Assets Specification¶

Assets define external resources like disk images, ISOs, and other files that your VMs can use. They provide a way to reference and manage external dependencies in your manifests.

Structure¶

spec:
  assets:
    - name: "asset-name"
      type: "virtual_disk"
      format: "raw"
      url: "https://example.com/image.img"

Required Fields¶

name¶

Type: string
Description: Unique asset identifier within the manifest
Constraints: DNS-1123 compliant, lowercase, alphanumeric with hyphens

type¶

Type: string
Values: "virtual_disk"
Description: Asset type identifier

format¶

Type: string
Values: "raw", "qcow2", "iso"
Description: Asset file format

url¶

Type: string
Description: HTTPS URL to download the asset
Constraints: Must be HTTPS, publicly accessible

Asset Types¶

Virtual Disk¶

Disk images for VM storage:

- name: "ubuntu-image"
  type: "virtual_disk"
  format: "raw"
  url: "https://storage.googleapis.com/demo-bucket/ubuntu-22.04.img"

ISO Images¶

ISO files for installation or tools:

- name: "install-iso"
  type: "virtual_disk"
  format: "iso"
  url: "https://releases.ubuntu.com/22.04/ubuntu-22.04.3-live-server-amd64.iso"

Usage in Resources¶

Reference assets in storage devices:

storage_devices:
  - name: "root-disk"
    type: "virtio_disk"
    source: "ubuntu-image"  # References asset name
    capacity: 53687091200
    boot: 1

Best Practices¶

Use versioned URLs for reproducible deployments
Host assets reliably on CDNs or stable storage
Optimize sizes for faster deployment
Use descriptive names that indicate content
Document asset sources for maintainability

Examples¶

Linux Base Images¶

assets:
  - name: "ubuntu-server"
    type: "virtual_disk"
    format: "raw"
    url: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/22.04/release/ubuntu-22.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"

  - name: "centos-stream"
    type: "virtual_disk"
    format: "qcow2"
    url: "https://cloud.centos.org/centos/9-stream/x86_64/images/CentOS-Stream-GenericCloud-9-latest.x86_64.qcow2"

Windows Images¶

assets:
  - name: "windows-server"
    type: "virtual_disk"
    format: "raw"
    url: "https://storage.example.com/windows-server-2022.img"

Installation Media¶

assets:
  - name: "vmware-tools"
    type: "virtual_disk"
    format: "iso"
    url: "https://packages.vmware.com/tools/releases/latest/vmware-tools-linux.iso"