Workflow of VM Life Cycle Management
The following diagram depicts the basic workflow of the VM life cycle management using REST APIs:
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Register a VM Image—To register a VM image, you must first copy or download the relevant VM image to the NFVIS server, or host the image on a http or https server. Once you have downloaded the file, you can register the image using the registration API. The registration API allows you to specify the file path to the location (on the http/https server) where the tar.gz file is hosted. Registering the image is a one-time activity. Once an image is registered on the http or https server, and is in active state, you can perform multiple VM deployments using the registered image.
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Customizing the Setup—After registering a VM image, you can optionally create a custom profile or flavor for the VM image if the profiles defined in the image file do not match your requirement. The flavor creation option lets you provide specific profiling details for a VM image, such as the virtual CPU on which the VM will run, and the amount of virtual memory the VM will consume.
Depending on the topology requirement, you can create additional networks and bridges to attach the VM to during deployment.
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Deploy a VM— A VM can be deployed using the deployment API. The deployment API allows you to provide values to the parameters that are passed to the system during deployment. Depending on the VM you are deploying, some parameters are mandatory and others optional.
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Manage and Monitor a VM—You can monitor a VM using APIs and commands that enable you to get the VM status and debug logs. Using VM management APIs, you can start, stop, or reboot a VM, and view statistics for a VM such as CPU usage.
A VM can also be managed by changing or updating its profile. You can change a VM's profile to one of the existing profiles in the image file; alternatively, you can create a new custom profile for the VM.
The vNICs on a VM can also be added or updated.
Note |
Before performing the VM life cycle management tasks, you will have to upload the VM images to the NFVIS server or http/s server. |
For details on APIs, see the VM Lifecycle Management APIs chapter in the API Reference for Cisco Enterprise Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure Software.