Classic virtual system instance maintenance

As you begin customizing the system, preinstalled virtual images and patterns must be modified and maintained for your purposes.

Cloud Pak System Software is preinstalled with virtual images and patterns that can be used to create classic virtual system instances. As you begin customizing the system, the classic virtual system instances must be modified and maintained for your purposes. Classic virtual system instance maintenance includes maintaining the operating system and the virtual environment. To minimize the need for repetitive maintenance and facilitate reuse, the maintenance you apply to a classic virtual system instance can be captured into a custom virtual image.

Maintaining your operating system

Your virtual images contain a pre-configured guest operating system. Administration for this operating system is performed just as it would for a physical environment. This operating system is administered by accessing the virtual machine while it is running and managing the operating system as you would in a physical environment.

Maintaining your classic virtual system instance

Classic virtual system instances can require maintenance to the product code and the operating system. Rather than by accessing each virtual machine, you can apply interim fixes and fix packs to your classic virtual system instance directly from Cloud Pak System Software. Download the fixes from IBM® Fix Central and then upload them to the catalog. While a classic virtual system instance is started, you can apply the emergency fixes to all the virtual machines in the classic virtual system instance directly from the console.

Important: Any emergency fix that you upload must contain a service.xml file that provides important information about the fix and how it is to be applied. See the related links for more information about managing and packaging emergency fixes, and details on the service.xml file.

Before an emergency fix is applied, a snapshot image of the classic virtual system instance is taken. A snapshot image uses hypervisor-specific technology to store an image of the classic virtual system instance at the current state. The maximum of one snapshot image is stored for each classic virtual system instance, but the snapshot can be used to restore your classic virtual system instance if a problem arises when the emergency fixes are applied or when some other maintenance work is performed. Any time an emergency fix is applied, the service history for the classic virtual system instance is updated. This keeps a record of all the fixes that have been applied to this classic virtual system instance, so that if you restore your classic virtual system instance from the snapshot image or from a backup image, then you have a clear record on the service level of the restored classic virtual system instance.

Note: Snapshots are intended for use as a restore point if a problem occurs during maintenance. Delete the snapshot after the maintenance is complete. They are not intended for long-term use.

Capturing your updated operating system and classic virtual system instance into a reusable virtual image

The virtual images that are included with the product can be extended to add customized virtual images to your catalog. You create a clone of an existing virtual image. When a clone of a virtual image is created, a default pattern is deployed into the cloud to create a new classic virtual system instance. Then, you can perform any maintenance on the operating system and your classic virtual system instance. After all the changes and maintenance have been performed on the classic virtual system instance, you can save these changes by capturing the virtual image. A new virtual image based on the classic virtual system instance you modified is created and added to the catalog.

Note: Profile level changes to your virtual environment are not retained when the new virtual image is created.

Custom virtual images can be used to create new classic virtual system instances that already contain the changes you made when you created the virtual image. You perform the changes on a single classic virtual system instance, and by creating this custom image you easily create additional classic virtual system instances without having to make the same changes. To make it easy to track what changes have been made on the new classic virtual system instance, the list of difference between the new virtual image and the virtual image from which it was extended, is available when viewing the details for new virtual image.