This article provides a detailed description of managing virtual machines via a web interface. It explains how to create a new virtual machine by selecting a template and filling in the required fields. Adjusting resources such as memory and CPU requires shutting down the machine. Additional IP addresses can be added, and storage capacity can be adjusted by adding or removing disks. Deleting a virtual machine is done via a special menu. It also explains how to create and manage users and how to monitor used and available resources.
Create a New Virtual Machine
Adjust Assigned Resources
Add Additional IP Addresses
Adjust Available Storage Space
Delete a Virtual Machine
Create Users and Assign Virtual Machine(s)
Delete Users
View Used and Available Resources
Create a New Virtual Machine
Click on "Virtual Resources" -> "Virtual Machines" -> "+"
A new window appears. Here you must select a template and fill in all fields.
The template names usually include the operating system and the size of the system disk.
"demoVDC CentOS 7 10GB" means broken down as follows:
Operating System CentOS 7
System Disk 10GB
"demoVDC CentOS 7 10GB+xxGBVAR" means broken down as follows:
Operating System CentOS 7
System Disk 10GB
Data Disk min. 50GB, dynamically adjustable when creating the VM
Please choose a secure root password in general, as the virtual machine is immediately made available on the internet.
(4) Please note that reducing the system disk size later is very cumbersome. It is better to add a second disk as a data disk. In the above case, the disk "DB-Dyn-raw" (5) is the data disk, which you can enlarge as desired. This is mounted directly to /var in our preconfigured templates.
Expanding the disks is possible afterward with the xfs file system. Reducing is only possible if a new disk is attached and then the data is migrated.
See also: Cloud Server Root: Adjusting Storage Space
The virtual machine is created immediately and is visible under "Virtual Resources" -> "Virtual Machines". The virtual machine is assigned an IP address from the IP pool defined in the template. The display can be refreshed by clicking the arrow icon. After a few seconds, the machine can be accessed via SSH at the specified IP address. Viewing via VNC (screen/keyboard/mouse directly on the system) is also possible.
Adjust Assigned Resources
To change the resources of an individual virtual machine, it must first be shut down.
When the virtual machine is in the "POWEROFF" state, the resources can be adjusted. To do this, click directly on the virtual machine and then on "Capacity".
Under "Memory" you set the memory of the virtual machine. It is best to switch to "GB" here and enter the corresponding value in the input field. Under "CPU" you define how many physical CPU cores the virtual machine may use. The CPU value can be set lower than the VCPU value. Under "VCPU" you specify how many CPUs are displayed in the virtual system. For example, if you define 4 here, 4 CPUs will be shown in the system.
Enter the desired values in the input fields. Clicking "Resize" will then adjust the CPU performance and memory.
After adjusting the resources, you can restart the virtual machine by clicking the "Play" icon.
Add Additional IP Addresses
It is possible to assign additional IP addresses to a system. This can be a regular public IPv4 address, an IPv6 address, or an internal IP address from a private VLAN. METANET is happy to create a private VLAN for you upon request.
To do this, click on the corresponding machine under "Virtual Resources -> Virtual Machines" and open the "Network" tab.
There you see all IP addresses of the system, and by clicking "Attach Nic" you can add another network interface. Simply select the corresponding virtual network and click "Attach".
For each additional IP address configured, a new network interface is created in the system. The IP address must then be configured manually on the corresponding network interface within the system.
Adjust Available Storage Space
Adjusting storage space can be done by adding and removing new virtual disks based on existing images. Click on the virtual machine under "Virtual Resources" -> "Virtual Machines" and then on the "Storage" tab. There you can add or remove disks to a running virtual machine. Simply click "Attach Disk"
and select the desired image.
METANET provides so-called datablock images in various sizes upon request. The new disk then appears in the system and can be mounted as desired.
Delete a Virtual Machine
To delete a virtual machine, first click on it under "Virtual Resources" -> "Virtual Machines".
If the virtual machine is still running, click the trash can and then "Shutdown (hard)":
When the virtual machine is shut down, click the trash can and then "Delete":
Create Users and Assign Virtual Machine(s)
If you want to assign permissions to a customer (Start/Stop/Recreate, VNC), you can create a separate user for them and assign permissions for the corresponding virtual machine.
The customer can then log in directly via the known URL to the graphical interface.
To do this, click "+" under "System" -> "Users" and enter the desired username and password.
Then, under "Virtual Resources" -> "Virtual Machines," select the desired virtual machine and change the owner. The change is active immediately after selection.
Delete Users
To delete a user, go to "System" -> "Users," select the user, and click the trash can.
View Used and Available Resources
In a VDC, the maximum number of virtual machines and resources such as CPUs and memory are defined via the group.
The maximum number of virtual machines is additionally limited by the maximum number of IP addresses in the IP pool of the virtual network.
To display the available and used resources, click on "System" -> "Groups":
The front value shows the used resources, the latter the maximum available.
In this example, any number of virtual machines can still be created as long as the shared resources do not exceed the available 12GB of memory and 6 CPUs.
In the virtual network, free IP addresses must also be available.
This is visible under "Infrastructure" -> "Virtual Networks":
In this example, 2 of 3 IP addresses are used.
Clicking on the virtual network allows viewing details of the configuration and usage.