Creating VMs by importing images from web pages - Virtual machines | Virtualization

Creating a VM from an image on a web page by using the web console
Creating a VM from an image on a web page by using the command line

You can create virtual machines (VMs) by importing operating system images from web pages.

You must install the QEMU guest agent on VMs created from operating system images that are not provided by Red Hat.

Creating a VM from an image on a web page by using the web console

You can create a virtual machine (VM) by importing an image from a web page by using the OKD web console.

Prerequisites

You must have access to the web page that contains the image.

Procedure

Navigate to Virtualization → Catalog in the web console.
Click a template tile without an available boot source.
Click Customize VirtualMachine.
On the Customize template parameters page, expand Storage and select URL (creates PVC) from the Disk source list.
Enter the image URL. Example: https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/69/ver=/rhel---7/7.9/x86_64/product-software
Set the disk size.
Click Next.
Click Create VirtualMachine.

Creating a VM from an image on a web page by using the command line

You can create a virtual machine (VM) from an image on a web page by using the command line.

When the VM is created, the data volume with the image is imported into persistent storage.

Prerequisites

You must have access credentials for the web page that contains the image.
You must have the virtctl command-line tool installed.

Procedure

Create a VirtualMachine manifest for your VM and save it as a YAML file. For example, to create a minimal Fedora VM from an image on a web page, run the following command:
```
$ virtctl create vm --name vm-rhel-9 --instancetype u1.small --preference rhel.9 --volume-import type:http,url:https://example.com/rhel9.qcow2,size:10Gi
```

Review the VirtualMachine manifest for your VM:

apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: vm-rhel-9 (1)
spec:
  dataVolumeTemplates:
  - metadata:
      name: imported-volume-6dcpf (2)
    spec:
      source:
        http:
          url: https://example.com/rhel9.qcow2 (3)
      storage:
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 10Gi (4)
  instancetype:
    name: u1.small (5)
  preference:
    name: rhel.9 (6)
  runStrategy: Always
  template:
    spec:
      domain:
        devices: {}
        resources: {}
      terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 180
      volumes:
      - dataVolume:
          name: imported-volume-6dcpf
        name: imported-volume-6dcpf

1	The VM name.
2	The data volume name.
3	The URL of the image.
4	The size of the storage requested for the data volume.
5	The instance type to use to control resource sizing of the VM.
6	The preference to use.

Create the VM by running the following command:
```
$ oc create -f <vm_manifest_file>.yaml
```
The oc create command creates the data volume and the VM. The CDI controller creates an underlying PVC with the correct annotation and the import process begins. When the import is complete, the data volume status changes to Succeeded. You can start the VM.

Data volume provisioning happens in the background, so there is no need to monitor the process.

Verification

The importer pod downloads the image from the specified URL and stores it on the provisioned persistent volume. View the status of the importer pod:
```
$ oc get pods
```

Monitor the status of the data volume:

$ oc get dv <data_volume_name>

If the provisioning is successful, the data volume phase is Succeeded:

Example output

NAME                    PHASE       PROGRESS   RESTARTS   AGE
imported-volume-6dcpf   Succeeded   100.0%                18s

Verify that provisioning is complete and that the VM has started by accessing its serial console:
```
$ virtctl console <vm_name>
```
If the VM is running and the serial console is accessible, the output looks as follows:
Example output
```
Successfully connected to vm-rhel-9 console. The escape sequence is ^]
```