Step 7: The first VM
Start
In the previous steps, you learned everything you need to create a VM.
In general, it is best to create VMs as part of a stack, and to create these stacks with Heat, or other automation tools like Terraform.
To ensure that you know the basics, this step deals with creating a single VM manually.
Installation
The basic command to create a single VM is:
openstack server create test
If you execute the above command, the following error is returned:
usage: openstack server create [-h] [-f {json,shell,table,value,yaml}]
[-c COLUMN] [--max-width <integer>]
[--print-empty] [--noindent] [--prefix PREFIX]
(--image <image> | --volume <volume>) --flavor
<flavor>
[--security-group <security-group-name>]
[--key-name <key-name>]
[--property <key=value>]
[--file <dest-filename=source-filename>]
[--user-data <user-data>]
[--availability-zone <zone-name>]
[--block-device-mapping <dev-name=mapping>]
[--nic <net-id=net-uuid,v4-fixed-ip=ip-addr,v6-fixed-ip=ip-addr,port-id=port-uuid,auto,none>]
[--hint <key=value>]
[--config-drive <config-drive-volume>|True]
[--min <count>] [--max <count>] [--wait]
<server-name>
openstack server create: error: argument --flavor is required
It tells us that you have not specified a flavor for your VM.
To specify a flavor, you need to add the flag --flavor with a flavor argument.
With the following command you can see the available flavors:
$ openstack flavor list
+--------------------------------------+------------+-------+------+-----------+-------+-----------+
| ID | Name | RAM | Disk | Ephemeral | VCPUs | Is Public |
+--------------------------------------+------------+-------+------+-----------+-------+-----------+
| 090bcc91-6207-465d-aff0-bfcc10a9e063 | m1.medium | 8192 | 20 | 0 | 4 | True |
| 4ade7a50-f829-4bf6-af15-266798ea8d6f | win.large | 32768 | 80 | 0 | 8 | True |
| 5dd72380-088e-48cd-9a18-112cb5a9cab5 | win.small | 8192 | 80 | 0 | 2 | True |
| 884d5b93-1467-4bc1-a445-ff7c74271cbd | m1.micro | 1024 | 20 | 0 | 1 | True |
| b7c4fa0b-7960-4311-a86b-507dbf58e8ac | m1.small | 4096 | 20 | 0 | 2 | True |
| d45e3029-8364-4e4c-beab-242e8b4622a3 | win.medium | 16384 | 80 | 0 | 4 | True |
| dfead62e-96a8-46e9-bdae-342ecce32d41 | win.micro | 2048 | 80 | 0 | 1 | True |
| ed18c320-324a-487f-88e1-3e9eb9244509 | m1.large | 16384 | 20 | 0 | 8 | True |
+--------------------------------------+------------+-------+------+-----------+-------+-----------+
If you add --flavor m1.micro to the command and execute it, it will still return an error as OpenStack needs more data to start a new VM.
In addition to flavors, you need to supply the key (--key-name) and the operating system image to be installed (--image), the network the VM will run on (--network), and the security group to be applied to it (--security-group).
You already created a security group in a previous step, so you need to acquire an image and a network to create your first VM.
With the following command you can see the available images:
$ openstack image list
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------+
| ID | Name | Status |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------+
| fd8ad5aa-6b33-4198-a05d-8be42fc0f20e | CentOS 7 - Latest | active |
| 82242d21-d990-4fc2-92a5-c7bd7820e790 | Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus - Latest | active |
| 8e82fd42-3d6f-44a7-9f20-92f5661823cf | Windows Server 2012 R2 Std - Latest | active |
| 536c086c-d2a4-43dd-80ea-a9d05ee2b97f | Windows Server 2016 Std - Latest | active |
| c94ced87-a03e-4eec-89f7-48f2c0ec6cd2 | debian-9.1.5-20170910-openstack-amd64 | active |
| b1195ddf-9336-42a7-a134-4f2e7ea57710 | iNNOVO-OPNsense-17.7.8 | active |
| 9134b6ed-8c5a-4a9a-907e-733dc2b5f0ef | iNNOVO_pfSense 2.3.4 | active |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+--------+
Next, you have to select a nework. You can create a simple network with the following command:
$ openstack network create BeispielNetzwerk
+---------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+---------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| admin_state_up | UP |
| availability_zone_hints | |
| availability_zones | |
| created_at | 2017-12-08T08:32:44Z |
| description | |
| dns_domain | None |
| id | a783d691-7efe-4f67-9226-99a014fa8926 |
| ipv4_address_scope | None |
| ipv6_address_scope | None |
| is_default | False |
| mtu | 1500 |
| name | BeispielNetzwerk |
| port_security_enabled | True |
| project_id | b15cde70d85749689e08106f973bb002 |
| provider:network_type | None |
| provider:physical_network | None |
| provider:segmentation_id | None |
| qos_policy_id | None |
| revision_number | 2 |
| router:external | Internal |
| segments | None |
| shared | False |
| status | ACTIVE |
| subnets | |
| updated_at | 2017-12-08T08:32:44Z |
+---------------------------+--------------------------------------+
Note that this network has no internet connection, and no additional configuration.
You will learn how to create a functional network in Step 10.
Now we will put everything together, and create a VM. In this example, you will use the default security group, the Ubuntu 16.04 image (you use the ID in the command line), and the previously created network and key:
$ openstack server create BeispielServer --flavor m1.small --key-name Beispiel --image 82242d21-d990-4fc2-92a5-c7bd7820e790 --network=BeispielNetzwerk --security-group default
+-----------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Field | Value |
+-----------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| OS-DCF:diskConfig | MANUAL |
| OS-EXT-AZ:availability_zone | es1 |
| OS-EXT-STS:power_state | NOSTATE |
| OS-EXT-STS:task_state | scheduling |
| OS-EXT-STS:vm_state | building |
| OS-SRV-USG:launched_at | None |
| OS-SRV-USG:terminated_at | None |
| accessIPv4 | |
| accessIPv6 | |
| addresses | |
| config_drive | |
| created | 2017-12-06T14:15:02Z |
| flavor | m1.small (676d2587-b5aa-49eb-998d-d91c1bd6c056) |
| hostId | |
| id | 44ff2688-4ce5-417d-962b-3a80199bf1bc |
| image | cirros-tempest1 (2fbe66ef-adc8-44d0-b2e2-03d95dc36936) |
| key_name | cg |
| name | BeispielServer |
| progress | 0 |
| project_id | 1e775e2cc71a461991be42d4fad8a5cb |
| properties | |
| security_groups | name='3265503b-ac24-4f60-a8d0-466b7c812916' |
| status | BUILD |
| updated | 2017-12-06T14:15:02Z |
| user_id | b54fda3f4d1a484797b3ad4de9b3f4f9 |
| volumes_attached | |
+-----------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
To see all possible parameters during the creation of a VM, you can use --help:
$ openstack server create --help
usage: openstack server create [-h] [-f {json,shell,table,value,yaml}]
[-c COLUMN] [--max-width <integer>]
[--print-empty] [--noindent] [--prefix PREFIX]
(--image <image> | --volume <volume>) --flavor
<flavor>
[--security-group <security-group-name>]
[--key-name <key-name>]
[--property <key=value>]
[--file <dest-filename=source-filename>]
[--user-data <user-data>]
[--availability-zone <zone-name>]
[--block-device-mapping <dev-name=mapping>]
[--nic <net-id=net-uuid,v4-fixed-ip=ip-addr,v6-fixed-ip=ip-addr,port-id=port-uuid,auto,none>]
[--hint <key=value>]
[--config-drive <config-drive-volume>|True]
[--min <count>] [--max <count>] [--wait]
<server-name>
Create a new server
positional arguments:
<server-name> New server name
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--image <image> Create server boot disk from this image (name or ID)
--volume <volume> Create server using this volume as the boot disk (name
or ID)
--flavor <flavor> Create server with this flavor (name or ID)
--security-group <security-group-name>
Security group to assign to this server (name or ID)
(repeat option to set multiple groups)
--key-name <key-name>
Keypair to inject into this server (optional
extension)
--property <key=value>
Set a property on this server (repeat option to set
multiple values)
--file <dest-filename=source-filename>
File to inject into image before boot (repeat option
to set multiple files)
--user-data <user-data>
User data file to serve from the metadata server
--availability-zone <zone-name>
Select an availability zone for the server
--block-device-mapping <dev-name=mapping>
Map block devices; map is
<id>:<type>:<size(GB)>:<delete_on_terminate> (optional
extension)
--nic <net-id=net-uuid,v4-fixed-ip=ip-addr,v6-fixed-ip=ip-addr,port-id=port-uuid,auto,none>
Create a NIC on the server. Specify option multiple
times to create multiple NICs. Either net-id or port-
id must be provided, but not both. net-id: attach NIC
to network with this UUID, port-id: attach NIC to port
with this UUID, v4-fixed-ip: IPv4 fixed address for
NIC (optional), v6-fixed-ip: IPv6 fixed address for
NIC (optional), none: (v2.37+) no network is attached,
auto: (v2.37+) the compute service will automatically
allocate a network. Specifying a --nic of auto or none
cannot be used with any other --nic value.
--hint <key=value> Hints for the scheduler (optional extension)
--config-drive <config-drive-volume>|True
Use specified volume as the config drive, or 'True' to
use an ephemeral drive
--min <count> Minimum number of servers to launch (default=1)
--max <count> Maximum number of servers to launch (default=1)
--wait Wait for build to complete
output formatters:
output formatter options
-f {json,shell,table,value,yaml}, --format {json,shell,table,value,yaml}
the output format, defaults to table
-c COLUMN, --column COLUMN
specify the column(s) to include, can be repeated
table formatter:
--max-width <integer>
Maximum display width, <1 to disable. You can also use
the CLIFF_MAX_TERM_WIDTH environment variable, but the
parameter takes precedence.
--print-empty Print empty table if there is no data to show.
json formatter:
--noindent whether to disable indenting the JSON
shell formatter:
a format a UNIX shell can parse (variable="value")
--prefix PREFIX add a prefix to all variable names
Conclusion
You have now created your first Instance using basic OpenStack commands. In the next step, you will delete this instance.