Table of Contents

1. Introduction

This section provides information that will assist you in creating Linux based guest OS templates in Microsoft Hyper-V, that will be used by Interworks Cloud OSS Service Manager during VM provisioning.

This guide will assist you in deploying the following operating systems:

• CentOS 6.5
• Oracle Linux 6.5

In order to follow these instructions successfully, you will need:

• Administrative access to SCVMM Server (via SCVMM Console) and permissions to the Library Objects/Share Folders. 
• Adequate ISO images or CD/DVD discs containing the operating systems for the guest OS.

2. Downloading CentOS 6.5 and Oracle Linux 6.5 images

You can download the CentOS 6.5 ISO image from here. This link contains a number of mirrors with the CentOS images.

For this guide we will be using the CentOS-6.5-x86_64-bin-DVD1.ISO  image (not all mirrors contain this ISO so you may need to check a couple of mirrors).

 
You can download the Oracle Linux 6.5 ISO image from here. You will need to register or sign-in with your existing Oracle account in order to download the ISO.

Later on,the uncompressed .ISO image will have to be uploaded to the SCVMM server where the SCVMM console is hosted.

3. Creating a Virtual Machine

The first thing we need to do in order to deploy the template is to create a Virtual Machine and install the CentOS 6.5 or Oracle Linux 6.5 Operating System. Once you have downloaded the ISO image, you may proceed with the creation of the Virtual Machine.

1) Log in to SCVMM server and open the SCVMM console.  Next, click on Library tab. 

Fig 1. SCVMM console Library

2) Right click on Library Servers and create a Library Server. Create a Library Share and name it ISO or choose an alternative name that you prefer.
    (You may skip this step if you already have a Library Server and Library Share configured in SCVMM)

Fig 2. Creating a Library Server and Library Share

3) Select the ISO Library Share and click on Import physical resource.

Fig 3. Viewing the contents of selected Library Share

4) Click on "Add resource..." in the appearing window.

Fig 4. Adding a resource to the Library

5) Navigate to the CentOS .ISO image that you have previously uploaded to SCVMM Server and click on Open.

Fig 5. Adding .ISO image to the Library

6) Click on Browse to select the destination for the imported .ISO image.

Fig 6. Browsing for imported resource destination

7) Select the Destination Folder (Library Share) and click on OK.

Fig 7. Selecting imported resource destination

8) Click on Import.

Fig 8. Importing resource

9) Wait until the import process is finished and close the Jobs window that appears.

Fig 9. Running the import process

10) The ISO image should now appear in the folder selected in step 7.

Fig 10. Viewing the ISO image Library Share

11) You will now need to create a Virtual Machine (VM) using the uploaded image. On SCVMM console, click on VMs and Services.

Fig 11. VMs and Services

12) Click on Create Virtual Machine.

Fig 12. Creating a new VM

13) In the appearing window choose "Create the new virtual machine with a blank virtual hard disk" and click on Next.

Fig 13. Creating a new virtual hard disk (VHD) for VM

14) Type in the Virtual machine name, choose Generation 1 and click on Next.

Fig 14. VM name and generation 

15) Select "Cloud Capability Profiles"

Fig 15. Cloud Capability Profiles

16) Select Hyper-V.

Fig 16. Cloud Capability profiles (Hyper-V selection)

17) Set the minimum recommended resources for running a Guest OS Template VM (1 processor / 1024 MB Memory / 10 GB hard disk).

Fig 17. Setting CPU resources

Fig 18. Setting Memory resources

Fig 19. Setting Hard Disk resources

18) In Virtual DVD Drive choose "Existing ISO image" and browse for the uploaded .ISO image on the Library Share.

Fig 20. Mounting the .ISO image                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

19) Select the .ISO Image to be inserted in the Virtual DVD Drive and click on OK.

                                     Fig 21. Selecting .ISO image                                                                                    

Fig 22. The .ISO image is selected

20) Select Network Adapter 1 and click Remove. In the appearing window, click on Yes. 

Fig 23. Remove Network Adapter 1                                                                          

Fig 24. Removing Network Adapter

21) Click on New -> Legacy Network Adapter to add a Legacy Network Adapter to the VM template.

Fig 25. Adding a Legacy Network Adapter
 

22) Select Connect to a VM Network and then click on Browse.

Fig 26. Connect Legacy Network Adapter to a VM Network

23) Select a VM Network and click on OK.

Fig 27. Selecting VM Network

24) Once you finish with Hardware Configuration, click on Next.

Fig 28. Finishing Hardware Configuration

25) In the Select Destination tab, click on Next.

Fig 29. Select Destination Tab

26) Select the Hyper-V Host on which the VM will be created in and click on Next.

Fig 30. Choosing Hyper-V node for VM

Fig 40. CentOS initial installation screen

35) Choose whether to test or skip testing the media before installation and click on "Next" in the screen that follows.

Fig 41. Install media test dialogue box

36) In the Welcome to CentOS page, click on Next.

Fig 42. Welcome to CentOS page

37) Choose your preferred Language and Keyboard layout. Once you choose, click on Next.

Fig 43. Preferred language                                                                                   

Fig 44. Preferred keyboard layout

38) In the Type of Devices page, select "Basic Storage Devices" and click on Next. In the pop-up window, click on "Yes, discard any data".

Fig 45. Installation devices                                                                                     

Fig 46. Storage Device Warning

39) Enter the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) you want to use for this Virtual Machine.

Fig 47. Virtual Machine Template FQDN

40) Click on the "Configure Network" button and edit the "System eth0" network interface. Configure the IPv4 settings so that you can access the template later on. 

Fig 48. Network configuration                                                                              

Fig 49. System etho network settings

41) Select the appropriate time zone and click on "Next". In the following screen set a "Root" password.

Fig 50. Time settings                                                                                         

Fig 51. Setting root password

42) In the following screen select "Use All Space" and click on "Next". In the pop-up window, click on "Write changes to disk".

Fig 52. Partitioning                                                                                            

Fig 53. Write changes to disk

43) Choose installation type (Since this is going to be a server template, we choose the "Basic Server" option). The installation process will begin once we click on "Next".

Fig 54. Installation type                                                                                      

Fig 55. Starting installation process

44) When the installation process is over, click on "Reboot".

Fig 56. Rebooting upon successful installation

4. Preparing the Virtual Machine for Template

45) After the Reboot process is completed successfully, shutdown the Virtual Machine by logging in as root with the password you entered during the installation and run the following command:

• shutdown –h now

Fig 57. Shutting down the Virtual Machine

46) While the Virtual Machine is turned off, go to VMM console, right click on the VM and click on Properties.

Fig 58. Setting VM's Properties

47) Go to Hardware Configuration, click on the "Legacy Network Adapter" and then click on Remove in order to remove it. In the pop-up window click on Yes.

Fig 59. Removing Legacy Network Adapter

48) Click on New->Network Adapter in order to add a "Standard Network Adapter". Click on the Adapter and select Connect to a VM Network, then click on OK.

Fig 60. Adding a Standard Network Adapter                                                                        

Fig 61. Connect to a VM Network

49) Turn the Virtual Machine on and login as root. By default CentOS and Oracle Linux do not enable the network adapter on startup. If you run the command "ifconfig" you will only find the loopback adapter listed.

Fig 62. Running ifconfig

50) Also, by default the first adapter will be eth0. However, if we attempt to enable it by using the "ifconfig eth0 up" command we will receive a "no such device" error message as shown in the figure below:

Fig 63. Attempting to bring etho interface up

51) First, we need to update the configuration file for eth0. In order to do this, we run the following commands:

• cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
• nano ifcfg-eth0

We should receive a screen similar to the one below:

Fig 64. Updating config file for eth0

52) From the config file, remove the line that starts with HWADDR and set the value for BOOTPROTO=static. Press Ctrl-X + Y + Enter, in order to exit and save your changes.

Fig 65. Updated config file                                                                                    

Fig 66. Updated config file is saved

53) Run the following commands in order to remove the network rules and reboot the Virtual Machine:

• rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules –f
• shutdown –r now

Fig 67. Removing Network Rules and Rebooting the VM

54) After rebooting, run the "ifconfig" command to verify that the network is set to eth0 and an IP address is configured.

Fig 68. Verifying eth0 proper state and configuration

You may also ping a public website in order to confirm Internet connectivity.You can now proceed with the required installation/configuration of the Virtual Machine in order to prepare it for template.

55) Hyper-V backup essentials have to be added so that the Virtual Machine will be able to support Live Backup. In order to do this, run the following commands:

• curl –L –o backupessentials.tar.gz https://github.com/LIS/backupessentials/tarball/1.0
• tar –xvzf backupessentials.tar.gz

Fig 69a. Adding backup essentials to the VM

• cd LIS-backupessentials-4e3121f/hv/hv-rhel6.5/rpm/
• chmod +x install.sh
• ./install.sh
• Reboot

Fig 69b. Adding backup essentials to the VM

56) Install the key/value pair (KVP) infrastructure, by running the following command: 

• • yum install hypervkvpd

When the "Is this ok" question pops up, type "y" and press Enter.

Fig 70a. Installing KVP                                                                                  

Fig 70b. Installation of KVP is complete                

Accordingly install libvirt, which is the API for managing platform virtualization, by running the following command (when the "Is this ok" question pops up, type "y" and press Enter):

• yum install libvirt

Fig 70c. Installation of libvirt is complete

57) Download the Hard disk extend scripts on your Workstation from here. Unrar the file and extract the scripts to a destination of your preference.

Fig 71. Downloading the Hard disk extend scripts

58) Run the WinSCP or any other SCP client tool. Browse to the destination where you saved rc.local file on your Workstation. Select the file and click on Upload.

Fig 72a. Open WinSCP                                                                                        

Fig 72b. Uploading rc.local file

59) Copy and overwrite the rc.local file from the CloudWorks-Linux-ExtendScripts folder to the /etc/ directory on the Linux Operating System. At the Upload pop-up window, type "/etc/" in the remote directory field and click on OK. On the Confirm pop up window click on Yes.

Fig 73a. Copying rc.local                                                                                              

Fig 73b. Overwriting rc.local                                          

60) Grant executable permissions to the new rc.local file by running the following command:

• chmod +x /etc/rc.local

Fig 74. Granting executable permissions to rc.local

61) Copy the disk_extend_script1.sh and the disk_extend_script2.sh under the /etc/rc.d/init.d/ directory of the Linux Operating System and grant executable permissions to the scripts by using the following commands:

• chmod +x /etc/rc.d/init.d/disk_extend_script1.sh
• chmod +x /etc/rc.d/init.d/disk_extend_script2.sh

Fig 75a. Upload the disk extend scripts                                                         

Fig 75b. Copying the disk extend files to /etc/rc.d/init.d/

Fig 75c. Granting executable permissions to the disk extend scripts

62) Remove the wtmp reboot counter with the following command:

• rm –rf /var/log/wtmp

Fig 76. Removing wtmp reboot coonter

63) Add the SCVMM Guest Agent. You can find the SCVMM Agent inside your SCVMM Server under the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Virtual Machine Manager\agents\. You have to find the scvmmguestagent.1.0.2.1014.x64.tar and the install.sh. Copy them on your Virtual Machine with the WinSCP client tool and install them by using the following commands:

• cd /the/directory/you/copy/the/agent/and/the/shell/script
• chmod +x install.sh
• ./install.sh scvmmguestagent.1.0.2.1014.x64.tar

Fig 77a. Adding SCVMM Guest Agent to VM                                                          

Fig 77b. SCVMM Guest Agent successfully installed

64) The last step before creating the template is to clear network rules once more, so that the new adapter from the Cloud OSS provisioning platform will be added as eth0. In order to do this, run the following command:

• rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules –f

Fig 78. Clearing network rules

 
65) Shutdown the Virtual Machine by running the following command:

• shutdown –h now

Fig 79. Shutting down VM

5. Creating the Template

66) In SCVMM console right click on the CentOS-6.5-for-Template VM and choose Create -> Clone.

Fig 80. Creating a clone VM

67) In the Identity tab, Specify machine name for this VM clone and click on "Next".

Fig 81. Specifying clone machine name 

68) In the Configure Hardware tab click on Availability below Advanced and check the "Make this Virtual Machine High Available" option. Click on Next 

Fig 82. Turning on high availability

69) In the Select Destination tab, select "Place the virtual machine on a Host" and choose your host cluster or standalone server. Click on Next.

Fig 83. Placing the VM on a host                                                                                          Fig 84. Selecting Host                                                                                                        

70) Set all other options to default and click on "Create" at the end of this wizard. Wait for the cloning process to be completed.

Fig 85a. Selecting Path                                                                                           Fig 85b. Selecting Network

Fig 85c. Adding Properties                                                                                             Fig 85d. Creating VM clone

Fig 85e. Cloning process

71) Once the VM clone is created, right-click on it and click on Properties.

Fig 86. VM Clone Properties

72) Go to the Hardware Configuration tab, click on the Hard Disk and copy the file location address of this VHD.

Fig 87. Copy VHD location

73) Open File explorer and paste the Iocation of the VHD file of the Virtual Machine. Copy the VHD file.

Fig 88. Copy VHD file

74) Go to VMM, click on Library, then right-click on the Library main folder and click on Explore.

Fig 89. Explore VMM Library

75) Select a Library location and paste the VHD file you copied in step 73.

Fig 90. Paste VHD file

76) Select Library in SCVMM console on the bottom left. On the upper left of the SCVMM console, right click on Templates and choose "Create VM Template".

Fig 91. Creating a VM Template

77) In the Select Source tab, choose "Use an existing VM template or a virtual hard disk stored in the library" and click on Browse.

Fig 92. Selecting source for the new VM Template                                                                          

78)Select the VHD file you pasted in step 75. Click on OK and then click on Next. 

Fig 93. Selecting VHD file from the Library

79) In the Identity tab, specify VM template's name, choose Generation 1 from the drop-down list and click on Next.

Fig 94. Specifying VM Template name and Generation                                                                   

80) In the Configure Hardware tab, in Cloud Capability Profile section, check Hyper-V.

Fig 95. Select Cloud Capability Profile

81) Set Memory to at least 1024 MB and click on Next.

Fig 96. Specify VM Template Memory

82) In the Configure Operating System Settings tab, select "linux os profile" for "Guest OS profile" and select "CentOS Linux 6 (64 bit)" for "Operating system", in the dropdown menu (for Oracle Linux select "Oracle Linux 6 (64 bit)"). Click on Next.

Fig 97. Specify Operating system

83) In the Select Library Server tab, select the appropriate library server and click on Next. In the Select Path tab, click on Browse to select the path on the Library Server to save the template and click on Next.

   Fig 98. Selecting a library to place the VM template                                                     Fig 99. Selecting the path to place the VM template

84) View your "Summary" configuration settings and click on "Create".

Fig 100. Creating a VM Template

85) Congratulations! Your Guest OS (Linux) template has been created.  You may proceed with creating the Windows Guest OS Templates in Hyper-V for your Cloud Servers.