Private Cloud

Private Cloud x86 VMs

Private Cloud enables users to provision non-Mac VMs using reserved compute and storage resources. Non-Mac VMs are essential in enabling certain parts of scalable build systems on Mac, such as caching servers.

MacStadium Private Cloud is built on multi-tenant shared cloud infrastructure. Users can to pay for fixed amounts of isolated compute/storage/networking resources and deploy any combination of virtual machines with their desired configuration. Private Cloud also has network access to Mac infrastructure, allowing the use of non-Mac virtual machines in tandem with Mac compute resources.

Overview

With Private Cloud, users can purchase an allocation of Virtual CPU, Virtual RAM, and Storage and manage the deployment of those resources using Private Cloud’s dashboard.

📘

NOTE:

The Machines Dashboard displays the statistics for the VMs in a cluster. It also displays storage usage as well as machines that are not in use.

Creating a New VM with a Recipe (recommended)

Users can create a new VM using a predefined recipe. Recipes are VM image templates that allow the automated creation of a new preconfigured VM with the selected operating system, applications, and configuration information. Recipes are quick and convenient, and may be preloaded with various software configurations.

To enable configuration, recipes include questions about each instance, such as the desired network configuration, username and password, in addition to standard VM parameters such as drive size or amount of RAM.

📘

NOTE:

MacStadium recommends using a recipe when deploying a new VM, especially for users new to this process. Recipes ensure that VMs are configured optimally for operation within Private Cloud, and are much faster to install and deploy when compared to manual VM creation.

1. Select Machines Dashboard → Virtual Machines.
2. Click New VM.

3. The Select Type tab opens. The left-hand side of the screen contains a list of options (Operating Systems, Services, and so on.) The right-hand side of the screen contains a list of recipes.

📘

NOTE:

MacStadium recommends using a preexisting recipe if a recipe exists for the OS required. Recipes always install the latest version of the selected OS in an optimal configuration with minimal post-installation configuration required.

If there is not an OS recipe that the user needs, then select New VM and use the template to create a new recipe for that OS.

4. In the example, the user selected the recipe for Ubuntu Server 24.04; click Next.
5. The Virtual Machine Setting tab opens.

6. In the VM Recipe Instance box, complete the following fields:

• Name - the machine name used for management inside Private Cloud
• Cores - specifies the number of vCPUs allocated to this machine
• RAM - specifies the amount of RAM allocated to this machine
• Cluster - specifies the compute cluster to deploy the machine to. This should be left as Default.
• Hostname - the network hostname for the machine

7. In the Network box, users must select Static from the dropdown box. Users must also select the correct Network from the dropdown list in order to ensure connectivity to existing MacStadium infrastructure. Otherwise, Private Cloud will provision a new isolated network for the VM.

🚧

WARNING:

Do not use DHCP as the IP Address Type when connecting VMs to existing networks. While DHCP is the default setting for IP Address Type, MacStadium Mac infrastructure is deployed with static IPs, and no DHCP server is present. In order for network connectivity to work for deployed VMs on MacStadium networks, an IP must be set manually using the Static IP Address Type.

8. In the Static IP Configuration box, all fields must be completed. However, the auto option in the IP Address field does not work. Complete the following fields:

• IP Address – Specifies the IP address of the server. The default is auto, this is an invalid option for the static IP. Consult the IP Plan in your MacStadium Portal account to determine an IP Address that doesn’t conflict with existing machines.
• Subnet Mask – Specifies the range used for the subnet. This is in CIDR notation. The most common selection is ‘/24’
• Default Gateway – Specifies the IP to use for routed external traffic. This should be listed in the IP Plan
• Nameservers – Specifies the DNS servers to use for name resolution. This is not optional, and must be completed in order to resolve hostnames.

🚧

WARNING:

The default IP Address is Auto, however, this option does not work. Users must select an IP Address that is not currently being used by their machine, in the subnet of the network they are connected to. Please consult the MacStadium IP Plan.

For the private subnet, users can have on reserver, addresses near the end of the subnet. A subnet of 10.254.232.0/24, for example, can reserve address range, 10.254.232.200 through 10.254.232.250 for VMs.

This only works for customers who will not use the entire subnet for bare metal hosts. In the Drives box, select the OS Drive Size and OS Drive Tier. The OS Drive Tier specifies the tier of storage to deploy to, currently, only Tier 2 is available.

9. In the User Configuration box, complete the following fields:

• User Name – the desired username for the default user on the server
• Password – the desired password for the default user on the server
• Confirm Password

Or

• Provide an SSH Key – optional, enables SSH key authentication for the default user

10. Click Submit.

11. The new VM screen (Ubuntu Server, in this case) opens and the drives will begin to initialize. This may take a few minutes to complete, as Private Cloud will fetch the latest disk image for the selected operating system if an update is available. During this time, the Drive status will be listed as Importing.

12. Once the drive has finished importing, the status will change to Offline. At this point, the machine is initialized and ready to be powered on.

13. Click the Power button and the Confirmation box opens. Click Power On.

14. Open the Console by clicking the Console button.

15. When the Console opens, the disk boots and stops at a login prompt. Shortly after, the machine will start to download the latest available software updates.

📘

NOTE:

For the majority of Linux virtual machine recipes, the Console is configured to appear as a text terminal. This makes copy/pasting text much easier, and enables easy access to terminal history.

Windows Installation

📘

NOTE:

Installing Windows 2022 from a recipe is easy and downloads the correct ISO, which starts with the right drivers. MacStadium recommends using a recipe to install Windows 2022.

To install Windows without a recipe, follow the steps in the Windows Installation Workaround sections.

Creating a New VM Manually

In addition to deploying VMs using recipes, virtual machines may also be created manually. This is primarily done when specific versions of OSes are required (for instance, desktop versions of Windows). Manually deployed VMs take additional effort to configure when compared to deployments from recipe. MacStadium recommends the use of recipes for VM deployment whenever possible.

Uploading Images

For manually created VMs, guest operating system are installed by adding a CD-ROM device with media file set to a bootable install ISO. Install ISOs are stored in the Media Images repository.

To upload an ISO for installation:

1. Select Machines → Media Images.

2. The Media Images page shows stored install disk and uploaded VM images. There are two ways to upload images for install:

• Upload from URL - Private Cloud downloads the image from a remote URL
• Upload - The image is uploaded from the connected desktop

📘

NOTE:

In this example, we will use Ubuntu Server as the install image.

Upload from URL

📘

NOTE;

Upload from URL is the recommended approach, as Private Cloud can often download images faster directly from the repository.

1. Find a direct link for the install media for the desired OS. In this case, Ubuntu only offers direct links through their mirror, so we’ll select Alternative downloads, and get the URL from a mirror.

2. Next, we will upload the image to Private Cloud from the mirror. Return to the Media Images pages. Select Upload from URL.

3. The Upload from URL dialog box opens.

4. Paste the download link into the Upload from URL page.

5. Click Submit, and the Upload Process begins.

Upload Directly

1. To upload an ISO from the connected computer, choose Upload on the Media Images screen. The Upload Files screen appears.

2. Click Upload, and the Upload Process begins.

VM Creation and OS Installation

1. Once the file completes the download process and the files appear in the Media Images page, Navigate to the Machines Dashboard.
2. Click New VM.

3. On the Select Type tab, select New VM and click Next.

📘

NOTE:

New VM is a blank recipe that allows for manual OS installation.

4. The Virtual Machine Settings tab opens.

5. In the VM Recipe Instance box, complete the following fields:

• Name
• Cores
• RAM
• Cluster (can be left as Default)
• OS Family

📘

NOTE:

It is important that the OS Family matches the OS type installed.

6. In the Drives box:

• Create a CD-Rom Drive, select Use Local Media Image
• Attach Selected iso to CD-ROM, select the file that was previously uploaded into Media Images
• OS Drive Interface, select Virtio-SCSI

7. In the Network box, make sure the Create Network Interface is checked and select the interface from the dropdown.

🚧

WARNING:

Unlike OS Recipe templates, manually created VMs require that IP configuration be done at the OS level, and cannot be configured when deploying the VM.

8. Click Submit.

9. The new VM screen opens. Click the Power button and the Confirmation box opens.
10. Click Power On.

11. Next, the OS must be installed and configured. To access the machine, click Console.

12. The Console opens.

📘

NOTE:

Manually deployed VMs use a virtual screen, rather than a virtual terminal, meaning that text cannot be copied from the terminal.

13. Use the console to install the OS as usual.
14. The IP address configuration must be set manually as a part of installation. The process for this can differ, depending on the OS installed. In this example, we are setting a manual IP address for Ubuntu Server 24.04:

❗️

IMPORTANT

DHCP is not supported. An IP address must be manually assigned, using a free IP address on the IP plan. All fields must be completed to ensure network connectivity.

15. Complete the installation as usual. Most Linux distributions include drivers for Virtio, which is required for optimal performance when virtualizing hardware.

Manual Windows Installation

❗️

IMPORTANT

Windows does not include Virtio drivers by default. These drivers need to be installed from a mounted disk during Windows installation.

📘

NOTE:

For Windows Server installation, MacStadium highly recommends the use of the Windows Server recipe.

1. Windows requires additional drivers in order to access Private Cloud’s virtualized storage and network hardware. To install a Windows VM manually, select Machines Dashboard → Virtual Machines.
2. Click New VM.

3. The Select Type tab opens. The left-hand side of the screen contains a list of options (Operating Systems, Services, and so on.) The right-hand side of the screen contains a list of recipes. Select New VM and click Next.

4. The Virtual Machine Setting tab opens.

5. In the VM Recipe Instance box, complete the following fields:
   • Name
   • Cores
   • RAM
   • Cluster (can be left as Default)
   • OS Family = Windows
   • Attach Virtio Drives = checked

❗️

IMPORTANT

Make sure the Attach Virtio Drivers checkbox is selected. This is required to install the Windows operating system.

📘

Note:

A Windows Install ISO must be uploaded to Media Images before installation.

6. In the Drives box, make sure the Create CD-ROM Drive is set to Use Local Media Image. Select an uploaded Windows install ISO.

7. In the Network box, set the NIC Interface to Virtio, and the Attach Network Interface to Internal.

   

8. Click Submit.

9. In the New VM (Windows) page, click Power.

10. In the Confirmation box, click Power On.

11. Open the Console by clicking the Console button.

12. When prompted, press any key to begin installation.
13. The Windows screen opens, click Next.

14. Click Install Now.

15. Accept the license terms and click Next.

16. Select Custom: Install Windows Only (advanced).

17. The installation will fail to find any drives. At this point, the virtio storage drivers need to be loaded to continue the install. Click Load Driver.

18. Click OK.

19. Select the driver for the corresponding Windows version, according to the folder name. For example, the Windows 10 driver is located in E:\amd64\w10.

20. Windows begins to install. Allow the installation to finish as usual. Network connectivity will not work during the install, this is expected, as Windows does not come with virtio network drivers.

21. Once installed, additional drivers need to be installed to allow network connectivity. To do this, open Explorer, and navigate to This PC. A CD drive with virtio drivers should be accessible.

22. Double click on virtio-win-gt-x64.

23. When the Setup Wizard opens, click Next.

24. Accept the terms and click Next.

25. Choose all and click Next.

26. Click Install to begin the installation.

27. The progress bar appears.

28. Click Finish to complete the Setup Wizard.

29. Install Guest tools by clicking on the file virtio-win-guest-tools. Then accept the license terms and click Install.

30. The progress bar appears.

31. Click Close to complete the installation. Windows is now ready for use.