Creating a New Virtual Machine

Create a new virtual machine (VM) to install a guest operating system on your ztC Edge system. (You can also migrate an existing VM or physical machine (PM), as summarized in Creating and Migrating Virtual Machines.)

Launch the VM Creation Wizard by clicking Create on the Virtual Machines page. The wizard steps you through the process of allocating resources to the VM.

Prerequisites:

Review the prerequisites and considerations for allocating CPUs, memory, storage, and network resources to the VM, as listed in Planning Virtual Machine Resources as well as Virtual Machine Recommendations and Limits, which also lists which systems allow High Availability (HA) and Fault Tolerant (FT) operation.
You can create VMs that run supported guest operating systems and boot interfaces, as described in Tested Guest Operating Systems.
You can select a remote ISO or a bootable virtual CD (VCD) as the source that the VM boots from. For a remote ISO, you must have a URL or path name for the repository; and for a remote ISO on a shared network drive, you must have a user name and password. If you need a bootable VCD of the Windows or Linux installation media, create it as described in Creating a Virtual CD. The bootable VCD must be a single CD or DVD. Multiple CDs or DVDs are not supported.
Ensure that both PMs of the ztC Edge system are online and are connected to the network; otherwise, the system cannot properly create the VM.

To create a new VM

On the Physical Machines page (see the Physical Machines Page) of a system configured with two nodes, verify that both PMs are in the running state and that neither PM is in maintenance mode or in the process of synchronizing.
On the Virtual Machines page (see Virtual Machines Page), click Create to open the VM Creation Wizard.
On the Name, Description, Protection and OS page:
1. Type the Name and an optional Description for the VM as they will appear in the ztC Edge Console.
  The VM name must meet the following requirements:
  - A VM name must start with a word or a number, and the name cannot include the special characters (for example, #, %, or $).
  - A VM name cannot use hyphenated prefixes such as Zombie- or migrating-.
  - A VM name has a maximum of 85 characters.
2. Select the level of protection to use for the VM:
  - Fault Tolerant (FT)—Transparently protects an application by creating a redundant environment for a VM running across two PMs. Use FT for applications that need greater downtime protection than HA provides.
  - High Availability (HA)—Provides basic failover and recovery, with some faults requiring an (automatic) VM reboot for recovery. Use HA for applications that can tolerate some downtime and that do not need the downtime protection that FT provides.
  For more information about these levels of protection, see Modes of Operation.
3. For Boot Interface, select one of the following:
  - BIOS—Basic Input/Output System
  - UEFI—Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
  Notes:
  1. Ensure that the guest operating system supports the Boot Interface that you select; otherwise, the guest operating system cannot boot properly. For a list of guest operating systems and boot interfaces that are supported on ztC Edge systems, see Tested Guest Operating Systems.
  2. You can set the Boot Interface only when creating a VM. You cannot modify the setting later.
4. For Boot From, select one of the following as the boot source:
  - VCD—The boot source is a VCD. Select a source from the pull-down menu.
  - Remote ISO via Windows Share (CIFS/SMB)—The boot source is a remote ISO file on a shared network drive. You must enter values for User Name and Password. For Repository, enter a value in the format \\machine_URL\ShareName (for example, \\192.168.1.34\MyISO_Folder).
  - Remote ISO via NFS—The boot source is a remote ISO file, accessed through NFS. For Repository, enter the URL of the remote system in the format nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn (do not include http:// or https://).
  For a list of available ISO repositories, click List ISOs, and select an ISO file. The full path name of the selected ISO file appears under Repository. You cannot edit the ISO URL that is displayed.
5. Click Next.
On the vCPUs and Memory page:
1. Specify the number of vCPUs and the amount of Memory to assign to the VM. For more information, see Planning Virtual Machine vCPUs and Planning Virtual Machine Memory.
2. Click Next.
On the Volumes page:
1. Type the Name of the boot volume as it will appear in the ztC Edge Console.
  The volume name must meet the following requirements:
  - Valid characters are a-z, A-Z, 0-9 , +, _, and . (dot).
  - A volume name cannot be only . or .. (dots).
  - A volume name cannot be snapshot or pvmove.
  - A volume name cannot contain any of the following reserved strings: _cdata, _cmeta, _corig, _mlog, _mimage, _pmspare, _rimage, _rmeta, _tdata, _tmeta, or _vorigin.
2. Type the Volume Size of the volume to create in gigabytes (GB). For more information about allocating storage, see Planning Virtual Machine Storage.
3. If applicable, create additional data volumes by clicking Add New Volume and specifying the parameters for each volume. (You can also add volumes after you create the VM by using the Reprovision Virtual Machine wizard, as described in Creating a Volume in a Virtual Machine.)
4. Click Next.
On the Networks page, select the shared networks to attach to the VM (for more information, see Planning Virtual Machine Networks). You can also enable (or disable) the network and specify the MAC address. To continue, click Next.
On the Creation Summary page:
1. Review the creation summary. If you need to make changes, click Back.
2. If you want to prevent a console session from automatically starting to observe the software installation, deselect Launch Console.
3. To accept the VM as provisioned and begin the software installation, click Finish.
The VM Creation Wizard displays progress of the creation and opens the console window, if applicable. When the console window opens, it may take up to a minute for the console to connect to the VM.
For Windows-based VMs, when the VM console opens, click inside the console window and be prepared to press any key to run Windows Setup from the VCD or remote ISO.

Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...

For Windows-based VMs with the UEFI boot type, you need to press a key within one or two seconds; otherwise, the UEFI Interactive Shell appears. If this happens, you can recover and run Windows Setup as follows:
1. In the UEFI Interactive Shell, at the Shell> prompt, type exit and press Enter.
  
  Shell> exit
2. Use the arrow keys to select Continue, and press Enter.
  
  Select Language
  
  Device Manager
  Boot Manager
  Boot Maintenance Manager
  
  Continue
  Reset
3. As the VM restarts, press any key to run Windows Setup from the VCD or remote ISO.
  
  Press any key to boot from CD or DVD...
4. If you miss pressing any key, and the UEFI Interactive Shell is displayed again, repeat steps a-c.
If applicable, observe the progress of the installation of the operating system (allow pop-ups in your browser, if necessary) and respond to any prompts in the VM console session.
After you install the operating system, configure the additional resources and software necessary for production use, as described in:

Caution: If the primary PM fails or the VM crashes before the final reboot after the installation process is completed, the installation of the VM may need to be restarted.

The VM may not reboot if installations of any of the following are aborted:

The guest operating system, including the configuration steps
Any middleware or applications that manipulate system files

Creating a New Virtual Machine

To create a new VM

Related Topics