Create a cloud instance (3/4)

In this tutorial, part of the getting started series, we explain how you can create an instance with ephemeral storage, how you create an instance with a bootable volume and how you can add and change the security groups of an instance.

Prerequisites:

• Fuga Cloud Account
• A security group with SSH access
• Key Pair

Before you create an instance, you need to know what type of storage you want to use. You can configure an instance to use ephemeral storage or persistent volume storage. If you want to know the differences between these two, click the following link: How to choose the right OpenStack Storage.

Creating a Persistent Volume

For creating a persistent instance, you need to create a bootable volume.

1. Log on to the OpenStack dashboard and choose your project.
2. Click Storage followed by Volume Store.
3. Select Create Volume
• Specify your new Volume name.
• Select Image from the Volume Source drop-down list.
• Image source: Choose the image you like to use.
• Size: The minimum capacity for a Linux bootable volume is 10GB. Windows bootable volumes need at least 30GB.
4. Click on Create Volume or Add extra storage to instances.

Creating an Instance (Ephemeral or Volume storage)

1. Log on to the dashboard.
2. Click on the Compute tab and select Instances.
3. Click on the button Create Instance.
4. Choose a Location for your instance.
5. Select a Boot source. Distributions, custom images, volumes (previous paragraph) and volume snapshots can be used as source.
6. If distribution or custom image is selected as boot source, the boot disk size has to be defined OR ephemeral storage can be chosen.
7. Select the right Flavor for your instance, based on your requirements.
8. Select a Network. Public6 for ipv6 and Public for ipv4.
9. Add or create a Key pair. The pair created earlier can be used.
10. Provide the desired Security Groups. The group created in the previous part can be used to allow SSH and ICMP traffic.
11. Finally you can choose a custom Hostname or the field can be left default.
12. Click the button Launch instance.

Your instance with either a bootable volume- or ephemeral storage has now been created and you can see it directly in the Instances tab. A public IP address is assigned to your instance.

If a distribution was picked as boot source, the newly created volume for this distribution is visible in the Storage > Volume store tab. You will see that a volume has been created with the desired size, linked to the instance.

Adjust security groups of an instance

If you did not select all security groups during the launch of your instance, or if you want to add additional security groups later, you can easily do this by performing the following steps:

1. Log in to the dashboard.
2. Click on the Compute tab and select Instances.
3. Click on the Instance name you'd like to edit security groups for.
4. Within the Security groups tab new groups can be added by clicking the + button, or existing groups can be modified by clicking on the group name.
5. When adding a new security group a tab opens and you can select a custom group that you created before. (leave the default and also pair your own)
6. To confirm the addition submit the form by clicking the orange ✓ button.

Conclusion

You now know how to launch an instance that is booted from either ephemeral storage or volume storage. In the next tutorial, we will explain step by step how to log in to your instance (4/4).