Rackspace

The Halon platform runs on Rackspace.

Getting started

There's no public image available for Rackspace, but creating one from a Linux or FreeBSD template is straightforward. The VM can then be turned into a private image, and cloned.

Creating an image

1. Create a virtual server, for example a 2 GB "general purpose" FreeBSD
2. Discard the password, it won't be used
3. Enter rescue mode (from the "Actions" meny, choose "Enter Rescue Mode...")
4. Open the console (from the "Actions" meny, choose "Connect via Console...")
5. Login as "root" using the rescue mode password
6. Go to https://dl.halon.se/vsp and copy the URL of the "raw" (bare metal) image, to be used in the next step
7. Run the following command wget -O - http://dl2.halon.se/vsp/halon-xx-xx-amd64.img.gz | gzcat | dd of=/dev/ada1 bs=16k
8. Exit rescue mode
9. If you want to, create an image of the VM for later use

Starting an image

1. In the console, wait for the getting started guide, and type the IP address provided by Rackspace (leave the netmask and gateway as-is)
2. Browse to its web admin on port 443
3. Login with username and password "admin"
4. Choose a new password in the getting started guide
5. Once the getting started guide is completed, you will be redirected to the web admin's overview page
6. Go the Hosts -> System -> Disks page and choose "System disk" as storage device (the system will reboot)

IPv6 configuration

When adding the IPv6 addresses, use a /64 prefix length and a gateway (default static route) of "fe80:X::def" where "X" is the interface number; usually "2".