Creating an Appliance Template

You can create either Linux-based or Windows-based appliance templates. The steps differ slightly. Please refer to the appropriate section below.

Creating a Linux-based Appliance

To create a new appliance in your private workspace:

  1. Select Apps icon on the left.

  2. On the Appliance Library page, click on create in the top right.

  3. Enter the Name and Version of the appliance.

    ../../_images/create-appliance-centos.png
  4. From the drop-down menus, select the operating system (distribution, release and architecture).

  5. Click the create button. This creates a skeleton of an appliance template in the platform which you can now customize with operating system packages, middleware and application software.

Note

If SELinux is installed (ie the file /etc/selinux/config exists), the filesystem will be relabeled on the first boot of a UForge generated machine image in order to add the SELinux context in the all system files extended attribute. At boot time, init.rc checks for the existence of /.autorelabel. If this file exists, SELinux performs a complete file system relabel (using the /sbin/fixfiles -f -F relabel command), and then deletes /.autorelabel.)

  1. You should now see the appliance overview page. You can add a description to your appliance (optional) and a logo (optional). The logo format must be .jpg, .jpeg or .png.
  2. An OS profile is mandatory. See Adding a New OS Profile. However, you can leave the appliance at this point and edit it later.
  3. If you have made any modifications, click the checkmark to save.

Note

When you create an appliance, the packages are stored locally in the UForge cache repository. This ensures that the packages will always be available.

Creating a Windows-based Appliance

To create a Windows Appliance:

  1. From the Apps tab, select create.

  2. Enter the appliance name and version.

  3. Choose Windows from the OS Distribution drop-down menu.

    ../../_images/create-appliance-windows.png
  4. Select the Release and Architecture from the drop-down menus.

  5. Click create.

  6. From the Stack page, select the OS Profile from the drop-down list under Profile name. Click save.

    Note

    Once you have chosen the OS Profile, you cannot add any packages or run updates. The OS Profile is static. Once created, if you select OS Profile, you will only be able to view the details of the profile you selected.

    ../../_images/create-appliance-windows-profile.png
  7. Set the Install profile and click Save. For more information, refer to Updating a Windows-based Install Profile.

    Note

    Unlike Linux, the following cannot be set for Windows appliances: Root User, Users and Groups, Security, Kernel, Keyboards, Licences.

    ../../_images/windows-installfp4.png
  8. Optionally you can add partitions.
    1. Click on Partitioning and select Advanced Partitioning.
    2. Click on the + sign at the top right.
    3. You can modify the name and partition type
    4. Select the filesystem to ntfs and mount point to D: (for example).
    5. Enter the size. The install disk should be 12 Gb for core versions and not less than 32Gb for the full version.
    6. Check the box in the Grow column if you want the partition to be growable.
    7. Click save.
    ../../_images/install-profile-partitioning-windows.png
  9. Add software bundles from the Projects or MySoftware pages.

    Warning

    Software bundles included in MySoftware and Projects will be put on the image disk but the UForge generation tool WILL NOT install them even if these are executable/installers files (.exe, .msi, etc.). It is up to the end user to manually complete the installation of the software bundles.

    For Windows, .exe or .msi files can be given extra parameters. The parameters depend on the .exe or .msi file, and can be used for example for silent installation, providing extra configuration values, etc.

Note

For Windows, with Software bundle whose name begins with UForgeWinDrivers, you can specify drivers to be installed in a generated machine image.

Note

A binary called uforge-install-config is embedded at generation time, which helps the final user of the Appliance do the last-mile configuration.

Note

A Windows appliance created using a golden image will not list the applications and services under Stack > OS Profile.