This document is intended for application owners and platform administrators that run Google Distributed Cloud. This document shows you how to create and use VM types or manually specify CPU and memory resources when you create VMs that use VM Runtime on GDC.
Before you begin
To complete this document, you need access to the following resources:
- Access to Google Distributed Cloud version 1.12.0 (
anthosBareMetalVersion: 1.12.0
) or higher cluster. You can use any cluster type capable of running workloads. If needed, try Google Distributed Cloud on Compute Engine or see the cluster creation overview. - The
virtctl
client tool installed as a plugin forkubectl
. If needed, install the virtctl client tool.
Create a VM
When you create a VM, you can manually specify the CPU and memory requirements. This ability lets you create VMs with the appropriate compute resources to match your application needs.
To create a VM and manually specify the CPU and memory requirements, use the following steps.
CLI
Use
kubectl
to create a VM:kubectl virt create vm VM_NAME \ --image ubuntu20.04 \ --cpu CPU_NUMBER \ --memory MEMORY_SIZE
Replace the following values:
VM_NAME
: the name for your VM. For more information on name constraints, see Object names and IDs.CPU_NUMBER
: The number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs)to assign to the VM.- You can assign between 1 and 96 vCPUs to a VM.
MEMORY_SIZE
: The amount of memory to assign to the VM.- You can assign between 1M and 1T of memory to a VM. For more information, see Memory resource units.
Manifest
Create a
VirtualMachine
manifest, such as my-custom-vm.yaml, in the editor of your choice:nano my-custom-vm.yaml
Copy and paste the following YAML manifest:
apiVersion: vm.cluster.gke.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: VM_NAME spec: compute: cpu: vcpus: VCPU_NUMBER memory: capacity: MEMORY_SIZE interfaces: - name: eth0 networkName: pod-network default: true disks: - virtualMachineDiskName: VM_NAME-boot-dv boot: true
In this YAML file, define the following settings:
VM_NAME
: the name for your VM. For more information on name constraints, see Object names and IDs.VCPU_NUMBER
: The number of vCPUs to assign to the VM.- You can assign between 1 and 96 vCPUs to a VM.
MEMORY_SIZE
: The amount of memory to assign to the VM.- You can assign between 1M and 1T of memory to a VM. For more information, see Memory resource units.
The VM connects
eth0
to the defaultpod-network
network.The boot disk named
VM_NAME-boot-dv
must already exist. For more information, see Create and manage virtual disks.Save and close the VM manifest in your editor.
Create the VM using
kubectl
:kubectl apply -f my-custom-vm.yaml
Create and use VM types
When you enable VM Runtime on GDC, a new VirtualMachineType custom resource definition is available. This definition is used to specify CPU and memory resources of a VM. You can create VM types for the different workloads you need, and apply a consistent set of compute resources to VMs based on these types.
If VM Runtime on GDC is enabled in Google Distributed Cloud, the
vm-controller-manager
installs a predefined VM type. The following definition
shows the default example-machinetype
VM type:
apiVersion: vm.cluster.gke.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachineType
metadata:
name: "example-machinetype"
labels:
vm.cluster.gke.io/predefined-machinetype: "true"
spec:
cpu:
vcpus: 2
memory:
capacity: 4G
You can't update this predefined VM type. This predefined VM type is
re-installed if it doesn't exist in the cluster every time the
vm-controller-manager
is started or restarted, such as if you deleted the VM
type.
Create a VM type
You can create your own VM types to fit the compute needs of your workloads.
Create a
VirtualMachineType
manifest such as my-vm-type.yaml, in the editor of your choice:nano my-vm-type.yaml
Copy and paste the following YAML manifest:
apiVersion: vm.cluster.gke.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachineType metadata: name: my-vm-type spec: cpu: vcpus: VCPU_NUMBER memory: capacity: MEMORY_SIZE
In this VM type, you define the following settings:
VM_NAME
: the name for your VM. For more information on name constraints, see Object names and IDs.VCPU_NUMBER
: The number of vCPUs to assign to the VM.- You can assign between 1 and 96 vCPUs to a VM.
MEMORY_SIZE
: The amount of memory to assign to the VM.- You can assign between 1M and 1T of memory to a VM. For more information, see Memory resource units.
Save and close the VM type manifest in your editor.
Create the VM type using
kubectl
:kubectl apply -f my-vm-type.yaml
Create a VM using a VM type
Specify a VM type in your VirtualMachine
manifest to apply predefined
compute
settings to your VM.
Create a
VirtualMachine
manifest, such as my-custom-vm.yaml, in the editor of your choice.nano my-custom-vm.yaml
Copy and paste the following YAML manifest:
apiVersion: vm.cluster.gke.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: VM_NAME spec: compute: virtualMachineTypeName: my-vm-type interfaces: - name: eth0 networkName: pod-network default: true disks: - virtualMachineDiskName: VM_NAME-boot-dv boot: true
In this YAML file, specify the name of your custom VM type that you created in the previous section, such as
my-vm-type
, as the value for thevirtualMachineTypeName
.The VM connects
eth0
to the defaultpod-network
network.The boot disk named
VM_NAME-boot-dv
must already exist. For more information, see Create and manage virtual disks.Save and close the VM manifest in your editor.
Create the VM using
kubectl
:kubectl apply -f my-custom-vm.yaml
What's next
- Edit a VM in Google Distributed Cloud.
- When you no longer need VMs, Delete a VM in Google Distributed Cloud.