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PaletteAI VM Launchpad

PaletteAI VM Launchpad is a standalone deployment of Palette Virtual Machine Orchestrator (VMO) designed for bare metal and Edge environments. It provides a bootable ISO that you install directly on physical devices, which you link together to form a cluster to create and manage VMs through a dedicated management UI. VM Launchpad was formerly called Launchpad for VMs and the VMO Appliance.

Unlike VMO Pack, the VM Launchpad does not require a connection to Palette. It operates independently with its own identity management, storage configuration, and observability stack.

Use Cases​

The VM Launchpad addresses common challenges that organizations encounter when adopting VM orchestration on Kubernetes:

  • No external control plane required - The appliance is self-contained. You do not need to set up or connect to Palette before you can deploy and manage VMs. This is particularly useful for distributed sites, Edge locations, airgapped environments, and regulated environments.

  • Purpose-built VM management experience - The appliance includes a dedicated UI designed specifically for VM lifecycle management, rather than embedding VM controls inside a general-purpose Kubernetes console. Networking, storage, and access management are first-class features in the interface.

  • Standalone authentication and access control - The appliance provides its own identity management through Keycloak, generic OIDC providers, or local admin accounts. You do not need an external identity provider (IdP) to get started, and you can configure fine-grained role-based access control directly in the appliance.

  • Built-in operational tooling - Golden image building, snapshot policies, airgapped package management, and observability dashboards are included out of the box. These capabilities reduce the need to assemble and maintain separate tools for common VM operations.

Key Capabilities​

The VM Launchpad includes the following capabilities beyond what is available in VMO Pack.

Dedicated Management UI​

The appliance includes a purpose-built web interface for VM lifecycle management. From the UI, you can create VMs from templates or ISOs, manage storage and networking, configure access policies, and monitor cluster health. The UI is accessible directly from the cluster rather than Palette.

Golden Image Builder​

Build reusable VM disk images from ISOs directly in the UI. The golden image workflow lets you upload an ISO, install an OS in a builder VM, apply seal scripts to generalize the image, and finalize it as a reusable golden image. VMs created from golden images start faster and ensure consistent guest configurations across your environment.

Snapshot Policies​

Define declarative snapshot policies with configurable schedules, retention limits, and time windows. Attach policies to individual VMs or to templates so that every VM created from a template inherits the policy automatically. A built-in scheduler creates and prunes snapshots based on your policy configuration.

Airgapped Package Management​

Upload DEB, RPM, MSI, and ISO packages to the appliance and serve them to VMs through a built-in package repository. In airgapped environments where VMs cannot reach external package sources, the appliance generates APT and YUM repository metadata and serves packages over HTTP within the cluster.

Identity and Access Management​

The appliance provides its own Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) with four built-in roles: Platform Admin, Editor, Operator, and Viewer. Access policies map OIDC groups and users to roles. The appliance supports Keycloak, generic OIDC providers, and local admin accounts for Day-0 bootstrap before an IdP is available.

Observability​

A tiered metrics pipeline collects cluster and VM performance data. An OpenTelemetry Collector gathers node-level metrics and forwards them to the appliance for dashboard display. You can optionally connect an external PromQL-compatible backend such as Prometheus for long-term historical data. The appliance can also push its metrics directly to Splunk HTTP Event Collector (HEC) through a first-class network gate, and record central log delivery through a compliance-audit toggle, both on the Metrics and Logs page under Settings and Configuration. Refer to Metrics and Logs for more information.

Infrastructure Management​

The appliance bundles KubeVirt, Containerized Data Importer (CDI), Multus CNI, a snapshot controller, and a descheduler into a single deployment. You can manage storage classes, storage pools, network attachment definitions, and namespace policies directly from the UI. A DaemonSet discovers block devices and hardware on each node for GPU and PCI passthrough.

Next Steps​

  1. Review Network Configuration Considerations to plan your host network layout, bond and bridge configuration, and switch port settings before you install the appliance. Networking decisions are difficult to change after installation, and VM Launchpad supports specific host network configurations.

  2. Review the hardware requirements and follow the Install VM Launchpad guide to install the appliance on your devices and create your cluster.

  3. Use the Create Your First VM guide to deploy your first VM from the management UI.