Create and add images to the Image service¶

Bare Metal provisioning requires two sets of images: the deploy images and the user images. The deploy images are used by the Bare Metal service to prepare the bare metal server for actual OS deployment. Whereas the user images are installed on the bare metal server to be used by the end user. Below are the steps to create the required images and add them to the Image service:

1. Build the user images

   The disk-image-builder can be used to create user images required for deployment and the actual OS which the user is going to run.

   • Install diskimage-builder package (use virtualenv, if you don’t want to install anything globally):

     # pip install diskimage-builder
     

   • Build the image your users will run (Ubuntu image has been taken as an example):

     • Partition images

       $ disk-image-create ubuntu baremetal dhcp-all-interfaces grub2 -o my-image
       

     • Whole disk images

       $ disk-image-create ubuntu vm dhcp-all-interfaces -o my-image
       

   The partition image command creates my-image.qcow2, my-image.vmlinuz and my-image.initrd files. The grub2 element in the partition image creation command is only needed if local boot will be used to deploy my-image.qcow2, otherwise the images my-image.vmlinuz and my-image.initrd will be used for PXE booting after deploying the bare metal with my-image.qcow2.

   If you want to use Fedora image, replace ubuntu with fedora in the chosen command.

2. Add the user images to the Image service

   Load all the images created in the below steps into the Image service, and note the image UUIDs in the Image service for each one as it is generated.

   • Add the kernel and ramdisk images to the Image service:

     $ glance image-create --name my-kernel --visibility public \
       --disk-format aki --container-format aki < my-image.vmlinuz
     

     Store the image uuid obtained from the above step as MY_VMLINUZ_UUID.

     $ glance image-create --name my-image.initrd --visibility public \
       --disk-format ari --container-format ari < my-image.initrd
     

     Store the image UUID obtained from the above step as MY_INITRD_UUID.

   • Add the my-image to the Image service which is going to be the OS that the user is going to run. Also associate the above created images with this OS image. These two operations can be done by executing the following command:

     $ glance image-create --name my-image --visibility public \
       --disk-format qcow2 --container-format bare --property \
       kernel_id=$MY_VMLINUZ_UUID --property \
       ramdisk_id=$MY_INITRD_UUID < my-image.qcow2
     

   Note

   To deploy a whole disk image, a kernel_id and a ramdisk_id shouldn’t be associated with the image. For example,

   $ glance image-create --name my-whole-disk-image --visibility public \
     --disk-format qcow2 \
     --container-format bare < my-whole-disk-image.qcow2
   

3. Build or download the deploy images

   The deploy images are used initially for preparing the server (creating disk partitions) before the actual OS can be deployed.

   There are several methods to build or download deploy images, please read the Building or downloading a deploy ramdisk image section.

   The recommended method is to use CoreOS to build deploy images, you will get one kernel disk coreos_production_pxe.vmlinuz and one ram disk coreos_production_pxe_image-oem.cpio.gz.

   Note

   If you want to customize your deploy images, please read Image Builders.

4. Add the deploy images to the Image service

   Add the coreos_production_pxe.vmlinuz and coreos_production_pxe_image-oem.cpio.gz images to the Image service:

   $ glance image-create --name deploy-vmlinuz --visibility public \
     --disk-format aki --container-format aki < coreos_production_pxe.vmlinuz
   

   Store the image UUID obtained from the above step as DEPLOY_VMLINUZ_UUID.

   $ glance image-create --name deploy-initrd --visibility public \
     --disk-format ari --container-format ari < coreos_production_pxe_image-oem.cpio.gz
   

   Store the image UUID obtained from the above step as DEPLOY_INITRD_UUID.