Create VM from custom images, API only

Owned by Sven-Erik Petermann
Last updated: 17 Mar, 2023
2 min read

1. Create a standalone block storage disk from URL



curl https://<api-hostname>/v1/storage/disk-from-image \ -H 'apikey: [apikey]' \ -X POST \ -d "size_gb=[image size or bigger]" \ -d "image_url=[image url]" \ -d "billing_account_id=[billing_account_id]"

uuid from the response is needed to check if the created custom image disk status has changed from Reserved to Active.

Image URL must point to a downloadable disk image. Image is expected to be in a format that qemu-img automatically detects, e.g. raw or qcow2.

  2. Check newly created VM disk status

curl https://<api-hostname>/v1/storage/disk/<uuid> \ -H 'apikey: [apikey]' \ -X GET



status

description

status

description

Reserved

Initial status. Disk is not usable yet.

Active

Disk has been created as requested. It can now be used.

Deleted

Disk is deleted after creating it from external image fails for some reason. This disk is not usable anymore.



3. Create VM from available custom Image

curl --request POST 'https://<api-hostname>/v1/user-resource/vm' \ --header 'apikey: [apikey]' \ --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \ --data-urlencode 'name=[Name for the VM]' \ --data-urlencode 'ram=[512]' \ --data-urlencode 'vcpu=[1]' \ --data-urlencode 'password=[password]' \ --data-urlencode 'username=[username]' \ --data-urlencode 'billing_account_id=[billing_account_id]' \ --data-urlencode 'boot=false' \ --data-urlencode 'disk_uuid=[uuid from Get Disk]'

Setting boot=false is useful to debug VM's first boot. With this setting, VM is created without booting it, then in UI Virtual Console can be opened before pressing Start to monitor the first boot and resolve any possible errors.

Otherwise if VM boot fails during VM create, the VM and its disk will be deleted and there would be no way of knowing why it failed. Also, because the disk is deleted, it cannot be used to create a new VM, the image would have to be imported again.

Steps in UI

  1. Refresh the Compute list

  2. Start VM created from custom image

  3. Check the boot process in the Virtual Console tab

Issues with the current pipeline

  1. qemu-guest-agent has to be installed for the setup

    1. If guest agent does not answer in 10 minutes, then boot fails and VM is stopped

  2. In Create VM stage, the size of the disk cannot be changed/altered any more

  3. Importing images that are bigger than ~35 GB will probably fail