How to create a VM via IaaS-API

In this guide, we’ll demonstrate how to create a virtual machine using the STACKIT IaaS API and CLI.

Our step-by-step process will cover the essential components needed to deploy a fully functional virtual machine.

Get an overview about the environment

• Switch over to where you have installed the STACKIT CLI
• First use the cli to Authenticate to the API and set the project ID

$ stackit auth login
Successfully logged into STACKIT CLI.
$ stackit config set --project-id xxx
$ PROJECTID=xxx

For this tutorial we will use the Ubuntu 20.04 image so we are filtering for it

stackit curl https://iaas.api.eu01.stackit.cloud/v1/projects/{projectID}/images | jq '.items[]|select(.name =="Ubuntu 20.04")|{id,name,status,scope}'

{
 "id": "7c3bdf4b-422e-4bad-b224-a3eea9a04185",
 "name": "Ubuntu 20.04",
 "status": "AVAILABLE",
 "scope": "public"
}

All available volume performance-classes can be found here:

Service plans BlockStorage

All available machine-types can be found here:

Server machine types - EU01

Create VM with a random local IP

In this part of the guide you will create a VM that will have the next free local IP assigned to it.

Create a volume that will act as the boot volume

stackit volume create --availability-zone [AVAILABILITY_ZONE] --name [VOLUME_NAME] --source-id [IMAGE_ID] --source-type image --size [IMAGE_SIZE]

—availability-zone [AVAILABILITY_ZONE]	Specifies the availability zone where the volume will be created. This ensures the volume is provisioned in the desired data center location
—name [VOLUME_NAME]	Defines a custom name for the new volume, making it easier to identify and manage
—source-id [IMAGE_ID]	Indicates the ID of the source image from which the volume will be created. This allows you to create volumes based on existing images
—source-type image	Specifies that the source for the new volume is an image. This parameter works in conjunction with the —source-id flag
—size [IMAGE_SIZE]	Determines the size of the new volume. The size should be specified in an appropriate unit (e.g., GB). The maximum limit is 72GB.

After Execution of this command you receive a Volume ID.

Create a Security group

To be able to access the VM, we need a Security Group that contains a Firewall rule that allows SSH.

For this we create a security group

stackit curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"name": "[SECURITY_GROUP_NAME]"}' https://iaas.api.eu01.stackit.cloud/v1/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/security-groups

• Replace [SECURITY_GROUP_NAME] with the name of the security group you want to create
• Replace [PROJECT_ID] with your STACKIT Project ID

After Execution of this command you receive a Security Group ID.

Create the security group rules

Allow SSH

stackit curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"direction": "ingress", "protocol": "tcp", "portRange":{"max": 22, "min": 22}}' https://iaas.api.eu01.stackit.cloud/v1/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/security-groups/[SECURITY_GROUP_ID]/rules

Allow ICMP

stackit curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"direction": "ingress", "protocol": "icmp"}' https://iaas.api.eu01.stackit.cloud/v1/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/security-groups/[SECURITY_GROUP_ID]/rules

• replace [PROJECT_ID] with your STACKIT Project ID
• replace [SECURITY_GROUP_ID] with the ID of the security group you created

Create a network

stackit network create --name [NETWORK_NAME]  --ipv4-dns-name-servers "[DNS_SERVER_1],[DNS_SERVER_2]" --ipv4-prefix "[IPV4-PREFIX]"

—name [NETWORK_NAME]	Specifies the name for the new network
—ipv4-dns-name-servers “[DNS_SERVER_1],[DNS_SERVER_2]“	Sets custom DNS servers for the network. Multiple DNS servers can be specified, separated by commas
—ipv4-prefix “[IPV4-PREFIX]“	Defines the IPv4 address range for the network using CIDR notation

After Execution of this command you receive a Network ID.

Create a Keypair

Create an SSH key pair that will be used to authenticate your SSH session

stackit curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"name":"[KEYPAIR_NAME]", "publicKey": "[PUBLIC_KEY]"}' https://iaas.api.eu01.stackit.cloud/v1/keypairs

• replace **[KEYPAIR_NAME]**with the name you want to assign to the new key pair.
• replace **[PUBLIC_KEY]** with the public key string of your SSH key pair.

Create the virtual machine

stackit server create -n [SERVERNAME] --availability-zone [AVAILABILITY_ZONE] --machine-type [MACHINE_TYPE] --keypair-name [KEYPAIR_NAME] --network-id [NETWORK_ID] --boot-volume-source-id [VOLUME_ID] --boot-volume-source-type volume --security-groups [SECURITY_GROUP_ID]

• -n [SERVERNAME] : Specifies the name for the new server.
• --availability-zone [AVAILABILITY_ZONE] : Defines the availability zone where the server will be created.
• --machine-type [MACHINE_TYPE] : Sets the hardware configuration for the server.
• --keypair-name [KEYPAIR_NAME] : Assigns the SSH key pair for secure access to the server.
• --network-id [NETWORK_ID] : Connects the server to a specific network.
• --boot-volume-source-id [VOLUME_ID] : Specifies the ID of the volume to use as the boot volume.
• --boot-volume-source-type volume : Indicates that the boot volume source is an existing volume.
• --security-groups [SECURITY_GROUP_ID] : Associates the server with specified security group(s) for network access control.

After Execution of this command you receive a Server ID.

Add a public IP

To enable public access to your server, you’ll need to assign a public IP address to the virtual machine’s network interface.

To retrieve the network interface ID of a virtual machine, execute the following command

stackit server describe [SERVER_ID]

Create the public IP and attach it to the server

stackit public-ip create --associated-resource-id [NETWORK_INTERFACE_ID]

Read out the Public IP

stackit server describe [SERVER_ID]

Now you can login via ssh.