The Bring Your Own Image technology (BYOI) enables you to deploy cloudready images directly on your dedicated server. You can therefore use the bare metal service as a resource for your deployments.
What does cloudready mean?
In short, to be agnostic of the infrastructure on which the image is deployed. In addition to the prerequisites and limitations mentioned below, you must ensure that the image (downloaded or generated) answers correctly to the definition of technical expectations of a cloudready image. The image must be able to boot correctly, whatever the server type, it must also embed the Cloud-Init service if Config Drive is used. Finally, the system configurations must allow the OS to be fully initiated, especially those related to the network.
You can also make use of this option when reinstalling a server from the OVHcloud Control Panel. Please use the instructions below as a reference. This guide explains how to use the BYOI feature in the OVHcloud Control Panel.
Prerequisites
Topics
Technical Limitations
There are some technical limitations linked to the use of physical products such as dedicated servers. Here is a non-exhaustive list, to keep in mind during your deployment preparation:
- Boot type : uefi or legacy
- Partition type : MBR or GPT
- Image format : qcow2 or raw
If your server has a uefi boot type, be sure to add an EFI partition to your image template.
Using the BYOI Feature in the OVHcloud Control Panel
To install an OS via BYOI, first log into the OVHcloud Control Panel. Click Bare Metal Cloud at the top of the page and select the server on which you wish to install your custom image from the Dedicated Servers drop-down menu on the left-hand side.
Next to "System (OS)" in the "General information" box, click ... and select Install from the drop-down menu or Reinstall if you already have an OS installed.
Choose Install from custom image from the ensuing pop-up menu.
You will be taken to the following page. Make sure you have a URL for an image of an appropriate format. Fill out the rest of the relevant information on this page. When you have confirmed that the information is correct, press Install the system.
Please allow several minutes for the installation to complete.
Conclusion
Having read this article, you should be able to install an OS in the OVHcloud Control Panel using the BYOI feature.