Chapter 8. Deploying your customized images After creating customized images for the VMWare vSphere private cloud, you can deploy the images to VMware vSphere. For the Guest image ( .qcow2 ), and Installer ( .iso ), you can then download these images and deploy them to virtual machines. Note You can only launch customized images directly from Hybrid Cloud Console to the following public clouds: AWS, GCP, and Azure. The VMDK customized images must first be uploaded to VMWare vSphere, deployed there, and then you can create a VM. For the Guest image ( .qcow2 ), and Installer ( .iso ), you can then download these images and deploy them directly to virtual machines. 8.1. Configuring credentials to access your deployed systems with cloud-init You cannot add a username and password to a blueprint by using the Red Hat Insights images UI interface. To add a username and password to your image, use the cloud-init tool. The following example shows how to add credentials to a VMware OVA image type created with Insights image builder. You can add credentials to other image types by using this method. The Open virtualization format ( .ova ) is a .vmdk image with additional metadata about the virtual hardware. The .ova image contains the cloud-init package installed that you can use to provision users by using a user-data file, for example. Instead of sharing your login credentials to a hosted service, use cloud-init and open-vm-tools , that are installed within the image and enabled by default. For example, you can use it to pass the credentials to the VMware vSphere Cloud Director by using cloud-init . Prerequisites You created an image in the .ova format by using the Hybrid Cloud Console. Procedure Access the directory where you downloaded your .ova image. Create a file named metadata.yaml and add the following information to this file: instance-id: cloud-vm local-hostname: vmname Create a file userdata.yaml . Add the following information to the file: #cloud-config users: - name: admin sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" ssh_authorized_keys: - ssh-rsa AAA...fhHQ== your.email@example.com This file contains the administrator or root user credentials with no password that you can use to access your system after the first boot and create additional users later. The ssh_authorized_keys field is your SSH public key. You can find your SSH public key in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub . steps Deploy your image to vSphere by using the CLI or to the the vSphere GUI . 8.2. Configuring credentials to access your deployed systems with API You cannot add a username and password to a blueprint by using the Red Hat Insights images UI interface. To add a username and password to your image, use the Image-builder service API . The following example shows how to add credentials to a VMware OVA image type created with Insights image builder. You can also use this method to add credentials to other image types. Prerequisites Access to Hybrid Cloud Console . OAuth 2.0 authorization. You created an access token by using the Image Builder API. See Generating an access token for the Image Builder API queries . The jq tool is installed. Procedure Generate an access token for API queries by following the step in Generating an access token for the Image Builder API queries . Important Access tokens expire after fifteen (15) minutes. The expiration is included within the JSON response. You must repeat the process of obtaining an access token approximately every ten (10) minutes so that the token is rotated before it expires. In your system, create a file in the .json format to create an image. The following example shows how to create an up-to-date RHEL 9.4 ova image for x86_64 CPU architecture. USD request.json { "image_name": "ova_image_name", "distribution": "rhel-94", "image_requests": [ { "architecture": "x86_64", "image_type": "vsphere-ova", "upload_request": { "type": "vmdk", "options": {} } } ], "customizations": { "users": [ { "name": "user-name", "ssh_key": "ssh-rsa AAAAB...qfGI+vk", "password": "password" } ] } } Send the compose request to the image builder API: USD curl --silent \ --request POST \ --header "Authorization: Bearer USDaccess_token" \ --header "Content-Type: application/json" \ --data @request.json \ https://console.redhat.com/api/image-builder/v1/compose If the request is successful, you can see an output similar to the following, that is the image ID: {"id":"fd4ecf3c-f0ce-43dd-9fcc-6ad11208b939"} Check the status of the image building: USD curl \ --silent \ --header "Authorization: Bearer USDaccess_token" \ "https://console.redhat.com/api/image-builder/v1/composes/USDcompose_id" \ | image_ID. If the request is successful, you can see an output similar to the following, that is the image ID: {"id":"fd4ecf3c-f0ce-43dd-9fcc-6ad11208b939"} You can also check the image building progress by accessing Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console . After the image builds, you can see the following output: If the request is successful, you can see an output similar to the following, that is the image ID: { "image_status": { "status": "success", "upload_status": { "options": { "url": "https://image-builder-service-production.s3.amazonaws.com/composer-api-76...-disk.ova?e42..." }, "status": "success", "type": "aws.s3" } } } After finishing the image creation, download the image. USD curl --location --output vsphere-ova.vmdk \ "https://image-builder-service-production.s3.amazonaws.com/composer-api-76...-disk.ova?e42..." The image is saved to your system and ready to be used. steps Deploy your image to vSphere by using the CLI or to the vSphere GUI . Additional resources The Getting started with Red Hat APIs article The Image-builder service API blog post The Transition of Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console APIs from basic authentication to token-based authentication via service accounts article The Red Hat Insights Information and Resources page 8.3. Uploading VMDK images and creating a RHEL virtual machine in vSphere After creating and configuring your image, you can deploy it to VMware vSphere by using the CLI, and you can create a VM and log in to it. Prerequisites You configured credentials to access your deployed systems by using the cloud-init tool. See Configuring credentials to access your deployed systems . You configured the govc VMware CLI tool client with the following values in the environment by setting the following values in the environment: Procedure Export the metadata.yaml and userdata.yaml files to the environment, compressed with gzip , encoded in base64 as follows. They will be used in further steps. export METADATA=USD(gzip -c9 <metadata.yaml | { base64 -w0 2>/dev/null || base64; }) \ USERDATA=USD(gzip -c9 <userdata.yaml | { base64 -w0 2>/dev/null || base64; }) Launch the image on vSphere with the metadata.yaml and userdata.yaml files: Import the .vmdk image in to vSphere: Create the VM in vSphere without powering it on: Change the VM to add ExtraConfig variables, the cloud-init config: Power-on the VM: Retrieve the VM IP address: Use SSH to log in to the VM, using the user-data specified in cloud-init file configuration: Additional resources The govc documentation The VMware - cloud init 22.2 documentation 8.4. Deploying OVA VMDK images to the vSphere GUI After creating your .vmdk image in the open virtualization format ( .ova ), you can deploy it to VMware vSphere by using the vSphere GUI client. It will create a VM which can be customized further before booting. Prerequisite You logged in to the vSphere UI in a browser. You downloaded your ( .ova ) image. Procedure In the vSphere Client, from the Actions menu, select Deploy OVF Template . On the Deploy OVF Template page, complete the settings for each configuration option and click . Click Finish . The .ova image starts to be deployed. After the image deployment is complete, you have a new virtual machine (VM) from the .ova image. In the deployed image page, perform the following steps: From the Actions menu, select Edit Setting . On the Virtual Hardware tab, configure resources such as CPU, memory, add a new network adapter, between others of your choice. On the CD/DVD drive 1 option, attach a CD or DVD Drive that contains a cloud-init.iso , to provision a user on startup. The VM is now ready to boot with the username and password from the cloud-init.iso file. Additional resources Deploy an OVF or OVA Template The govc documentation The VMware - cloud init 22.2 documentation 8.5. Creating a virtual machine from the customized RHEL Guest system image You can create a virtual machine (VM) from the QCOW2 image that you created by using Insights Images. Prerequisites You created and downloaded a QCOW2 image by using Insights Images. Procedure Access the directory where you downloaded your QCOW2 image. Create a file named meta-data . Add the following information to this file: Create a file named user-data . Add the following information to the file: ssh_authorized_keys is your SSH public key. You can find your SSH public key in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub . Use the genisoimage command to create an ISO image that includes the user-data and meta-data files. Create a new VM from the KVM Guest Image using the virt-install command. Include the ISO image you created on step 4 as an attachment to the VM image. Where, --graphics none - indicates that it is a headless RHEL Virtual Machine. --vcpus 4 - indicates that it uses 4 virtual CPUs. --memory 4096 - indicates that it uses 4096 MB RAM. The VM installation starts: Additional resources Creating virtual machines using the command-line interface 8.6. Installing a customized RHEL ISO system image to a bare metal system You can create a virtual machine (VM) from the ISO image that you created using the Insights image builder. Prerequisites You created and downloaded an ISO image by using Insights image builder. A 8 GB USB flash drive. Procedure Access the directory where you downloaded your ISO image. Place the bootable ISO image file on a USB flash drive. Connect the USB flash drive to the port of the computer you want to boot. Boot the ISO image from the USB flash drive. Perform the steps to install the customized bootable ISO image. The boot screen shows you the following options: Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 1-latest Test this media & install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 1-latest Additional resources Booting the installation 8.7. Importing and running QCOW2 images on OCI You can import your customized .qcow2 image to the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Then, you can launch the customized .qcow2 image on a virtual machine. Prerequisites You logged in to the Oracle Cloud UI in a browser. You downloaded your .qcow2 image. You have copied the .qcow2 image Image Link URL from Insights Instance column, in the Images dashboard. Procedure In the Oracle Cloud UI dashboard, click Compute > Custom Images . On the Custom Images dashboard, click Import image . On the Import image window, set the following configuration: Select the Import from an object storage URL option. In the Object Storage URL field, paste the URL given by Insights Images into it. Choose the QCOW2 image type. Under Launch mode , select the Paravirtualized mode option. Click Import Image . Once the system finishes importing the image, you can run the customized image in the OCI environment.

Commands:
instance-id: cloud-vm local-hostname: vmname
#cloud-config users: - name: admin sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" ssh_authorized_keys: - ssh-rsa AAA...fhHQ== your.email@example.com
request.json { "image_name": "ova_image_name", "distribution": "rhel-94", "image_requests": [ { "architecture": "x86_64", "image_type": "vsphere-ova", "upload_request": { "type": "vmdk", "options": {} } } ], "customizations": { "users": [ { "name": "user-name", "ssh_key": "ssh-rsa AAAAB...qfGI+vk", "password": "password" } ] } }
curl --silent --request POST --header "Authorization: Bearer USDaccess_token" --header "Content-Type: application/json" --data @request.json https://console.redhat.com/api/image-builder/v1/compose
id: fd4ecf3c-f0ce-43dd-9fcc-6ad11208b939
curl --silent --header "Authorization: Bearer USDaccess_token" "https://console.redhat.com/api/image-builder/v1/composes/USDcompose_id" | image_ID.
id: fd4ecf3c-f0ce-43dd-9fcc-6ad11208b939
{ "image_status": { "status": "success", "upload_status": { "options": { "url": "https://image-builder-service-production.s3.amazonaws.com/composer-api-76...-disk.ova?e42..." }, "status": "success", "type": "aws.s3" } } }
curl --location --output vsphere-ova.vmdk "https://image-builder-service-production.s3.amazonaws.com/composer-api-76...-disk.ova?e42..."
GOVC_URL GOVC_DATACENTER GOVC_FOLDER GOVC_DATASTORE GOVC_RESOURCE_POOL GOVC_NETWORK
export METADATA=USD(gzip -c9 <metadata.yaml | { base64 -w0 2>/dev/null || base64; }) USERDATA=USD(gzip -c9 <userdata.yaml | { base64 -w0 2>/dev/null || base64; })
govc import.vmdk ./composer-api.vmdk foldername
govc vm.create -net.adapter=vmxnet3 -m=4096 -c=2 -g=rhel8_64Guest -firmware=bios -disk=" foldername /composer-api.vmdk" -disk.controller=ide -on=false vmname
govc vm.change -vm vmname -e guestinfo.metadata="USD{METADATA}" -e guestinfo.metadata.encoding="gzip+base64" -e guestinfo.userdata="USD{USERDATA}" -e guestinfo.userdata.encoding="gzip+base64"
govc vm.power -on vmname
HOST=USD(govc vm.ip vmname )
ssh admin@HOST
instance-id: nocloud local-hostname: vmname
#cloud-config user: admin password: password chpasswd: {expire: False} ssh_pwauth: True ssh_authorized_keys: - ssh-rsa AAA...fhHQ== your.email@example.com
genisoimage -output cloud-init.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data meta-data I: -input-charset not specified, using utf-8 (detected in locale settings) Total translation table size: 0 Total rockridge attributes bytes: 331 Total directory bytes: 0 Path table size(bytes): 10 Max brk space used 0 183 extents written (0 MB)
virt-install --memory 4096 --vcpus 4 --name myvm --disk composer-api.qcow2,device=disk,bus=virtio,format=qcow2 --disk cloud-init.iso,device=cdrom --os-variant rhel1-latest --virt-type kvm --graphics none --import
Starting install Connected to domain myvm [ OK ] Started Execute cloud user/final scripts. [ OK ] Reached target Cloud-init target. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 1-latest (Ootpa) Kernel 4.18.0-221.el8.x86_64 on an x86_64