Deploy Instance from Content Library
Content libraries (CLibs) are container objects for VM and vApp (OVF) templates and other types of files, such as ISO images, text files, and so on across multiple vCenter Server instances in the same or remote locations which ensures consistency and compliance when deploying virtual machine workloads.
The VSS Command Line Interface provides access to the Content Libraries
available in the ITS Private Cloud via the VSS API allowing faster
deployment compared to the from-image method.
There are currently three types of Content Library Items available:
OVF virtual machines.
VM Templates.
ISO Images.
Aforementioned items can be browsed with the following commands:
vss-cli compute contentlib --help
Usage: vss-cli compute contentlib [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
Manage Manage Content Library Items.
Virtual Machine templates, OVF, ISO and other items.
Options:
--help Show this message and exit.
Commands:
iso Browse current ISO images
ovf Browse current OVF images
vm Browse Virtual Machine Templates
vApp (OVF) Template
This example describes the steps to deploy a virtual machine via the
content library, specifically the image ubuntu-2004-focal-server-cloudimg-amd64
using the ClodInit package to customize the operating system by
injecting the following cloud-init.yaml file as a NoCloud datasoource
created and mounted by the VSS API.
#cloud-config
hostname: vm-from-clib
timezone: America/Toronto
fqdn: vm-from-clib.eis.utoronto.ca
ntp:
enabled: true
ntp_client: ntp
servers:
- 128.100.56.135
- 128.100.100.128
# Add users to the system.
# Users are added after groups are added.
users:
- name: root
passwd: $6$....
ssh_authorized_keys:
- "ssh-rsa .... "
- name: vss-admin
gecos: VSS Admin
sudo: ALL=(ALL) ALL
groups: users, admin
ssh_import_id: None
lock_passwd: false
shell: /bin/bash
passwd: $6$....
ssh_authorized_keys:
- "ssh-rsa ..."
packages:
- ntp
- git
- nginx
- httpie
- postfix
- firewalld
- mailutils
- python3-venv
- python3-dev
- build-essential
- inetutils-traceroute
- docker-ce
- docker-ce-cli
- containerd.io
apt:
sources:
docker.list:
source: deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $RELEASE stable
keyid: 9DC858229FC7DD38854AE2D88D81803C0EBFCD88
write_files:
- path: /etc/update-motd.d/10-motd-vss
permissions: '0755'
content: |
#!/bin/bash
INSTANCE_ID=`vmware-rpctool "info-get guestinfo.ut.vss.instance.id"`
INSTANCE_NAME=`vmware-rpctool "info-get guestinfo.ut.vss.instance.name"`
printf "\n"
printf " University of Toronto ITS Private Cloud Instance\n"
printf "\n"
printf " Name: $INSTANCE_NAME\n"
printf " ID: $INSTANCE_ID\n"
- path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/50-ut-eis-vss.conf
owner: root
content: |
Port 2226
PermitRootLogin without-password
PasswordAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
X11Forwarding no
UseDNS no
- path: /etc/firewalld/services/ssh_2226.xml
content: |
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<service>
<short>SSH-2226</short>
<description>SSH service on port 2226</description>
<port protocol="tcp" port="2226"/>
</service>
- path: /etc/sysctl.d/60-disable-ipv6.conf
owner: root
content: |
net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1
net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6=1
- path: /etc/bash.bashrc
append: true
content: |
# vim:ts=4:sw=4
export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%F %T "
export HISTFILESIZE=1000
export HISTSIZE=1000
PROMPT_COMMAND=$(history -a)
typeset -r PROMPT_COMMAND
trap 'logger -p local1.notice -t bash -i -- "$USER":"$BASH_COMMAND"' DEBUG
runcmd:
- chmod -x /etc/update-motd.d/50-motd-news
- chmod -x /etc/update-motd.d/10-help-text
- sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1
- sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6=1
- systemctl enable firewalld
- systemctl start --no-block firewalld
- firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=ssh_2226
- firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
- firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
- firewall-cmd --reload
- systemctl start --no-block nginx
- touch /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled
package_update: true
package_upgrade: true
package_reboot_if_required: true
power_state:
delay: now
mode: reboot
message: Rebooting the OS
condition: if [ -e /var/run/reboot-required ]; then exit 0; else exit 1; fi
final_message: "The system is finally up, after $UPTIME seconds"
Once the cloud-init.yaml file is updated with your ssh-keys, hashed passwords,
and packages to be installed, execute the following command:
vss-cli --wait compute vm mk from-clib \
--memory 4 --cpu 2 \
--source ubuntu-2004-focal-server-cloudimg-amd64 \
--disk 10 \
--description 'Content Library deployment + cloud config' \
--client EIS --os ubuntu64Guest --usage Prod \
--folder APIDemo --net VL-1584-VSS-PUBLIC \
--extra-config disk.EnableUUID=TRUE \
--user-data cloud-init.yaml \
--storage-type ssd \
--power-on \
vm-from-clib
id : 5501
status : IN_PROGRESS
task_id : 8b68bd8a-3293-4caf-988e-b9f0ac2b8efd
message : Request has been accepted for processing
⏳ Waiting for request 5501 to complete...
🎉 Request 5501 completed successfully:
warnings : Fault Domain: FD4 (domain-c66),
Created in: VSS > Sandbox > jm > APIDemo (group-v6736),
Network adapter 1 (vmxnet3): 00:50:56:92:bb:06: VL-1584-VSS-PUBLIC,
User data will be applied.,
Successfully allocated 00:50:56:92:bb:06 -> 142.1.217.xxx,
user-data iso vm-51385-ud.iso has been mounted
Successfully powered on.
errors :
After a couple of minutes, a new virtual machine has been deployed and should be available via
the public ip address assigned on port 2226 with everything in the cloud-init.yaml
descriptor configured and installed:
ssh -p 2226 vss-admin@142.1.217.xxx
Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.4.0-70-generic x86_64)
University of Toronto ITS Private Cloud Instance
Name: 2104P-vm-from-clib
ID: vm-51385
System information as of Fri Apr 9 12:30:08 EDT 2021
System load: 0.25 Processes: 171
Usage of /: 23.8% of 9.52GB Users logged in: 0
Memory usage: 12% IPv4 address for docker0: 172.17.0.1
Swap usage: 0% IPv4 address for ens192: 142.1.217.xxx
0 updates can be installed immediately.
0 of these updates are security updates.
vss-admin@vm-from-clib:~$
Virtual Machine Template
We are working to get preconfigured virtual machine templates and will update the documentation when ready.