Upload RightImages to a vSphere Cloud

Objective

To upload new machine images (e.g. RightImages) to a vSphere cloud that are specifically designed to launch instances (i.e. virtual machines) via the RightScale Dashboard/API where RightScale's core features such as real-time graphical monitoring, machine tagging, remote script execution, etc. are supported.

Prerequisites

• Access to log in to the vSphere client console
• vSphere setup with a properly installed RightScale Cloud Appliance for vSphere (RCA-V). See Download, Deploy, and Configure the RightScale Cloud Appliance for vSphere (RCA-V).

Steps

1. Download the image(s) that you want to upload to your vSphere cloud environment. These are equivalent to VM templates. 
   • Linux images (Link to CentOS and Ubuntu Repository - Use the latest image) 
   • Windows 2008R2 and 2012 - Please contact your account rep
2. Open the vSphere Client and choose File > Deploy OVF Template.

3. Specify the source location of the OVA file. You can either browse to a locally saved file or enter a URL. 
   

4. Verify the Template's details and click Next.

5. Name and Location: Provide a name for the image (e.g. RightImage_CentOS_6.4_x64_v13.5.​) and click Next.

        Recommendation:  Since RightScale uses the image name to recognize it as RightImage, it is strongly recommended that the default name be used and not change the name of the image.

1. 

2. Host/Cluster: Choose a datacenter/cluster and click Next.

   • Specific Host: Choose a specific host within the cluster and click Next.

3. Resource Pool: (Optional) Select a resource pool (if one exists) and click Next.

4. Storage: Select a destination storage for the virtual machine (VM) files.

5. Disk Format: Specify the format for storing the virtual disks.

   • Choose Thin Provision and click Next.

6. Network Mapping: Specify which networks should be mapped to the instance. You should see both a private and public network. No changes are required. Click Next.  

7. Once the OVF is deployed,  it will appear as a powered-off VM in your vSphere client.  Right-click on it, pick Template->Convert to Template

Next Steps

Please proceed to the next step in the setup guide.

• Register a vSphere Cloud with RightScale