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Create and Manage Virtual Machines

In this guide, you will learn how to create and manage instances in the Compute Service.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Steps

Log in to the SkyAtlas Panel

Log in to the SkyAtlas Panel using your credentials.

Go to the Instances Section

Navigate to the Instances section on the panel.

Create New Instance

Create an Instance

To start the instance creation process, click the "Launch Instance" button.

Create New Instance

Enter Details

Gradually enter the required information for the instance:

Screenshot

Create New Instance

  • Instance Name: Provide a meaningful name and description for your virtual machine. This will be set as the hostname. Avoid special characters.
Example Names

"web-server, mysql-server, db-instance, windows-sql-server-2017"

  • Availability Zone: Choose one from the availability zones if desired.
  • Count: Eventually, it will create the specified number of instances with the configurations you determined. If you set Count to 3, instances will be named web-server-1, web-server-2, web-server-3, etc.

Instance Source

  • Instance Source: You can choose:

    • a bootable volume (if available),
    • an image as a template,
    • a snapshot of an instance,
    • a snapshot of a volume,

    to create an instance. If you want the selected template to be transferred to a new volume, you can specify the root disk capacity of your server using the volume size.

Warning

If you want the newly created volume to be deleted along with the instance, check the "Delete volume on instance" option. This option may cause data loss.

Warning

You cannot create an instance without choosing a new volume since there is no allocated disk space for "persistent storage" in flavors.
The "Create New Volume" option is mandatory within the scope of the service we provide.

Flavor

Choose a flavor to allocate resources such as vCPU, RAM, Network Bandwidth for the instance you will create. For more detailed information, you can review the Flavor Concept document.

Select one of the flavors from the "Available" list by clicking the button to add it to the "Allocated" list.

Networks

Choose one of the subnets of your networks, which you can examine from the Networks section.

Tip

If you have only one subnet, it will be pre-selected. If you have more than one subnet, you will need to choose.

Select one of the subnets from the "Available" list by clicking the button to add it to the "Allocated" list.

Network Ports

Choose one of the ports of your networks, which you can examine from the Networks section.

Tip

If you have reserved network ports and are sure of your preference, continue by selecting a port.
This step is an alternative to the Networks step and is not mandatory.

Select one of the ports from the "Available" list by clicking the button to add it to the "Allocated" list.

Security Groups

Choose one of the security groups from the list in the Security Groups section under Networks.

Tip

The default "default" security group will be pre-selected. To customize, you can add rules or create a new Security Group.

Select one of the security groups from the "Available" list by clicking the button to add it to the "Allocated" list.

Key Pair

Choose one of the keypairs from the list in the Key Pairs section.

Tip

If you have one keypair, it will be pre-selected. If you have more than one keypair, you will need to choose.

Select one of the keypairs from the "Available" list by clicking the button to add it to the "Allocated" list.

Configuration Code

At this stage, you can provide a command directive to your instance with a file or text area you will choose.

Example File 
$ cat script.sh
#!/bin/sh
apt-get update
apt-get install git -y
Example Script 
apt-get update
apt-get install git -y
Example cloud-init

For more examples, visit the cloud-init website. 

#cloud-config
runcmd:
- [ 'sh', '-c', 'apt-get update']
- [ 'sh', '-c', 'apt-get install git -y']

Other Options

If you need other options and are sure of your customization preferences, you can further customize your server.

Confirm and Launch the Instance

Review the instance details and click the "Launch Instance" button to confirm creating the instance.

Manage the Created Instance

  • Start, stop, and restart the instance.
  • Resize the instance based on resource requirements.
  • Establish remote connections using SSH (Linux) or RDP (Windows).
  • Create snapshots and backups for data protection.
  • Delete the instance when it is no longer needed.
  • For more advanced configurations, explore additional settings like attaching volumes, configuring security groups, and implementing network changes.

Conclusion

You have successfully created and managed servers using the SkyAtlas Virtual Server service.