How to boot a virtual machine from an ISO image

Install a custom operating system on Quake AI by booting from an ISO image. This process uses two volumes: a blank root drive and an ISO-backed drive. After the installation completes, you can snapshot the root volume and use it to launch new instances.

Overview:

Create a blank volume (root drive A)
Create a volume from the ISO image (volume B)
Boot a VM with both volumes attached: A as the root drive, B as the ISO
Install the OS from the ISO to the blank volume
Detach and delete the ISO volume
Snapshot or image the root volume for reuse

Prerequisites

ConsoleLogged in to the Quake AI console
CLIOpenStack CLI installed and authenticated (clouds.yaml or openrc sourced)

Windows: CLI examples use bash. Set up a Linux CLI environment on Windows before proceeding.

A Quake AI account with a project
An ISO image uploaded to your project with disk format ISO

Step 1. Create a blank root volume#

Go to Storage > Volumes > Create Volume. The Console opens a full Create Volume page (Storage / Volumes / Create Volume breadcrumb), not a modal dialog.
Name it iso-root-drive.
Set Data Source Type to Blank Volume (the default).
Set the capacity to at least 20 GiB (enough for the OS plus applications). The Capacity (GiB) field accepts any size from 1 GiB up to your project's volume quota and volume-type limits.
Leave Volume Type at the default (Flash_Premium) unless you have a specific tuning need.
Select Confirm.

Step 2. Create a volume from the ISO image#

Go to Storage > Volumes > Create Volume.
Name it iso-boot-media.
Set Data Source Type to Image. An Operating System filter row appears with chips (CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Windows, Debian, Coreos, Arch, Freebsd, Rocky, Others) and an image-picker table below it.
Filter by the OS chip that matches your ISO and select your ISO image from the picker table. The picker table includes Min System Disk, Min Memory, and Format columns: filter on Format (iso) to find ISO images, and check the minimum values so your flavor and root volume meet them.
Set the capacity to at least 1 GiB.
Select Confirm.

Step 3. Launch a VM with both volumes#

Boot an instance with iso-root-drive as the primary volume and iso-boot-media as a secondary drive. The VM boots from the ISO volume first.

Select Compute > Instances > Create Instance.
Name the instance iso-installer.
Set Start Source to Bootable Volume and pick iso-boot-media from the Bootable Volume picker (columns: Name, Size, Status, Type, Created At).
Choose a flavor with sufficient RAM for the installation (at least 2 GB).
Select Next: Network Config and choose your network.
Select Next: System Config and set a password (you will access this VM via the web console, not SSH).
Select Next: Confirm Config and Confirm.
After the instance is running, attach iso-root-drive:
- Go to the instance detail page.
- Open the Volumes action icon (the third icon in the top-right action bar) and select Attach Volume.
- Pick iso-root-drive from the picker (the dialog has Available and Shared tabs with columns ID/Name, Type, Size, Shared, Created At) and select OK.

Step 4. Install the operating system#

Go to Compute > Instances and select iso-installer.
Select Console to open the web-based VNC console.
Complete the OS installation using the installer on the ISO. When prompted to select an installation target, choose the blank root drive (typically the larger volume, vdb or /dev/sdb).
Shut down the instance from within the OS once installation completes.

Step 5. Detach and delete the ISO volume#

After the installation is done, remove the ISO volume:

Go to the iso-installer instance detail page.
Select the Volumes tab.
On the iso-boot-media row, open the Volume action icon dropdown (middle of the three per-row icons) and select Detach. Confirm in the dialog.
Go to Storage > Volumes and delete iso-boot-media.

Step 6. Boot from the installed volume#

Start the instance; it now boots from iso-root-drive with the installed OS:

On the instance detail page, open the Instance Status action icon (the second of the six top-right action icons) and select Start. (The dropdown lists Start, Reboot, Shelve for a Shutoff instance.)

Access the instance via the web console (Compute > Instances > iso-installer > Console) or via SSH if you configured SSH access during installation.

Reuse the installed image#

To create other instances from the same installation, take a snapshot of the root volume:

The Volume action icon dropdown on a Storage > Volumes row exposes seven items in this order: Attach, Create Snapshot, Create Image, Clone Volume, Restore From Snapshot, Extend Volume, Change Type. The Reuse step uses the second and third items.

Shut down the instance.
Go to Storage > Volumes, find iso-root-drive. On its row, open the Volume action icon dropdown (middle of the three per-row icons) and select Create Snapshot. To skip the snapshot step and write directly to the image catalog, select Create Image from the same dropdown.
Use the snapshot as a source when creating future volumes, or create an image from the volume for use in the image catalog.

How to boot a virtual machine from an ISO image

How to boot a virtual machine from an ISO image

Step 1. Create a blank root volume#

Step 2. Create a volume from the ISO image#

Step 3. Launch a VM with both volumes#

Step 4. Install the operating system#

Step 5. Detach and delete the ISO volume#

Step 6. Boot from the installed volume#

Reuse the installed image#

See also#

Usage Guidelines

Quick answers

See Also