Types of images

Catalyst provides some pre-configured operating system images to make it easier for you to get started on the cloud.

Catalyst provides only recent and supported images through the web dashboard, out of maintenance images may still be available via API listings and can be used for new instances when launched from the API.

The table below lists the images provided by Catalyst and our partners, as well as the default user name you should use to log in to each one of them (unless you have overwritten the default user name with cloud-init).

Operating system

Image name prefix

User-name

Licence/IP policy

CentOS Linux

centos-*

centos

www.centos.org

CoreOS Linux

coreos-*

core

www.apache.org

Debian Linux

debian-*

debian

www.debian.org

Fedora CoreOS Linux

fedora-coreos-*

core

fedoraproject.org

Rocky Linux

rocky-*

rocky

rockylinux.org

openSUSE Leap Linux

opensuse-leap-*

opensuse

opensuse.org

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)

suse-sles-*

sles

BYOS model

Ubuntu Linux

ubuntu-*

ubuntu

ubuntu.com

BYOS (Bring Your Own Subscription):

After launching a new instance from a suse-sles-* image you will have a running instance that is unable to receive any software updates. In order to keep your instance up to date you will need a SUSE registration code and you will have to follow the registration process as explained by the SUSE Public Cloud Guide; After which your instance will appear on the SUSE Customer Center.

Note

The orchestration service (Heat) changes the default user name on compute instances launched by it to “ec2”. This is done to preserve some level of compatibility with AWS CloudFormation.

Our standard policy is not to modify or customise cloud images provided by upstream Linux distributions. This gives you the assurance that you are running software exactly as provided by the software providers.

Before using the images provided by Catalyst, you should always confirm that they are suitable for your needs and fit for purpose. Catalyst provides them “as is”, without warranty of any kind. If there is something you need to change, you can always upload your own images, crafted the way you like, or take a snapshot of ours and modify it the way you need.

Note

In particular take note that the ubuntu-minimal-* images are not compatible with the dashboard console as explained here

How can I identify the images provided by Catalyst?

The images provided by Catalyst can be identified using the projectID (94b566de52f9423fab80ceee8c0a4a23) that they are shared from. Using the command line tools, you can easily locate our shared images by running:

openstack image list --long | grep 94b566de52f9423fab80ceee8c0a4a23

For a less verbose view, you can filter by column name.

openstack image list -c ID -c Name -c Project --long | grep 94b566de52f9423fab80ceee8c0a4a23

Images provided by our partners

Operating system

Image name prefix

User-name

Partner

Licence

Windows

windows-server-*

admin

Silicon Systems

SPUR for SPLA licensing

Windows

sql-server-*

admin

Silicon Systems

SPUR for SPLA licensing

Note

SPUR: Services Provider Use Rights

SPLA: Services Provider License Agreement

With SPLA the Provider (here Silicon Systems) is the licensee.

Before using the images provided by our Partners, you should always confirm that they are suitable for your needs and fit for purpose. Catalyst provides them “as is”, without warranty of any kind.

Creating your own custom images

The OpenStack upstream documentation provides detailed instructions on how to prepare all major operating systems to run in the cloud: https://docs.openstack.org/image-guide/create-images-manually.html

Another method for creating custom images is to use Packer. Packer is an open source tool developed by Hashicorp for creating machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration. We have made a tutorial entitled Using Packer to build custom bootable images on the Catalyst Cloud that demonstrates how to use Packer.