IBM Cloud

IBM Cloud offers a wide set of cloud computing services including compute, storage, database, networking, and more. It is deployed in data centers across the world and its services can scale to meet the needs of small development teams as well as large-scale enterprises. Morpheus integrates with IBM Cloud to offer virtual machine provisioning, brownfield discovery, and lifecycle management.

Integrating IBM Cloud with Morpheus

Connecting an IBM Cloud account with Morpheus is a simple process requiring only an API key. You can create an API key from the IBM Cloud web console if you don’t currently have access to one. Integrating with Morpheus requires a user API key. If needed, create one by clicking “Manage” in the upper menu bar of the IBM Cloud web console and clicking “Access (IAM)”. Select “Users” from the left navigation menu and click on the desired user. Create a new API Key from within the API Keys section and store the API Key in a secure place to retrieve in the next step. It’s recommended that you integrate Morpheus using an IBM Cloud admin account to ensure you won’t run into any blockers while working in Morpheus. Using Morpheus role-based access you can limit which IBM Cloud constructs and capabilities are accessible to your users.

With the API key created, head back to Morpheus and continue with the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Clouds

  2. Click + ADD

  3. Complete the following required fields:

  • NAME: A friendly name for the cloud inegration in Morpheus

  • USERNAME: Enter “apikey” (Do not enter your IBM Cloud username or anything other than “apikey”)

  • API Key: The API key value

  • DATACENTER: Select the IBM Cloud data center

  • OBJECT STORE: If desired and if any are found, select an object store

  1. Click NEXT

  2. Select a Group for this Cloud or create a new one if desired

  3. Complete the wizard to save the new integration

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Once the wizard has completed, the new IBM Cloud integration will appear alongside other Clouds currently available in Morpheus. If you’ve selected to automatically onboard existing resources, those will appear shortly.

IBM Cloud integrations also support a number of advanced options which were not discussed as part of the initial integration set up discussed above. For more information on the advanced options, consult the section below.

Advanced Options

DOMAIN

Specify a default domain for instances provisioned to this Cloud.

SCALE PRIORITY

Only affects Docker Provisioning. Specifies the priority with which an instance will scale into the cloud. A lower priority number means this cloud integration will take scale precedence over other cloud integrations in the group.

APPLIANCE URL

Alternate Appliance url for scenarios when the default Appliance URL (configured in admin > settings) is not reachable or resolvable for Instances provisioned in this cloud. The Appliance URL is used for Agent install and reporting.

TIME ZONE

Configures the time zone on provisioned VM’s if necessary.

DATACENTER ID

Used for differentiating pricing among multiple datacenters. Leave blank unless prices are properly configured.

NETWORK MODE

Unmanaged or select a Network Integration (NSX, ACI etc)

LOCAL FIREWALL

On or Off. Enable to managed Host and VM firewall/IP Table rules (linux only)

SECURITY SERVER

Security Server setting is for Security Service Integrations such as ACI

TRUST PROVIDER

Select Internal (Morpheus) or an existing Trust Provider Integration

STORAGE MODE

Single Disk, LVM or Clustered

BACKUP PROVIDER

Select a backup provider. Depending on the Cloud type and any currently-configured backup plugins you may select Internal Backups (Morpheus) or another configured backup solution

REPLICATION PROVIDER

Sets the default Replication Provider for the Cloud. Select an existing Replication Provider Integration

GUIDANCE

Enable Guidance recommendations on cloud resources.

COSTING

Enable for Morpheus to sync Costing data from the Cloud provider, when available. For on-prem Clouds, enabling costing activates a costing service designed to mirror the live costing experience of public clouds, including invoicing with line items and real-time cost data (Operations > Costing > Invoices). If your organization utilizes reserved instances and you want to pull in related pricing data, some Cloud integrations include the option to select Costing and Reservations. If this is not relevant, select Costing to save money on additional calls to the Cloud provider’s costing API.

DNS INTEGRATION

Records for instances provisioned in this cloud will be added to selected DNS integration.

SERVICE REGISTRY

Services for instances provisioned in this cloud will be added to selected Service Registry integration.

CONFIG MANAGEMENT

Select a Chef, Ansible or Puppet integration to be used with this Cloud.

CMDB

Select CMDB Integration to automatically update selected CMDB.

CMDB DISCOVERY

When checked, any automatically discovered (unmanaged) servers onboarded into Morpheus from this Cloud will also have CMDB records created for them.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Select an existing Change Management Integration to set on the Cloud. ex: Cherwell

AGENT INSTALL MODE

  • SSH / WINRM: Morpheus will use SSH or WINRM for Agent install.

  • Cloud Init / Unattend (when available): (DEFAULT) Morpheus will utilize Cloud-Init or Cloudbase-Init for agent install when provisioning images with Cloud-Init/Cloudbase-Init installed. Morpheus will fall back on SSH or WINRM if cloud-init is not installed on the provisioned image. Morpheus will also add Agent installation to Windows unattend.xml data when performing Guest Customizations or utilizing syspreped images.

API PROXY

Set a proxy for outbound communication from the Morpheus Appliance to the Cloud endpoints. Proxies can be added in the Infrastructure > Networks > Proxies tab.

INSTALL AGENT

Enable to have Agent Installation on by default for all provisioning into this Cloud. Disable for Agent Installation to be off by default for all provisioning into this Cloud.

CUSTOM LOGOS

When integrating a Cloud, it will appear by default throughout the UI with its standard logo (VMware logo for VMware Clouds, etc.). If desired, you may upload a custom logo that should appear instead. This might be useful for MSPs which might not want to reveal the Cloud type underlying its services. A dark mode version of the logo may also be uploaded if the standard logo doesn’t look right against the Morpheus dark mode theme. Checking USE DEFAULT CLOUD LOGOS allows the user to return to the standard logo for the Cloud type without deleting the custom uploaded logo.

INVENTORY OPTIONS

Inventory options allow you to set a default active or inactive state for certain discovered resources. The list of available resources to configure will vary based on the Cloud type and its supported resources. By default, all possible resources for the Cloud type will be discovered in an active state. Uncheck the box for some or all resources to discover them in an inactive state. The list of potential resources that may appear include:

  • Service Plans

  • Resource Pools

  • Networks

  • Security Groups

  • Datastores

  • Folders

Provisioning Command

PROXY

Set a proxy for inbound communication from Instances to the Morpheus Appliance. Proxies can be added in the Infrastructure > Networks > Proxies tab.

Bypass Proxy for Appliance URL

Enable to bypass proxy settings (if added) for Morpheus Agent communication to the Appliance URL.

NO PROXY

Include a list of IP addresses or name servers to exclude from proxy traversal

USER DATA (LINUX)

Add cloud-init user data. Morpheus 4.1.0 and earlier assumes bash syntax. Morpheus 4.1.1 and later supports all User Data formats. Refer to https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/format.html for more information.