Chapter 8. Creating and uploading a customized RHEL system image to GCP by using Insights image builder

Procedure

1. Access Insights image builder.

   The Insights image builder dashboard appears.

2. Click Create image.

   The Create image dialog wizard opens.

3. On the Image output page, complete the following steps:

   1. From the dropdown menu, select the Release: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

   2. From the Select target environments option, select Google Cloud Platform.

      Click Next.

4. On the Target environment- Google Cloud Platform window, select a valid account type to share your image with: a Google account, a Service account or a domain name.

   • Google account: A Google account which interacts with Google Cloud, for example: alice@gmail.com.
   • Service account: An application account, for example: myapp@appspot.gserviceaccount.com.
   • Google group: A named collection of Google accounts and service accounts, for example: admins@example.com.
   • Google workspace domain/Cloud identity domain: A virtual group of all the Google accounts in a named organization. For example, the domain name mycompany.com.

5. Enter the account email address or domain name, depending on the type of target environment you chose.

   Click Next.

6. On the Registration page, select the type of registration that you want to use. You can select from these options:

   • Register images with Red Hat: Register and connect image instances, subscriptions and insights with Red Hat. For details on how to embed an activation key and register systems on first boot, see Creating a customized system image with an embed subscription by using Insights image builder.
   • Register image instances only: Register and connect only image instances and subscriptions with Red Hat.
   • Register later: Register the system after the image creation.
7. Click Next.
8. Optional: On the Packages page, add packages to your image. See Adding packages during image creation by using Insights image builder.
9. On the Name image page, enter a name for your image and click Next. If you do not enter a name, you can find the image you created by its UUID

10. On the Review page, review the details about the image creation and click Create image.

    After you complete the steps in the Create image wizard, the image builder dashboard is displayed.

    Insights image builder starts to compose the RHEL image for the x86_64 architecture and upload it to Google Cloud Platform. Then, it shares the image with the account you specified.

    On the dashboard you can see details such as, the Image UUID, the cloud target environment, the image operating system release and the status of the image creation. After the new image displays a Ready status in the Status column, Insights image builder shares the image with the account you specified.

    Possible statuses:

    • Pending: the image upload and cloud registration is being processed.
    • In Progress: the image upload and cloud registration is ongoing.
    • Ready: the image upload and cloud registration is completed

    • Failed: the image upload and cloud registration failed.

      Note

      The image build, upload and cloud registration processes can take up to ten minutes to complete.

Procedure

1. From the Insights image builder dashboard, copy the image UUID of the image you created.
2. Access /composes/{composeId} API endpoint.
3. Click the Try it Out button to activate the composeId string path.
4. Enter the UUID into the composes/{composeId} field in the API endpoint.

5. Click Execute. The API endpoint generates a response in the Response body, for example:

   {
     "image_status": {
       "status": "success",
       "upload_status": {
         "options": {
           "image_name": "composer-api-03f0e19c-0050-4c8a-a69e-88790219b086",
           "project_id": "red-hat-image-builder"
         },
         "status": "success",
         "type": "gcp"
       }
     }
   }

6. From the Response body field, copy the image_name and project_id to access the image from the Google Cloud Platform environment.
7. From your browser, access Google Cloud Shell.

8. Set your Google Cloud Platform Project ID as the default GCP project. You can find the Product ID of your project by accessing the Google Cloud Platform dashboard.

   $ gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

9. In the Authorize Cloud Shell window prompt, click Authorize to allow this and future calls that require your credentials.

10. Create a VM instance with the image by using the gcloud command in the Google Cloud Shell:

    $ gcloud compute instances create INSTANCE_NAME \
      --image-project PROJECT_ID_FROM_RESPONSE \
      --image IMAGE_NAME \
      --zone GCP_ZONE

    Where:

    • INSTANCE_NAME is the name you give to your instance;
    • PROJECT_ID_FROM_RESPONSE is the project_id generated by Response body;
    • IMAGE_NAME is the image_name generated by Response body;
    • GCP_ZONE is the GCP zone in which the instance will be created.

Verification

1. Verify that Compute Engine created the VM:

   $ gcloud compute instances describe INSTANCE_NAME

2. Connect to the VM instance through SSH:

   $ gcloud compute ssh --project=PROJECT_ID --zone=ZONE INSTANCE_NAME

Procedure

1. From the Image Builder dashboard, copy the UUID image of the image you created.
2. Access /composes/{composeId} API endpoint.
3. Click the Try it Out button to activate the composeId string path.
4. Enter the UUID into the composes/{composeId} field in the API endpoint.

5. Click Execute. The API endpoint generates a response in the Response body, for example:

   {
     "image_status": {
       "status": "success",
       "upload_status": {
         "options": {
           "image_name": "composer-api-03f0e19c-0050-4c8a-a69e-88790219b086",
           "project_id": "red-hat-image-builder"
         },
         "status": "success",
         "type": "gcp"
       }
     }
   }

6. From the Response body field, copy the image_name and project_id to access the image from the Google Cloud Platform environment. From the Response body:

   "image_name": "composer-api-03f0e19c-0050-4c8a-a69e-88790219b086",
   "project_id": "red-hat-image-builder"

7. From your browser, access Google Cloud Shell.

8. Set your Google Cloud Platform Project ID as the default GCP project. You can find the Product ID of your project by accessing the Google Cloud Platform dashboard.

   $ gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

9. In the Authorize Cloud Shell window prompt, click Authorize to allow this and future calls that require your credentials.

10. Copy the image to your project by using the gcloud command:

    $ gcloud compute images create MY_IMAGE_NAME \
      --source-image-project red-hat-image-builder \
      --source-image IMAGE_NAME

    Where:

    • MY_IMAGE_NAME is the name you give to your instance;
    • red-hat-image-builder is the project_id generated by Response body;
    • IMAGE_NAME is the image_name generated by Response body;