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This document steps through the process of using the Rapid Access Cloud dashboard to create a single Ubuntu 14.04 Linux instance accessible via ssh with a 25GB attached storage volume. This process will provide a basic understanding of the Rapid Access Cloud and how to create and manage instances and volumes. Once these steps have been completed, you are encouraged to explore the dashboard and build other instances, then move on the Advanced Guide for an understanding of some of the additional features that OpenStack and the Rapid Access Cloud provide, including information pertaining to Windows images and instructions on how to automate deployment in the cloud.
Conventions in this document
There are step-by-step instructions provided throughout this document, however there are points along the way in which it is required to input information, such as the name of the instance or to make decisions, such as what operating system is installed in the instance.
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Commands to be entered at a command prompt will be prefixed with a ‘$’
File name paths are indicated as
/path/to/<some_file_or_command>
Step-by-step
Log in
Create a volume
Attach a volume
Use a volume
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6. Click the “Launch” button. It should take the instance less than 2 minutes to launch; progress can be monitored in the “Status” column and should say “Active” when ready.
About Flavors
OpenStack uses ‘flavors’ to define the compute, memory, and storage capacity of computing instances. To put it simply, a flavor is an available hardware configuration for a server. The flavors available in the Rapid Access Cloud allow for a broad deployment of virtual machines given the default quotas available to users. The flavors are in two classes: m1 and g1.
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Having an instance up and running is one thing, and perhaps just a single Linux ‘sandbox’ to run some code is all that is needed, however the real power of computers, virtual or otherwise, is in connectivity, and that means networks. The instances in the Rapid Access Cloud can be connected to and accessed in a variety of ways, permitting users to create an environment with multiple instances networked together in the same way a bare-metal environment can be built, but in this case with virtual machines providing the routing, switching and other network functions along with the expected servers running applications on top of operating systems like Linux and Windows.
IP addresses
Once an instance is provisioned, it is automatically given two addresses: a private IPv4 address, and a public IPv6 address.
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Cybera has confirmed that most Telus and University of Alberta users (via WiFi) have IPv6 connectivity. If you fall into one of these groups, please use the above links to verify and if possible, we ask that you use IPv6 to connect to your instance in order to help us conserve IPv4 addresses.
Why IPv6?
IPv4 addresses are limited to 4.3 billion addresses and the world is quickly approaching the limit and obtaining new ones will become impossible. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses instead of IPv4’s 32-bit addresses, removing this limit and providing better security features over IPv4. IPv6 is not a new technology as it has been available for over a decade, though it has been slow to implement due to legacy concerns across multiple industries.
If you’re more curious about IPv6 itself we recommend reading the Wikipedia article on IPv6.
Public IPv4 addressing
Each Rapid Access Cloud account and its associated project is allotted one public IPv4 address. This is referred to as a floating-ip in OpenStack and can be associated with only one instance at a time.
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Log-in to the Rapid Access Cloud dashboard at https://cloud.cybera.ca.
In the left-hand panel under “Compute”, click “Instances”.
Click the Action drop-down button on the right-hand side and select “Associate Floating IP”.
Click on the “+” sign next to “Select an IP address”.
There is only one pool of addresses available (
nova) and the quota shows only one IP address from that pool, so simply click “Allocate IP”.After the IP address has been allocated, click the “Associate” button the the right hand side. Under the Instances summary, your Instance should now have three IP addresses, including a publicly accessible IPv4 address.
Associating the floating ip address to other instances
Given the ease of creating and destroying instances, along with the possibilities of changing needs, moving the IPv4 address around may be required. Once the address is allocated to a project, it can be assigned to any instance associated with the project. When an instance is destroyed, the associated IP address remains allocated to the project. Simply follow the steps above to associate the IP address with a new instance, omitting the steps for allocating the address (steps 4 and 5).
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ubuntu@<your_instance_name>:~$
From Windows
There are plenty of applications that allow ssh access from within Windows, none of which are bundled with Windows (at this time). You are welcome to use any that fit your needs, however puTTY is a widely used and well supported suite of SSH utilities that includes key management and generation, an scp client and the ssh client itself.
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