Automated Deployment and Configuration

This section details a step-by-step procedure to provision the reference infrastructure on the IONOS Cloud, demonstrated by screenshots. It provides guidance on how to extract the list of required parameters of the provisioned infrastructure, which will later be used for the automation of the OpenNebula deployment.

Infrastructure Provisioning

The virtual servers can be deployed through the IONOS Data Center Designer (DCD). After deploying the virtual servers, in the DCD you should see your newly-created infrastructure as shown below:

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This page will guide you in building this configuration. You will need to take into account the details described in the Hardware and Software Specification section.

Build with DCD

To achieve the deployment base shown in the figure above, follow the below steps:

  1. Add two Dedicated Core Servers, ensuring to select the specifications as shown in Front-end for the first server and Host for the second.
    1. Select the Dedicated Core Server option.
    2. Choose the Intel Skylake processor.
    3. Set the number of cores to 2.
    4. Set the RAM to 8 GB.
    5. Select Debian 12 as the operating system.
    6. Ensure that both servers are in the same data center.
  2. Add internet access from the toolbar.
  3. Connect all servers to internet access. Ensure to consistently use the first NIC in each server.
  4. Connect each server’s second NIC to the private LAN between the servers. Ensure to consistently use each server’s second NIC.
  5. Add HDD instances and specify the base image for the operating systems:
    1. Add the SSH key of the host from which the access is needed.
    2. Set it as a boot device.

Then, book the following two IP ranges, as shown below.

  • booked-for-servers: These are the management IPs for each server. Book an IP block with enough addresses for the servers, assigning one IP address per server.
  • booked-for-vms: These are the traffic IPs for the public-facing VMs that will be deployed using OpenNebula. Book a block big enough for the VMs.

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Assign the booked IP addresses to the servers, as shown below. Note that, without assigning any booked public IP addresses, IONOS will automatically assign new addresses at server startup.

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To effect the changes, click the Provision changes button in the DCD. Implementing the changes should take a few minutes; the result is reported in the DCD.

Generate IONOS Token

Access the IONOS Token Manager, generate a new token, and save the token’s value. As indicated in the screenshot below, you will not be able to access this value later, so make sure you save it securely.

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Retrieve Data Center UUID

At the IONOS Data Center Designer web UI, open the canvas where the infrastructure was designed. Copy and save the virtual data center’s UUID by clicking the API icon, as shown below.

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Save Required Parameters

At this point, all required infrastructure components should be deployed and configured in the IONOS DCD. To proceed with OpenNebula deployment, we need to extract and save some required parameters that the deployment automation relies on.

DescriptionHow to obtain the parameter
Front-end Host IPFrom the booked-for-servers IP range, choose an IP for the OpenNebula Front-end.
KVM Host IPsFrom the other IPs in the booked-for-servers IP range, choose the IPs for the OpenNebula Hosts that will run the Virtual Machines.
KVM Host GatewayFor each KVM Host IP, you can find the IONOS assigned gateway IP in the DCD, as shown in this screenshot.
VXLAN PHYDEVInterface name of the private LAN on all servers. To find out the name of the interface, run ip address in each server’s command line.
pubridge PHYDEVInterface name of the NIC connected to the Internet gateway on all servers. To find out the name of the interface, run the ip address command on each server’s command line.
VMs Public IP RangeAll the IPs that are contained in the IP range booked-for-vms, as shown in this screenshot.
GUI password for user oneadminSpecified by the administrator performing the deployment steps.
IONOSCTL TokenThe IONOS API/SDK token value that was generated and saved previously, as shown in this screenshot.
IONOS Data Center UUIDThe virtual data center’s UUID, as shown in this screenshot.

To find the value of the PHYDEV parameter for the VXLAN and the public bridge, access the Linux CLI of a deployed server and find the interface name of the first and second NICs that were connected to the Internet gateway and the private LAN respectively. To do this, run the ip address command and inspect the output, matching the NICs to their Linux system names, by comparing the assigned IP and MAC addresses as shown in the IONOS DCD.

If the first and second NICs were consistently used to connect the servers to the internet and the LAN respectively, the names of the interfaces should be the same on all servers – that is, the output of ip address should display the same names for the first and second NICs. Verify that this is indeed the case, by accessing multiple servers and inspecting the output of the ip address command.

Deployment and Verification

The complete OpenNebula deployment procedure and all of the required resources are available in the OpenNebula hosted IONOS repo, also referred to as the deployment repository. For instructions on how to use the required parameters extracted from the provisioned IONOS infrastructure, please check the README file in the repo.

The deployment procedure consists of the following high-level steps:

  1. Clone the deployment repository.
  2. Update the deployment repository with the required parameters gathered above.
  3. Customize the networking configuration of the provisioned servers.
  4. Launch the deployment automation commands.
  5. Launch the verification automation command.