OnMetal Cloud Servers enable you to boot bare metal servers through the Rackspace Cloud Control Panel interface. This article shows you how to set up an OnMetal server through the Cloud Control Panel.

Note: For the parallel steps in the API, see Manage OnMetal Cloud Servers through the API.

Create an OnMetal server in the Cloud Control Panel#

Use the following steps to create an OnMetal server in the Cloud Control Panel:

  1. Log in to the Cloud Control Panel.

  2. In the top navigation bar, click Select a Product > Rackspace Cloud.

  3. Select Servers > Cloud Servers.

  4. Click Create Server.

  5. On the Create Server page, ensure that you select a region in which OnMetal servers are available.

    Note: OnMetal servers are available only in the Northern Virginia (IAD), Dallas (DFW), and UK (LON) regions.

  6. Click the OnMetal Server tab.

  7. In the Server Details section of the Create Server page, enter a name for the server and select the region in which you want the server to reside.

  8. In the Image section, select an image for the server.

    Note: To avoid performance degradation, run the CentOS® 6.5 image only on a Linux® kernel release of 3.10 or later.

  9. In the Flavor section, choose the appropriate configuration for your workload.

    Note: All OnMetal flavors include dual-bonded 10GbE Network Interface Card (NIC) interfaces that enable the image operating system (OS) to share public and service network access redundantly in case one of the connections goes down. For details about all of the available flavors, see OnMetal Cloud Server flavors.

  10. If you’re working with a Linux server, assign a public Secure Shell (SSH) key to the Linux server by either selecting an existing key or adding a new one. (If you’re working with a Microsoft® Windows® server, skip to the next step.)

    Note: You must create OnMetal Linux servers by using an SSH key pair. For information about generating public and private key pairs, see Manage SSH Key Pairs for Cloud Servers with python-novaclient.

    To assign an existing public key to a Linux server, select the key name for an existing public key in the SSH Key list. You can also add a new public key by using the following steps:

    1. Click Manage SSH Keys > Add Public Key.

    2. Enter a Key Name.

    3. In the Region field, confirm the region in which you want to use the key.

    4. Paste the entire public key in the Public Key field.

    5. Finally, click Add Public Key.

    6. Confirm that the key appears in the SSH Keys list for your new server, then select it.

  11. If necessary, create a new network and select the PublicNet and ServiceNet options.

  12. Click Create Server.

Create an OnMetal server by using the command line#

This section shows you how to boot the following types of OnMetal servers:

Note: To boot an OnMetal server, you must first install the nova client.

Boot an OnMetal Linux server#

Use the following steps to boot an OnMetal v1 server that is running Linux:

  1. On the Details page for your server, click the link under Log Into Your Server Now in the right-hand column. For more information, see Connect to a server by using SSH on Linux or Mac OS X for more information.

  2. Use the following command format to boot your OnMetal server, substituting the appropriate region:

    supernova iad boot --flavor flavorId --image imageId --key-name keyName serverName

    The following code includes example values:

    supernova iad boot --flavor onmetal-compute1 --image 1387253c-7735-4542-9612-26bc9ff77a9d --key-name johndoe onmetal-test

    The output should be similar to the following example:

    +------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Property               | Value                                |
+------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| status                 | BUILD                                |
| updated                | 2014-05-31T00:23:29Z                 |
| OS-EXT-STS:task_state  | scheduling                           |
| key_name               | johndoe                              |
| image                  | OnMetal - Debian 7 (Wheezy)          |
| hostId                 |                                      |
| OS-EXT-STS:vm_state    | building                             |
| flavor                 | OnMetal I/O v1                       |
| id                     | a8ea2366-9e50-4604-b6ce-e3edb8750451 |
| user_id                | 83362                                |
| name                   | teeth5                               |
| adminPass              | 6FgtaEqkapRo                         |
| tenant_id              | 545251                               |
| created                | 2014-05-31T00:23:29Z                 |
| OS-DCF:diskConfig      | MANUAL                               |
| accessIPv4             |                                      |
| accessIPv6             |                                      |
| progress               | 0                                    |
| OS-EXT-STS:power_state | 0                                    |
| config_drive           |                                      |
| metadata               | {}                                   |
+------------------------+--------------------------------------+

    Note: Although this output displays an administrative password, this password is not actually used. You can safely ignore it.

    The server takes about five minutes to build. You can check the status of the build by running the following command:

    supernova iad show instanceId

    The output should look like the following example:

    +------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property               | Value                                                              |
+------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| status                 | ACTIVE                                                             |
| updated                | 2014-05-31T00:27:34Z                                               |
| OS-EXT-STS:task_state  | None                                                               |
| private network        | 10.184.0.48                                                        |
| key_name               | johndoe                                                            |
| image                  | OnMetal - Debian 7 (Wheezy) (1387253c-7735-4542-9612-26bc9ff77a9d) |
| hostId                 | 8a12611e45a1e15a1aec221ab05c8494524d6bf00e7fb17c5c82722a           |
| OS-EXT-STS:vm_state    | active                                                             |
| public network         | 23.253.157.48                                                      |
| flavor                 | OnMetal I/O v1 (onmetal-io1)                                       |
| id                     | a8ea2366-9e50-4604-b6ce-e3edb8750451                               |
| user_id                | 83362                                                              |
| name                   | teeth5                                                             |
| created                | 2014-05-31T00:23:29Z                                               |
| tenant_id              | 545251                                                             |
| OS-DCF:diskConfig      | MANUAL                                                             |
| accessIPv4             | 23.253.157.48                                                      |
| accessIPv6             |                                                                    |
| progress               | 0                                                                  |
| OS-EXT-STS:power_state | 1                                                                  |
| config_drive           |                                                                    |
| metadata               | {}                                                                 |
+------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

    Within a few minutes, the server is assigned public and private Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. These IP addresses display in the output from the show command.

    After the status becomes ACTIVE, the server boots for the first time. However, the server is not reachable until the network configuration is complete, which might take another few minutes.

Boot an OnMetal Windows server#

Use the following steps to boot an OnMetal v2 server that is running Windows:

  1. To get the universally unique identifier (UUID) of the OnMetal Windows image that you want to use, enter the command nova image-list on the command line.

  2. Use the following command format to boot your OnMetal server, substituting the appropriate region:

    supernova iad boot --image imageId --flavor flavorId serverName

    The following code includes example values:

    supernova iad boot --image 6b6f855f-5967-48c2-81a3-3615e69f6f8e --flavor onmetal-io2 MyNewWindowsServer

The API response provides an administrative password that you can use to log in to your Windows instance.

Log in to the OnMetal server#

This section explains how to log in to a new OnMetal server.

Log in to a Linux OnMetal server#

After the server has booted, use the SSH key pair that you specified to log in to it, as shown in the following example:

ssh root@publicIpAddress

Note: CoreOS is only available for OnMetal v1 flavors. If you use CoreOS, you must sign in by using the username core.

Log in to a Windows OnMetal server#

After the server has booted, use Windows Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) or Remote Desktop to connect to the new server by using the administrative password that the API returned.

Delete an OnMetal server#

If necessary, you can also delete an OnMetal server by using the following steps:

  1. Run the following command, replacing the example ID with your server’s ID and iad with the appropriate region, if necessary:

    supernova iad delete a8ea2366-9e50-4604-b6ce-e3edb8750451

  2. Use the following command to view the status of the task:

    supernova iad list

    The output should look similar to the following example:

    +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------+
| ID | Name | Status | Task State | Power State | Networks |
+--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------+
| d1d58868-2b14-4fa5-b01f-e51d658556a8 | highcpu | ACTIVE | deleting | Running | public=23.253.157.105; private=10.184.0.105 |
+--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+---------------------------------------------+

    Note: The server enters the task state deleting. OnMetal server deletions take longer than virtual server deletions. This process typically takes a few minutes.

Configure OnMetal IO flash storage#

The flash drives that are included with the OnMetal IO flavor are unformatted. You can combine them in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) and format them in any way that you want. For more information, see Configure flash drives in High IO instances as Data drives.