Creating a custom image in IBM Cloud

Optionally, create a custom image template in IBM® Cloud with the base OS and IBM Spectrum Conductor installed. IBM Cloud computing instances are provisioned using this image template, significantly reducing the time it takes to provision a compute host from the cloud.

1. Order an hourly virtual server, select an appropriate configuration for the server, and submit the order.
2. Use SSH to log on to the instance that you created as root.
3. Update the /etc/hosts file on the IBM Cloud host to add the host names of the primary and primary candidates in your IBM Spectrum Conductor cluster.
4. Copy the IBM Spectrum Conductor Linux package to this IBM Cloud instance.
5. Install IBM Spectrum Conductor on the instance. For more information, see Installing on a compute host.
6. After installation, join the host to the cluster and start IBM Spectrum Conductor on the IBM Cloud host. For more information, see Configuring IBM Spectrum Conductor.
   1. Source the environment for your shell. For example, when you use BASH, enter:

      . $EGO_TOP/profile.platform

   2. Join the EC2 host to the cluster:

      egoconfig join primary_host

   3. Ensure that the instance group used for cloud bursting is deployed to the host. You can deploy the instance group either by triggering automatic deployment when the host joins a resource group in which the instance group is already deployed, or by deploying a new instance group to the resource group that the host belongs to.
   4. Disable automatic deployment in the $EGO_CONFDIR/../../ascd/conf/ascd.conf file to prevent automatic deployment during cloud bursting:

      ASC_AUTO_DEPLOY_ON_NEW_HOST=OFF

7. From the Devices > Device List > Device Details page in the IBM Cloud portal, click Create Image Template to create an image template with IBM Spectrum Conductor preinstalled.

   After the image is created, you can manage it from Devices > Manage > Images.

   Note: Keep track of image properties, especially details such as the template name. You will need this information to set up your host template configuration in the softlayerprov_template.json file.