Add-ons in the catalog

You can use the default add-ons that are provided with the system.

Additionally, you can clone and modify add-ons or create and configure your own. You can then add them as parts to one or more virtual system patterns.

Add-ons are specialized scripts that customize your virtual machine configuration. Add-ons provide fine-tuning for hardware and operating system configurations. A set of basic add-ons with an initial configuration is provided. You can use these default add-ons, clone and modify them as needed, or create new ones.

At deployment time, all add-on operations are run before the custom script packages are run. The order in which add-ons are run at deployment cannot be specified in a virtual system pattern, unlike scripts and parts. Add-ons always run as the system is created. They are not initiated by users, and they do not run at deletion. Depending on the type of add-on, special processing is performed during deployment to add the additional hardware to the virtual machine as needed. If multiple add-ons are used, they run in this order during deployment:
  1. Add NIC add-ons
  2. Add user add-ons
  3. Add disk add-ons
Add-ons are implemented at the following levels:
  • Deployment logic provisions new hardware for disks and network interface controllers (NICs) that cannot be customized.
  • Deployment logic configures the provisioned resources. Resources are packaged as default implementation scripts that are fully customizable. For example, the Default add user add-on has a defaultadduser.zip package that contains a script to define a user account.

To view the list of add-ons that are available in the catalog, click Catalog > Add-Ons.

You can add the following types of add-ons to virtual system pattern parts:

Disk
Adds a virtual disk to the virtual machine and optionally formats the file system and mounts the disk.

A raw disk is a virtual disk that is added without partitions or formatting.

Run cfgmgr on the raw disk when it is accessed for the first time. For information on running cfgmgr and AIX® disk configuration, see The AIX documentation.

NIC
Adds a virtual network interface controller (NIC) to the virtual machine. NIC add-ons are deployed with environment profiles.
User
Defines an extra user on the virtual machine.
None
Reserved for add-ons related to block storage support. This storage is not tied to a deployment, can be attached and detached from virtual machines, and persists after a deployment is deleted.

Default add-ons

The following set of default add-ons are provided with the product:
Default AIX add disk
Adds a virtual disk to the virtual machine and optionally formats and mounts the disk.

Using this add-on, you cannot add two separate disks that are members of the same volume group, but have different mount points. You can, however, add two separate disks that are members of the same volume group, and have the same mount point. You can create a copy of this add-on and update the associated package file to suit your needs. For more information about cloning and modifying add-ons, and working with associated package files, see the related links.

If you set the optional MOUNT_POINT field to the root file system (for example, /), the newly added disk is used to expand the existing root volume group (rootvg) and file system.

This add-on has an optional field, OWNER. If a valid user name is entered in this field at the deployment time or pattern creation time, the new mount point directory that the add-on creates is owned by the specified user.

This add-on is based on the defaultaixadddisk.zip package file.

Note: This add-on does not enforce any rules on the mount point. If you set the mount point to a reserved directory such as /opt/IBM, the virtual machine activation might fail.
Default add NFS
Adds a new virtual disk (network-attached storage) to the virtual machine, and optionally formats and mounts the disk.

One of the optional parameters for this add-on is ENABLE_NFS_LOCK. This option is applicable only for Linux®. If you select this option, NFS file locking is enabled for the virtual disk by starting the rpcbind and nfslock services and the STATD port is opened. For AIX, NFS file locking is enabled by default.

This add-on is based on the defaultaddnfs.zip package file.

Default add disk
Adds a virtual disk to the virtual machine and optionally formats and mounts the disk.

If you set the required MOUNT_POINT field to the root file system (for example, /), the newly added disk is used to expand the existing root volume group (rootvg) and file system.

Before IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.3 version, if you request a default add-on disk of size 0 bytes at deployment time, then a disk of 0-byte size gets created in the deployed virtual machine. However, in IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.3 or later, a 0-bytes disk request is ignored and is not mounted. This feature accommodates hypervisors with maximum disk size and allows the allocation of multiple disks. Though the maximum disk size of a virtual machine is 1 TB, deployments might need virtual machines with more or less disk space. For example, some deployments need virtual machines with 4 TB of storage, while other deployments need virtual machines with only 1 TB:
  • In IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.0, you must create two different patterns, one with four 1-TB-sized disks added, and another with one 1-TB-sized disk added.
  • In IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.3 or later, you can create one pattern with four disks added. At deployment time, if the virtual machine needs only 1 TB, then you can set the size for the three extra disks to 0 bytes, and they are ignored during the deployment of the virtual machines. For virtual machines that require 4 TB, all disk sizes can be set to 1000 G, and all four disks get allocated.
This add-on has the following optional fields:
OWNER
If a valid user name is entered in this field at the deployment time or pattern creation time, the new mount point directory that the add-on creates is owned by the specified user.
VOLUME_GROUP
The volume group will be created if it does not exist and will be extended with the new physical volume. This attribute is required when you create an AIX disk by using this add-on even though the user interface does not indicate that it is a required field.

This add-on is based on the defaultadddisk.zip package file.

Note: This add-on does not enforce any rules on the mount point. If you set the mount point to a reserved directory such as /opt/IBM, the virtual machine activation might fail.
Default add user
Defines an extra user on the virtual machine. The default add-on script runs a simple add user command. No additional account configuration is performed.

This add-on is based on the defaultadduser.zip package file.

Default attach block disk
Attaches existing block storage at deploy time and optionally formats and mounts the disk. This disk can be detached and reattached after deployment, and persists after the deployment is deleted. You can also create a new block disk at deployment time. To ensure that the add-on is deployed successfully, specify a block disk size of 2 MB or larger.
CAUTION:
Although the user interface does not place restrictions on the mount points that can be used, the following mount points will cause the deployment of the default IBM OS images to fail: /var, /opt, /opt/AE, /opt/python-2.6.4, /opt/ibm, /opt/ibm/ae, /opt/ibm/fixnetwork, /opt/ibm/scp, /opt/IBM/AE, opt/IBM/maestro, usr/local. If you choose to use these mount points, be aware of the following caveats:
  • If you are using the default IBM OS images, your deployment will fail if these mount points are used.
  • Whether these mount points work with a custom OS image depends on whether the path is an existing mount point in the image, as opposed to just a directory. If the path is an existing mount point, the add-on causes the volume to be expanded and does not impact the deployment's success or failure. If it is not, the deployment fails just like it would if you were using the default IBM OS image.

The data in the block storage is persisted even when the pattern instance that is using the storage is deleted or if the storage is detached from the pattern instance. When you reattach the same block storage to a different pattern deployment, the existing data is not deleted. In some cases, the persisted data might affect your pattern deployment. Unless you want to reuse the data that is in block storage, create a new block storage and use this new block storage for your pattern deployments.

The attach block add-on supports logical volumes for the AIX operating system.

Starting in version 2.3.0.0, if you mount any new disk by using the attach block disk add-on, online expansion is supported. Complete the following steps to perform an online expansion:
  1. Expand the size of the external volume.
  2. Rediscover the size change from the Hardware > Storage Resources page in the console.
    Note: You might have to also change the size in PowerVC.
  3. Select the virtual system instance from the Virtual System Instances page and expand the virtual machine in the virtual machine perspective.
  4. In the block storage table, click Refresh Size in the Actions column.
Note: If you expand a block storage volume that is greater than or equal to 2 TB that was previously formatted to Logical Volume Manager (LVM), you must expand the logical volume that is mounted on the virtual machines manually. In this case, the Refresh Size action does not expand the logical volume and produces an error. For more information, see Expanding volume size for LVM volumes.

This add-on is based on the defaultattachblockdisk.zip package file.

Note: To deploy patterns using the attach block disk add-on, all components in your pattern must use IBM® Foundation Pattern Version 2.1.0.0 or later.

For information about attaching a disk to a pattern, see the Default attach block disk section in Deploying virtual system patterns.

Default configure NIC
Adds a new virtual network interface controller (NIC) to the virtual machine, and configures its IP address information as part of initial virtual machine activation. This is not an executable add-on script. Use this add-on for virtual image parts that do not support communication by using SSH to run scripts after initial activation of the virtual machine. The Delete icon is disabled for this add-on because deleting this default version from the catalog might affect virtual application deployments.

This add-on is based on the defaultconfigurenic.zip package file.

Default raw disk
Adds a virtual disk to the virtual machine. The disk is added raw, that is, without partitions or formatting. The Delete icon is disabled for this add-on, because deleting this default version from the catalog might affect virtual application deployments.

This add-on is based on the defaultaddrawdisk.zip package file.

Ignition Configuration

In IBM Cloud Pak System 2.3.3.3, as a pattern developer, you can click a CoreOS node and select the Ignition Configuration add-on.

It allows a CoreOS node to be initialized with an append ignition string that can be specified during deployment. The append ignition string contains only enough information for the CoreOS to contact a HTML server where the full configuration details of the virtual machine can be accessed.

Specify the following attributes for the Add ignition configuration:
  • START_IMMEDIATE

    Checks whether IBM Cloud Pak System starts the virtual machine or not. The DNS and DHCP servers must be started as a prerequisite for a CoreOS virtual machine. If the servers are already running, then specify true for this attribute. The value enables the CoreOS virtual machine to start automatically when the virtual machine is created. If this is set to false, then the virtual machine is defined with the configured ignition data string, however, it does not get started. It is usually used when the infrastructure (i.e. DNS, DHCP, etc) of the virtual machine is also created by the same pattern. After the pattern deployment is complete, manually start the virtual machine from the IBM Cloud Pak System user interface, or a REST API, or CLI command.

  • IGNITION_DATA_ENCODING: By default, this value is base64 and you cannot change it.
  • IGNITION_DATA: Enter the append ignition string for the CoreOS virtual machine. You can get this string from whomever is controlling the control plane for the cluster that this CoreOS virtual machine worker node is going to be a part of.

Add-ons for attached storage support

Some plug-ins, such as for DB2®, allocate additional volumes automatically. In other cases you can attach an add-on disk resource that allocates and mounts an additional volume for you. These volumes are tied to the deployment, meaning they cannot be detached, and they are deleted when the deployment is deleted.

The Default AIX attach block disk add-on is referred to as attached storage, and provides different capabilities. This type of add-on allocates attached storage to virtual machines at deploy time. Existing attached storage can also be mounted at deploy time.

After deployment, attached storage can be unmounted and detached from virtual machines, or can be attached and mounted again as needed. Attached storage is not deleted when the deployment is deleted.

For backup and restore operations, as well as replication and recovery, attached volumes are managed differently than traditional disks and volumes that are associated with a deployment. Attached storage can be independently replicated or backed up.

Add-ons for network interface controllers

As a content provider or image creator, you might have multiple network interface controllers that you want configured and enabled when your virtual system pattern is deployed. Typically you can include one or more Default AIX add NIC add-ons in your selected virtual image part when you create your virtual system pattern to provide this function. When the virtual system pattern is deployed, these add-ons are configured after the virtual machine is started.

Certain virtual image parts might have restrictions on your ability to add add-ons. For example, DataPower® virtual images do not support access to the virtual machine by using SSH. Because of this restriction, most add-ons, including Default AIX add NIC, cannot be added to this type of image. If you attempt to include an add-on to this type of image, the add-on is not added, and the following error message is displayed:
Neither script package nor add-ons can be added to this kind of image part.

In this situation, you need to define the number of network interface controllers that you need in your OVA image file. These multiple NICs are then configured as part of the initial activation of the virtual machine, instead of being configured through SSH after the virtual machine is started. This type of NIC is referred to as a Default configure NIC. This is not an executable script like the Default AIX add NIC add-on.

When you include a virtual image part with multiple NICs defined in your virtual system pattern, the NICs are also shown in the graphical display of the virtual image part, and you can configure them as needed, or delete NICs that you do not need. To add more NICs to the image, select the Default configure NIC add-on from the available list in the Pattern Editor. These NICs are then configured during initial activation of the VM when the pattern is deployed.
Important: The Default configure NIC add-on can have an impact on computer name and host name assignment because the computer name and host name are derived from the DNS domain name that is given to the non-management NIC. When an extra non-management NIC is introduced by the Default configure NIC add-on during image deployment, the system might choose to get the computer name and host name from a non-management NIC with a DNS domain name that is not preferred.

The Delete icon is disabled for the Default configure NIC add-on.

To summarize:
  • Use the Default AIX add NIC add-on with most virtual image parts that support by using SSH to run the add-on scripts after initial activation of the virtual machine during deployment.
  • Use the Default configure NIC add-on for virtual images like DataPower that do not support an ssh connection. You can define the number of NICs as part of the OVA image file so that their scripts are run and configured as part of the initial activation of the VM. Select the Default configure NIC add-on to add more network interface controllers to your image part as needed.