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Instances are virtual machines that run inside the cloud. You can launch an instance from the following sources:

  • Images uploaded to the Image service.
  • Image that you have copied to a persistent volume. The instance launches from the volume, which is provided by the cinder-volume API through iSCSI.
  • Instance snapshot that you took.

Launch an instance

  1. Log in to the dashboard.
  2. Select the appropriate project from the drop down menu at the top left.
  3. On the Project tab, open the Compute tab and click Instances category.
    The dashboard shows the instances with its name, its private and floating IP addresses, size, status, task, power state, and so on.
  4. Click Launch Instance.
  5. In the Launch Instance dialog box, specify the following values:

Details tab

Instance Name: Assign a name to the virtual machine.

Description: You can assign a brief description of the virtual machine.

Availability Zone: By default, this value is set to the availability zone given by the cloud provider (for example, us-west or apac-south). For some cases, it could be nova.

Count: To launch multiple instances, enter a value greater than 1. The default is 1.

Source tab

Instance Boot Source

Your options are:

  • Boot from image: If you choose this option, a new field for Image Name displays. You can select the image from the list.
  • Boot from snapshot: If you choose this option, a new field for Instance Snapshot displays. You can select the snapshot from the list.
  • Boot from volume: If you choose this option, a new field for Volume displays. You can select the volume from the list.
  • Boot from image (creates a new volume): With this option, you can boot from an image and create a volume by entering the Device Size and Device Name for your volume. Click the Delete Volume on Instance Delete option to delete the volume on deleting the instance.
  • Boot from volume snapshot (creates a new volume): Using this option, you can boot from a volume snapshot and create a new volume by choosing Volume Snapshot from a list and adding a Device Name for your volume. Click the Delete Volume on Instance Delete option to delete the volume on deleting the instance.

Image Name: This field changes based on your previous selection. If you have chosen to launch an instance using an image, the Image Name field displays. Select the image name from the dropdown list.

Instance Snapshot: This field changes based on your previous selection. If you have chosen to launch an instance using a snapshot, the Instance Snapshot field displays. Select the snapshot name from the dropdown list.

Volume: This field changes based on your previous selection. If you have chosen to launch an instance using a volume, the Volume field displays. Select the volume name from the dropdown list. If you want to delete the volume on instance delete, check the Delete Volume on Instance Delete option.

Flavor tab

Flavor: Specify the size of the instance to launch.

Note: The flavor is selected based on the size of the image selected for launching an instance. For example, while creating an image, if you have entered the value in the Minimum RAM (MB) field as 2048, then on selecting the image, the default flavor is m1.small.

Networks tab

Selected Networks: To add a network to the instance, click the + in the Available field.

Network Ports tab

Ports: Activate the ports that you want to assign to the instance.

Security Groups tab

Security Groups: Activate the security groups that you want to assign to the instance. Security groups are a kind of cloud firewall that define which incoming network traffic is forwarded to instances. If you have not created any security groups, you can assign only the default security group to the instance.

Key Pair tab

Key Pair: Specify a key pair. If the image uses a static root password or a static key set (neither is recommended), you do not need to provide a key pair to launch the instance.

Configuration tab

Customization Script Source: Specify a customization script that runs after your instance launches.

Metadata tab

Available Metadata: Add Metadata items to your instance.

Click Launch Instance. The instance starts on a compute node in the cloud.

Note: If you did not provide a key pair, security groups, or rules, users can access the instance only from inside the cloud through VNC. Even pinging the instance is not possible without an ICMP rule configured.

 Connect to your instance by using SSH

To use SSH to connect to your instance, use the downloaded keypair file.

  1. Copy the IP address for your instance.

  2. Use the ssh command to make a secure connection to the instance. For example:

    Connect using SSH
    $ ssh -i MyKey.pem ubuntu@10.0.0.2
  3. At the prompt, type yes.

It is also possible to SSH into an instance without an SSH keypair, if the administrator has enabled root password injection. For more information about root password injection, see Injecting the administrator password in the OpenStack Administrator official Guide.

Track usage for instances

You can track usage for instances for each project. You can track costs per month by showing meters like number of vCPUs, disks, RAM, and uptime for all your instances.

  1. Log in to the dashboard.
  2. Select the appropriate project from the drop down menu at the top left.
  3. On the Project tab, open the Compute tab and click Overview category.
  4. To query the instance usage for a month, select a month and click Submit (at the bottom of the page).
  5. To download a summary, click Download CSV Summary.

Create an instance snapshot

  1. Log in to the dashboard.
  2. Select the appropriate project from the drop down menu at the top left.
  3. On the Project tab, open the Compute tab and click the Instances category.
  4. Select the instance from which to create a snapshot.
  5. In the actions column, click Create Snapshot.
  6. In the Create Snapshot dialog box, enter a name for the snapshot, and click Create Snapshot.

The Images category shows the instance snapshot. To launch an instance from the snapshot, select the snapshot and click Launch. Proceed with launching an instance.

Manage an instance

  1. Log in to the dashboard.
  2. Select the appropriate project from the drop down menu at the top left.
  3. On the Project tab, open the Compute tab and click Instances category.
  4. Select an instance.
  5. In the menu list in the actions column, select the state.

You can resize or rebuild an instance. You can also choose to view the instance console log, edit instance or the security groups. Depending on the current state of the instance, you can pause, resume, suspend, soft or hard reboot, or terminate it.

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