Chapter 8. Virtual Machine Instances

OpenStack Compute is the central component that provides virtual machines on demand. Compute interacts with the Identity service for authentication, Image service for images (used to launch instances), and the dashboard service for the user and administrative interface.

Red Hat OpenStack Platform allows you to easily manage virtual machine instances in the cloud. The Compute service creates, schedules, and manages instances, and exposes this functionality to other OpenStack components. This chapter discusses these procedures along with procedures to add components like key pairs, security groups, host aggregates and flavors. The term instance is used by OpenStack to mean a virtual machine instance.

8.1. Manage Instances

Before you can create an instance, you need to ensure certain other OpenStack components (for example, a network, key pair and an image or a volume as the boot source) are available for the instance.

This section discusses the procedures to add these components, create and manage an instance. Managing an instance refers to updating, and logging in to an instance, viewing how the instances are being used, resizing or deleting them.

8.1.1. Add Components

Use the following sections to create a network, key pair and upload an image or volume source. These components are used in the creation of an instance and are not available by default. You will also need to create a new security group to allow SSH access to the user.

  1. In the dashboard, select Project.
  2. Select Network > Networks, and ensure there is a private network to which you can attach the new instance (to create a network, see Create a Network section in the Networking Guide).
  3. Select Compute > Access & Security > Key Pairs, and ensure there is a key pair (to create a key pair, see Section 8.2.1.1, “Create a Key Pair”).

  4. Ensure that you have either an image or a volume that can be used as a boot source:

  5. Select Compute > Access & Security > Security Groups, and ensure you have created a security group rule (to create a security group, see Project Security Management in the Users and Identity Management Guide).

8.1.2. Launch an Instance

Launch one or more instances from the dashboard.

Note

By default, the Launch Instance form is used to launch instances. However, you can also enable a Launch Instance wizard that simplifies the steps required. For more information, see Appendix B, Enabling the Launch Instance Wizard.

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Instances.
  2. Click Launch Instance.
  3. Fill out the fields (those marked with '* ' are required), and click Launch.

One or more instances are created, and launched based on the options provided.

8.1.2.1. Launch Instance Options

The following table outlines the options available when launching a new instance using the Launch Instance form. The same options are also available in the Launch instance wizard.

Table 8.1. Launch Instance Form Options

TabFieldNotes

Project and User

Project

Select the project from the dropdown list.

 

User

Select the user from the dropdown list.

Details

Availability Zone

Zones are logical groupings of cloud resources in which your instance can be placed. If you are unsure, use the default zone.

 

Instance Name

A name to identify your instance.

 

Flavor

The flavor determines what resources the instance is given (for example, memory). For default flavor allocations and information on creating new flavors, see Section 8.3, “Manage Flavors”.

 

Instance Count

The number of instances to create with these parameters. "1" is preselected.

 

Instance Boot Source

Depending on the item selected, new fields are displayed allowing you to select the source:

Access and Security

Key Pair

The specified key pair is injected into the instance and is used to remotely access the instance using SSH (if neither a direct login information or a static key pair is provided). Usually one key pair per project is created.

 

Security Groups

Security groups contain firewall rules which filter the type and direction of the instance’s network traffic (for more information on configuring groups, see Project Security Management in the Users and Identity Management Guide).

Networking

Selected Networks

You must select at least one network. Instances are typically assigned to a private network, and then later given a floating IP address to enable external access.

Post-Creation

Customization Script Source

You can provide either a set of commands or a script file, which will run after the instance is booted (for example, to set the instance host name or a user password). If Direct Input is selected, write your commands in the Script Data field; otherwise, specify your script file.

Note

Any script that starts with #cloud-config is interpreted as using the cloud-config syntax (for information on the syntax, see http://cloudinit.readthedocs.org/en/latest/topics/examples.html).

Advanced Options

Disk Partition

By default, the instance is built as a single partition and dynamically resized as needed. However, you can choose to manually configure the partitions yourself.

 

Configuration Drive

If selected, OpenStack writes metadata to a read-only configuration drive that is attached to the instance when it boots (instead of to Compute’s metadata service). After the instance has booted, you can mount this drive to view its contents (enables you to provide files to the instance).

8.1.3. Update an Instance (Actions menu)

You can update an instance by selecting Project > Compute > Instances, and selecting an action for that instance in the Actions column. Actions allow you to manipulate the instance in a number of ways:

Table 8.2. Update Instance Options

ActionDescription

Create Snapshot

Snapshots preserve the disk state of a running instance. You can create a snapshot to migrate the instance, as well as to preserve backup copies.

Associate/Disassociate Floating IP

You must associate an instance with a floating IP (external) address before it can communicate with external networks, or be reached by external users. Because there are a limited number of external addresses in your external subnets, it is recommended that you disassociate any unused addresses.

Edit Instance

Update the instance’s name and associated security groups.

Edit Security Groups

Add and remove security groups to or from this instance using the list of available security groups (for more information on configuring groups, see Project Security Management in the Users and Identity Management Guide).

Console

View the instance’s console in the browser (allows easy access to the instance).

View Log

View the most recent section of the instance’s console log. Once opened, you can view the full log by clicking View Full Log.

Pause/Resume Instance

Immediately pause the instance (you are not asked for confirmation); the state of the instance is stored in memory (RAM).

Suspend/Resume Instance

Immediately suspend the instance (you are not asked for confirmation); like hibernation, the state of the instance is kept on disk.

Resize Instance

Bring up the Resize Instance window (see Section 8.1.4, “Resize an Instance”).

Soft Reboot

Gracefully stop and restart the instance. A soft reboot attempts to gracefully shut down all processes before restarting the instance.

Hard Reboot

Stop and restart the instance. A hard reboot effectively just shuts down the instance’s power and then turns it back on.

Shut Off Instance

Gracefully stop the instance.

Rebuild Instance

Use new image and disk-partition options to rebuild the image (shut down, re-image, and re-boot the instance). If encountering operating system issues, this option is easier to try than terminating the instance and starting over.

Terminate Instance

Permanently destroy the instance (you are asked for confirmation).

You can create and allocate an external IP address, see Section 8.2.3, “Create, Assign, and Release Floating IP Addresses”

8.1.4. Resize an Instance

To resize an instance (memory or CPU count), you must select a new flavor for the instance that has the right capacity. If you are increasing the size, remember to first ensure that the host has enough space.

  1. Ensure communication between hosts by setting up each host with SSH key authentication so that Compute can use SSH to move disks to other hosts (for example, compute nodes can share the same SSH key).

  2. Enable resizing on the original host by setting the allow_resize_to_same_host parameter to "True" in your Compute environment file.

    Note

    The allow_resize_to_same_host parameter does not resize the instance on the same host. Even if the parameter equals "True" on all Compute nodes, the scheduler does not force the instance to resize on the same host. This is the expected behavior.

  3. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Instances.
  4. Click the instance’s Actions arrow, and select Resize Instance.
  5. Select a new flavor in the New Flavor field.

  6. If you want to manually partition the instance when it launches (results in a faster build time):

    1. Select Advanced Options.
    2. In the Disk Partition field, select Manual.
  7. Click Resize.

8.1.5. Connecting to an instance

You can access an instance console by using the dashboard or the command-line interface. You can also directly connect to the serial port of an instance, which allows you to debug even if the network connection fails.

8.1.5.1. Accessing an instance console by using the dashboard

You can connect to the instance console from the dashboard.

Procedure

  1. In the dashboard, select Compute > Instances.
  2. Click the instance’s More button and select Console. console access
  3. Log in using the image’s user name and password (for example, a CirrOS image uses cirros/cubswin:)).

8.1.5.2. Accessing an instance console by using the CLI

You can connect directly to the VNC console for an instance by entering the VNC console URL in a browser.

Procedure

  1. To display the VNC console URL for an instance, enter the following command: 

    $ openstack console url show <vm_name>
+-------+------------------------------------------------------+
| Field | Value					     	       |
+-------+------------------------------------------------------+
| type  | novnc					               |
| url	| http://172.25.250.50:6080/vnc_auto.html?token=       |
|	| 962dfd71-f047-43d3-89a5-13cb88261eb9         	       |
+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
  2. To connect directly to the VNC console, enter the displayed URL in a browser.

8.1.6. View Instance Usage

The following usage statistics are available:

  • Per Project

    To view instance usage per project, select Project > Compute > Overview. A usage summary is immediately displayed for all project instances.

    You can also view statistics for a specific period of time by specifying the date range and clicking Submit.

  • Per Hypervisor

    If logged in as an administrator, you can also view information for all projects. Click Admin > System and select one of the tabs. For example, the Resource Usage tab offers a way to view reports for a distinct time period. You might also click Hypervisors to view your current vCPU, memory, or disk statistics.

    Note

    The vCPU Usage value (x of y) reflects the number of total vCPUs of all virtual machines (x) and the total number of hypervisor cores (y).

8.1.7. Delete an Instance

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Instances, and select your instance.
  2. Click Terminate Instance.
Note

Deleting an instance does not delete its attached volumes; you must do this separately (see Delete a Volume in the Storage Guide).

8.1.8. Manage Multiple Instances at Once

If you need to start multiple instances at the same time (for example, those that were down for compute or controller maintenance) you can do so easily at Project > Compute > Instances:

  1. Click the check boxes in the first column for the instances that you want to start. If you want to select all of the instances, click the check box in the first row in the table.
  2. Click More Actions above the table and select Start Instances.

Similarly, you can shut off or soft reboot multiple instances by selecting the respective actions.

8.2. Manage Instance Security

You can manage access to an instance by assigning it the correct security group (set of firewall rules) and key pair (enables SSH user access). Further, you can assign a floating IP address to an instance to enable external network access. The sections below outline how to create and manage key pairs, security groups, floating IP addresses and logging in to an instance using SSH. There is also a procedure for injecting an admin password in to an instance.

For information on managing security groups, see Project Security Management in the Users and Identity Management Guide.

8.2.1. Manage Key Pairs

Key pairs provide SSH access to the instances. Each time a key pair is generated, its certificate is downloaded to the local machine and can be distributed to users. Typically, one key pair is created for each project (and used for multiple instances).

You can also import an existing key pair into OpenStack.

8.2.1.1. Create a Key Pair

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Access & Security.
  2. On the Key Pairs tab, click Create Key Pair.
  3. Specify a name in the Key Pair Name field, and click Create Key Pair.

When the key pair is created, a key pair file is automatically downloaded through the browser. Save this file for later connections from external machines. For command-line SSH connections, you can load this file into SSH by executing: 

# ssh-add ~/.ssh/os-key.pem

8.2.1.2. Import a Key Pair

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Access & Security.
  2. On the Key Pairs tab, click Import Key Pair.
  3. Specify a name in the Key Pair Name field, and copy and paste the contents of your public key into the Public Key field.
  4. Click Import Key Pair.

8.2.1.3. Delete a Key Pair

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Access & Security.
  2. On the Key Pairs tab, click the key’s Delete Key Pair button.

8.2.2. Create a Security Group

Security groups are sets of IP filter rules that can be assigned to project instances, and which define networking access to the instance. Security group are project specific; project members can edit the default rules for their security group and add new rule sets.

  1. In the dashboard, select the Project tab, and click Compute > Access & Security.
  2. On the Security Groups tab, click + Create Security Group.
  3. Provide a name and description for the group, and click Create Security Group.

For more information on managing project security, see Project Security Management in the Users and Identity Management Guide.

8.2.3. Create, Assign, and Release Floating IP Addresses

By default, an instance is given an internal IP address when it is first created. However, you can enable access through the public network by creating and assigning a floating IP address (external address). You can change an instance’s associated IP address regardless of the instance’s state.

Projects have a limited range of floating IP address that can be used (by default, the limit is 50), so you should release these addresses for reuse when they are no longer needed. Floating IP addresses can only be allocated from an existing floating IP pool, see Create Floating IP Pools in the Networking Guide.

8.2.3.1. Allocate a Floating IP to the Project

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Access & Security.
  2. On the Floating IPs tab, click Allocate IP to Project.
  3. Select a network from which to allocate the IP address in the Pool field.
  4. Click Allocate IP.

8.2.3.2. Assign a Floating IP

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Access & Security.
  2. On the Floating IPs tab, click the address' Associate button.

  3. Select the address to be assigned in the IP address field.

    Note

    If no addresses are available, you can click the + button to create a new address.

  4. Select the instance to be associated in the Port to be Associated field. An instance can only be associated with one floating IP address.
  5. Click Associate.

8.2.3.3. Release a Floating IP

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Access & Security.
  2. On the Floating IPs tab, click the address' menu arrow (next to the Associate/Disassociate button).
  3. Select Release Floating IP.

8.2.4. Log in to an Instance

Prerequisites:

To first load the key pair file into SSH, and then use ssh without naming it:

  1. Change the permissions of the generated key-pair certificate. 

    $ chmod 600 os-key.pem

  2. Check whether ssh-agent is already running: 

    # ps -ef | grep ssh-agent

  3. If not already running, start it up with: 

    # eval `ssh-agent`

  4. On your local machine, load the key-pair certificate into SSH. For example: 

    $ ssh-add ~/.ssh/os-key.pem
  5. You can now SSH into the file with the user supplied by the image.

The following example command shows how to SSH into the Red Hat Enterprise Linux guest image with the user cloud-user: 

$ ssh cloud-user@192.0.2.24
Note

You can also use the certificate directly. For example: 

$ ssh -i /myDir/os-key.pem cloud-user@192.0.2.24

8.2.5. Inject an admin Password Into an Instance

You can inject an admin (root) password into an instance using the following procedure.

  1. In the /etc/openstack-dashboard/local_settings file, set the change_set_password parameter value to True. 

    can_set_password: True

  2. Set the inject_password parameter to "True" in your Compute environment file. 

    inject_password=true

  3. Restart the Compute service. 

    # service nova-compute restart

When you use the nova boot command to launch a new instance, the output of the command displays an adminPass parameter. You can use this password to log into the instance as the root user.

The Compute service overwrites the password value in the /etc/shadow file for the root user. This procedure can also be used to activate the root account for the KVM guest images. For more information on how to use KVM guest images, see Section 1.2.1.1, “Use a KVM guest image with Red Hat OpenStack Platform”

You can also set a custom password from the dashboard. To enable this, run the following command after you have set can_set_password parameter to true. 

# systemctl restart httpd.service

The newly added admin password fields are as follows:

dashboard

These fields can be used when you launch or rebuild an instance.

8.3. Manage Flavors

Each created instance is given a flavor (resource template), which determines the instance’s size and capacity. Flavors can also specify secondary ephemeral storage, swap disk, metadata to restrict usage, or special project access (none of the default flavors have these additional attributes defined).

Table 8.3. Default Flavors

NamevCPUsRAMRoot Disk Size

m1.tiny

1

512 MB

1 GB

m1.small

1

2048 MB

20 GB

m1.medium

2

4096 MB

40 GB

m1.large

4

8192 MB

80 GB

m1.xlarge

8

16384 MB

160 GB

The majority of end users will be able to use the default flavors. However, you can create and manage specialized flavors. For example, you can:

  • Change default memory and capacity to suit the underlying hardware needs.
  • Add metadata to force a specific I/O rate for the instance or to match a host aggregate.
Note

Behavior set using image properties overrides behavior set using flavors (for more information, see Section 1.2, “Manage images”).

8.3.1. Update Configuration Permissions

By default, only administrators can create flavors or view the complete flavor list (select Admin > System > Flavors). To allow all users to configure flavors, specify the following in the /etc/nova/policy.json file (nova-api server):

"compute_extension:flavormanage": "",

8.3.2. Create a Flavor

  1. As an admin user in the dashboard, select Admin > System > Flavors.

  2. Click Create Flavor, and specify the following fields:

    Table 8.4. Flavor Options

    TabFieldDescription

    Flavor Information

    Name

    Unique name.

     

    ID

    Unique ID. The default value, auto, generates a UUID4 value, but you can also manually specify an integer or UUID4 value.

     

    VCPUs

    Number of virtual CPUs.

     

    RAM (MB)

    Memory (in megabytes).

     

    Root Disk (GB)

    Ephemeral disk size (in gigabytes); to use the native image size, specify 0. This disk is not used if Instance Boot Source=Boot from Volume.

     

    Epehemeral Disk (GB)

    Secondary ephemeral disk size (in gigabytes) available to an instance. This disk is destroyed when an instance is deleted.

    The default value is 0, which implies that no ephemeral disk is created.

     

    Swap Disk (MB)

    Swap disk size (in megabytes).

    Flavor Access

    Selected Projects

    Projects which can use the flavor. If no projects are selected, all projects have access (Public=Yes).

  3. Click Create Flavor.

8.3.3. Update General Attributes

  1. As an admin user in the dashboard, select Admin > System > Flavors.
  2. Click the flavor’s Edit Flavor button.
  3. Update the values, and click Save.

8.3.4. Update Flavor Metadata

In addition to editing general attributes, you can add metadata to a flavor (extra_specs), which can help fine-tune instance usage. For example, you might want to set the maximum-allowed bandwidth or disk writes.

  • Pre-defined keys determine hardware support or quotas. Pre-defined keys are limited by the hypervisor you are using (for libvirt, see Table 8.5, “Libvirt Metadata”).
  • Both pre-defined and user-defined keys can determine instance scheduling. For example, you might specify SpecialComp=True; any instance with this flavor can then only run in a host aggregate with the same key-value combination in its metadata.

8.3.4.1. View Metadata

  1. As an admin user in the dashboard, select Admin > System > Flavors.
  2. Click the flavor’s Metadata link (Yes or No). All current values are listed on the right-hand side under Existing Metadata.

8.3.4.2. Add Metadata

You specify a flavor’s metadata using a key/value pair.

  1. As an admin user in the dashboard, select Admin > System > Flavors.
  2. Click the flavor’s Metadata link (Yes or No). All current values are listed on the right-hand side under Existing Metadata.
  3. Under Available Metadata, click on the Other field, and specify the key you want to add (see Table 8.5, “Libvirt Metadata”).
  4. Click the + button; you can now view the new key under Existing Metadata.

  5. Fill in the key’s value in its right-hand field.

    flavor metadata

  6. When finished with adding key-value pairs, click Save.

Table 8.5. Libvirt Metadata

KeyDescription

hw:action

Action that configures support limits per instance. Valid actions are:

  • cpu_max_sockets - Maximum supported CPU sockets.
  • cpu_max_cores - Maximum supported CPU cores.
  • cpu_max_threads - Maximum supported CPU threads.
  • cpu_sockets - Preferred number of CPU sockets.
  • cpu_cores - Preferred number of CPU cores.
  • cpu_threads - Preferred number of CPU threads.
  • serial_port_count - Maximum serial ports per instance.

Example: hw:cpu_max_sockets=2

hw:NUMA_def

Definition of NUMA topology for the instance. For flavors whose RAM and vCPU allocations are larger than the size of NUMA nodes in the compute hosts, defining NUMA topology enables hosts to better utilize NUMA and improve performance of the guest OS. NUMA definitions defined through the flavor override image definitions. Valid definitions are:

  • numa_nodes - Number of NUMA nodes to expose to the instance. Specify 1 to ensure image NUMA settings are overridden.
  • numa_cpus.0 - Mapping of vCPUs N-M to NUMA node 0 (comma-separated list).
  • numa_cpus.1 - Mapping of vCPUs N-M to NUMA node 1 (comma-separated list).
  • numa_mem.0 - Mapping N MB of RAM to NUMA node 0.
  • numa_mem.1 - Mapping N MB of RAM to NUMA node 1.
  • numa_cpu.N and numa_mem.N are only valid if numa_nodes is set. Additionally, they are only required if the instance’s NUMA nodes have an asymetrical allocation of CPUs and RAM (important for some NFV workloads).
Note

If the values of numa_cpu or numa_mem.N specify more than that available, an exception is raised.

Example when the instance has 8 vCPUs and 4GB RAM:

  • hw:numa_nodes=2
  • hw:numa_cpus.0=0,1,2,3,4,5
  • hw:numa_cpus.1=6,7
  • hw:numa_mem.0=3072
  • hw:numa_mem.1=1024

The scheduler looks for a host with 2 NUMA nodes with the ability to run 6 CPUs + 3072 MB, or 3 GB, of RAM on one node, and 2 CPUS + 1024 MB, or 1 GB, of RAM on another node. If a host has a single NUMA node with capability to run 8 CPUs and 4 GB of RAM, it will not be considered a valid match.

hw:watchdog_action

An instance watchdog device can be used to trigger an action if the instance somehow fails (or hangs). Valid actions are:

  • disabled - The device is not attached (default value).
  • pause - Pause the instance.
  • poweroff - Forcefully shut down the instance.
  • reset - Forcefully reset the instance.
  • none - Enable the watchdog, but do nothing if the instance fails.

Example: hw:watchdog_action=poweroff

hw:pci_numa_affinity_policy

You can use this parameter to specify the NUMA affinity policy for PCI passthrough devices and SR-IOV interfaces. Set to one of the following valid values:

  • required: The Compute service only creates an instance that requests a PCI device when at least one of the NUMA nodes of the instance has affinity with the PCI device. This option provides the best performance.
  • preferred: The Compute service attempts a best effort selection of PCI devices based on NUMA affinity. If this is not possible, then the Compute service schedules the instance on a NUMA node that has no affinity with the PCI device.

  • legacy: (Default) The Compute service creates instances that request a PCI device when either:

    • The PCI device has affinity with at least one of the NUMA nodes; or
    • The PCI devices do not provide information on their NUMA affinities.

Example: hw:pci_numa_affinity_policy=required

hw_rng:action

A random-number generator device can be added to an instance using its image properties (see hw_rng_model in the "Command-Line Interface Reference" in Red Hat OpenStack Platform documentation).

If the device has been added, valid actions are:

  • allowed - If True, the device is enabled; if False, disabled. By default, the device is disabled.
  • rate_bytes - Maximum number of bytes the instance’s kernel can read from the host to fill its entropy pool every rate_period (integer).
  • rate_period - Duration of the read period in seconds (integer).

Example: hw_rng:allowed=True.

hw_video:ram_max_mb

Maximum permitted RAM to be allowed for video devices (in MB).

Example: hw:ram_max_mb=64

quota:option

Enforcing limit for the instance. Valid options are:

  • cpu_period - Time period for enforcing cpu_quota (in microseconds). Within the specified cpu_period, each vCPU cannot consume more than cpu_quota of runtime. The value must be in range [1000, 1000000]; 0 means no value.
  • cpu_quota - Maximum allowed bandwidth (in microseconds) for the vCPU in each `cpu_period. The value must be in range [1000, 18446744073709551]. 0 means no value; a negative value means that the vCPU is not controlled. cpu_quota and cpu_period can be used to ensure that all vCPUs run at the same speed.
  • cpu_shares - Share of CPU time for the domain. The value only has meaning when weighted against other machine values in the same domain. That is, an instance with a flavor with 200 will get twice as much machine time as an instance with 100.
  • disk_read_bytes_sec - Maximum disk reads in bytes per second.
  • disk_read_iops_sec - Maximum read I/O operations per second.
  • disk_write_bytes_sec - Maximum disk writes in bytes per second.
  • disk_write_iops_sec - Maximum write I/O operations per second.
  • disk_total_bytes_sec - Maximum total throughput limit in bytes per second.
  • disk_total_iops_sec - Maximum total I/O operations per second.
  • vif_inbound_average - Desired average of incoming traffic.
  • vif_inbound_burst - Maximum amount of traffic that can be received at vif_inbound_peak speed.
  • vif_inbound_peak - Maximum rate at which incoming traffic can be received.
  • vif_outbound_average - Desired average of outgoing traffic.
  • vif_outbound_burst - Maximum amount of traffic that can be sent at vif_outbound_peak speed.
  • vif_outbound_peak - Maximum rate at which outgoing traffic can be sent.

Example: quota:vif_inbound_average=10240

In addition, the VMware driver supports the following quota options, which control upper and lower limits for CPUs, RAM, disks, and networks, as well as shares, which can be used to control relative allocation of available resources among projects:

  • cpu_limit - Maximum CPU frequency available to a virtual machine (in MHz).
  • cpu_reservation - Guaranteed minimum amount of CPU resources available to a virtual machine (in MHz).
  • cpu_shares_level - CPU allocation level (shares) in the case of contention. Possible values are high, normal, low, and custom.
  • cpu_shares_share - The number of allocated CPU shares. Applicable when cpu_shares_level is set to custom.
  • memory_limit - Maximum amount of RAM available to a virtual machine (in MB).
  • memory_reservation - Guaranteed minimum amount of RAM available to a virtual machine (in MB).
  • memory_shares_level - RAM allocation level (shares) in the case of contention. Possible values are high, normal, low, and custom.
  • memory_shares_share - The number of allocated RAM shares. Applicable when memory_shares_level is set to custom.
  • disk_io_limit - Maximum I/O utilization by a virtual machine (in I/O operations per second).
  • disk_io_reservation - Guaranteed minimum amount of disk resources available to a virtual machine (in I/O operations per second).
  • disk_io_shares_level - I/O allocation level (shares) in the case of contention. Possible values are high, normal, low, and custom.
  • disk_io_shares_share - The number of allocated I/O shares. Applicable when disk_io_shares_level is set to custom.
  • vif_limit - Maximum network bandwidth available to a virtual network adapter (in Mbps).
  • vif_reservation - Guaranteed minimum network bandwidth available to a virtual network adapter (in Mbps).
  • vif_shares_level - Network bandwidth allocation level (shares) in the case of contention. Possible values are high, normal, low, and custom.
  • vif_shares_share - The number of allocated network bandwidth shares. Applicable when vif_shares_level is set to custom.

8.4. Manage Instance Snapshots

An instance snapshot allows you to create a new image from an instance. This is very convenient for upgrading base images or for taking a published image and customizing it for local use.

The difference between an image that you upload directly to the Image Service and an image that you create by snapshot is that an image created by snapshot has additional properties in the Image Service database. These properties are found in the image_properties table and include the following parameters:

Table 8.6. Snapshot Options

NameValue

image_type

snapshot

instance_uuid

<uuid of instance that was snapshotted>

base_image_ref

<uuid of original image of instance that was snapshotted>

image_location

snapshot

Snapshots allow you to create new instances based on that snapshot, and potentially restore an instance to that state. Moreover, this can be performed while the instance is running.

By default, a snapshot is accessible to the users and projects that were selected while launching an instance that the snapshot is based on.

8.4.1. Create an Instance Snapshot

Note

If you intend to use an instance snapshot as a template to create new instances, you must ensure that the disk state is consistent. Before you create a snapshot, set the snapshot image metadata property os_require_quiesce=yes. For example, 

$ glance image-update IMAGE_ID --property os_require_quiesce=yes

For this to work, the guest should have the qemu-guest-agent package installed, and the image should be created with the metadata property parameter hw_qemu_guest_agent=yes set. For example, 

$ glance image-create --name NAME \
--disk-format raw \
--container-format bare \
--file FILE_NAME \
--is-public True \
--property hw_qemu_guest_agent=yes \
--progress

If you unconditionally enable the hw_qemu_guest_agent=yes parameter, then you are adding another device to the guest. This consumes a PCI slot, and will limit the number of other devices you can allocate to the guest. It also causes Windows guests to display a warning message about an unknown hardware device.

For these reasons, setting the hw_qemu_guest_agent=yes parameter is optional, and the parameter should be used for only those images that require the QEMU guest agent.

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Instances.
  2. Select the instance from which you want to create a snapshot.
  3. In the Actions column, click Create Snapshot.

  4. In the Create Snapshot dialog, enter a name for the snapshot and click Create Snapshot.

    The Images category now shows the instance snapshot.

To launch an instance from a snapshot, select the snapshot and click Launch.

8.4.2. Manage a Snapshot

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Images.
  2. All snapshots you created, appear under the Project option.

  3. For every snapshot you create, you can perform the following functions, using the dropdown list:

    1. Use the Create Volume option to create a volume and entering the values for volume name, description, image source, volume type, size and availability zone. For more information, see Create a Volume in the Storage Guide.
    2. Use the Edit Image option to update the snapshot image by updating the values for name, description, Kernel ID, Ramdisk ID, Architecture, Format, Minimum Disk (GB), Minimum RAM (MB), public or private. For more information, see Section 1.2.3, “Update an image”.
    3. Use the Delete Image option to delete the snapshot.

8.4.3. Rebuild an Instance to a State in a Snapshot

In an event that you delete an instance on which a snapshot is based, the snapshot still stores the instance ID. You can check this information using the nova image-list command and use the snapshot to restore the instance.

  1. In the dashboard, select Project > Compute > Images.
  2. Select the snapshot from which you want to restore the instance.
  3. In the Actions column, click Launch Instance.
  4. In the Launch Instance dialog, enter a name and the other details for the instance and click Launch.

For more information on launching an instance, see Section 8.1.2, “Launch an Instance”.

8.4.4. Consistent Snapshots

Previously, file systems had to be quiesced manually (fsfreeze) before taking a snapshot of active instances for consistent backups.

Compute’s libvirt driver automatically requests the QEMU Guest Agent to freeze the file systems (and applications if fsfreeze-hook is installed) during an image snapshot. Support for quiescing file systems enables scheduled, automatic snapshots at the block device level.

This feature is only valid if the QEMU Guest Agent is installed (qemu-ga) and the image metadata enables the agent (hw_qemu_guest_agent=yes)

Note

Snapshots should not be considered a substitute for an actual system backup.

8.5. Use Rescue Mode for Instances

Compute has a method to reboot a virtual machine in rescue mode. Rescue mode provides a mechanism for access when the virtual machine image renders the instance inaccessible. A rescue virtual machine allows a user to fix their virtual machine by accessing the instance with a new root password. This feature is useful if an instance’s filesystem is corrupted. By default, rescue mode starts an instance from the initial image attaching the current boot disk as a secondary one.

8.5.1. Preparing an Image for a Rescue Mode Instance

Due to the fact that both the boot disk and the disk for rescue mode have same UUID, sometimes the virtual machine can be booted from the boot disk instead of the disk for rescue mode.

To avoid this issue, you should create a new image as rescue image based on the procedure in Section 1.2.1, “Creating an image”:

Note

The rescue image is stored in glance and configured in the nova.conf as a default, or you can select when you do the rescue.

8.5.1.1. Rescue Image if Using ext4 Filesystem

When the base image uses ext4 filesystem, you can create a rescue image from it using the following procedure:

  1. Change the UUID to a random value using the tune2fs command: 

    # tune2fs -U random /dev/DEVICE_NODE

    Here DEVICE_NODE is the root device node (for example, sda, vda, and so on).

  2. Verify the details of the filesystem, including the new UUID: 

    # tune2fs -l
  3. Update the /etc/fstab to use the new UUID. You may need to repeat this for any additional partitions you have, that are mounted in the fstab by UUID.
  4. Update the /boot/grub2/grub.conf file and update the UUID parameter with the new UUID of the root disk.
  5. Shut down and use this image as your rescue image. This will cause the rescue image to have a new random UUID that will not conflict with the instance that you are rescuing.
Note

The XFS filesystem cannot change the UUID of the root device on the running virtual machine. Reboot the virtual machine until the virtual machine is launched from the disk for rescue mode.

8.5.2. Adding the Rescue Image to the OpenStack Image Service

When you have completed modifying the UUID of your image, use the following commands to add the generated rescue image to the OpenStack Image service:

  1. Add the rescue image to the Image service: 

    # glance image-create --name IMAGE_NAME --disk-format qcow2 \
  --container-format bare --is-public True --file IMAGE_PATH

    Here IMAGE_NAME is the name of the image, IMAGE_PATH is the location of the image.

  2. Use the image-list command to obtain the IMAGE_ID required for launching an instace in the rescue mode. 

    # glance image-list

You can also upload an image using the OpenStack Dashboard, see Section 1.2.2, “Upload an image”.

8.5.3. Launching an Instance in Rescue Mode

  1. Since you need to rescue an instance with a specific image, rather than the default one, use the --image parameter: 

    # nova rescue --image IMAGE_ID VIRTUAL_MACHINE_ID

    Here IMAGE_ID is the ID of the image you want to use and VIRTUAL_MACHINE_ID is ID of a virtual machine that you want to rescue.

    Note

    The nova rescue command allows an instance to perform a soft shut down. This allows the guest operating system to perform a controlled shutdown before the instance is powered off. The shut down behavior is configured using shutdown_timeout in your Compute configuration file. The value stands for the overall period (in seconds) a guest operation system is allowed to complete the shutdown. The default timeout is 60 seconds.

    The timeout value can be overridden on a per image basis by means of os_shutdown_timeout that is an image metadata setting allowing different types of operating systems to specify how much time they need to shut down cleanly.

  2. Reboot the virtual machine.
  3. Confirm the status of the virtual machine is RESCUE on the controller node by using nova list command or by using dashboard.
  4. Log in to the new virtual machine dashboard by using the password for rescue mode.

You can now make the necessary changes to your instance to fix any issues.

8.5.4. Unrescuing an Instance

You can unrescue the fixed instance to restart it from the boot disk.

  1. Execute the following commands on the controller node. 

    # nova unrescue VIRTUAL_MACHINE_ID

    Here VIRTUAL_MACHINE_ID is ID of a virtual machine that you want to unrescue.

The status of your instance returns to ACTIVE once the unrescue operation has completed successfully. :leveloffset: +3

8.6. Creating a customized instance

Cloud users can specify additional data to use when they launch an instance, such as a shell script that the instance runs on boot. The cloud user can use the following methods to pass data to instances:

User data
Use to include instructions in the instance launch command for cloud-init to execute.
Instance metadata
A list of key-value pairs that you can specify when you create or update an instance.

You can access the additional data passed to the instance by using a config drive or the metadata service.

Config drive
You can attach a config drive to an instance when it boots. The config drive is presented to the instance as a read-only drive. The instance can mount this drive and read files from it. You can use the config drive as a source for cloud-init information. Config drives are useful when combined with cloud-init for server bootstrapping, and when you want to pass large files to your instances. For example, you can configure cloud-init to automatically mount the config drive and run the setup scripts during the initial instance boot. Config drives are created with the volume label of config-2, and attached to the instance when it boots. The contents of any additional files passed to the config drive are added to the user_data file in the openstack/{version}/ directory of the config drive. cloud-init retrieves the user data from this file.
Metadata service
Provides a REST API to retrieve data specific to an instance. Instances access this service at 169.254.169.254 or at fe80::a9fe:a9fe.

cloud-init can use both a config drive and the metadata service to consume the additional data for customizing an instance. The cloud-init package supports several data input formats. Shell scripts and the cloud-config format are the most common input formats:

  • Shell scripts: The data declaration begins with #! or Content-Type: text/x-shellscript. Shell scripts are invoked last in the boot process.
  • cloud-config format: The data declaration begins with #cloud-config or Content-Type: text/cloud-config. cloud-config files must be valid YAML to be parsed and executed by cloud-init.
Note

cloud-init has a maximum user data size of 16384 bytes for data passed to an instance. You cannot change the size limit, therefore use gzip compression when you need to exceed the size limit.

Vendor-specific data

The RHOSP administrator can also pass data to instances when they are being created. This data may not be visible to you as the cloud user, for example, a cryptographic token that registers the instance with Active Directory.

The RHOSP administrator uses the vendordata feature to pass data to instances. Vendordata configuration is read only, and is located in one of the following files:

  • /openstack/{version}/vendor_data.json
  • /openstack/{version}/vendor_data2.json

You can view these files using the metadata service or from the config drive on your instance. To access the files by using the metadata service, make a GET request to either http://169.254.169.254/openstack/{version}/vendor_data.json or http://169.254.169.254/openstack/{version}/vendor_data2.json.

8.6.1. Customizing an instance by using user data

You can use user data to include instructions in the instance launch command. cloud-init executes these commands to customize the instance as the last step in the boot process.

Procedure

  1. Create a file with instructions for cloud-init. For example, create a bash script that installs and enables a web server on the instance: 

    $ vim /home/scripts/install_httpd
#!/bin/bash

yum -y install httpd python-psycopg2
systemctl enable httpd --now

  2. Launch an instance with the --user-data option to pass the bash script: 

    $ openstack server create \
--image rhel8 \
--flavor default \
--nic net-id=web-server-network \
--security-group default \
--key-name web-server-keypair \
--user-data /home/scripts/install_httpd \
--wait web-server-instance

  3. When the instance state is active, attach a floating IP address: 

    $ openstack floating ip create web-server-network
$ openstack server add floating ip web-server-instance 172.25.250.123

  4. Log in to the instance with SSH: 

    $ ssh -i ~/.ssh/web-server-keypair cloud-user@172.25.250.123

  5. Check that the customization was successfully performed. For example, to check that the web server has been installed and enabled, enter the following command: 

    $ curl http://localhost | grep Test
<title>Test Page for the Apache HTTP Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux</title>
<h1>Red Hat Enterprise Linux <strong>Test Page</strong></h1>

  6. Review the /var/log/cloud-init.log file for relevant messages, such as whether or not the cloud-init executed: 

    $ sudo less /var/log/cloud-init.log
...output omitted...
...util.py[DEBUG]: Cloud-init v. 0.7.9 finished at Sat, 23 Jun 2018 02:26:02 +0000. Datasource DataSourceOpenStack [net,ver=2].  Up 21.25 seconds

8.6.2. Customizing an instance by using metadata

You can use instance metadata to specify the properties of an instance in the instance launch command.

Procedure

  1. Launch an instance with the --property <key=value> option. For example, to mark the instance as a webserver, set the following property: 

    $ openstack server create \
--image rhel8 \
--flavor default \
--property role=webservers \
--wait web-server-instance

  2. Optional: Add an additional property to the instance after it is created, for example: 

    $ openstack server set \
--property region=emea \
--wait web-server-instance

8.6.3. Customizing an instance by using a config drive

You can create a config drive for an instance that is attached during the instance boot process. You can pass content to the config drive that the config drive makes available to the instance.

Procedure

  1. Enable the config drive, and specify a file that contains content that you want to make available in the config drive. For example, the following command creates a new instance named config-drive-instance and attaches a config drive that contains the contents of the file my-user-data.txt: 

    (overcloud)$ openstack server create --flavor m1.tiny \
  --config-drive true \
  --user-data ./my-user-data.txt \
  --image cirros config-drive-instance

    This command creates the config drive with the volume label of config-2, which is attached to the instance when it boots, and adds the contents of my-user-data.txt to the user_data file in the openstack/{version}/ directory of the config drive.

  2. Log in to the instance.

  3. Mount the config drive:

    • If the instance OS uses udev: 

      # mkdir -p /mnt/config
# mount /dev/disk/by-label/config-2 /mnt/config

    • If the instance OS does not use udev, you need to first identify the block device that corresponds to the config drive: 

      # blkid -t LABEL="config-2" -odevice
/dev/vdb
# mkdir -p /mnt/config
# mount /dev/vdb /mnt/config