Prepare a Linux System for Eucalyptus

This section explains how to prepare a running Linux system (cloud instance, virtual machine, or a system running on bare metal) before importing it for use in Eucalyptus.

Install cloud software and drivers:
1. Make sure Virtio drivers are installed if the image is going to be run in a KVM cluster which has virtio enabled, and verify use if possible (ie. set disks and network interface in hypervisor, try hot plug in for disks, etc). For most recent Linux distributions nothing is needed to be done.
2. Make sure appropriate init scripts are in place; for example: cloud-init packages (if appropriate), and rc.local or similar scripts to prepare new instances at boot time utilizing user/meta-data.
3. Install cloud-init:
  Note: For more information on cloud-init, go to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CloudInit
  
  For Red Hat, and CentOS EL7:
```
rpm -Uvh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
yum install cloud-init
```
4. Install and configure ssh:
  For Red Hat and CentOS:
```
yum install openssh-server
systemctl enable sshd.service
```
5. Install Euca2ools:
  For Red Hat and CentOS:
```
yum install euca2ools
```
6. Optionally, update existing packages.
  For Red Hat and CentOS:
```
yum update
```
Prepare the network:
1. Disable the firewall. It is recommended that the firewall is disabled and network rules are instead enforced in the security-group the instances run in. If the guest's firewall is not disabled, review the existing rules and make sure they are appropriate for the guest's future use within a cloud environment.
2. Clear or disable iptable rules:
  Save the rules in case you want to restore them later:
```
sudo iptables-save > /root/firewall.rules
```
  Clear the rules:
```
iptables -F
iptables -X
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -X
iptables -t mangle -F
iptables -t mangle -X
iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
```
  For Red Hat and CentOS 6, you can disable iptables via service scripts. For example:
```
service iptables stop
(then use...) 
chkconfig iptables off  (to disable at boot time as well) 
```
  For Red Hat and CentOS 7, see the Red Hat Migration and Planning Guide Security and Access Control section.
3. Make sure there is only a single primary network interface.
  Check the configuration for:
  - Enabled on boot (ONBOOT="yes")
  - IP provisioning is done via DHCP (BOOTPROTO="dhcp")
  - MAC address is commented out (for example:#HWADDR="AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF").
    Note: If the system is rebooted after you've commented out the MAC address, the MAC address may be restored and will need to be commented out again.
  For Red Hat and CentOS images, the configuration for the default network interface can usually be found in the following file:
```
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
```
  The following is an example of an ifcfg-eth0 configuration file:
```
DEVICE=eth0
ONBOOT=yes
#THE HWADDR LINE MUST BE COMMENTED OUT OR REMOVED
#HWADDR=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF
TYPE=Ethernet
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
PERSISTENT_DHCLIENT=yes
```
4. Remove persistent udev rules:
```
echo "" > /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules 
echo "" > /lib/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules 
```
5. On CentOS and Red Hat, disable zeroconf by adding an entry to the /etc/sysconfig/network file:
```
NETWORKING=yes
NOZEROCONF=yes
```
Clean the image:
1. We recommend that you remove all non-root, non-administrator users before bundling the image.
2. Remove root/Administrator password. We recommend that you remove root's password for Linux systems (for windows, use sysprep (see Administrators guide for Windows Integration tool).
  
  Note: Once these passwords are removed, access to this system will be limited or blocked until this image is recreated as a cloud instance. SSH host and authorization keys for Linux (or dynamically created passwords for Windows sysprep) will be used going forward.
3. For larger Windows images, we recommend that you use the tool of your choice to zero out unused disk space.
4. Remove any unwanted programs.
Configure a serial port by adding an option to the end of the /boot/grub/menu.lst file:
console=ttyS0

You've now prepared your instance for image creation.

Parent topic: Migrate an Image