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Create virtual machines by using the web console

You can create virtual machines (VMs) by using the OKD web console. The web console creation wizard provides workflows for configuring a custom VM, creating a VM from a template, and cloning an existing VM.

VM creation methods

The web console creation wizard provides three workflows for creating a virtual machine (VM). Choose the workflow that matches your situation.

Table 1. VM creation methods
If you want to Use this workflow Requirements

Build a VM with a specific combination of compute, storage, and network settings, when no existing template matches your requirements

Custom configuration

A boot source, such as a custom disk image, container image, or URL

Deploy a standardized VM quickly from a preconfigured image and settings

Create from Template

A template that has an available boot source in the cluster

Create one or more VMs that duplicate an existing VM and its configuration

Clone existing VirtualMachine

Access to the source VM that you want to clone

For any method, the creation wizard reference explains how boot source, instance type, and customization options affect the VM.

Additional resources

Create a VM with custom configuration by using the web console

You can use the Custom configuration workflow in the web console to create a virtual machine (VM) by selecting a guest operating system, boot source, compute resources, and advanced settings.

Use this workflow when:

  • No existing template matches your requirements.

  • You need a specific combination of compute, storage, and network settings.

  • You want to boot from a custom disk image.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the OKD web console.

  • You have edit or admin permissions in the target project.

Procedure

  1. In the OKD web console, navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.

  2. Click Create.

  3. On the Deployment details page, configure the following settings:

    1. Select Custom configuration.

    2. In the Name field, enter a name for the VM. You can also click the refresh icon to generate a name automatically.

    3. Optional: Enter a Description for the VM.

    4. Review the Location to verify the target cluster and project. If the group preview feature is enabled, you can also verify the group. To change the location, click the edit icon.

    5. Click Next.

  4. On the Guest operating system page, specify the operating system:

    1. Select the guest operating system, such as RHEL, Microsoft Windows, or Other Linux.

    2. Select the operating system version from the Guest operating system type list.

    3. Click Next.

  5. On the Boot source page, specify the boot volume:

    1. Select Boot volume to use an existing boot volume or add a new one, or select No boot source to assign an empty disk that you can configure later.

    2. If you selected Boot volume, select an existing volume from the list, or click Add volume to configure a new boot volume.

    3. Click Next.

  6. On the Compute resources page, define the instance type:

    1. Select an instance type series, such as General purpose or Compute Exclusive.

    2. Select the vCPU and memory size from the drop-down list.

    3. Click Next.

  7. Optional: On the Customization page, configure advanced settings by navigating the following tabs:

    • Details: Configure the Hostname, Headless mode, Guest system log access, and Deletion protection.

    • Storage: Add or change storage disks.

    • Network: Add network interfaces.

    • Scheduling: Configure scheduling requirements and the run strategy.

    • SSH: Configure SSH key settings.

    • Initial run: Define Cloud-init or Sysprep initialization scripts.

    • Labels and annotations: Add labels to help organize and categorize VMs, and use annotations to store extra metadata.

      1. Click Next.

  8. On the Review and create page, review the VM configuration:

    1. Optional: Select the Start this VirtualMachine after creation checkbox.

    2. Click Create VirtualMachine.

Verification

  • Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines and verify that the VM is displayed in the list.

Additional resources

Create a VM from a template by using the web console

You can use the Create from Template workflow in the web console to create a virtual machine (VM) by selecting a preconfigured template that provides standardized images and settings.

Use this workflow when:

  • A template matches your workload requirements and operating system.

  • You want to use a preconfigured VM with standardized settings.

  • You want to quickly deploy a VM with minimal customization.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the OKD web console.

  • You have edit or admin permissions in the target project.

  • A template with an available boot source exists in the cluster.

Procedure

  1. In the OKD web console, navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.

  2. Click Create.

  3. On the Deployment details page, configure the following settings:

    1. Select Create from Template.

    2. In the Name field, enter a name for the VM. You can also click the refresh icon to generate a name automatically.

    3. Optional: Enter a Description for the VM.

    4. Review the Location to verify the target cluster and project. If the group preview feature is enabled, you can also verify the group. To change the location, click the edit icon.

    5. Click Next.

  4. On the Template page, select a template:

    1. Optional: Filter the template list. You can select a project from the All projects menu, apply a Filter for categories such as operating system or workload type, or enter a keyword in the Filter by keyword field.

    2. Click a template tile to select it and view its details.

    3. Click Next.

  5. Optional: On the Customization page, configure advanced settings by navigating the following tabs:

    • Details: Configure the Hostname, Headless mode, Guest system log access, and Deletion protection.

    • Storage: Add or change storage disks.

    • Network: Add network interfaces.

    • Scheduling: Configure scheduling requirements and the run strategy.

    • SSH: Configure SSH key settings.

    • Initial run: Define Cloud-init or Sysprep initialization scripts.

    • Labels and annotations: Add labels to help organize and categorize VMs, and use annotations to store extra metadata.

      1. Click Next.

  6. On the Review and create page, review the VM configuration:

    1. Optional: Select the Start this VirtualMachine after creation checkbox.

    2. Click Create VirtualMachine.

Verification

  • Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines and verify that the VM is displayed in the list.

Additional resources

Clone an existing VM by using the web console

You can use the Clone existing VirtualMachine workflow in the web console to create a new virtual machine (VM) by cloning an existing VM and its configuration.

Use this workflow when:

  • You want to duplicate an existing VM with the same configuration.

  • You need multiple VMs with a consistent setup.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the OKD web console.

  • You have edit or admin permissions in the target project.

  • The source VM that you want to clone exists in a project that you can access.

Procedure

  1. In the OKD web console, navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines.

  2. Click Create.

  3. On the Deployment details page, configure the following settings:

    1. Select Clone existing VirtualMachine.

    2. Review the Project and Group under Location. To change the target project or group, click the edit icon.

    3. Click Next.

  4. On the Source page, select the VM to clone:

    1. Browse the list of available VMs, or use the search and filter options to locate a specific VM.

      You can filter by Status, Operating system, Storage class, Hardware devices, Scheduling, Node, Guest agent, and Architecture type.

    2. Select the VM that you want to clone.

    3. Click Next.

  5. On the Review and create page, review the VM configuration:

    1. Optional: In the Name field, enter a name for the VM. You can also click the refresh icon to generate a name automatically.

    2. Optional: Enter a Description for the VM.

    3. Review the Location to verify the target cluster and project. If the group preview feature is enabled, you can also verify the group. To change the location, click the edit icon.

    4. Optional: The Start this VirtualMachine after creation checkbox is selected by default. Clear the checkbox if you do not want the cloned VM to start immediately.

    5. Click Clone VirtualMachine.

Verification

  • Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines and verify that the VM is displayed in the list.

Additional resources

Virtual machine creation wizard reference

The virtual machine (VM) creation wizard in the web console presents several options that affect how a VM runs. The following tables describe the options that have the greatest impact.

Boot source options

On the Boot source page, you can select an existing boot volume or click Add volume to create one. When you add a volume, the Source type list determines where the boot disk image comes from.

Table 2. Boot source types
Source type Description When to use

Volume (upload new)

Uploads a persistent volume claim (PVC) image or ISO file from your local machine.

You have a disk image or ISO on your workstation. Select This is an ISO file for installation media.

Volume (use existing)

Reuses a volume that is already available on the cluster.

A boot volume is already prepared in the cluster.

Volume snapshot

Creates a boot disk from an existing volume snapshot.

You want fast provisioning from a point-in-time image.

Registry

Imports a container disk from a container registry.

The image is published to a registry such as Quay. Requires a container image URL and, for private registries, credentials.

URL

Imports an image from an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint.

The image is hosted at a web address. Select TLS certificate required for endpoints that need a certificate.

When you add a volume, the following settings affect how the disk is stored and identified:

Preference

The preferred VM attribute values required to run a given workload, such as the guest operating system. The preference influences default values elsewhere in the wizard.

Default InstanceType

The default instance type associated with the boot volume.

StorageClass

The storage class used to provision the volume. The default storage class is used unless you select another.

Volume Mode

Determines whether the volume is presented as a raw block device (Block) or a formatted file system (Filesystem).

Access Mode

Controls how many nodes can mount the volume: shared access (RWX), single-user (RWO), or read-only (ROX). Live migration requires shared access (RWX).

Instance type series

On the Compute resources page, you select an instance type series and then a size. The series determines the CPU and memory characteristics of the VM. Some series require specially configured nodes.

Table 3. Instance type series
Series Name Characteristics Node requirement

U

General Purpose

Neutral, general-purpose resources. VMs share physical CPU cores with other VMs on a time-slice basis.

None

O

Overcommitted

Based on the U series, but memory is overcommitted.

None

CX

Compute Exclusive

Exclusive compute resources for compute-intensive workloads, with dedicated CPUs, isolated emulator threads, and virtual non-uniform memory access (NUMA) topology.

CPU manager enabled and huge pages available on the nodes.

M

Memory Intensive

Resources for memory-intensive workloads, with burstable CPU performance.

None

D

Dedicated vCPU

Consistent, predictable performance. VMs are assigned exclusive physical CPU cores, which avoids CPU sharing and time-slice contention.

None

N

Network

Resources for network-intensive Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) workloads, such as virtual network functions (VNFs).

Nodes capable of running DPDK workloads and labeled with node-role.kubevirt.io/worker-dpdk.

RT

Realtime

Resources for realtime workloads, such as oslat.

Nodes capable of running realtime workloads.

Instance types are named in the format series.size, where the size ranges from nano to 8xlarge. For example, u1.medium provides 1 vCPU and 4 GiB of memory. You can select a Red Hat provided instance type or a User provided instance type that an administrator has defined.

Customization settings

The optional Customization step groups advanced settings into tabs. The following settings are the ones that most commonly affect VM behavior.

Table 4. Key customization settings
Setting Tab Description

Disk interface

Storage

Determines disk performance and compatibility. VirtIO offers the best performance but requires additional drivers on Windows. SATA has lower performance but is supported by most operating systems, including Windows. SCSI supports large numbers of devices.

Ephemeral disk

Storage

Adds a disk from a container image whose changes are lost when the VM reboots.

Use this disk as a boot source

Storage

Marks a disk as bootable. Only one disk can be bootable at a time.

Headless mode

Details

Removes the default graphics device. VNC console access is not available when this option is enabled.

Deletion protection

Details

Prevents the VM from being deleted through the web console.

Boot mode

Details

Sets the firmware interface, such as BIOS or UEFI, used to boot the VM.

Run strategy

Scheduling

Controls how the VM behaves after a failure, shutdown, or restart, such as Rerun on failure.

Eviction strategy

Scheduling

Determines what happens to the VM when its node is drained. LiveMigrate moves the VM to another node instead of stopping it.

Network binding

Network

Sets how the network interface connects. Masquerade is the default for pod networking; Bridge connects to an L2 network; SR-IOV attaches a virtual function for high performance.

Initialization method

Initial run

Configures first-boot settings by using cloud-init for Linux guests or Sysprep for Windows guests.

Dynamic SSH key injection

SSH

Injects a public SSH key that is applied without restarting the VM. When it is not enabled, keys are applied through virtctl.

Labels and annotations

Metadata

Labels are key-value pairs that you can query to organize and select VMs. Annotations store arbitrary metadata that cannot be queried.