Icon a software tool for building image files in cloud computing environment

In order to solve these problems, Image construction and composition (ICON for short) came into being. As a tool for building and editing image files, ICON can be integrated with the cloud provider (Cloud Provider), import the image files that need to be processed, edit them, and then sync to the cloud environment for http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/ aggregation/6579.html "> User use. With this article, you can learn about ICON installation and product usage.

Image Construction and composition (hereafter called ICON) is a software tool for building image files in a cloud computing environment, installed on Linux or AIX operating systems, and supports IBM workload Deployer A variety of cloud providers (Cloud Provider). ICON imports the base image from the cloud provider, edits the base image to add the necessary bundled software (software bundle), adds other such as personalization, software licensing, and then saves the synchronization to the cloud environment and captures the image, thus building the image files needed by the end-user.

In the traditional way, in order to build the image file, the administrator needs to create a virtual machine, custom virtual machine network, disk 11585.html "> Hardware device, then install the operating system and software, develop configuration scripts, save the virtual machine into image File format, register into the cloud system for testing, The cloud user can use it after the test is completed. If you need to modify the image file, you still need to restore the image file to the virtual machine and start the virtual machine for modification.

Using icon to build image files is completely different, in the icon to build image files can be divided into the following four steps:

1 OS experts import system image from cloud provider as the underlying image file

2 software expert packaging software production bundle software

3 Image Builder Edit the underlying image file, add bundled software, save

4 The Cloud system administrator to provide users with the file

In comparison, traditional methods have higher requirements for image file creators, in order to install various software on the operating system, the creator needs to have a variety of software installation and configuration expertise, a wide range of steps, error prone, and the image and its software components can not be reused. Using ICON, only software experts to define the bundle of software, image builders can reuse these bundled software, the software installation process is automatic, do not need the creator Master software expertise, so as to avoid the wrong generation.

For an image file built using traditional methods, it is difficult for an administrator/user to know what software is included in the image file unless it is specifically logged. The image created by ICON is self-describing, the user can browse the operating system of an image file, install the software list and so on.

This article will start from the icon installation, step-by-Step introduction of the use of icon and main functions. ICON supports a number of cloud providers, this article will select workload Deployer for example.

ICON Installation and Access

ICON supports the following operating systems:

When installing icon on AIX, you must install it using a silent installation (Silent installation), install IBM installation Manager, and then install icon. The Linux installation provides two ways to install a graphical interface and install it silently. This article takes the graphical interface installation of Linux as an example to explain the installation process.

1 Download ICON of the installation package icct_install_< version >.zip and decompression

2) run./install. If IBM Installation Manager is not installed, command install will install Installation Manager first

3 Select ICON and click Next

4 Enter ICON installation path, click Next. Note that the installation path can only contain English letters and not support other language characters

5 Select the language and click Next

6 Select IBM Image Construction and Composition Tool, and then click Next

7 Set the ICON Administrator's username and password, and then click Next

8) Click Install

After the installation is successful, enter the Https://<IP address in the browser >/icn/ui access ICON. After the login window appears, enter the administrator username and password, and the Welcome page appears, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 ICON Welcome page