OnApp Boot from ISO

Server Management Service

OnApp allows us to upload custom bootable ISOs for recovery purposes. Furthermore, it can be different images for Windows/Linux/FreeBSD or any additional software.

Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Server Management Services, we regularly help our Customers to perform related OnApp queries.

OnApp Boot from ISO – Steps to follow

Following are the steps to make OnApp boot from ISO:

1. Viewing ISOs

To view the ISOs available we can use the following steps:

i. First go to Control Panel, take Cloud, and click Templates.

ii. Then Select the ISO list from the menu.

iii. We can see the list of ISOs available split into four tabs given below:

All ISOs – the list of all ISOs available on the system.
System ISOs – the list of the ISOs that are publicly available to all users.
My ISOs – the list of custom ISOs that the currently logged-in user uploads.
User ISOs – the list of the ISOs that our users upload.

2. Boot from ISO

Now, for OnApp boot from ISO, we need to do the following steps first.

i. Share Location Where ISOs are Stored

The default configuration is to upload ISOs on the Control Panel server. Then we have to mount and share the location where the ISOs are stored at CP with all the compute resources.

Further, when the virtual servers are booted from the ISOs, it takes the ISO from the compute resource server. The on_app.yml have the location, which can be found in /onapp/interface/config/on_app.yml.

a. iso_path_on_cp – specifies the location where Control Panel Servers stores ISOs. By default the location is /data. You can change it to any other suitable location. Make sure that this location is shared with the specified iso_path_on_hv location.

b. iso_path_on_hv – specifies the location where ISOs are located on the compute resource servers. By default the location is /data. You can change it to any other suitable location with the onapp owner and read/write access. Make sure that this location is mounted to the specified iso_path_on_cplocation.

ii. Upload ISO(s) into the Cloud

To upload an ISO file, follow the next steps:

a. Go to your Control Panel > Cloud and click the Templates menu from the left navigation pane.

b. Select ISO list from the menu that expands.

c. On the page that loads, click the Upload ISO button at the bottom of the screen.

d. Further, choose the ISO to upload and fill its details:

Make public – move the slider to the right if you want to make the ISO publicly available.
Allowed hot migrate – move the slider to the right if you want to be able to hot-migrate VS created from this ISO.
Label – choose a name for the ISO.
Version – fill in the version of the ISO.
Min disk size – specify the minimum required disk size for the ISO (1 GB by default).
Min memory size – specify the minimum required RAM for the ISO (128 MB by default).
Operating system – choose the operating system of the ISO.
Operating system distro – fill in the operating system distribution of the ISO in free form.
Virtualization – tick the required virtualization type(s): XEN, KVM or KVM+Virtio.

e. Click Next. On the page that appears, click File or File Url tab depending on the upload method:

File – click Choose File to select the required ISO file from your file system. The yellow infobox will show the maximum file size for ISOs. The Settings > Configuration (the Max upload size in bytes) has the max upload size. Click the Upload ISO button.
File URL – select this tab if you want to upload the ISO from URL and specify the link from which the ISO will be uploaded.

f. Finally, Click Save to upload the ISO.

Notably, after you upload an ISO to the cloud, it can be found at Cloud > Templates > ISO List > My ISOs tab. The ISOs uploaded by your users are under the User ISOs tab.

iii. Make ISO(s) Public

By default ISOs are available only to those users who uploaded them. Further, these ISO images are available in the My ISOs tab. In effect, to make your ISO public and accessible for all users:

Go to your Control Panel > Cloud > Templates > ISO List menu.
Click My ISOs tab.
Click the Actions button next to the ISO you want to make public, then select Make public.
Confirm the window that pops up.
Further, when you make a user ISO public, it moves to the System ISOs tab.

Make sure that you have enabled the Any power action on own virtual servers and Allow own virtual servers to boot from ISO permissions for the user to be able to boot servers from ISO.

Note that you should track the Operating System Type option of the compute resource where the current VS lives.

If the compute resource is set to Any, any ISO that has other suitable requirements is available to boot from.

Alternatively, if the compute resource has Windows only option enabled, the ISO that has Windows operating system is available for selection.

If the compute resource has the Non-Windows option enabled, the ISOs with OSs Linux and FreeBSD are available for selection.

iv. Boot Virtual or Smart Server from ISO

Once you have shared the location where ISOs are stored and uploaded ISOs into the system, you can boot virtual or smart servers from them using the server’s power options menu. Thus, to boot a virtual/smart server from ISO:

Go to your Control Panel > Cloud > Virtual Servers/Smart Servers menu.
Click the label of the required server.
Click the Tools button on the server’s screen to expand the Tools menu.
Select Boot from ISO. You can boot virtual/smart servers from your own ISOs or the ISOs that are uploaded and made publicly available by other users. If you boot a server from an ISO with the RAM requirement larger than the server’s RAM, the transaction will fail.