp you want to delete.
-
In the ACTIONS menu, click Power > Power Off.
-
After you power off the vApp, click ACTIONS > Delete.
Rackspace SDDC Flex deletes the vApp and the associated VM.
Updated 12 months ago