Provisioning New Instances

This document will describe how to deploy (provision) new Operations CTRL instances.

An instance is defined as a set of containers or virtual machines that can correlate to a single horizontally scalable entity or a service suite like a database. It is important to note that an instance can contain one or more containers/vms depending on the instance type and configuration.

Procedure

1. Login to ctrl.expedient.cloud using your provided Expedient OneLogin.  More information regarding login info can be found here: How to Access Identity Management

2. Navigate to 'Provisioning' > 'Instances'

3. Select “+ADD”. This will start the provisioning wizard.

4. 'Create Instance' tab: 

• Search and select the type of VM you wish to deploy. Select ‘Next’ once selected.

5. 'Instance Summary' tab: 

Group

• The Group is an abstract representation that can contain multiple cloud integrations. These cloud integrations can also be in multiple groups and is also useful for using role based access control to restrict provisioning access and set retainment policies.

Cloud

Clouds consist of any consumable endpoint whether that be On-Prem, Public clouds, or even bare metal.

Name

Name of the instance you wish to create. This will be the OS name as well as the instance name.

Environment (optional)

This is simply a tag that gets assigned to the instance which is mostly useful for presenting the user with informative metadata around the instance.

Labels (optional) 

Additional tagging assigned to the instance which can be used for additional automation.

• • 6. Configuration Options' tab: 

Version

The version of the OS

Layout

A deployment type of the OS

Plan

Select the vCPU and memory combination you wish to dedicate to the VM. Optionally, you may select to customize these values by selecting ‘Custom’ 

If you select ‘Custom’, you will be required to provide “Core Count”, Cores per socket, as well as Memory.

Volumes 

• Specify a name for hard disk 1
• Specify a size for this disk
• Select the disk location (Storage Policy) from the dropdown
  • You may add additional disk by selecting the “+” on the right side of the screen.  Doing so, you will be required to specify the name, size, and location for the additional disk.

Networks

• Select an existing network to map a NIC to. Once selected, you may optionally select to use DHCP or Static to obtain/set an IP.
• IF ‘Static’ is set, you will be required to specify an IP address in x.x.x.x format. 
  • You may add additional networks by selecting the “+” on the right side of the screen.  Doing so, you will be able to specify DHCP or Static to obtain/set an IP for the additional nic(s).

Patch Window

Select the patch window from the dropdown. This dropdown should be prepopulated by Expedient. This can always be added and/or modified after the VM is deployed.

User Config

• Select the check box for “Create your user” if you wish to add all specified users (as found in Administration > Users page) to the OS deployed.
• User Group: This is the OS group to add the users to. This list is based on specified groups (as found in Administration > Groups page)

Advanced Options

• Hostname: Specify the hostname of the VM
• Domain: Specify the domain of the VM. This is used for AD joining automation.
• Time Zone: Specify the time zone you wish to set in the OS.
• Ports: Leave this as default
• Tags: Leave this as default
• Environment Prefix: Leave this as default
• Environment Variables: Leave this as default

 Ansible 

• Enable Ansible: Leave this as default
• Ansible Group: Leave this as default
• Playbook: Leave this as default

Automation 

• Workflow: If you wish to run additional automation tasks, you able to select a job from the dropdown. This is not mandatory, these tasks can always be run at a later time.
• Backups: 
  • Backup Type: Leave this as default
• Lifecycle: 
  • Power Schedule: Leave this as default
  • Shutdown Days: Leave this as default
  • Expiration Days: Leave this as default

Review Page

• Please review your selections on this page to verify before submitting the job. Once ready, select “Complete”.
• This will return you to the “Instances” page, where you can find your new VM.

Check the status of your VM

1. Click on the new VM to open a new page with deployment details.
2. Navigate to the “History” tab
3. While on the ‘History’ tab, you should see all green checkmarks below the History tab. If you have any failed tasks, these will be represented with a red ‘X’. Please open a support ticket for troubleshooting. Please don’t confuse the status icon at the top left hand corner of the page for task status.  This icon is the status of the VM. Green play icon means the VM is running, gray square means the vm is in a stopped state.

Troubleshooting

If, once your VM build is complete, you find a red 'X' on any of the tasks under the 'History' tab, please open a support ticket for further troubleshooting. To open a Support Ticket please visit the Support Management Console