Virtual Machines Overview

Virtual machines run across your cluster. Each VM has its own virtual hardware (CPU, memory, disks, and network adapters) and runs a guest operating system independently from other VMs. The cluster distributes VMs across servers and can automatically migrate or restart them if a server goes offline.

Templates

VMs are created from templates. A template defines the base disk image, operating system type, and default settings such as minimum memory and hardware profile. Gallium provides several built-in templates for popular Linux distributions. Alternatively you can create your own templates. Templates are downloaded to the Cluster on demand and cached.

VM Detail Page

After creating a VM, you manage it from its detail page in the Console. The detail page is organized into the following sections:

• Dashboard: power state controls and access to the remote console
• Hardware: CPU and memory settings
• Storage: virtual disks
• ISOs: attached ISO images
• Network: network interface configuration
• Guest Agent: operating system information reported by the guest agent
• Tasks: history of operations performed on the VM
• Actions: live migration, deletion
• Settings: name, description, hardware profile, high availability and preferred hypervisor

Prerequisites

Before creating virtual machines, ensure you have configured:

• Networking: at least one network must exist for VMs to connect to.
• Disk Pools: at least one disk pool must have available storage for VM disks.