Deploy a VM by using an OVF template

Restrictions and guidelines

• The time required for uploading an OVF template depends on the disk size that is occupied by the VM image file. As a best practice, adjust the idle timeout to ensure that the OVF template can be uploaded without interruption. For more information, see "Configure system parameters."

• The current software version does not support deployment of OVF templates that contain disk partitions.

• An OVF template cannot be used to deploy VMs if it contains disk files or files with invalid names. A file name is invalid if it meets one of the following conditions:

  • Contains characters other than letters, digits, minus signs (-), underscores (_), and dots (.).

  • Starts with a minus sign (-) or dot (.).

  • Contains only digits.

• To convert a VMware vSphere VM or VirtualBox VM that uses the Windows XP operating system to an OVF template, make sure the VM has good hardware compatibility. If you cannot ensure the hardware compatibility of the VM, edit the registry to enable the operating system of the VM to support ide(piix3/piix4). If you do not follow this guideline, blue screen issues might occur after you deploy VMs by using the OVF template.

• In the current software version, ARM hosts support deploying only the OVF templates exported from CAS.

Deploy a VM by using an existing OVF template

1. On the top navigation bar, click Compute.

2. From the left navigation pane, select Resource Navigation > All > Resources > Host Pool Name > Cluster Name > Host Name or Resource Navigation > All > Resources > Host Pool Name > Host Name.

3. Click Deploy VM, and then select Deploy OVF Template.

4. Click Existing Template.

5. Select a template, and then click Next.

6. Follow the configuration wizard to finish the deployment.

7. Click Finish.

Deploy a VM by using an uploaded OVF template

1. On the top navigation bar, click Compute.

2. From the left navigation pane, select Resource Navigation > All > Resources > Host Pool Name > Cluster Name > Host Name or Resource Navigation > All > Resources > Host Pool Name > Host Name.

3. Click Deploy VM, and then select Deploy OVF Template.

4. Click Upload Template.

5. Click in the dashed box and select the target OVF template package (.tar.gz file), or drag the target OVF template package to the dashed box. Then, click Start.

6. Follow the configuration wizard to finish the deployment.

7. Click Finish.

Deploy a VM by using an OVF template on a remote server

1. On the top navigation bar, click Compute.

2. From the left navigation pane, select Resource Navigation > All > Resources > Host Pool Name > Cluster Name > Host Name or Resource Navigation > All > Resources > Host Pool Name > Host Name.

3. Click Deploy VM, and then select Deploy OVF Template.

4. Click URL.

5. Enter the URL of an OVF template on a remote server to download the OVF template.

6. Follow the configuration wizard to finish the deployment.

7. Click Finish.

Parameters

Configure basic settings:

• Alias: Enter an alias for the VM. Chinese characters are supported.

• CPUs: Specify the CPU number and CPU cores.

• Memory: Specify the memory size of the VM.

• VM Group: Click to select or add a new VM group for the VM to be deployed.

• Start Now: Select whether to start the VM immediately after it is being deployed.

Configure disk settings:

• Original Storage File: Name of the source VM's storage file. The field cannot be edited.

• Target Storage File: Name of the VM's storage volume.

• Target Storage Pool: Select a storage pool for the VM's storage volume.

• Bus Type: Select a bus type. As a best practice, select IDE as the disk bus type when you deploy an OVF template exported from a third-party system. After the deployment, install CAStools for the VM online and then change the disk bus type to high-speed offline to improve the disk I/O performance. When you install CAStools, the system installs a virtio driver for the VM by default.

• Provision: Select a storage volume provision mode. This parameter is available only when the disk type is New File.

  • Thin—Allocates only as much storage space as the storage volume needs for its initial operations when the storage volume is created. If the storage volume needs more storage space later, you can allocate as much storage space as the volume would require based on the specified maximum storage size.

  • Lazy Zeroed—Allocates the specified maximum storage size to the storage volume when the storage volume is created. Data remaining on the physical device is not erased during creation, but is zeroed out on first write from the VM.

  • Eager Zeroed—Allocates the specified maximum storage size to the storage volume when the storage volume is created. Data remaining on the physical device is zeroed out during creation. It might take a longer time to create storage volumes in this format than to create storage volumes of other formats.

Configure network settings:

• Network: Select a virtual switch for the VM.

• Port Profile: Select a port profile for the VM.

• Virtual Firewall: Select a virtual firewall for the VM. The incoming and outgoing data packets of the VM will be filtered based on the firewall rules.

• VLAN Transparent Transmission Policies: Configure VLAN policies for VMs, including VLAN transparent transmission policies and private VLAN policies.

  • VLAN transparent transmission policies—To add a policy, see "Manage VLAN transparent transmission policies" The policies are used by the VMs to identify incoming and outgoing traffic of different virtual networks.

  • Private VLAN policies—For more information, see "Manage private VLAN policies".

• NIC Type: Select a NIC type. High-speed NICs are driven by CVK.

• Bound IPv4/IPv6 Address: Enter the IP address bound to the MAC address of the VM's NIC. If the IP address specified for the VM's NIC is different from the bound IP address, the NIC cannot communicate correctly.

• Fast Forwarding: Enable fast forwarding to improve the network performance of the VM. This feature is available for high-speed NICs and is enabled by default.

• Queue Number: Set the number of queues for the virtual NIC. Multi-queue support can enhance data processing performance for the virtual NIC. The default value is 1, and the maximum value is the vCPU count × cores. This parameter is available for high-speed NICs with fast forwarding enabled.

• Queue Depth: Set the queue depth for VM NICs, that is, the packet-receiving buffer capacity. If the low queue depth is set, the NICs can cache 256 packets simultaneously. If the high queue depth is set, the NICs can cache 1024 packets simultaneously.

• TCP Checksum: Select whether to enable TCP checksum for the VM. This feature is enabled by default. If you enable this feature, the calculation of TCP checksum during the transmission of TCP packets by the VM is delayed to reduce the computational pressure on the CPU during the transmission of a large number of data packets, improving the network performance of the system. This feature can be enabled only when the VM uses a high-speed NIC.

• URL: Specify the Path to access the OVF template on a remote server. FTP, HTTP, and HTTPS paths are supported. For example, you can specify https://10.99.219.241:8443/ovf/ws0/ws0.ovf, http://10.99.231.189:8080/ovf/ws0/ws0.ovf, or ftp://10.125.52.2/wu/ws0/ws0.ovf&userName=root&pwd=root123. When you use FTP as the access method, enter the username and password.