Creating Windows Images

Cloudbase.it provides tools for creating OpenStack-ready cloud images. They've created a Windows Server 2012R2 images, which is ready for use (download and instructions here). This image is already imported into our environment.

If you need an another Windows Version, you must build the image yourself, with good help from the automated cloudbase-scripts. The example script given in this article will only work on Hyper-V enabled physical host (Windows 10 or a Server varian). The following examples is a list of what we did to create a cloud ready Windows Server 2019 image.

1. Install the  latest Windows ADK (download) and choose only Deployment Tools
2. Download the Windows 10 Enterprise Evaluation ISO, and save it in your host/VM (you need to login with your Microsoft account to download ISOs)
3. Download the stable amd64 virto-win iso, following this link
4. Download the Windows OpenStack Imaging Tools
   1. Remember to download the WindowsUpdates tools referenced in the repo as well. This must be done separately.
5. Change the following:

   1. UnattendTemplate.xml: Change InputLocale and UserLocale from en-US to nb-NO

   2. We've added two custom scripts to the image build. These scripts must be named exactly what they are named in the following examples, as the names dictate when in the building process they will run. Set the path to the scripts in the "custom_scripts_path"  section in the wrapper script in step 7.

   3. We provide Windows Server images with the KMS activiation key injected. To make that work, we need to set the DNS Search Suffix. This will only run on servers, as we are not allowed to use KMS for Client SKUs

      RunBeforeCloudbaseInitInstall.ps1 Expand source

      # Set DNS Search Suffix to NTNUs windows domain
      # This is a requirement in order to do KMS activation in the images
      # This should only run on Server SKUs and on non-eval versions!
      if ((Get-ComputerInfo).OsProductType -eq 'Server') {
          if( -Not ((Get-WindowsEdition -Online).Edition).Contains('Eval') ) {
              Set-DnsClientGlobalSetting -SuffixSearchList @('win.ntnu.no')
          }
      }

   4. Openstack Neutron expects all instances to use EUI-64 for IPv6 auto configuration. EUI-64 is not the default in Windows, so we need to enable it (and disable the other magic stuff)

      RunBeforeSysprep.ps1 Expand source

      # Enable EUI-64 and disable all other trickery
      Write-Host "Enabling EUI-64"
      Set-NetIPv6Protocol -RandomizeIdentifiers Disabled -UseTemporaryAddresses Disabled

6. Create the following powershell-script, modify the three path-variables, and run it:
7. CreateOpenStackImage.ps1 Expand source

   Import-Module c:\dev\windows-openstack-imaging-tools-master\WinImageBuilder.psm1
   Import-Module C:\dev\windows-openstack-imaging-tools-master\Config.psm1
   Import-Module C:\dev\windows-openstack-imaging-tools-master\UnattendResources\ini.psm1
   
   function Set-Config  {
     param($file, $section, $key, $value) 
     Set-IniFileValue -Path (Resolve-Path $file) -Section $section `
                                                     -Key $key `
                                                     -Value $value
   }
   
   $date = Get-Date -UFormat "%Y%m%d"
   $virtualDiskPath = "C:\dev\images\WS2019_Standard_Eval_$date.qcow2"
   $virtIOISOPath   = "C:\iso\virtio-win-0.1.160.iso"
   $winISOPath      = "C:\iso\17763.1.180914-1434.rs5_release_SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_en-us.iso"
   $mountResult = Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath $winISOPath -StorageType ISO -PassThru
   $imageDrive = ($mountResult | Get-Volume).DriveLetter
   $wimFilePath     = "${imageDrive}:\sources\install.wim"
   $diskSize = 40GB
   $ramSize = 4GB
   
   # Check which SKU from the WimFile you want, and specify the corresponding index to $image
   $images = Get-WimFileImagesInfo -WimFilePath $wimFilePath
   $image = $images[1]
   
   $configfile = '.\config.ini'
   New-WindowsImageConfig -ConfigFilePath $configfile
   
   if ( ! (Test-Path C:\dev\images) ) { New-Item C:\dev\images -Type Directory }
   
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "wim_file_path" -value $wimFilePath
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "image_name" -value $image.ImageName
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "image_path" -value $virtualDiskPath
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "virtual_disk_format" -value "QCOW2"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "image_type" -value "KVM"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "disk_layout" -value "BIOS"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "custom_scripts_path" -value "C:\dev\custom"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "wallpaper_solid_color" -value "0 0 0"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "enable_ping_requests" -value "True"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "enable_ipv6_eui64" -value "True"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "enable_active_mode" -value "True"
   # This is the KMS key config. 'default_kms_key' will grab the correct key automatically
   #Set-Config -file $configfile -section "DEFAULT" -key "product_key" -value "default_kms_key"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "vm" -key "external_switch" -value "ext-net"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "vm" -key "cpu_count" -value $cpuCount
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "vm" -key "ram_size" -value $ramSize
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "vm" -key "disk_size" -value $diskSize
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "drivers" -key "virtio_iso_path" -value $virtIOISOPath
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "updates" -key "install_updates" -value "False"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "updates" -key "purge_updates" -value "False"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "cloudbase_init" -key "beta_release" -value "False"
   Set-Config -file $configfile -section "custom" -key "time_zone" -value "W. Europe Standard Time"
   
   # Check if we are on a Hyper-V enabled host
   if ( $(Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V).State -eq "Enabled" ) {
     New-WindowsOnlineImage -ConfigFilePath $configfile
   } else {
     Write-Host "This script only works on Hyper-V enabled hosts"
   }
   
   Dismount-DiskImage -InputObject $mountResult
     

8. You now have a .qcow2 diskfile, which contains an updated and sysprepped Windows-installation with cloud-init installed

9. Convert the qcow2 disk to raw

   qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw disk.qcow2 disk.raw

10. The raw image can now be imported to glance.

    1. Set property os_type=windows on all images
    2. Set property os_distro=windows on KMS-Licensed images

When you spawn a Windows instance, be sure to attach a keypair. Cloudbase-init will generate a random password for the user Admin, which can be retrieved with:

nova get-password <instance-id> <private-key-file>

The password can also be retrieved in Horizon through the "Retrieve password" action on the instance.

NOTE: There is a known issue with Windows 10 - the hostname will not be set to wahtever you chose for instance name. This might be fixed in the future... (Link)

KMS keys

We are allowed to provide Windows Server images which will use KMS for automatic activation. The KMS keys are global, and here is a list of the SKUs we care about: