How to create a virtual machine with an instance type

If your organization is shifting to a new virtualization solution, you can create virtual machines (VMs) in Red Hat® OpenShift® Virtualization using the Red Hat OpenShift console’s graphical user interface (GUI) to start quickly. This article will walk you through how to create a VM with an instance type, a fast and scalable option to get started with OpenShift Virtualization. This process uses a preconfigured blueprint that allows you to deploy a functional VM with all the necessary configurations. 

An instance type includes predefined resource sizing and hardware configuration for a VM to simplify the subsequent, repeated creation of standardized VMs. Instance types capture hardware specifications to ensure consistency and simplify VM creation. By using instance types with Red Hat, users can select presized and workload-oriented VM configurations to meet application requirements. An instance type is a foundational resource that includes all the essential VM characteristics:

• Central processing unit (CPU)
• Memory
• Device defaults

When creating a virtual machine with an instance type, you’ll need to select the volume to boot from for operating systems such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux®, Fedora, and others. Instance types with an “available boot source” label are ideal for a quick creation process.

The Red Hat OpenShift web console provides a centralized GUI for managing and interacting with your Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters. It offers administrator, developer, and virtualization console views—each tailored to specific user roles and tasks—and includes capabilities for cluster management, application management, and customization.

To create a VM with an instance type using the Red Hat OpenShift web console, complete the following 5 steps. 

Step 1: Access the VM instance types

• Log in to the Red Hat OpenShift console.
• Navigate to the Virtualization section.
• Select Catalog.
• Select Instance types.

Step 2: Choose an instance type

• Browse the list of available, predefined VM instance types. Red Hat provides instance types with different configurations (network, overcommitted, runtime, compute exclusive, general purpose) for different types of workload requirements.
• Select the instance type that matches your operating system. These instance types are preloaded with configurations for operating systems such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, and Windows.
• Click Create virtual machine to launch the guided creation wizard. 

Step 3: Configure VM details

• Once you‘ve chosen an instance type, provide a unique, descriptive name for the VM.
• Select the Red Hat OpenShift project (namespace) where the VM will be deployed.

Step 4: Customize resources, storage, and networking

• Select an Instance type to apply a predefined resource profile (e.g., small or medium). These profiles simplify resource allocation by providing predefined packages of computing resources, so you don’t have to manually configure them.
• Configure storage using a bootable volume, which is automatically configured based on the instance type. The bootable volume holds the VM’s operating system and primary disk. You can adjust its size if needed. Bootable volume creation is handled automatically by a DataVolume, which pulls the image from the source URL and provisions a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) for the VM. The PVC is the storage volume where the VM's boot disk image is stored.
• The instance type provides a default network interface. For most basic deployments, the pod network is sufficient. 

Step 5: Finalize and deploy

• Review all the configured settings.
• Click Create to begin the deployment process.
• In the background, the Containerized Data Importer (CDI) pulls the disk image into the new PVC. The CDI is an essential component of OpenShift Virtualization. It facilitates importing disk images, cloning data volumes, uploading local data, and automating the creation and population of PVCs. 

Once the image import is complete, Red Hat OpenShift will schedule and start the VM. At this point, the VM’s status will change from Importing to Running. 

Once you’ve completed these steps, your VM will appear in the Virtual machines tab, and you can monitor its status.

With OpenShift Virtualization, you can manage and monitor VMs post-deployment and also have the ability to:

• Manage snapshots and VM clones.
• Trigger and watch VM migration in action.
• Monitor VMs by viewing metrics and visualizations relevant to VM health.
• Organize VMs with projects, labels, and annotations to keep environments clean and scalable.
• Customize boot order and VM automation.

You can also customize instance types to define user- or project-specific defaults for VM creation. Customized preferences let you provide users with a specific set of consistent options. Some preferences you can set include:

• Specifying a default storage class so all new VMs use a particular type of storage.
• Setting a default network interface configuration.
• Injecting a default secure shell protocol (SSH) public key for secure access to new VMs.

Explore training and certification for OpenShift Virtualization

Red Hat has long been a contributor to open source virtualization software development. Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization allows IT teams to bring VMs onto a virtualization platform that provides a clear path to modernization. OpenShift Virtualization provides functionality for creating, managing, and scaling VMs, so you can benefit from existing investments in virtualization while taking advantage of simplicity and speed. OpenShift Virtualization lets you use a centralized dashboard for:

• Managing systems, VMs, and cloud-native architectures.
• Scaling operations with self-service provisioning.
• Creating consistency when building VMs.
• Continuing to add cloud-native technologies as your organization grows.

Red Hat OpenShift includes the migration toolkit for virtualization so you can move traditional VMs to a modern platform with minimal downtime. Built-in tooling allows you to evaluate VM compatibility, identify critical workloads, and create a migration plan that works for you. 

To make the most of your solution, automate the migration process with Red Hat Ansible® Automation Platform and rely on Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Virtualization to streamline maintenance of the entire VM lifecycle―all from a single console that tracks and reports issues across private and public cloud locations, including at the edge. When paired with Red Hat Developer Hub, developers can build and manage VMs through standardized, scalable, and self-service functions.