Compute Service (Nova)

The COARE Science Cloud’s compute-as-a-service is implemented through Nova. This provides a way to provision compute instances (virtual servers) and enables users to create virtual machines and baremetal servers.

On the Project tab, open the Compute tab and click Overview category. This will show the provided and allocated resources to the selected Project.

Instances

An instance is another term for a virtual machine (VM).

On the Project tab, open the Compute tab and click the Instances category. This will show the instances created on the selected Project.

Creating Instances

1. Click Launch Instance on the Instances category.
2. Fill out the required fields:
   • Instance Name: Specify name to identify instance
   • Volume Size: Size for the root disk (minimum for this will be based on the image parameters or the flavor chosen)
   • Device Name: Name for the disk (dependent on image metadata)
   • Source: Image to be used by the instance
   • Flavor: Virtual CPU (vCPU), vRAM, root disk size, etc. for the instance
   • Network: Network/s to be attached to the instance
   • Security Group: Security group/s to be attached to the instance
   • Key Pair: Key pair/s attached to the default cloud user of the image

   

   NOTES:

   • Before an instance is created, an existing image, key pair, security group, flavor, and network should be available.
   • A key pair is the SSH public key used to access a created instance and is attached to the default cloud user of the image.
   • All customized Images from the COARE Team should have device name of sda.   
   • All customized Images from the COARE Team has the user coare as its default.
   • All instantiated VMs using the COARE Team’s customized images have only SSH enabled and are accessible via SSH key pairs (SSH password authentication is disabled). 
3. Click Launch Instance

Associating Floating IPs

1. Click Associate Floating IP on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button
2. Fill out the required fields:
   • IP Address: Select a Floating IP to associate to instance
   • Port to be associated: Select a port

   

   NOTE: Always use a port from your VXLAN network.

3. Click Associate

Managing Instance Interfaces

1. Click Attach/Detach Interface on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button
2. Fill out the required fields:

   Attach Interface options:

   • Network: Select network/s to attach to instance

   

   Detach Interface options:

   • Port: Select interface/s to detach to instance

   

3. Click Attach/Detach Interface

Managing Instance Volumes

1. Click Attach/Detach Interface on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button
2. Fill out the required fields:

   Attach Volume options:

   • Volume ID: Select volume/s to attach to instance

   

   Detach Volume options:

   • Volume ID: Select list of volumes to detach from instance

   

3. Click Attach/Detach Volume

Editing Instances

1. Click Edit Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button
2. Fill out the required fields:

   Information tab options:

   • Name: name of the instance

   

   Security Groups tab options:

   • All Security Groups: Lists all available Security Groups
   • Instance Security Groups: Enabled Security Group for the Instance

   

   NOTE: This can also be accessed by choosing the Edit Security Group option.

3. Click Save

Logging in via console

1. Click Console on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button
2. Login with the default credentials (coare) or the credentials created by the user

   

   NOTES:

   • This is a Web UI VNC client connection to the instance.
   • Since this is a hypervisor-level VNC connection, only one user is allowed.
   • The password for the user coare from COARE images is randomly generated. 

Viewing Instance Logs

Click View Logs on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will enable users to view the startup logs of the instance.

Pausing an Instance

Click Pause Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will store the VM in RAM where it continues to run in frozen state.

Suspending an Instance

Click Suspend Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will initiate a hypervisor-level suspend operation.

Shelving an Instance

Click Shelve Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will shut down the instance and store it together with associated data and resources (a snapshot is taken if not volume backed). Note that anything in memory of the instance is lost.

Resuming an Instance

Click Restart Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will restart instance/s that are on pause or in suspended state.

Unshelving an Instance

Click Unshelve Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will restart instance/s that are on shelved state.

Resizing an Instance

1. Click Resize Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button
2. Select the new flavor for the assigned instance.
3. Click Resize

Locking an Instance

Click Lock Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will secure the VM to avoid accidental deletion.

Unlocking an Instance

Click Unlock Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will unlock VM to allow deletion.

Soft rebooting an Instance

Click Soft Reboot Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will attempt a graceful shut down and restart the instance.

Hard Rebooting an Instance

Click Soft Reboot Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will power cycle the instance at hypervisor level.

Shutoff an Instance

Click Shutoff Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will turn the power off on the instance.

Rebuilding an Instance

1. Click Rebuild Instance on the drop-down arrow beside the Create Snapshot button. This will rebuild the instance from an existing image.
2. Fill out the required fields:
   • Select Image: Select new image to be used for rebuilding the instance
   • Disk Partition: Change partitioning mechanics to either automatic or manual

   

3. Click Rebuild Instance

Deleting Instances

1. Click the checkbox on the left of the instances to be deleted
2. Click Delete Instances on the right (red colored button)

   

3. Click Delete Instances

Managing Key Pairs

On the Project tab, open the Compute tab and click the Key Pairs category.

Creating Key Pairs

To create key pair:

1. Click Create Key Pair on the Key Pair category.
2. Fill out the required field:
   • Key Pair Name: Specify name to identify key pair

   

3. Click Create Key Pair

Importing Key Pairs

1. Click Import Key Pair on the Key Pair category.
2. Fill out the required fields:
   • Key Pair Name: Specify name to identify key pair
   • Public Key: Upload existing SSH public key

   

3. Click Import Key Pair

Deleting Key Pairs

1. Click Delete Key Pair on the existing key pair that you want to delete.

   

2. Click Delete Key Pair