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Virtual Machines

A Virtual Machine (VM) is a virtual server used for running applications. A VM is created inside a certain Cloudspace, however it can be moved between Cloudspaces. This tutorial will get you started with VMs and their basic functionalities.

Creating Virtual Machines

To create a virtual machine

  1. Navigate to the specific Cloudspace details page. Select VMS from the given tabs.
  2. At the top of the page, click CREATE VM.

  3. Select the virtual machine source. You have four options here

    • Create from an image
    • Install via a CDROM
    • Create a VM without an operating system installed
    • Import from S3
    • Create from a snapshot
    • Create from cdrom backup
    • Create from boot disk

    1. A list of images will appear, select an image from them.
    2. Compute the sizes of the Vcpus, Memory and Boot disk.
    3. You can manage the storage of the VM by adding a data disk. Adjust the slider to your preffered disk size.
    4. Add configuration details for your VM such as:
      • Name
      • Boot type
      • Description (Optional)
      • Private IP (Optional)
      • SSH key (Optional, for linux based OSs)

    1. A list of images will appear, select an image from them.
    2. Compute the sizes of the Vcpus, Memory and Boot disk.
    3. You can manage the storage of the VM by adding a data disk. Adjust the slider to your preferred disk size.
    4. Add configuration details for your VM such as:
      • Name
      • Boot type
      • Description (Optional)
      • Private IP (Optional)

    1. Compute the sizes of the Vcpus, Memory and Boot disk by adjusting the slider.
    2. You can manage the storage of the VM by adding a data disk. Adjust the slider to your preffered disk size.
    3. Add configuration details for your VM such as:
      • Name
      • Operating System type
      • Operating System name
      • Boot type
      • Description (Optional)
      • Private IP (Optional)

    1. Enter the S3 information such as
      • S3 link server
      • Server access key
      • Secret to access server
      • S3 server region
      • Bucket name
      • Name of the stored object in the bucket
    2. Compute the sizes of the Vcpus and Memory by adjusting the slider.
    3. Add configuration details for your VM such as:
      • Name
      • Operating System type
      • Operating System name
      • Boot type
      • Description (Optional)
      • Private IP (Optional)

    1. Select a boot disk.
    2. Select the snapshot from the available snapshots lit. If the boot disk dosn't have snapshots created before, you can enable showing automatic snapshots to choose from.
    3. Compute the sizes of the Vcpus and Memory by adjusting the slider.
    4. You can manage the storage of the VM by adding a data disk. (Optional)
    5. Add configuration details for your VM such as:
      • Name
      • Boot type
      • Description (Optional)
      • Private IP (optional)

    Note: On selecting snapshots, you can optionally choose to clone all the disks created along with the seleted disk.

    1. Choose backup source Create from acronis backup or Create from veeam backup.
    2. Compute the sizes of the Vcpus, Memory and Boot disk by adjusting the slider.
    3. You can manage the storage of the VM by adding a data disk. (Optional)
    4. Add configuration details for your VM such as:
      • Name
      • Operating System type
      • Operating System name
      • Boot type
      • Description (Optional)
      • Private IP (optional)

    Note: Operating system type must be the same as the VM that was backed up.

    1. Select a boot disk.
    2. Compute the sizes of the Vcpus, Memory and Boot disk by adjusting the slider.
    3. You can manage the storage of the VM by adding a data disk. (Optional)
    4. Add configuration details for your VM such as:
      • Name
      • Operating System type
      • Operating System name
      • Boot type
      • Description (Optional)
      • Private IP (optional)

  4. Click CREATE VIRTUAL MACHINE or IMPORT VIRTUAL MACHINE in case of importing from S3.

Editing Virtual Machines

Similar to Cloudspaces, each virtual machine has a details page. From the details page, you can access and edit (resize, rename, delete ) all the virtual machine's information.

Accessing Details Page

To access the details page for an existing virtual machine

  1. Navigate to the specific Cloudspace details page. Select VMS from the given tabs.
  2. A list of all the virtual machines in this cloudspace will appear. Choose the virtual machine you want to access.

The details page for this VM will appear with all its detailed information.

Renaming Virtual Machines

To rename a virtual machine, navigate to the virtual machine's details page. Under Name, click to edit the virtual machine name.

Deleting Virtual Machines

To delete a virtual machine, navigate to the details page. At the top of the page, click DELETE.

Resizing Virtual Machines

You can resize the virtual CPUs and memory of a virtual machine from the details page. Under each of vCPUs and Memory, click to adjust the vCPUs and memory sizes.

CPU Topology

To configure the virtual CPU topology of the virtual machine, navigate to the CPU topology configuration page by clicking CPU Topology on the virtual machine's details page.

You can configure the number of Cores, Threads and Sockets. Note, that changing the topology will result is changing the amount of consumed vCPUs and may lead to extra charges. The total number of vCPUs is calculated by multiplying the number of cores, thread and sockets. For example, if you configure the topology settings with 8 virtual sockets, 2 threads, and 4 cores per socket, the total number of vCPUs is calculated by multiplying 8x2x4 = 64.

To update the number of vCPUs without changing the topology, click next to the vCPU info on the virtual machine details page. Note that, the minimum delta value of the vCPU amount is calculated to preserve current CPU topology.

Stopping/Pausing Virtual Machines

To stop or pause a virtual machine, navigate to the details page. At the top of the page, click PAUSE to pause the VM or STOP to stop it. After pausing, you can resume with the VM by clicking RESUME at the top of the page. After stopping, you can start the VM again by clicking START.

Also you have an option to Force stop your VM. Click STOP, check the Force stop this vm box and click CONFIRM.

Rebooting Virtual Machines

To reboot a virtual machine, navigate to the details page. At the top of the page, click REBOOT, then the virtual machine will reboot.

Additional Actions

You can copy the virtual machine's ID and other information by clicking next to the fields.

Creating Disks

To add a disk to a virtual machine

  1. In the VM details page, click ADD DISK at the top of the page.
  2. Choose the storage option:
    • DATA: Software-defined storage, with standard snapshots redundant across multiple servers and storage devices.
    • PHYSICAL: Flash-based volume local to the hypervisor.

      Note Disks created as physical storage are physically attached to a specific node. This means that virtual machines using physical storage disks cannot be moved to other physical nodes during maintenance activities

  3. Enter the disk name and description(optional).
  4. Adjust the disk size in GB and speed in IOPS. The configuration cost is displayed and is updated according to the size and speed parameters.
  5. Click CREATE. A message saying Disk created successfully! will appear and the disk will be added to the virtual machine's list of disks.

Detaching Disks

To detach a disk from a virtual machine

  1. In the virtual machine's details page, select the DISKS tab.
  2. The disk details page will open. At the top of the page, click DETACH.
  3. Click Confirm to confirm detaching the disk.

A message saying Disk was successfully detached from this virtual machine! will appear and the disk will be removed from the list of disks in the virtual machine.

Attaching/Detaching Network Interfaces

To attach the virtual machine to a network interface

  1. In the virtual machine's details page, select the NETWORK INTERFACES tab.
  2. At the top of the page, click ATTACH NICS. A list of available networks will appear.
  3. Select a network to attach to your virtual machine.
  4. Click ATTACH.

A message indicating that the network was successfully attached will appear. Also, the new network will be added to the list of network interfaces for this virtual machine.

To detach the virtual machine from a network interface

  1. In the virtual machine's details page, select the network interfaces tab.
  2. From the list of network interfaces, select the network interface you want to detach.
  3. A details page for this network interface will appear, at the top of the page click DETACH.

A message will appear indicating that the network was successfully detached.

Attaching/Detaching CDROMs (ISO Images)

To attach a CDROM to a virtual machine

  1. In the virtual machine's details page, select the CDROM IMAGES tab.
  2. At the top of the page, click ATTACH CDROM IMAGE. A list of available CDROM images will be displayed.
  3. Select a CDROM image and click ATTACH.

A message will appear indicating that the CDROM image was attached successfully.

To detach a CDROM from a virtual machine

  1. In the virtual machine's details page, select the CDROM IMAGES tab.
  2. From the list of attached CDROM images, select the CDROM you want to detach. The CDROM details page will appear.
  3. At the top of the page, click DETACH FROM VM. Then, click Confirm.

A message will appear indicating that the CDROM image was detached successfully.

Using the VM Console

One way of interacting with the virtual machine is through the virtual machine console.

If the virtual machine was created from a whitesky.cloud BV publicly available image, you can find the default username and password in the virtual machine's details page.

To access the console window, click CONSOLE at the top of the details page. The console window will pop up, along with two buttons: SEND TEXT and CTRL+ALT+DELETE.

Console Actions:

  • You can start typing commands directly into the console.
  • The Send Text button is a convenient way to copy and paste text directly to the virtual machine.
  • To reboot the virtual machine, click CTRL+ALT+DELETE.

Statistics

The Statistics tab contains graphs displaying the resources in the virtual machine. Each graph shows how much the virtual machine is utilizing this resource at different points in time. To see a larger view of a specific graph, click .

To change the dates of the observed period, click the date bar under the Statistics tab and select the new dates you want to observe.

Spendings

The Spendings tab illustrates the virtual machine's cost at different points in time. The total cost is shown along with each resource's cost separately. You can remove certain resources from the graph by clicking on the buttons next to each resource name on top of the graph.

To change the dates of the observed period, click the date bar under the Spendings tab and select the new dates you want to observe.