Setting up Cloud Orchestrator support

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The virtual appliance has basic support for Cloud Orchestrator as imported KVM virtual images. It is possible to run the appliance within a Cloud Orchestrator environment and use it to perform basic virtual image management tasks.

About this task

Consider these limitations before you set up Cloud Orchestrator support:

  • The virtual appliance does not have full support for the orchestration and pattern building capabilities of Cloud Orchestrator.
  • The appliance can be run only in KVM regions.
  • The appliance can be imported and managed in the Virtual Image Library, but cannot be extended with the IBM Image Construction and Composition Tool.
  • The appliance cannot be used in pattern-based deployments.
  • The basic operations that are provided by Cloud Orchestrator for the imported appliance image include the ability to stop, start, or delete the virtual machine.
  • The appliance must be run with a single network interface.

To use the virtual appliance as an imported virtual image within a Cloud environment, use the following high-level procedure. For more information, see the IBM Cloud Orchestrator Knowledge Center.

Procedure

  1. Create a KVM virtual machine image and install the appliance firmware.
    Note: After the installation is complete, remove the installation media and shutdown the machine. Do not go through the first steps wizard before you deploy the image in the cloud.
    See Installing the virtual appliance by using KVM for more detailed instructions.
  2. Import the virtual image to the Cloud Orchestrator Virtual Image Library.
  3. In the Virtual Image Library, check out the image to an operational repository in the KVM region where you plan to deploy the appliance.
  4. Use OpenStack to deploy the virtual image within this KVM region.
    For example, to deploy the virtual image from the command line, perform these steps on the KVM region server:
    1. Set the environment variables for running OpenStack nova.
      # source ~/openrc
    2. Verify that the appliance image is available in the image repository.
      
# nova image-list
+--------------------------------------+---------------+--------+--------+ 
| ID                                   | Name          | Status | Server | 
+--------------------------------------+---------------+--------+--------+ 
| 9ec1d9ec-2df9-44f6-938c-2533a4d48859 | isva          | ACTIVE |        | 
+--------------------------------------+---------------+--------+--------+
    3. Issue the nova boot command to start a new instance of the appliance image.
      nova boot --image isva --flavor m1.medium isva
    4. Monitor the status of the new instance using the nova list command. 
      
# nova list 
+--------------------------------------+--------------------+--------+--------------------+ 
| ID                                   | Name               | Status | Networks           | 
+--------------------------------------+--------------------+--------+--------------------+ 
| 43f3e09c-a64d-4e11-8827-2d354be3d625 | my-isva-appliance  | ACTIVE | public=172.20.96.1 | 
+--------------------------------------+--------------------+--------+--------------------+
    5. The appliance is now started and the local management interface and web services interfaces are listening on the given IP address.
  5. After the machine is running in the OpenStack KVM environment, you can import it into Cloud Orchestrator.
    1. Log in to the Cloud Orchestrator management web UI.
    2. Go to Configuration > Hypervisors.
    3. Locate the hypervisor where the appliance is running.
    4. Expand the virtual machines section and locate the appliance image.
    5. Select Manage > Import the Virtual Machine.

Results

The appliance virtual machine is now visible in the Cloud Orchestrator UI on the Instances > Virtual Machines page.