CloudStack User Guide

CloudStack User's Guide

CloudStack Management console

The CloudStack management console allows you to view and manage your cloud infrastructure including virtual machines, storage, and network.

The CloudStack management console can be accessed through a web-based portal using any modern web browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. In order to access the CloudStack management console, you must connect from a IT-managed computer or through the IT General VPN.

Connecting to the VPN

If you are connecting from off-campus or from an untrusted network such as AirUC, you must connect to the General VPN in order to access the CloudStack management console.

See: https://ucalgary.service-now.com/it?id=kb_article&sys_id=52a169d6dbe5bc506ad32637059619cd

Login to CloudStack

To log in to CloudStack, navigate to https://cloudstack.rcs.ucalgary.ca/. Most accounts will rely on your IT account via Single Sign-On. On the login page, click on the 'Single Sign-On' tab and then the 'Login' button. You will be redirected to our central authentication service where you can complete the login process using your IT credentials. You will also be asked to verify using a multi-factor authentication method such as with the Microsoft Authenticator app or a phone call.

CloudStack Login Page

Note: Due to a bug with the UI, if the Single Sign-On option is disabled, please refresh the login page and try again.

CloudStack Dashboard

After logging in, you will be presented with your CloudStack management console. The dashboard shows you a general overview of your account's status.

CloudStack Dashboard

Other ways to access your CloudStack account

You may also choose to use other tools to manage your CloudStack resources including CloudMonkey and Terraform (using the CloudStack provider). In order to use these tools, you will need to generate a new API key on your account under your profile.

Working with Virtual Machines

CloudStack allows you to control the lifecycle of virtual machines within your cloud account. VMs may be started, stopped, rebooted, or destroyed within your management console.

Create a VM

To create a new VM, enter the CloudStack management console and navigate to:  Compute -> Instances -> Add Instance

CloudStack Instance Summary

Virtual Machines require the following details:

1. Deployment zone. Your account will already be placed in the appropriate zone.
2. Boot template or ISO. You may choose either a pre-created template or boot from a custom CD-ROM ISO file.
3. Compute offering. You may select an appropriate size for your new VM. Resources will be counted against your account's quota.
4. Data Disk. You may choose to add an additional virtual disk to your VM to store your data. Alternatively, if you wish to use a single virtual disk for your VM, you may choose to override the size of your root disk in step 2 and select 'No thanks' in this step.
5. Networks. You may choose one or more networks your VM should connect to. All CloudStack accounts come with a default network already created and ready to be used.
6. SSH keypairs. For templates that support custom SSH key pairs, you may choose to use a custom SSH keypair to be installed as part of the deployment process.
7. Advanced settings. For templates that support custom user-data (Cloud-Init), you may choose to enable the advanced settings and provide your own Cloud-Init user-data payload. More on this later.
8. Other VM details. You may give your new VM a friendly name and make it part of a group. Groups allow you to group related VMs together for better organization. You may change these details at a later time.

When you are done, review the instance summary on the right hand side and then click on the 'Launch Virtual Machine' button.

Virtual machine credentials

Our included Rocky Linux VM template supports password handling through CloudStack. When you create a new VM using this template, a randomly generated 6 character password will be displayed.

CloudStack VM Password

For the Rocky Linux VM template, this password is applied to the 'rocky' user account on the virtual machine. You may become the super user by logging in as the rocky user and then running sudo su.

Note: Our Rocky Linux VM template has SSH password authentication enabled by default. You should be able to authenticate as the rocky user via SSH using the generated password and with a SSH key pair that you specified during the VM creation step. The root account is disabled by default and cannot be used to log in.

Choosing a virtual machine template

We provide a Rocky Linux 8.5 template for your convenience. Rocky Linux is an open source Linux distribution that is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Our Rocky Linux 8.5 image comes with Cloud-Init preconfigured and will accept any custom Cloud-Init user data payloads. Additionally, this template also supports CloudStack's VM password management system.

Creating a custom template

Alternatively, you may decide to install a custom OS such as a different Linux distribution or other UNIX based operating systems and create a template from that. To create a custom template:

1. Create a new virtual machine and select your custom ISO media. If you wish to upload your own ISO, see the 'register ISO' section below.
2. Start the virtual machine and proceed through the OS setup process
3. Once the system has been set up, prepare the VM to be templated by removing any host-specific files such as SSH host keys, static network configuration settings, temporary files and caches.
4. Power off the virtual machine
5. Navigate to the virtual machine page and click on the 'create template' button

CloudStack Instance Controls

Registering a custom ISO

You may install custom ISO file into your CloudStack account either by directly uploading the ISO through the web console or by providing a URL to the ISO file on the internet.

Download a ISO from the internet

To add a custom ISO file from the internet, enter the CloudStack management console and navigate to:  Images -> ISOs -> Register ISO

CloudStack Download ISO

You may check the state of the ISO file by clicking on it and verify the state of the file. If the file is successfully downloaded, its ready state should become ‘true’.

Upload a custom ISO

To upload an ISO file, enter the CloudStack management console and navigate to:  Images -> ISOs -> Upload ISO from Local (icon)

CloudStack Upload ISO

Connecting to your VM console

The CloudStack management console has a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) feature built-in, allowing you to remotely connect to and interact with your virtual machine. To connect to your virtual machine's console, navigate to: Compute -> Instances -> Your Instance -> View console.

CloudStack View Console