Chapter 1. Installing Red Hat CloudForms

Red Hat CloudForms is able to be installed and ready to configure in a few quick steps. After downloading Red Hat CloudForms as a virtual machine image template from the Red Hat Customer Portal, the installation process takes you through the steps of uploading the appliance to a Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) environment.

Important

After installing the Red Hat CloudForms appliance, you must configure the database for Red Hat CloudForms. See Section 2.3, “Configuring a Database for Red Hat CloudForms”.

1.1. Obtaining the Appliance

The following procedure outlines how to obtain a copy of the appliance from the Customer Portal.

  1. Log in to the Red Hat Customer Portal at access.redhat.com using your customer account details.
  2. Click Downloads in the menu bar.
  3. Click A-Z to sort the product downloads alphabetically.
  4. Click Red Hat CloudForms → Download Latest to access the product download page.
  5. From the list of installers and images, click the Download Now link for the latest version of the CFME Red Hat Virtual Appliance (qcow).

After the image completes downloading, you are ready to upload the CloudForms appliance to your Red Hat Virtualization environment and create a virtual machine.

1.2. Uploading the Appliance to Red Hat Virtualization

The method for uploading the CloudForms appliance differs depending on the Red Hat Virtualization version you are using.

In Red Hat Virtualization 4.0 and newer, upload the QCOW2 appliance image using the Red Hat Virtualization Administration Portal.

In Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.6 and earlier, upload the OVA appliance image using the image uploader tool. You can also use this method for Red Hat Virtualization 4.0 systems.

Uploading the Red Hat CloudForms appliance file to Red Hat Virtualization requires:

  • 44 GB of storage space on both the export domain and the local partition where /tmp resides, as the OVF archive is locally expanded into that directory.
  • 12 GB RAM.
  • 4 vCPUs.

Prerequisites:

  • You must configure the Image I/O Proxy when running engine-setup. See Configuring the Red Hat Virtualization Manager in the Red Hat Virtualization Installation Guide for more information.
  • Internet Explorer 10, Firefox 35, or Chrome 13 or greater is required to perform this upload procedure. Previous browser versions do not support the required HTML5 APIs.
  • You must import the required certificate authority into the web browser used to access the Administration Portal.
Note

To import the certificate authority, browse to https://<engine_address>/ovirt-engine/services/pki-resource?resource=ca-certificate&format=X509-PEM-CA and select all the trust settings. Refer to the instructions to install the certificate authority in Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome.

1.2.1. Uploading the Appliance Using the Administration Portal (RHV 4.x)

In Red Hat Virtualization 4.0 and newer, upload the QCOW2 appliance image using the Red Hat Virtualization Administration Portal. After uploading the image, create a disk and attach it to a virtual machine.

To upload the appliance
  1. Log in to the Red Hat Virtualization Administration Portal.
  2. Click Storage → Disks.
  3. Select Upload → Start.
  4. Click Choose File, and select the appliance image to upload.
  5. Under Disk Options, enter an Alias for the image.
  6. (Optional) Edit other fields in Disk Options if desired.
  7. Click OK.

A progress bar in the Status column indicates the status of the upload. You can also pause, cancel, or resume uploads from the Upload menu. The status shows OK when the image has completed uploading.

Note

Ensure your Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager has administrator access to the chosen export storage domain. See the Uploading Images to a Data Storage Domain in the Red Hat Virtualization Administration Guide for more information.

Increasing the Upload Timeout Value

  1. If the upload times out and you see the message, Reason: timeout due to transfer inactivity, increase the timeout value: 

    # engine-config -s TransferImageClientInactivityTimeoutInSeconds=6000

  2. Restart the ovirt-engine service: 

    # systemctl restart ovirt-engine

1.2.1.1. Creating a CloudForms Virtual Machine in Red Hat Virtualization 4.x

After uploading the appliance to the data domain, create a virtual machine containing the CloudForms image and a second disk for the database:

  1. In Compute → Virtual Machines, click New to open the New Virtual Machine dialog.
  2. From the General tab, specify a name for the virtual machine and any other details.
  3. Click Attach.
  4. Select the CloudForms appliance you uploaded from the list of images and click OK.
  5. Click the VM to open its details screen, and click the Disks tab.
  6. Click Edit to the disk, and check Bootable if it is not marked already.
  7. Click OK.

  8. Add a second disk for the database:

    1. Click the General tab and click the Edit button to edit the virtual machine.
    2. Click + and Create to create a disk for the database (VMDB).

    3. Specify a Size in GB for the disk that allows sufficient space for your database. Red Hat recommends allocating the virtual machine disk fully at the time of creation. Three main factors affect the size of your database over time:

      • Virtual Machine Count: the most important factor in the calculation of virtual machine database (VMDB) size over time.
      • Host Count: the number of hosts associated with the provider.

      • Storage Count: the number of individual storage elements as seen from the perspective of the provider or host. It is not the total number of virtual disks for all virtual machines.

        Note

        See Database Requirements in the Deployment Planning Guide for information on calculating disk size for your database.

    4. Set the Allocation Policy to Preallocated (thick provisioning) for best performance.
    5. Specify any other values as desired.
  9. Click OK to create the disk and return to the New Virtual Machine window.
  10. Add a network interface to the virtual machine by selecting a vNIC profile from the nic1 list.
  11. Click OK to save your changes to the virtual machine.
  12. Start the CloudForms appliance by clicking the Run button.

Your Red Hat Virtualization environment now contains a running CloudForms appliance.

1.2.2. Uploading the Appliance with the Image Uploader (RHEV 3.x)

In Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.6 and earlier, upload the appliance as an OVA image using the image uploader tool. Red Hat Virtualization 4.0 supports this method as well.

Refer to The Image Uploader Tool in the Red Hat Virtualization Administration Guide for more details on using the image uploader.

To install the image uploader, install the rhevm-image-uploader package containing the engine-image-uploader script to your local machine: 

# yum install rhevm-image-uploader

Upload the Red Hat CloudForms appliance using the image uploader:

  1. Change to the directory containing the Red Hat CloudForms appliance.

  2. Run the following command: 

    # engine-image-uploader -N `newimagename` -e `myexportdomain` -v -m upload cfme-rhevm-5.3-15.x86_64.rhevm.ova

    Substitute newimagename with your chosen name for the image, and substitute myexportdomain with your chosen export storage domain.

    Note

    It is recommended to use -v (verbose logging) when using the engine-image-uploader script to see the progression of the upload.

  3. Enter the password of the default administrative user for your Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager when prompted. 

    Please provide the REST API password for the admin@internal oVirt Engine user (CTRL+D to abort): **********
    Important

    Ensure your Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager has administrator access to the chosen export storage domain.

It takes approximately 90 minutes to upload the Red Hat CloudForms appliance file to the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager. Once the OVA is uploaded and imported as a template, add a network adapter to the template itself.

1.2.3. Uploading the Appliance Manually (RHEV 3.x)

The following procedure provides manual upload instructions for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.6 and earlier, if the image uploader tool is not available or fails to upload.

  1. Log in to a host in your Red Hat Virtualization system with a mount to the export storage domain.
  2. Change to the export storage domain’s directory.
  3. Copy the Red Hat CloudForms appliance OVF archive to this directory.
  4. Run the ls command to locate the directory named after a GUID, and change to that directory.

  5. Extract the OVF file using the tar command, substituting the .ova filename with your download. For example: 

    [root@localhost 4a8fc2b1-0a57-47fd-b622-7e170981305b]# tar xvf ../cfme-rhevm-5.7.0.17-1.x86_64.rhevm.ova
images/
images/896d49ac-a5e4-4b73-8448-9778bb76ce32/
images/896d49ac-a5e4-4b73-8448-9778bb76ce32/26e85696-78a4-4a82-aedd-bf60a4aa7dae.meta
images/896d49ac-a5e4-4b73-8448-9778bb76ce32/26e85696-78a4-4a82-aedd-bf60a4aa7dae
master/
master/vms/
master/vms/647d5765-17fe-436d-aff1-82243e79976a/
master/vms/647d5765-17fe-436d-aff1-82243e79976a/647d5765-17fe-436d-aff1-82243e79976a.ovf

  6. Change ownership of the images and master export directories so the appliance can be imported as a template: 

    [root@localhost 4a8fc2b1-0a57-47fd-b622-7e170981305b]# chown -R 36:36 master/
[root@localhost 4a8fc2b1-0a57-47fd-b622-7e170981305b]# chown -R 36:36 images/

    The Red Hat Virtualization export domain shows the Red Hat CloudForms appliance in the administration portal.

1.2.3.1. Running Red Hat CloudForms in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.x

After uploading the appliance to the export storage domain, import it as a template and create a virtual machine.

  1. Import the appliance image from the export storage domain as a template in a Red Hat Virtualization data storage domain:

    1. Click the Storage tab, then select the export storage domain you uploaded the image to.
    2. From the details pane, click the Template Import tab, and select the image (newimagename) you uploaded.
    3. Click Import, and specify the Cluster and CPU Profile as desired.

    4. Click OK.

      You can check the import status on the Events tab. See Exporting and Importing Virtual Machines and Templates in the Red Hat Virtualization Virtual Machine Management Guide for additional information.

  2. Check if the template has a network interface (NIC). If the template does not include one, create a NIC for it:

    1. From the Templates tab, select the template you imported to view its details.

    2. From the details pane, click the Network Interfaces tab to check if a NIC is listed. If there is an existing NIC, continue to the next step. If no existing NIC is shown:

      1. Create a NIC by clicking New in the Network Interfaces tab.
      2. In the New Network Interface dialog, specify any values as desired or leave the defaults.

      3. Click OK.

        The new NIC shows in the Network Interfaces tab.

  3. Create a new virtual machine using the Red Hat CloudForms appliance template as a basis:

    1. From the Templates tab, select the CloudForms template.
    2. Click New VM to open the New Virtual Machine dialog.
    3. Specify a name for the virtual machine, and any other details as desired.

    4. Click OK.

      The virtual machine is created. To view the virtual machine, select the data center, then the Virtual Machines tab to view a list of all virtual machines.

  4. Add a database disk if you are hosting the database on the same machine as the appliance:

    1. To add a disk, select your virtual machine from the Virtual Machines tab.
    2. From the details pane, click the Disks tab.
    3. Click New to open the New Virtual Disk dialog.
    4. Specify a Size in GB for the disk that allows sufficient space for your database. See Database Requirements in the Deployment Planning Guide for size considerations.
    5. Set the Allocation Policy to Preallocated (thick provisioning) for best performance.
    6. Specify any other values as desired.
    7. Click OK to create the disk.
  5. To start the Red Hat CloudForms appliance, select the virtual machine from the Virtual Machines tab and click greentriangle (Run).

Your Red Hat Virtualization environment now contains a running Red Hat CloudForms appliance.