Virtual Machines, Images, and Volumes in Platform9 Private Cloud Director

In this presentation, Pooja Ghumre, Principal Engineer at Platform9, discusses the process of creating virtual machines (VMs) within the Platform9 Private Cloud Director. After the initial onboarding and network setup, users can create VMs either from pre-existing images or volumes. Platform9 allows administrators to upload and manage images, which can be designated as public, private, or shared among tenants. The platform supports various storage protocols, including iSCSI, fiber channel, and NFS, providing flexibility in how VMs are deployed. Users can also select from predefined “t-shirt sizes” for VMs, which determine the CPU, memory, and disk requirements, or create custom sizes based on specific needs, such as isolating VMs to certain hardware configurations.

The platform also offers a robust image library, similar to VMware’s vSphere content library, where users can upload new images or use predefined ones like Ubuntu or CentOS. Additionally, users can configure VMs with multiple network interfaces, choose between provider or virtual networks, and apply affinity or anti-affinity rules to control VM placement. Platform9 also supports cloud-init configurations, allowing users to run custom scripts during VM boot-up. Security groups can be applied to filter traffic, and key-value pairs can be added for easier VM management and searchability.

In terms of policy management, Ghumre explains that Platform9 allows users to map VM flavors to host aggregates, which helps in scheduling VMs based on specific performance or resource requirements. This mapping ensures that VMs are placed on the appropriate hosts that meet the defined criteria, such as high-performance storage or specific licensing needs. The platform also supports live migration, enabling users to move VMs between nodes without downtime, further enhancing the flexibility and resilience of the cloud environment.