Usernames and passwords for virtual images and virtual machines

[dya]

What is the purpose of entering a username and password for a virtual image or virtual machine?

What effect can you expect from entering them?

This is a machine-translated message, so we apologize if it is difficult to understand.

[Arnout_Verbeken]

If you want to automatically install the Agent during deployment, Administrator credentials are needed.  You can add them in the Virtual Image.

The "Create Instance" UI has no option to add credentials, but you can flag to "Create Your User", which will create your own user based on the settings under "User Settings"
Cloudinit/sysprep/... is of course needed for the "Create Your User" option.

Full documentation about your question is on https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=sd00006560en_us&page=GUID-A7CB5566-0283-4C67-BA27-02852732D7C3.html

Existing username on the image. This is required for authentication, unless VM Essentials is able to add user data, Cloud-Init, Cloudbase-Init or Guest Customizations. If Cloud-Init, Cloudbase-Init or Guest Customizations are used, credentials are defined in Administration > Settings > Provisioning and User Settings. If credentials are defined on the image and Cloud-Init is enabled, VM Essentials will add that user during provisioning, so ensure that user does not already exist on the image (such as root). For Windows Guest Customizations, VM Essentials will set the Administrator password to what is defined on the image if Administrator user is defined. Do not define any other user than Administrator for Windows Images unless using Cloudbase-init. VM Essentials recommends running Guest Customizations for all Windows Images, which is required when joining Domains as the SID will change

[cbunge · Accepted solution]

Credentials server a few purposes.

1. Standard OS configuration post deployment.  The abilty to set hostname/ip for systems that are not getting sysprepped (Windows) or using Cloud-Init (Linux). The credentials are used to auth into the deployed instance using the original template creds to then alter configuration.
2. Post deployment automation / Scripting.  Tasks/Workflows (Morpheus) require either the Morpheus agent, VMtools, or SSH/WinRM + Creds to execute tasks on the VM.

Creds don't have to be set on the Virtual Images.  They can be set globally per tenant under Administration > Provisioning.  Cloud-Init and WIndows Credentials defined here will be used as the default unless defined on a Virtual image.  Regardless of where you set them, that user/pass will be configured on the deployed VMs for access.