Provisioning VMs

VM Provisioning on HyperFlex Pods

You have two options for provisioning VMs on a HyperFlex pod. The option you choose depends upon how many VMs you want to provision at one time and whether you want to enable your end users to provision VMs on a HyperFlex pod.

  • VDC-based VMs enable a user with administrative permissions or your end users to provision one VM at a time.

  • ReadyClone VMs enable a user with administrative permissions to provision multiple VMs at a time. ReadyClone VMs perform rapid cloning of many VMs through HyperFlex technology. All of these VMs must be based on the same VM template. See the Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform Management Guide for more information about ReadyClone VMs on Cisco HX Data Platform.

Virtual Data Centers on HyperFlex Pods

You can use a Virtual Data Center (VDC) to provision a VM on a HyperFlex pod through the standard Cisco UCS Director VM provisioning process. If you provision VMs with VDCs, you must ensure that all HyperFlex VDCs have the recommended configuration.

See the Cisco UCS Director Administration Guide for more information about VDCs and how to provision VMs.

ReadyClone VMs on HyperFlex Pods

ReadyClone VMs enable you to rapidly create and customize multiple cloned VMs from the same VM template. When the cloning operation is complete, the ReadyClone VM is a separate guest VM with its own operating system.

Changes made to a ReadyClone VM do not affect the VM template. A ReadyClone VM's MAC address and UUID are different from those of the VM template.

For more information about the features, benefits, best practices, and guidelines for ReadyClone VMs, see the Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform Management Guide.

Guidelines for VM Provisioning with ReadyClone VMs

Review the following guidelines before you provision the VMs using ReadyClone.

Required User Permissions

You must have Cisco UCS Director administrative privileges to provision ReadyClone VMs in the Cisco UCS Director Admin Portal.

VM Template Must Meet HyperFlex Guidelines

The VM template that you use to create ReadyClone VMs must meet the guidelines provided in the Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform Management Guide.

Maximum Number of VMs to Be Provisioned at One Time

You can simultaneously provision between 1 and 256 ReadyClone VMs from a single VM template.

Guest Operating System Restrictions

All VMs provisioned with ReadyClone must use the same customization specification in VMware vCenter for the guest operating system (OS) settings. The guest OS can be either Linux or Windows.

ReadyClone Check box Availability

To provision a VM through ReadyClone:

  • Check the ReadyClone check box during Storage Policy configuration.

  • Check the ReadyClone check box during Catalog creation.

  • When using a Standard Catalog for provisioning, verify that the selected image is on an HX datastore, and the VM does not have multiple disks and VMware snapshots.

    If this condition is not met, you will receive an error message when you use ReadyClone option to provision a VM.

Provisioning VMs with ReadyClone VMs

Before You Begin

  • Create the desired VM templates in VMware vCenter.

  • (Optional) Create a customization specification in VMware vCenter to specify the guest OS settings for all VMs.

  • Make sure that the datastore with the VM template is mounted on all of the hosts in the HX cluster.

  • The space required for the number of VMs being provisioned must be less than the free space available on the datastore to avoid provisioning failure.

    Step 1   Choose Hyper Converged > HyperFlex.
    Step 2   On the HyperFlex page, choose the pod.
    Step 3   On the HyperFlex page, click VM Templates.
    Step 4   Click the row with the VM template on which you want to base the ReadyClone VMs and then click Create ReadyClone VMs.
    Step 5   On the Create HyperFlex ReadyClone VMs screen, complete the required fields, including the following:
    1. In the Number of Clones field, enter the number of VMs that you want to provision from this template.

      You can provision a minimum of one VM and a maximum of 256 VMs.

    2. (Optional) From the Customization Spec Name drop-down list, choose the name of the customization specification that you want to use for the cloned VMs.

      The customization specification can include either Linux or Windows guest OS settings. See the Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform Management Guide.

    3. (Optional) Expand the Resource Pool Name field, click the row with the resource pool that you want to use for the VMs and then click Select.
    4. In the VM Name Prefix field, enter the prefix that you want to use for the VM names.
    5. In the Guest Name Prefix field, enter the prefix that you want to use for the guest host VM names.
    6. In the Start clone number field, enter the number that you want to use for the first VM created.

      The system appends this number to the name prefix of the first VM clone. For example, if you choose clone for the VM name prefix and 1 for the start clone number, the first VM is named clone1.

    7. In the Increment clone number field, enter the number by which you want to increment all subsequent clones.

      For example, if the first VM is named clone1 and you enter 1 for the increment clone number, all subsequent VM names are incremented by 1, such as clone2, clone3, and so on.

    8. Check Power ON after deploy if you want the guest VMs to automatically turn on after the cloning process is complete.
    Step 6   Click Submit.
    Note   

    You can also provision VMs through ReadyClones by:

    - Running the HyperFlex ReadyClone Workflow task. See Automation with Orchestration Workflows

    - Using Clone VM. See Cloning a VM chapter in Cisco UCS Director Admnistration Guide.

    What to Do Next

    You can view the following:

    • Status of the service request for the VM provisioning. On the HyperFlex page, choose the pod and then click Service Requests.

    • Provisioned VMs. On the HyperFlex page, choose the pod and then click VMs.