Information Services

Requesting virtual machines

How to make a request for quotes or fulfilment of creation of virtual machines.

We have a request fulfilment portal for making requests and we would prefer people make requests using this interface. It attempts to capture all the information we need to build virtual machines and we hope in the future to drive a lot of requests through automation to make the deployment of services as easy and quick as possible.

vBill request fulfilment portal

Go to https://vbill.is.ed.ac.uk/ to get a quote and make a request for a virtual machine. An EASE login is required.

 

If you are unable to use the portal above then you may still either open a service request in Unidesk and escalate it to the IS Virtual Hosting team or contact the IS ITI Enterprise Services Section. Contact details are provided in the service description.

We need the following information to be supplied:

  • the resource required i.e. the size of memory of the virtual machine, see the availability and entitlement page for details of the different tiers and prices (link at the bottom of the page)
  • the cost centre that will be billed for the service; you will need to be authorised to make payments for this cost centre
  • the rental period
  • the VLAN that the virtual machine should be attached to: by default this will use the hosting service VLAN
  • the list of usernames or an existing Active Directory group of people who should have access to the virtual machine console to enable installation of the OS and power management
  • the number of virtual machines of this type that are being requested
  • the name(s) to be given to the virtual machine(s)
  • any additional notes such as additional storage requirements and backup services that are required or requirement for physical separation of virtual machines for resilience

Requests should normally be processed within three working days after we have confirmed the cost centre authorisation.