How to create a custom Windows image from SolusVM 2 Windows VPS?

Question

How to create a custom Windows image from SolusVM 2 Windows VPS?

Answer

1. Create a SolusVM 2 VPS with Windows image.

2. Enter the VPS via RDP or VNC and perform the necessary changes inside VPS.

3. Remove the Cloudbase registry key by opening the command line in Windows VPS and executing:

   # reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init"

4. Adjust the config file C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\conf\cloudbase-init.conf so that it has the following content:

   Content of configuration file

   CONFIG_TEXT: [DEFAULT]
   # What user to create and in which group(s) to be put.
   username=Administrator
   groups=Administrators
   inject_user_password=true
   first_logon_behaviour=no
   # Which devices to inspect for a possible configuration drive (metadata).
   config_drive_raw_hhd=true
   config_drive_cdrom=true
   # Path to tar implementation from Ubuntu.
   bsdtar_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\bin\bsdtar.exe
   mtools_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\bin
   # Logging debugging level.
   verbose=true
   debug=true
   # Where to store logs.
   log_dir=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\log
   log_file=cloudbase-init.log
   default_log_levels=comtypes=INFO,suds=INFO,iso8601=WARN
   logging_serial_port_settings=
   # Enable MTU and NTP plugins.
   mtu_use_dhcp_config=true
   ntp_use_dhcp_config=true
   # Where are located the user supplied scripts for execution.
   local_scripts_path=C:\Program Files\Cloudbase Solutions\Cloudbase-Init\LocalScripts
   # Services that will be tested for loading until one of them succeeds.
   metadata_services=cloudbaseinit.metadata.services.configdrive.ConfigDriveService
   # What plugins to execute.
                             plugins=cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.mtu.MTUPlugin,
                             cloudbaseinit.plugins.windows.extendvolumes.ExtendVolumesPlugin,
                             cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.sethostname.SetHostNamePlugin,
                             cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.userdata.UserDataPlugin,
                             cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.networkconfig.NetworkConfigPlugin,
                             cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.localscripts.LocalScriptsPlugin,
                             cloudbaseinit.plugins.common.setuserpassword.SetUserPasswordPlugin
   # Miscellaneous.
   allow_reboot=false
   stop_service_on_exit=false

5. Find the Network Adapter via Powershell:

   # Get-NetAdapter | Select-Object Name, InterfaceIndex

   The command will shows network adapter InterfaceIndex

6. Remove IP and routes from network interfaces using PowerShell:

   # Remove-NetIPAddress -InterfaceIndex 3; Remove-NetRoute -InterfaceIndex 3

   SVM_WARN: After this step network in VPS will stop working - RDP connection will be lost.

7. Shutdown the VPS.

8. Get Hypervisor ID of VPS in SolusVM 2 > Virtual Servers

9. Connect over SSH to Compute Resource where VPS exists.

10. Find the VPS image path:

    # virsh domblklist ID | grep da | awk {'print $2'}

    where ID is the Hypervisor ID from step 6.

    For example:

    # virsh domblklist 1d908a4276bc26d017101a2a15381b1e | grep da | awk {'print $2'}
    /var/lib/libvirt/images/287/1d908a4276bc26d017101a2a15381b1e

11. Сonvert the image into qcow2 format:

    # qemu-img convert -O qcow2 /var/lib/libvirt/images/287/1d908a4276bc26d017101a2a15381b1e /var/lib/libvirt/images/287/windows-2019-custom.qcow2

12. Upload the image to the necessary hosting.

13. Add image to SolusVM 2.