Using Managed Services

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The Guest OS Services (GOSS) is an add-on component for Rackspace Private Cloud powered by VMware (RPC-VMware) that allows you to request Rackspace managed OS services for VMs. After the initial registration of your RPC-VMware environment into the Rackspace automation systems, GOSS enables you to request Rackspace managed OS administration, monitoring, patching, licensing, and installation of antivirus agents. These are the same OS services that are provided with Rackspace Dedicated Servers and Rackspace Server Virtualization.

The Guest OS Services add-on component is not available as a stand-alone product. It is an automation integration system that enables Rackspace to provide OS services for Virtual Machines (VMs) that you deploy in, or migrate to your RPC-VMware environment.

Getting started with GOSS for RPC-VMware

This section provides the following information about Guest OS Services (GOSS) for Rackspace Private Cloud powered by VMware (RPC-VMware):

GOSS architecture

The following sections describe the systems used with Guest OS Services (GOSS) for Rackspace Private Cloud powered by VMware (RPC-VMware). Components are described in the following section.

Automated Systems Interactions

Guest OS Services automation is comprised of a number of systems that interact with each other to provide the service.

vCenter Indexing

An automated system is registered with the vCenter Server to receive vCenter event notifications. These notifications are used to determine when new Virtual Machines are created in RPC-VMware to make them available for GOSS enrollment. The system also detects Virtual Machine configuration changes and when Virtual Machines are deleted.

CMDB

Rackspace maintains a CMDB with details about your RPC-VMware environment. The CMDB is automatically updated with information about the Virtual Machines that you create in your RPC-VMware environment. The CMDB received additional updates when you enroll a Virtual Machine in Guest OS Services.

Guest OS Services Automation

Rackspace has created custom automation services to provide the automated experience for Guest OS Services. This service orchestrates the interactions between all systems involved in providing Guest OS Services for your Virtual Machines.

vSphere Guest APIs

Initial OS access during the enrollment process makes use of the vSphere APIs for guest actions which requires VMware Tools to be installed and running within the guest OS. This is used to validate the OS credentials provided with the enrollment and to ensure that the OS meets the requirements for enrollment.

MyRackspace Portal

The MyRackspace portal will display your indexed Virtual Machines under the “Devices” section. This portal is also used when you enroll your Virtual Machines in Guest OS Services as well as create or interact with support tickets relating to these systems.

IPAM

Rackspace uses an internal IPAM service to keep track of as well as allocate IP addresses within your RPC-VMware environment. During the automated enrollment process, the IPAM service will record the local IP address that you have assigned within the Virtual Machine and will provide a public IP address and record the NAT relationship.

Firewall

Rackspace uses an automation system to perform certain configuration changes to your firewall. These changes are limited to adding or removing NAT’s on your firewall during the automation processes for Guest OS Services.

Ansible

During the automated enrollment process, an Ansible system is used to remotely execute specific OS actions to perform the required operating system modifications.

Network Interactions

All automated processes access RPC-VMware management services and Virtual Machines (VMs) through your hosted firewall.

vCenter Network Interactions

Rackspace automation systems interact with the vCenter server in your RPC- VMware environment over a secure connection using a service account that accesses various functions of the vSphere API.

Direct interactive access of the vCenter Web UI will be used to provide OS services. This includes observing performance details or accessing the console.

Virtual Machine Network Interactions

During the enrollment process and at various times after enrollment, the OS of enrolled VMs is be accessed by Rackspace System Administrators and/or Automation Systems to perform actions within the guest operating system. The network access method for enrolled VMs uses dedicated individual public IP addresses added to the public interface of your hosted firewall. The public IP is NAT’d to the local IP address of the enrolled VM operating system.

Depending on the OS type of your Virtual Machine, Rackspace uses various secure network protocols such as ssh, WinRM, and RPD to access the OS.

GOSS components

The Guest OS Services (GOSS) uses a VM-based network access proxy server residing in the management services of RPC-VMWare to enable access to your enrolled VMs.

This device is planned to be used when additional features for GOSS are released.

Rackspace might choose to remove this proxy server or change the resource configuration as needed for GOSS.

GOSS features

The Guest OS Services (GOSS) uses an indexing service as well as an enrollment process to enable GOSS for VMs that you specify.

Virtual machine indexing

Rackspace will configure an indexing service to connect to your vCenter server. The indexer will create Configuration Management Data Base (CMDB) entries for each virtual machine that you create in the RPC-VMware environment. The virtual machines that have been indexed will become visible to you in the MyRackspace Portal. This enables you to enroll the indexed VMs in GOSS. Each indexed VM has vCenter attributes added to the VM container object in vCenter.

Note

Do not change or remove the attributes or you will not be able to enroll the VM in GOSS.

If you add GOSS to your RPC-VMware environment after VMs have been created. It will be necessary to request that CMDB entries for VMs that you wish to enroll in GOSS be created so that you can use the automated enrollment process.

Service enrollment

The service enrollment process allows you to provide Rackspace with a list of the virtual machines that you want to enable GOSS on, indicate the specific services desired and to provide Rackspace with OS login credentials that will be used to perform changes, updates and additions to the operating system. The service enrollment is an automated process. Any failures in the automated processes might result in manual remediation efforts to complete the enrollment.

Configuration changes

The indexer identifies when various configuration changes occur for Virtual Machines. The following configuration change triggers additional automation actions.

VM Power Off/On: This change triggers updates to the CMDB entry for the Virtual Machine to ensure that Rackspace support and automation systems are aware when the operating system within the Virtual Machine is expected to be accessible.

VM deletion

The indexer identifies when you delete a Virtual Machine from your RPC-VMware environment and automatically remove the corresponding CMDB entry. If the Virtual Machine was enrolled in GOSS, the assigned Public IP and firewall NAT are removed.

GOSS roles and permissions

Because the Guest OS Services (GOSS) for RPC-VMware service is not directly accessible by customers, there are no access permissions.

VM creation

You are responsible for creating your virtual machines and associated operating systems running within them. Rackspace does not provide VM creation or deployment services with RPC-VMware or Guest OS Services for RPC-VMware.

For a list of supported OS types and versions, refer to the EOL Terms page. For an OS to be supported for enrollment in Guest OS Services, the OS type and version must be listed on the page and must not have reached the End-of-Support date indicated.

VM enrollment

You are responsible for enrolling your virtual machines in Guest OS Services. Rackspace personnel do not have access to the enrollment process.

Rackspace is responsible for acting on the enrollment request to configure the selected services on the VMs that you enroll.

MyRackspace portal permissions

Refer to the MyRackspace Customer Portal Permissions Guide for details on the permissions required to use the Ticket Template to enroll VMs in GOSS.

You are responsible to ensure that only appropriate users within your organization have the ability to enroll virtual machines in GOSS.

Available Guest OS services

Managed OS administration

Managed OS Administration is a service that allows you to request that Rackspace system administrators perform actions within the Linux or Windows operating system of your virtual machine. Request can be made by tickets in the MyRackspace portal or by calling your support team.

Managed OS monitoring

Managed OS Monitoring provides an operating system agent that will monitor for OS health and specific OS alerts for which support tickets will automatically be opened. Rackspace system administrators will respond to the alert tickets and perform needed corrective actions.

Managed OS patching

Managed OS Patching provides a curated patching experience where Rackspace validates and tests all patches prior to applying them to your operating systems. Monthly patching will be communicated to you via Rackspace support tickets.

Antivirus license

Antivirus License provides an antivirus agent within the OS that you can use to monitor for malicious components affecting the OS.

GOSS Spheres of Support

This section lists the areas of the Guest OS Services (GOSS) that are considered managed by Rackspace, and the areas that require you to manage them.

Rackspace Managed

Ensures that the GOSS VM indexing and automation processes are functional and available
Ensures successful enrollment of VMs
Configures enrolled VMs for the services indicated in the enrollment process
Monitors the GOSS proxy VM for availability
Monitors GOSS automation systems for availability
Troubleshoots and remediates any failed VM Indexing or Enrollment processes

Customer Managed

Creates VMs
Requests VM enrollment in GOSS, as needed
Ensures that VMs being enrolled meet the requirements for enrollment

GOSS compatibility

Guest OS Services for RPC-VMware might not be compatible with all Rackspace products and services. Contact your Rackspace support specialist for detailed information about whether any specific Rackspace product is compatible with your Guest OS Services.

Future development of GOSS automation processes might remove the limitations referenced in the following sections.

GOSS compatibility with operating systems

GOSS compatibility with NSX VxLAN networks

If you choose to provision NSX VxLAN segments in your RPC-VMware environment, it will not be possible to enroll VMs that have only NICs connected to VxLAN segments. A VM must have at least one NIC connected to an Exnet segment in your environment to enable our systems to provision a public IP address and NAT on your hosted firewall.

GOSS compatibility with Managed Backup

If you choose to restore a VM that was enrolled in GOSS for a purpose other than direct replacement of the original VM, it will be necessary to request assistance from your Rackspace support team to either disable or reconfigure the GOSS with a new VM CMDB identifier. Failure to request this may impact your support services for the original and/or restored VM.

GOSS compatibility with VM cloning

If you choose to clone a VM that was enrolled in GOSS, it will be necessary to request assistance from your Rackspace support team to either disable or reconfigure the GOSS with a new VM CMDB identifier. Failure to request this may impact your support services for the original and/or cloned VM.

GOSS compatibility with OS IP address changes

If you choose to change the local IP address of an enrolled VM, it will be necessary to request assistance from your Rackspace support team to update the registered IP Address in our CMDB. Failure to request this may impact your support services for the VM since the local IP address will no longer be associated with the public IP NAT that exists on the firewall.

GOSS patching compatibility with customer provided RHEL licensing

Customer provided RedHat OS licenses are not compatible with the GOSS Patching service for RHEL servers. Since RedHat Licensing is essentially access to RHEL patches for ongoing maintenance of a server, the customer provided REHL license (Patching) service would conflict with configuration changes that Rackspace will make when enrolling a RHEL server VM in GOSS Patching. If you want to retain your customer provided RHEL licenses, do not select the Patching service option when enrolling RHEL Server VMs in GOSS.

GOSS compatibility with third-party products

If you choose to implement a third-party solution within your private cloud, contact the Rackspace account team to explore compatibility with GOSS.

GOSS authentication methods

Use your My Rackspace Portal credentials to request VM enrollment in Guest OS Services.

During the Guest OS Services enrollment process, customers must provide Rackspace with OS login credentials equivalent to root or Administrator accounts.

Rackspace creates standard automation and OS login accounts to perform OS actions that are included in the Guest OS Services. Rackspace automatically rotates the passwords on these accounts.

GOSS licensing

For details about licensing, see the main licensing section in the handbook.

Individual OS instance licenses are not available at this time.

Customer-provided Red Hat OS licenses are not compatible with the GOSS Patching service for RHEL servers. Because Red Hat Licensing is essentially access to RHEL patches for ongoing maintenance of a server, the customer-provided RHEL license (Patching) service conflicts with configuration changes that Rackspace makes when enrolling a RHEL server VM in GOSS Patching. If you want to retain your customer-provided RHEL licenses, do not select the Patching service option when enrolling RHEL Server VMs in GOSS.

GOSS patching and upgrading

Rackspace patches and upgrades any Guest OS Services (GOSS) management components as well as automation systems as needed and notifies you of any impacting maintenance operations that could cause disruption to the VM indexing or enrollment processes.

For details about patching and upgrading RPC-VMware, see the main patching and upgrading section in the handbook.

GOSS API

No API is provided for Guest OS Services at this time.

Using GOSS for RPC-VMware

This section provides information about using the Guest OS Services (GOSS) add-on service for Rackspace Private Cloud powered by VMware (RPC-VMware).

Enrollment requirements

Before you can enroll a VM in Guest OS Services, it must meet the following requirements:

Note

Rackspace encourages using the Rackspace complementary VM templates when deploying VMs you want to enroll in Guest OS Services. Rackspace OS Administrators are accustomed to the operating system configurations of these VM templates.

General requirements

The VM OS must be a supported type and version.
VM is powered on.
VMware Tools version 10.x is installed and running.

Note

We recommend installing the latest supported version of VMware tools for best results during the automated enrollments.

The OS of the VM must have the local firewall disabled and allow remote access and privileged process execution by the enrollment account.
Do not enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for the enrollment account or the rack user account created during the enrollment process.
The VM must have at least one NIC connected to a physical network with at least one IPv4 IP address configured that matches the physical network topology.
The VM must have a reachable public IP address configured in the Rackspace Technology CMDB.
The VM must have a reachable public IP configured in the Rackspace Technology CMDB.

Note

Guest OS Services does not support IPv6 addresses. You must disable IPv6 before enrollment in Guest OS Services.

Windows requirements

The following requirements apply to Windows installations:

OS administration

Install PowerShell v3 or higher.
Note
If you increase the MaxMemoryPerShellMB quota for PowerShell v3, you must apply hotfix 2842230 or update to a newer version of PowerShell. If you apply the hotfix, set MaxMemoryPerShellMB to 2048.
Disable User Account Control (UAC) for all users that are members of the local Administrators group.
Ensure that WinRM is startable and enable TLS 1.2.
Provide an Administrator-privileged login for remote access for enrollment.
Enable Remote Desktop sessions.
For servers joined to customer Active Directory, configure the AD DNS service with Rackspace DNS forwarders. Contact your Account team for details.

Note

For servers joined to customer Active Directory, any group policy settings active for the servers being enrolled in Guest OS Services must not conflict with or revert any changes being made during or after enrollment.

Linux requirements

The following requirements apply to Linux installations:

OS administration

Allow remote SSH logins for the provided user credentials.
Provide a root privileged login for enrollment.
Configure a valid repo for dependent package installation.
Remove all invalid repo references, including original ISOs used.

Note

The valid repo requirement does not apply if you select Rackspace patching.

Patching

Ensure that you do not use customer-provided RHEL licensing. If you select the patching service, configure the Rackspace patching service instead of the existing patching service subscription.
Ensure that you install rhn packages on your CentOS servers to qualify for enrollment of the patching service. Verify that you installed the following packages: rhn-client-tools, rhn-check, rhn-setup, rhnsd, m2crypto, yum-rhn-plugin

Enrollment process

The service enrollment process lets you select the virtual machines that you want to enroll in selected Guest OS Services and provide Rackspace with OS login credentials that are used to perform the necessary changes, updates, and additions to the operating system.

VM inventory

VM creation

When you create a new VM, an automated system receives a notification from your vCenter which enables Rackspace to create a CMDB entry in our systems to represent the new VM. This CMDB entry enables the VM to be displayed in the list of devices in your account shown in the MyRackspace Portal. Based on the VM container type, the CMDB device type will indicate that it is Windows, Linux or Unsupported. The Windows or Linux device types will indicate that it might qualify for enrollment in Guest OS Services. An Unsupported device type indicates that the VM container type indicates that the OS of the VM is not one that Rackspace supports.

VM device number

When the VM is registered in the CMDB, it is assigned a device number identifier. This number is added to the VM as a custom attribute in vCenter. To see the device number for a specific VM, you can search by VM name in the My Rackspace portal device list, or you can browse to the VM summary tab in vCenter and look at the custom attribute com.rackspace.deviceId. This CMDB device number is used to identify the VM when you request Rackspace support services.

Note

If you discover that any of your VMs are missing from the CMDB entries displayed in the MyRackspace portal or that they do not have a custom attribute deviceId value present, contact your account team and provide them with the VM name so that an entry can be created.

VM enrollment

To enroll a VM or VMs in Guest OS Services, log in to the MyRackspace Portal with Account Administrator or Device Admin permissions for the VM devices to be enrolled. To access the enrollment form, a Device Admin user must also have the Edit Tickets permission because the enrollment form creates a ticket with the VM devices associated with the ticket.

After logging in to the MyRackspace Portal, select the “Tickets” menu, then select “Create Tickets”. In the “Subject” line, click on the down arrow and select the “Suggested Templates” item: “Enroll in RPC-VMware Guest OS Services”.

Ticket details

Submitting this form begins the automated process to configure the selected Guest OS Services for the VMs you specify. Allow time for the enrollment automation to process your request. The ticket is updated with comments as your request is processed.

Virtual machines

Clicking “None selected” displays a list of the VM devices that have been registered in the Rackspace CMDB based on VM creation events received from you RPC-VMware vCenter Server. This list only displays VM devices that have not yet been enrolled in Guest OS Services. Once a device is enrolled, it will be removed from this list.

From here, you can select the box next to the name of each VM that you want to enroll in Guest OS Services. You can also use the “Select all” option or the Search bar to filter for specific VM names.

Note

Only select multiple VMs for enrollment if they share a single user name and password as entered below. Restrict multiple VM enrollments to no more than 10 VMs. Enhancements to the automation process might increase or remove this limitation in the future.

Managed services

[x] OS administration
[_] Monitoring
[_] Patching
[_] Antivirus

Under “Managed Services”, you will see a mandatory “OS Administration” service already selected for you. You can choose to also select the optional “Monitoring”, “Patching” and/or “Antivirus” components. Remember that all VMs selected will receive the same service selections. If you want to have some VMs receive different services you will need to enroll them separately.

Note

You must have purchased the corresponding OS service for RPC-VMware in order to receive the services selected here. Selecting a service that you have not purchased will not result in the service being available for the selected VM(s).

Credentials

Enter the “Username” and “Password” that applies to all selected VMs. The credentials that you enter here must have Linux root and/or Windows Administrator level OS permissions.

User account considerations

Windows servers are subject to User Account Control (UAC) by default, which prevents remote execution of administrative functions even if the user is an administrator.

Ensure that UAC is disabled for the account that is used for enrollment.

Note

Because of UAC, the enrollment account must be a domain account and a member of the remote computer Administrators group. If the account is a local computer member of the Administrators group, then UAC does not allow access to the WinRM service. To enroll with a local account in a workgroup, UAC filtering for local accounts must be disabled by creating the following DWORD registry entry and setting its value to 1: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy

Rackspace recommends entering Active Directory domain user credentials in the UPN format Username@Domain rather than the legacy Domain\Username. This improves the reliability of the automated enrollment process.

Linux servers joined to Active Directory allow domain accounts to act as Linux users. Due to an issue with open-vm-tools handling of the Domain\User account name syntax, AD users are not currently supported for Linux Guest OS Services enrollment. Please use a standard Linux account for the enrollment process.

Note

Because a local account named rack is created during the enrollment process, you cannot use a local account with that name for enrollment purposes.

Password limitations

Due to the large number of system interactions used for Guest OS Services automation, only a subset of special characters are supported for user passwords submitted for the enrollment process. If you are using special characters in your password, include only the following special characters: ] ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) { } [

ASCII code above 127 is not accepted. All other alpha numeric characters are supported.

Use SSH key

If you require the use of SSH keys instead of passwords, select the box to enable SSH Key credentials. After selection, the “Password” field will be replaced with both “SSH Passphrase” and “SSH Private Key” entry fields.

Submitting the enrollment

Click the “Create Ticket” button to submit the Enrollment request.

Processing the enrollment

Your request will be acknowledged with a ticket that has all of the VM devices attached for reference. Any issues with the enrollment request will be posted to the ticket and a final comment will be added when the enrollment process is complete.

Review all comments in this ticket regarding the individual device enrollments as well as notes for conditions on some devices that require action on your part. Closing this ticket indicates your acknowledgement of these notifications.

Enrollment requirements not met

Enrollment automation perform checks of the VMs being enrolled to ensure that they meet the enrollment requirements. If any do not meet the requirements, a ticket comment is provided to indicate which requirement check failed. Review the comments carefully and correct any missing requirements before attempting to enroll the VM again.

Automation failures

At times, the automated process encounters failures that require user intervention. Support teams are alerted and work to correct any issues as quickly as possible. After the issue is resolved, the automation is re-initiated by Rackspace or manual enrollment of the requested services is performed.

If errors are noted, do not process any additional enrollments until the error has been resolved. Also, do not re-submit enrollment requests that are in progress as this results in additional tickets for errors that are already being reviewed and resolved.

Note

Rackspace does not provide an SLA for the enrollment process. Any SLAs related to the OS services commences after the service has been configured for the VM.

Operating System changes

Enrollment Process OS Changes

When enrolling VMs in Guest OS Services, Rackspace performs the following steps as part of the enrollment process:

OS login credentials are validated using VMware tools OS interactions
OS version is verified using VMware tools OS interactions
For Windows Servers: WinRM is verified or enabled as needed
Local IP address is registered with Rackspace systems
Existing Public IP address from IP allocation device is migrated to VM device
New Public IP address is provided to VM device if not pre-allocated

After these steps are completed, the automation system makes changes within the OS of each VM enrolled. You should never adjust or revert any of these changes when a VM is enrolled in Guest OS Services. The local OS user account “rack” should never be disabled, renamed, or have the password changed. Rackspace automatically rotates the password for this account.

The specific OS service changes are listed below.

Windows OS changes

OS administration

Registry keys to store Rackspace information are created.
Create a “rack” user account with administrator permission.
Create a {device#}-admin user account with administrator permission.
Disable Windows Firewall.

Monitoring

Download agent installer to c:\rs-pkgs.
Install agent and register with the monitoring management system.

Patching

Configure Rackspace Windows Update Servers.
Configure Windows Update service settings and restart the service.
Test the update system access.

Antivirus

Download agent installer to c:\rs-pkgs.
Install agent and register with the antivirus management system.

Linux OS changes

OS administration

Create Rackspace user account:

Create default groups depending on the distribution.
Create a “rack” user account with root privileges.
Create a “rack” group.
Add “rack” to sudoers only in el6.

Create OS associations to Rackspace CMDB entry:

Create Rackspace cookies and sets the noadc file.
Cookies are located by default in /root/.rackspace and they are:
- customer_number
- datacenter
- kick
- kick_date
- segment
- server_number
- primary_user
A noadc file is placed in /boot/.rackspace/noadc.

Configure Rackspace time serivce:

Remove conflicting non-default time service packages (if any).
Install default time service packages.
Stop the time service.
Update the time service configuration files with the Rackspace default configuration and time servers (default action, optional).
Synchronize the server’s time.
Start the time service and enable it to start on boot.

Configure Rackspace DNS:

Ensure RAX DNSs IPs and search domain are in resolver configuration file.
Add Rackspace custom NetworkManager config (EL7 only).

Monitoring

Transfers the installer file.
Installs and starts the monitoring system agent.
Removes the installer file.

Patching

Perform authentication against the RHN API and save the token in /tmp/rhnapi_token.
Verifies whether or not the server is already registered.
Register the server making these changes.
Removes the package: subscription-manager.
Creates a temp directory in the server to download rpm packages that include GPG keys.
Cert packages are installed: rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert.
Server is registered using the rhnreg command, using a single registration code per device.
RHN packages are installed: osad, rs-release, rhncfg-actions.
GPG keys are imported into the rpm db.
Services are enabled and started: osad, rhnsd.

Patching the Ubuntu operating system:

Retrieve a token from the patching system.
Install python-apt (required by apt_repository).
Add Rackspace public key.
Add https Rackspace repository.
Install rs-inventory.
Register the VM in inventory.

Antivirus

Performs connectivity tests to AV system update managers.
Installs the agent package.
For Ubuntu 16.04 and RHEL/CentOS 7, switches the on-access detection from talpa to fanotify.

Modifying service enrollments

At this time, if you want to change the Guest OS Services enrollment for one of your VMs, you must contact your support team to request the modification. After a VM has been enrolled in GOSS it will no longer be displayed in the enrollment device selection window.

Note

Future development of GOSS automation processes might remove this limitation and enable you to use automation to change or remove service enrollments for your VMs.

VM actions

After your RPC-VMware environment is configured for Guest OS Services, an automated system that has been registered with the vCenter Server will receive vCenter event notifications when certain VM actions are performed by you.

VM event types

This section describes the VM event types.

VM creation

Virtual Machine (VM) creation notifications are used to determine when new VMs are created in RPC-V in order to make them available for GOSS enrollment. When a create notification is received, the automation system interrogates vCenter for VM container details that allows a CMDB entry for the VM to be created. Also, the automation system adds a custom attribute to the VM contain that contains the CMDB device number associated with that VM.

VM creation events might be triggered by creating a new VM container, deploying a new VM from a template, deploying a new VM from OVA/OVF, adding a VM to inventory from the local datastore, migrating a VM into RPC-VMware, restoring a VM from a backup or certain 3rd party tool functions that result in the enrolled VM being added to the RPC-VMware vCenter inventory.

Note

It is important that you never remove or modify the custom attribute of the VMs in RPC-VMware.

VM power on or off

When you power off or suspend a VM, automation updates the system status in the CMDB to indicate that the VM is offline. When you power on or resume a VM, the system status returns to active.

VM deletion

When you delete, migrate, or unregister VMs in vCenter, the indexing service automatically removes the CMDB entry for those VMs. You will no longer see CMDB entries for deleted VMs in the MyRackspace portal. The Public IP assigned to enrolled VMs that are deleted will now be available for new enrollments.

Note

Unregistering a VM from vCenter is treated the same as deleting a VM. If you unregister an enrolled VM and then register it again, the VM is assigned a new CMDB number and is not considered enrolled in Guest OS Services. Contact your support team prior to taking this action so that they can assist with reconfiguring the installed services for the new CMDB number.

VM clone

Cloning a VM triggers a VM creation event as described above. When a VM enrolled in GOSS is cloned, the internal OS changes that were made during enrollment are no longer correctly associated with the new CMDB entry. The cloned VM still contains internal OS associations with the source VM CMDB entry. When you clone a VM enrolled in GOSS, it is necessary for you to contact your support team to have the CMDB association corrected in the new VM.

Note

You might need to reboot the new VM after corrective actions have been taken.

VM IP changes

Changing the local IP of a VM that has been enrolled in GOSS will disrupt the configured services and associated automated processes as well as the ability of Rackspace Support to quickly access the OS of your enrolled VMs.

If you need to change the local IP of an enrolled VM, contact your Support team to coordinate activities necessary to update the Rackspace CMDB entries and associated hosted firewall NATs.

GOSS glossary

VM enrollment

The process to initiate the setup of various Rackspace Guest OS Services.

Updated over 1 year ago