For your convenience, OVHcloud has made it easier than ever to create a Windows VM. By utilizing our templates for Windows Server, you will have a VM up and ready to go in just a few minutes.
Topics
Obtaining the URL for the OVF
To start, log in to the OVHcloud Control Panel and click Hosted Private Cloud at the top of the page. Select your Hosted Private Cloud from the left-hand menu. Click the Web interface link in the "General information" box.
From the new page, select the OVH Templates button.
On the next page, select the version of Windows Server that you wish to deploy.
From here, you will get a pop-up with the URL that you will use to deploy the Windows OVF. Copy the URL for vSphere and keep it handy. You will need it in the next step.
Now that we have the URL link, we are ready to deploy our VM in vSphere.
Deploying the VM in vSphere
To begin, let's log into the vSphere Web Client. To start, we need to go back to the "Select a service" page as we did in the previous section. This time, click the vSphere HTML Client button. Enter your vSphere credentials on the new tab. For more information regarding vSphere users, please check out our Managing Users and Security with Hosted Private Cloud article. Inside the vSphere Web Client, right-click your datacenter and select the Deploy OVF Template... option.
In the "Deploy OVF Template" popup, paste in the URL that we saved from earlier and then click the Next button. This will download the Windows OVF.
Next, we will name our VM and select a location to save it. Click the Next button to proceed.
On the "Select a resource" page, select the resource on which you wish for the VM to be deployed and click the Next button.
The "Review details" page contains the password to your Windows environment under the "Description" field.
Note: It is best practice to change this password as soon as possible. You can do so after logging into the VM.
The "Select storage" page will host your files for your VM. Select the storage volume you wish to host the files and click the Next button.
Note: No matter what virtual disk format you choose, the VM will be provisioned under the thin provisioning scheme. This can be changed after the VM is deployed.
On the "Select networks" page, we will configure the networking of our VM. In order to be able to connect a VM to the Internet directly, we will need to select the VM Network option. When completed, click the Next button.
Note: If "VM Network" is not one of the default choices you will need to select the Browse... option to locate it.
Finally on the "Ready to complete" page, review all of your configurations and click the Finish button.
Our VM is now installing and will soon be ready for use. Under the "Recent Tasks" bar, at the bottom of the main vSphere Web Client page, you will be able to see the progress of your installation. As soon as it finishes, you will have access to your newly-deployed VM.
Conclusion
Having the ability to quickly deploy an OVF template is one-way OVHcloud makes it easier to jump right into your production environment. Having read through this article, you should now have everything you need to boot up your Windows VM.