openstack-ansible/doc/source/draft-operations-guide/openstack-operations/managing-instances.rst

Managing instances

This chapter describes how to create and access instances.

Creating an instance using the Dashboard

Using an image, create a new instance via the Dashboard options.

1. Log into the Dashboard, and select the Compute project from the drop down list.

2. Click the Images option.

3. Locate the image that will act as the instance base from the Images table.

4. Click Launch from the Actions column.

5. Check the Launch Instances dialog, and find the details tab. Enter the appropriate values for the instance.

   1. In the Launch Instance dialog, click the Access & Security tab. Select the keypair. Set the security group as "default".

   2. Click the Networking tab. This tab will be unavailable if OpenStack networking (neutron) has not been enabled. If networking is enabled, select the networks on which the instance will reside.

   3. Click the Volume Options tab. This tab will only be available if a Block Storage volume exists for the instance. Select Don't boot from a volume for now.

      For more information on attaching Block Storage volumes to instances for persistent storage, see the Managing volumes for persistent storage section below.

   4. Add customisation scripts, if needed, by clicking the Post-Creation tab. These run after the instance has been created. Some instances support user data, such as root passwords, or admin users. Enter the information specific to the instance here if required.

   5. Click Advanced Options. Specify whether the instance uses a configuration drive to store metadata by selecting a disk partition type.

6. Click Launch to create the instance. The instance will start on a compute node. The Instance page will open and start creating a new instance. The Instance page that opens will list the instance name, size, status, and task. Power state and public and private IP addresses are also listed here.

   The process will take less than a minute to complete. Instance creation is complete when the status is listed as active. Refresh the page to see the new active instance.

   Launching an instance options

   Field Name	Required	Details
   Availability Zone	Optional	The availability zone in which the image service creates the instance. If no availability zones is defined, no instances will be found. The cloud provider sets the availability zone to a specific value.
   Instance Name	Required	The name of the new instance, which becomes the initial host name of the server. If the server name is changed in the API or directly changed, the Dashboard names remain unchanged
   Image	Required	The type of container format, one of ami, ari, aki, bare, or ovf
   Flavor	Required	The vCPU, Memory, and Disk configuration. Note that larger flavors can take a long time to create. If creating an instance for the first time and want something small with which to test, select m1.small.
   Instance Count	Required	If creating multiple instances with this configuration, enter an integer up to the number permitted by the quota, which is 10 by default.
   Instance Boot Source	Required	Specify whether the instance will be based on an image or a snapshot. If it is the first time creating an instance, there will not yet be any snapshots available.
   Image Name	Required	The instance will boot from the selected image. This option will be pre-populated with the instance selected from the table. However, choose Boot from Snapshot in Instance Boot Source, and it will default to Snapshot instead.
   Security Groups	Optional	This option assigns security groups to an instance. The default security group activates when no customised group is specified here. Security Groups, similar to a cloud firewall, define which incoming network traffic is forwarded to instances.
   Keypair	Optional	Specify a key pair with this option. If the image uses a static key set (not recommended), a key pair is not needed.
   Selected Networks	Optional	To add a network to an instance, click the + in the Networks field.
   Customisation Script	Optional	Specify a customisation script. This script runs after the instance launches and becomes active.

Creating an instance using the command line

On the command line, instance creation is managed with the openstack server create command. Before launching an instance, determine what images and flavors are available to create a new instance using the openstack image list and openstack flavor list commands.

1. Log in to any utility container.

2. Issue the openstack server create command with a name for the instance, along with the name of the image and flavor to use:

   $ openstack server create --image precise-image --flavor=2 --key-name example-key example-instance
   +-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
   |               Property              |                Value                 |
   +-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
   |          OS-DCF:diskConfig          |                MANUAL                |
   |         OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:host        |                 None                 |
   | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:hypervisor_hostname |                 None                 |
   |    OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:instance_name    |          instance-0000000d           |
   |        OS-EXT-STS:power_state       |                  0                   |
   |        OS-EXT-STS:task_state        |              scheduling              |
   |         OS-EXT-STS:vm_state         |               building               |
   |              accessIPv4             |                                      |
   |              accessIPv6             |                                      |
   |              adminPass              |             ATSEfRY9fZPx             |
   |             config_drive            |                                      |
   |               created               |         2012-08-02T15:43:46Z         |
   |                flavor               |               m1.small               |
   |                hostId               |                                      |
   |                  id                 | 5bf46a3b-084c-4ce1-b06f-e460e875075b |
   |                image                |             precise-image            |
   |               key_name              |              example-key             |
   |               metadata              |                  {}                  |
   |                 name                |           example-instance           |
   |               progress              |                  0                   |
   |                status               |                BUILD                 |
   |              tenant_id              |   b4769145977045e2a9279c842b09be6a   |
   |               updated               |         2012-08-02T15:43:46Z         |
   |               user_id               |   5f2f2c28bdc844f9845251290b524e80   |
   +-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

3. To check that the instance was created successfully, issue the openstack server list command:

   $ openstack server list
   +------------------+------------------+--------+-------------------+---------------+
   |        ID        |       Name       | Status |      Networks     |   Image Name  |
   +------------------+------------------+--------+-------------------+---------------+
   | [ID truncated]   | example-instance | ACTIVE |  public=192.0.2.0 | precise-image |
   +------------------+------------------+--------+-------------------+---------------+

Managing an instance

1. Log in to the Dashboard. Select one of the projects, and click Instances.
2. Select an instance from the list of available instances.
3. Check the Actions column, and click on the More option. Select the instance state.

The Actions column includes the following options:

• Resize or rebuild any instance
• View the instance console log
• Edit the instance
• Modify security groups
• Pause, resume, or suspend the instance
• Soft or hard reset the instance

Note

Terminate the instance under the Actions column.

Managing volumes for persistent storage

Volumes attach to instances, enabling persistent storage. Volume storage provides a source of memory for instances. Administrators can attach volumes to a running instance, or move a volume from one instance to another.

Live migration