Deploying a custom image within a Power Virtual Server

Before you begin

Before you can use a custom image as the boot volume, review the following information:

• You must have a basic understanding of IBM Cloud Object Storage concepts.
• If you do not have an existing AIX or IBM i image, you can use IBM® PowerVC™ from your on-premise environment to capture and export an image for use with a Power Virtual Server. For more information, see Capturing a virtual machine and Exporting images. To capture and export an image by using IBM PowerVC, the PowerVC private environment must contain N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) data volumes. The Power Virtual Servers does not support captured images from environment with shared Storage Pools (SSP) vSCSI data volumes.
• Alternatively, if you have already deployed a virtual server instance, you can capture it and redeploy a new virtual server instance. To accomplish this, you can use the IBM Cloud® CLI to capture a virtual server instance.
• You must verify that your AIX, IBM i, or Linux OS technology level is supported on the Power Systems hardware that you selected in the Machine Type field.

For complete tutorials on migrating your AIX and IBM i workloads to Power Virtual Servers, see Migrating AIX to IBM Power Virtual Servers and Migrating IBM i to IBM Power Virtual Servers.

The supported AIX and IBM i operating system versions depend on the IBM Power Systems hardware that you select for the Power Virtual Server.

If you are running AIX 6.1 or IBM i 6.1, or earlier, you must first upgrade the OS to current support level before migrating to the Power Virtual Server.

To view a list of the supported AIX, IBM i, and Linux operating system technology levels, see the following system software maps:

Creating an IBM Cloud Object Storage bucket

1. Type object storage into the catalog's search box and select Cloud Object Storage.

2. Give the service a name, add tags (if wanted), select your pricing plan and click Create.

3. After you click Create, you are taken to the Cloud Object Storage landing page. Select Create Bucket.

4. From here, you are automatically redirected to the workspace where you can start creating buckets. Your Object Storage instances are listed under Storage in the Resource List. The terms resource instance and workspace refer to the same concept, and can be used interchangeably.

5. Choose a unique name. All buckets in all regions across the globe share a single namespace. Ensure that you have the correct permissions to create a bucket.

   When you create buckets or add objects, be sure to avoid the use of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). PII is information that can identify any user (natural person) by name, location, or any other means.

6. First, choose a wanted level of resiliency, and then a location where you would like your data to be physically stored. Resiliency refers to the scope and scale of the geographic area across which your data is distributed. Cross Region resiliency spreads your data across several metropolitan areas, while Regional resiliency spreads data across a single metropolitan area. A single data center distributes data across devices within a single site only.

7. Choose the bucket's storage class, which is a reflection of how often you expect to read the stored data and determines billing details. Follow the Create link to create and access your new bucket.

   Buckets are a way to organize your data, but they are not the only way. Object names (often referred to as object keys) can use one or more forward slashes for a directory-like organizational system. You then use the portion of the object name before a delimiter to form an object prefix, which is used to list related objects in a single bucket through the API.

Objects are limited to 200 MB when uploaded through the console unless you use the Aspera High-Speed Transfer plug-in. Larger objects (up to 10 TB) can also be split into parts and uploaded in parallel using the API. Object keys can be up to 1024 characters in length, and it's best to avoid any characters that might be problematic in a web address. These special characters (?, =, <, etc.) might cause unwanted behavior if not URL-encoded. For more information, see the Cloud Object Storage tutorial.

Generating secret and access keys with Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC)

1. You can generate secret and access keys when you create the service credentials for the IBM Cloud Object Storage. To create the service credentials, you must have Writer access for the Object Storage bucket.

2. Select New credential under Service credentials in the Cloud Object Storage pane.

3. Complete all of the wanted fields for adding a credential. Remember to check Include HMAC Credential for obtaining a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) credential.

4. Find your new service credential in the service credentials table.

   To view your credential information, such as your secret and access keys, click the arrow to the right of View credentials. For more information, see Service credentials and Bucket permissions.

Using a custom boot image to provision a new instance

Complete the following steps to provision a new instance by using a custom boot image. For more information about importing a custom boot image by using the Power Virtual Server CLI, see Importing a boot image. Large boot images take time to successfully import. You might experience a delay before you receive a confirmation message.

1. Before you create a new Power Virtual Server instance, go to Boot images and click Import.

2. After you click Import, refer to the following table to complete the Import boot image fields: The Image file name field supports the following formats: .ova, .ova.gz, .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.

Table 1. Importing a boot image

Field	Description
Catalog image name	Enter the name that you want displayed in your catalog.
Storage type	Select whether you want Tier 1 or Tier 3 for the storage type. A VM cannot have disks from both Tier 1 and Tier 3 storage types. For more information, see Storage tiers.
Region	Select either us-east, us-south, br-sao, ca-tor, ca-mon, eu-de, or eu-gb, au-syd, jp-tok, jp-osa for the region.
Image file name	Enter the file name of the image. The image file name must not contain spaces. Supported file formats are tar and ova. You can compress image files by using gzip. The supported file name extensions are .ova, .ova.gz, .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz. You must use the private endpoint domain. For example, Aix_7200-03-02-1846_cldrdy_112018.gz.
Bucket name	Sub folders can be used and specified as bucketName/optional/folders. Optional folders are created automatically if they don’t exist. Optional folders can be added during an export image operation to Cloud Object Storage. To identity your bucket name, select Menu icon > Resource list > Storage > Cloud Object Storage name > Buckets.
Cloud Object Storage access key	To identify your access key, select Menu icon > Resource list > Storage > Cloud Object Storage name > Service credentials > View credentials. Copy the access_key_id value and past it into this field.
Cloud Object Storage secret key	To identify your secret key, select Menu icon > Resource list > Storage > Cloud Object Storage name > Service credentials > View credentials. Copy the secret_access_key value and paste it into this field.

1. Return to Virtual server instances and provision a new Power Virtual Server instance. Click the arrow in the appropriate boot image tile to see your custom boot image.

   If you'd like to download your image at a later point, go to the Resource List in the Power Virtual Server user interface. Once there, access your Cloud Object Storage workspace. In the bucket where your image is stored, select the image file that you want to download and select Download objects. See Download an object for the Cloud Object Storage CLI command.