Importing Disk Images

Import a disk image from an external source

Disk images can be imported from external URLs to be used as source images for root or additional disks for Virtual Servers. In addition to qcow2, raw and iso formatted images are also supported, and may be compressed with either gz or xz.

Most Operating Systems and virtual appliances provide a Cloud image in qcow2 or raw format. These are all compatible, and may be used while following this guide.

Note

Using a .iso installation media (ie., a virtual DVD) requires additional parameters not covered in this document. For assistance, please contact your CoreWeave Support Specialist.

There are three ways to import disk images from external sources:

Import a disk image using HTTP/HTTPS

Import a disk image via an external object store

Import a disk image via CoreWeave Object Storage

Using HTTP/HTTPS

A DataVolume is used to both do the import and store the imported image.

Use the following manifest to import a disk image already hosted on a publicly accessible HTTP/HTTPS Web server:

apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1
kind: DataVolume
metadata:
  name: debian-import
spec:
  source:
      http:
         url: "http://download.cirros-cloud.net/0.5.2/cirros-0.5.2-x86_64-disk.img"
  pvc:
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    volumeMode: Block
    storageClassName: block-nvme-ord1 # Update to region where your VS will run
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 64Mi # Update to size of imported image

Using an external object store

A DataVolume can also import a disk image from an S3-compatible object store. To import an image from an existing object store, create a Secret with your accessKey and secretKey:

kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: object-import-secret
type: Opaque
apiVersion: v1
data:
  accessKeyId: EBMAq2KEBQyxLBi2ZipHQE1b
  secretKey: YeXoB0QmpdS4zYFDGn7UYaPu6EglSHI5MkIMfMcv2Z6n7GBLCNAA4gH13NMU

Apply the manifest:

$ kubectl apply -f object-import-secret.yaml

secret/object-import-secret created

The Secret - along with your object store URL - will be referenced in your manifest:

apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1
kind: DataVolume
metadata:
  name: debian-import
spec:
  source:
      s3:
         url: https://object-store-tld/bucket-name/cirros-0.5.2-x86_64-disk.img
         secretRef: object-import-secret
  pvc:
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    volumeMode: Block
    storageClassName: block-nvme-ord1 # Update to region where your VS will run
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 64Mi # Update to size of imported image

Using CoreWeave Object Storage

An image stored locally can easily be uploaded to CoreWeave Object Storage, then imported to a DataVolume.

Once your object store credentials are generated and imported to s3cmd, make a bucket in which to store your images:

$ s3cmd mb s3://images

Bucket 's3://images/' created

Next, upload a locally stored image:

$ s3cmd put cirros-0.5.2-x86_64-disk.img s3://images

upload: 'cirros-0.5.2-x86_64-disk.img' -> 's3://images/cirros-0.5.2-x86_64-disk.img'  [part 1 of 2, 15MB] [1 of 1]
 15728640 of 15728640   100% in    1s    11.44 MB/s  done
upload: 'cirros-0.5.2-x86_64-disk.img' -> 's3://images/cirros-0.5.2-x86_64-disk.img'  [part 2 of 2, 558kB] [1 of 1]
 571904 of 571904   100% in    0s     5.59 MB/s  done

Create an object store user manifest with Read permissions:

apiVersion: objectstorage.coreweave.com/v1alpha1
kind: User
metadata:
  name: object-store-import
  namespace: tenant-test-test
spec:
  owner: tenant-test-test
  access: read

Apply the user manifest:

$ kubectl apply -f object-store-import.yaml

user.objectstorage.coreweave.com/object-store-import created

The generated access key needs some additional information in order for a DataVolume to parse it. First, grab your accessKey:

$ kubectl get secret tenant-test-test-object-store-import-obj-store-creds -o jsonpath='{.data.accessKey}'

EBMAq2KEBQyxLBi2ZipHQE1b

Then, use the accessKey to patch in an accessKeyId of the same value:

$ kubectl patch secret tenant-test-test-object-store-import-obj-store-creds -p '{"data":{"accessKeyId":"EBMAq2KEBQyxLBi2ZipHQE1b"}}'

secret/tenant-test-test-object-store-import-obj-store-creds patched

The updated secret will be referenced in your DataVolume manifest.

Note

The path-mapping for the Object Store URL uses sub-path mapping.

apiVersion: cdi.kubevirt.io/v1beta1
kind: DataVolume
metadata:
  name: debian-import
spec:
  source:
      s3:
         url: https://object.lga1.coreweave.com/images/cirros-0.5.2-x86_64-disk.img
         secretRef: object-import-secret
  pvc:
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    volumeMode: Block
    storageClassName: block-nvme-ord1 # Update to region where your VS will run
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 64Mi # Update to size of imported image

Monitor the disk image import

After deploying the manifest above:

$ kubectl apply -f dv.yaml
            
datavolume.cdi.kubevirt.io/debian-import created

The status of the import can be followed by using kubectl get --watch while it is importing:

$ kubectl get --watch dv debian-import
NAME            PHASE     PROGRESS   RESTARTS   AGE
debian-import   Pending   N/A                   4s
debian-import   ImportScheduled   N/A                   7s
debian-import   ImportInProgress   N/A                   19s
debian-import   ImportInProgress   0.00%                 22s
debian-import   ImportInProgress   1.00%                 29s
debian-import   ImportInProgress   7.12%                 58s
...
debian-import   Succeeded          100.0%                11m

If the counter in the "RESTARTS" column increases, it means there has been an error while trying to import the image. Use kubectl describe dv to see the error:

$ kubectl describe dv debian-import

...
Events:
  Type     Reason             Age                From                   Message
  ----     ------             ----               ----                   -------
  Warning  ErrResourceExists  41s (x8 over 49s)  datavolume-controller  Resource "debian-import" already exists and is not managed by DataVolume
  Normal   Pending            40s                datavolume-controller  PVC debian-import Pending
  Normal   ImportScheduled    38s                datavolume-controller  Import into debian-import scheduled
  Normal   Bound              38s                datavolume-controller  PVC debian-import Bound
  Normal   ImportInProgress   14s                datavolume-controller  Import into debian-import in progress
  Warning  Error              6s (x2 over 11s)   datavolume-controller  Unable to process data: Virtual image size 2147483648 is larger than available size 576716800 (PVC size 2147483648, reserved overhead 0.000000%). A larger PVC is required.

Note

Images are fully validated after import, which makes the import process slow. Import times will be decreased in the future.

Launch a Virtual Server

After the image is finished importing, a Virtual Server can be launched with the imported image as the template for the root disk the same way they are launched using CoreWeave provided OS images.

Use the Kubectl method of deployment to create a Virtual Server manifest that specifies the source of the root disk:

apiVersion: virtualservers.coreweave.com/v1alpha1
kind: VirtualServer
metadata:
  name: example-vs
spec:
  region: ORD1
  os:
    type: linux
    enableUEFIBoot: false
  resources:
    cpu:
      # Reference CPU instance label selectors here:
      # https://docs.coreweave.com/coreweave-kubernetes/node-types
      type: amd-epyc-rome
      count: 4
    memory: 16Gi
  storage:
    root:
      size: 40Gi # Root disk will automatically be expanded
      storageClassName: block-nvme-ord1 # Needs to match the class of the imported volume
      source:
        pvc:
          namespace: tenant-test-test # Replace with your namespace
          name: debian-import
  # If the image supports cloudInit, the regular users configuration can be used
  #  users:
  #    - username: SET YOUR USERNAME HERE
  #      password: SET YOUR PASSWORD HERE  
  # To use key-based authentication replace and uncomment ssh-rsa below with your public ssh key
  #  sshpublickey: |
  #    ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAA ... user@hostname
  network:
    public: true
    tcp:
      ports:
        - 22

Note

When importing an image configured for EFI boot, set spec.os.enableUEFIBoot to true.

Apply the manifest:

$ kubectl apply -f example-vs.yaml
               
virtualserver.virtualservers.coreweave.com/example-vs created

The Virtual Server will now initialize. Once fully launched and in VirtualServerReady status, it will be available over SSH (assuming the root disk image has supported SSH) as well as via regular remote console.

$ kubectl get vs example-vs

NAME           STATUS               REASON               STARTED   INTERNAL IP      EXTERNAL IP
example-vs     VirtualServerReady   VirtualServerReady   True      10.135.208.235   207.53.234.142

Note

To export an Amazon AMI, chose the raw format when following the AWS Export guide

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