The module is actively developed. It might significantly change in the future.

How to install an operating system in a virtual machine from an iso-image?

Let’s consider installing an operating system in a virtual machine from an iso-image, using Windows OS installation as an example.

To install the OS we will need an iso-image of Windows OS. We need to download it and publish it on some http-service available from the cluster.

Let’s create an empty disk for OS installation:

apiVersion: virtualization.deckhouse.io/v1alpha2
kind: VirtualMachineDisk
metadata:
  name: win-disk
  namespace: default
spec:
  persistentVolumeClaim:
    size: 100Gi
    storageClassName: local-path

Let’s create resources with iso-images of Windows OS and virtio drivers:

apiVersion: virtualization.deckhouse.io/v1alpha2
kind: ClusterVirtualMachineImage
metadata:
  name: win-11-iso
spec:
  dataSource:
    type: HTTP
    http:
      url: "http://example.com/win11.iso"

apiVersion: virtualization.deckhouse.io/v1alpha2
kind: ClusterVirtualMachineImage
metadata:
  name: win-virtio-iso
spec:
  dataSource:
    type: HTTP
    http:
      url: "https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/stable-virtio/virtio-win.iso"

Create a virtual machine:

apiVersion: virtualization.deckhouse.io/v1alpha2
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: win-vm
  namespace: default
  labels:
    vm: win
spec:
  runPolicy: Manual
  osType: Windows
  bootloader: EFI
  cpu:
    cores: 6
    coreFraction: 50%
  memory:
    size: 8Gi
  enableParavirtualization: true
  blockDevices:
    - type: ClusterVirtualMachineImage
      clusterVirtualMachineImage:
        name: win-iso
    - type: ClusterVirtualMachineImage
      clusterVirtualMachineImage:
        name: win-virtio-iso
    - type: VirtualMachineDisk
      virtualMachineDisk:
        name: win-disk

Once the resource is created, the virtual machine will be started. You need to connect to it and use the graphical wizard to add the virtio drivers and perform the OS installation.

dvp vnc -n default win-vm

After the installation is complete, shut down the virtual machine.

Next, modify the VirtualMachine resource and apply the changes:

spec:
  # ...
  runPolicy: AlwaysON
  # ...
  blockDevices:
    # remove all ClusterVirtualMachineImage resources with iso disks from this section
    - type: VirtualMachineDisk
      virtualMachineDisk:
        name: win-disk

How to create a virtual machine image for container registry

The virtual machine disk image stored in the container registry must be created in a special way.

Example Dockerfile for creating an image:

FROM scratch
COPY image-name.img /disk/image-name.img

Next, you need to build the image and run it in the container registry:

docker build -t docker.io/username/image:latest

docker push docker.io/username/image:latest

How to redirect traffic to a virtual machine

Since the virtual machine runs in a Kubernetes cluster, the forwarding of network traffic to it is done similarly to the forwarding of traffic to the pods.

To do this, you just need to create a service with the required settings.

Suppose we have a virtual machine with http service published on port 80 and the following set of labels:

apiVersion: virtualization.deckhouse.io/v1alpha2
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: web
  labels:
    vm: web
spec: ...

In order to direct network traffic to port 80 of the virtual machine - let’s create a service:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: svc-1
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 8080
      protocol: TCP
      targetPort: 80
  selector:
    app: old

We can change virtual machine label values on the fly, i.e. changing labels does not require restarting the virtual machine, which means that we can configure network traffic redirection from different services dynamically:

Let’s imagine that we have created a new service and want to redirect traffic to our virtual machine from it:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: svc-2
spec:
  ports:
    - name: http
      port: 8080
      protocol: TCP
      targetPort: 80
  selector:
    app: new

By changing the labels on the virtual machine, we will redirect network traffic from the svc-2 service to it

metadata:
  labels:
    app: old