OpenShift Virtualization

Default OpenShift Virtualization templates

OpenShift virtualization expects to install virtual machines from image templates by default, and provides several OpenShift templates to facilitate this. The default templates are installed in the openshift namespace; the OpenShift console also provides a wizard for creating VMs that use the same templates.

The following templates were available on installation:

$ oc get template -n openshift

Example output

NAME                                          DESCRIPTION                                                                        PARAMETERS        OBJECTS
cache-service                                 Red Hat Data Grid is an in-memory, distributed key/value store.                    8 (1 blank)       4
cakephp-mysql-example                         An example CakePHP application with a MySQL database. For more information ab...   21 (4 blank)      8
cakephp-mysql-persistent                      An example CakePHP application with a MySQL database. For more information ab...   22 (4 blank)      9
centos-stream8-desktop-large                  Template for CentOS Stream 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream8-desktop-medium                 Template for CentOS Stream 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream8-desktop-small                  Template for CentOS Stream 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream8-desktop-tiny                   Template for CentOS Stream 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream8-server-large                   Template for CentOS Stream 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream8-server-medium                  Template for CentOS Stream 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream8-server-small                   Template for CentOS Stream 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream8-server-tiny                    Template for CentOS Stream 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream9-desktop-large                  Template for CentOS Stream 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream9-desktop-medium                 Template for CentOS Stream 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream9-desktop-small                  Template for CentOS Stream 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream9-desktop-tiny                   Template for CentOS Stream 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream9-server-large                   Template for CentOS Stream 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream9-server-medium                  Template for CentOS Stream 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream9-server-small                   Template for CentOS Stream 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos-stream9-server-tiny                    Template for CentOS Stream 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS Stream disk i...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos7-desktop-large                         Template for CentOS 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS disk image must be a...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos7-desktop-medium                        Template for CentOS 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS disk image must be a...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos7-desktop-small                         Template for CentOS 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS disk image must be a...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos7-desktop-tiny                          Template for CentOS 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS disk image must be a...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos7-server-large                          Template for CentOS 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS disk image must be a...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos7-server-medium                         Template for CentOS 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS disk image must be a...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos7-server-small                          Template for CentOS 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS disk image must be a...   4 (2 generated)   1
centos7-server-tiny                           Template for CentOS 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the CentOS disk image must be a...   4 (2 generated)   1
dancer-mysql-example                          An example Dancer application with a MySQL database. For more information abo...   18 (5 blank)      8
dancer-mysql-persistent                       An example Dancer application with a MySQL database. For more information abo...   19 (5 blank)      9
datagrid-service                              Red Hat Data Grid is an in-memory, distributed key/value store.                    7 (1 blank)       4
django-psql-example                           An example Django application with a PostgreSQL database. For more informatio...   19 (5 blank)      8
django-psql-persistent                        An example Django application with a PostgreSQL database. For more informatio...   20 (5 blank)      9
eap-xp3-basic-s2i                             Example of an application based on JBoss EAP XP. For more information about u...   20 (5 blank)      8
eap-xp4-basic-s2i                             Example of an application based on JBoss EAP XP. For more information about u...   20 (5 blank)      8
eap74-basic-s2i                               An example JBoss Enterprise Application Platform application. For more inform...   20 (5 blank)      8
eap74-https-s2i                               An example JBoss Enterprise Application Platform application configured with...    30 (11 blank)     10
eap74-sso-s2i                                 An example JBoss Enterprise Application Platform application Single Sign-On a...   50 (21 blank)     10
fedora-desktop-large                          Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
fedora-desktop-medium                         Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
fedora-desktop-small                          Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
fedora-highperformance-large                  Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
fedora-highperformance-medium                 Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
fedora-highperformance-small                  Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
fedora-server-large                           Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
fedora-server-medium                          Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
fedora-server-small                           Template for Fedora Linux 39 VM or newer. A PVC with the Fedora disk image mu...   4 (2 generated)   1
httpd-example                                 An example Apache HTTP Server (httpd) application that serves static content....   10 (3 blank)      5
jenkins-ephemeral                             Jenkins service, without persistent storage....                                    12 (all set)      7
jenkins-ephemeral-monitored                   Jenkins service, without persistent storage. ...                                   13 (all set)      8
jenkins-persistent                            Jenkins service, with persistent storage....                                       14 (all set)      8
jenkins-persistent-monitored                  Jenkins service, with persistent storage. ...                                      15 (all set)      9
jws57-openjdk11-tomcat9-ubi8-basic-s2i        An example JBoss Web Server application. For more information about using thi...   10 (3 blank)      5
jws57-openjdk11-tomcat9-ubi8-https-s2i        An example JBoss Web Server application. For more information about using thi...   15 (5 blank)      7
jws57-openjdk8-tomcat9-ubi8-basic-s2i         An example JBoss Web Server application. For more information about using thi...   10 (3 blank)      5
jws57-openjdk8-tomcat9-ubi8-https-s2i         An example JBoss Web Server application. For more information about using thi...   15 (5 blank)      7
mariadb-ephemeral                             MariaDB database service, without persistent storage. For more information ab...   8 (3 generated)   3
mariadb-persistent                            MariaDB database service, with persistent storage. For more information about...   9 (3 generated)   4
mysql-ephemeral                               MySQL database service, without persistent storage. For more information abou...   8 (3 generated)   3
mysql-persistent                              MySQL database service, with persistent storage. For more information about u...   9 (3 generated)   4
nginx-example                                 An example Nginx HTTP server and a reverse proxy (nginx) application that ser...   10 (3 blank)      5
nodejs-postgresql-example                     An example Node.js application with a PostgreSQL database. For more informati...   18 (4 blank)      8
nodejs-postgresql-persistent                  An example Node.js application with a PostgreSQL database. For more informati...   19 (4 blank)      9
openjdk-web-basic-s2i                         An example Java application using OpenJDK. For more information about using t...   9 (1 blank)       5
postgresql-ephemeral                          PostgreSQL database service, without persistent storage. For more information...   7 (2 generated)   3
postgresql-persistent                         PostgreSQL database service, with persistent storage. For more information ab...   8 (2 generated)   4
rails-pgsql-persistent                        An example Rails application with a PostgreSQL database. For more information...   23 (4 blank)      9
rails-postgresql-example                      An example Rails application with a PostgreSQL database. For more information...   21 (4 blank)      8
react-web-app-example                         Build a basic React Web Application                                                9 (1 blank)       5
redis-ephemeral                               Redis in-memory data structure store, without persistent storage. For more in...   5 (1 generated)   3
redis-persistent                              Redis in-memory data structure store, with persistent storage. For more infor...   6 (1 generated)   4
rhel7-desktop-large                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-desktop-medium                          Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-desktop-small                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-desktop-tiny                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-highperformance-large                   Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-highperformance-medium                  Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-highperformance-small                   Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-highperformance-tiny                    Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-server-large                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-server-medium                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-server-small                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel7-server-tiny                             Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-desktop-large                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-desktop-medium                          Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-desktop-small                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-desktop-tiny                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-highperformance-large                   Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-highperformance-medium                  Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-highperformance-small                   Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-highperformance-tiny                    Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-server-large                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-server-medium                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-server-small                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel8-server-tiny                             Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-desktop-large                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-desktop-medium                          Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-desktop-small                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-desktop-tiny                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-highperformance-large                   Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-highperformance-medium                  Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-highperformance-small                   Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-highperformance-tiny                    Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-server-large                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-server-medium                           Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-server-small                            Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
rhel9-server-tiny                             Template for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 VM or newer. A PVC with the RHEL disk...   4 (2 generated)   1
s2i-fuse712-spring-boot-2-camel               Spring Boot 2 and Camel QuickStart. This example demonstrates how you can use...   18 (3 blank)      3
s2i-fuse712-spring-boot-2-camel-rest-3scale   Spring Boot 2, Camel REST DSL and 3Scale QuickStart. This example demonstrate...   19 (3 blank)      5
s2i-fuse712-spring-boot-2-camel-xml           Spring Boot 2 and Camel Xml QuickStart. This example demonstrates how you can...   18 (3 blank)      3
sso75-https                                   An example application based on RH-SSO 7.5 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   27 (16 blank)     6
sso75-ocp4-x509-https                         An example application based on RH-SSO 7.5 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   13 (7 blank)      5
sso75-ocp4-x509-postgresql-persistent         An example application based on RH-SSO 7.5 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   21 (9 blank)      8
sso75-postgresql                              An example application based on RH-SSO 7.5 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   34 (18 blank)     8
sso75-postgresql-persistent                   An example application based on RH-SSO 7.5 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   35 (18 blank)     9
sso76-ocp4-https                              An example application based on RH-SSO 7.6 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   27 (16 blank)     6
sso76-ocp4-postgresql                         An example application based on RH-SSO 7.6 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   34 (18 blank)     8
sso76-ocp4-postgresql-persistent              An example application based on RH-SSO 7.6 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   35 (18 blank)     9
sso76-ocp4-x509-https                         An example application based on RH-SSO 7.6 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   13 (7 blank)      5
sso76-ocp4-x509-postgresql-persistent         An example application based on RH-SSO 7.6 on OpenJDK image. For more informa...   21 (9 blank)      8
windows10-desktop-large                       Template for Microsoft Windows 10 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image must...    3 (1 generated)   1
windows10-desktop-medium                      Template for Microsoft Windows 10 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image must...    3 (1 generated)   1
windows10-highperformance-large               Template for Microsoft Windows 10 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image must...    3 (1 generated)   1
windows10-highperformance-medium              Template for Microsoft Windows 10 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image must...    3 (1 generated)   1
windows11-desktop-large                       Template for Microsoft Windows 11 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image must...    3 (1 generated)   1
windows11-desktop-medium                      Template for Microsoft Windows 11 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image must...    3 (1 generated)   1
windows11-highperformance-large               Template for Microsoft Windows 11 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image must...    3 (1 generated)   1
windows11-highperformance-medium              Template for Microsoft Windows 11 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image must...    3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k16-highperformance-large             Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2016 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k16-highperformance-medium            Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2016 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k16-server-large                      Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2016 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k16-server-medium                     Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2016 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k19-highperformance-large             Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k19-highperformance-medium            Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k19-server-large                      Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k19-server-medium                     Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2019 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k22-highperformance-large             Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2022 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k22-highperformance-medium            Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2022 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k22-server-large                      Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2022 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k22-server-medium                     Template for Microsoft Windows Server 2022 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk im...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k25-highperformance-large             Template for Microsoft Windows 2025 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image mus...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k25-highperformance-medium            Template for Microsoft Windows 2025 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image mus...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k25-server-large                      Template for Microsoft Windows 2025 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image mus...   3 (1 generated)   1
windows2k25-server-medium                     Template for Microsoft Windows 2025 VM. A PVC with the Windows disk image mus...   3 (1 generated)   1

Creating a VM from the Console via Template

Follow these guidance here to create a VM from the console using a template.

Creating a VM from the command line via `oc process`

This is a useful way to understand what kinds of objects OpenShift Virtualization creates and manages:

$ oc process -n openshift rhel8-desktop-medium | oc apply -f -virtualmachine.kubevirt.io/rhel8-q63yuvxpjdvy18l7 created

Another option - capturing template output and converting it into a Helm Chart

See details here.

Accessing the VMs

There are three mechanisms for access to these VMs:

Ansible - keypair authentication

The ssh keypairs from your values-secret.yaml are loaded into both Vault and AAP for use later. The pattern currently defines one such keypair, vm-ssh, but could support more, such as iot-ssh, gateway-ssh, and so on more details on how to expand on this pattern are described below.

AAP only needs the private key and the username as a machine credential. The public key is not truly a secret, but it seemed interesting and useful to use the External Secret Operator to associate the public key with VM instances this way and prevent having to diverge from the upstream pattern to include local ssh pubkey specifications.

The default SSH setting for RHEL does not allow password-based logins via SSH, and it is at the very least inconvenient to copy the SSH private key into a VM inside the cluster, so the typical way the keypair will be used is through Ansible.

Virtual Machine Console Access using OpenShift Console

Access the virtual machine console by using the OpenShift Console by following this procedure:

Navigate to Virtualization → VirtualMachines and make sure Project: All Projects or edge-gitops-vms is selected:
Click the virtual machine name to open the details view.
Click the Console tab to open the console view.
The virtual machine console view will either show a standard RHEL console login screen, or if the demo is working as designed, it shows the Ignition application running in kiosk mode.