Harvester UI · Reviewed

OS Type, CPU Model and system options move to the first tab of the VM form

When creating a VM, OS Type, CPU Model and switches like TPM and EFI boot were hidden at the bottom of the last tab, Advanced Options. They now sit on Basics, next to CPU and memory, on both the VM form and the template form.

Merged PR 1179 ↗ Issue 11797 ↗ Tests PR 75 ↗

What changes for the user

The core machine settings (OS Type, CPU Model, CPU pinning, USB tablet, TPM, EFI boot, Secure Boot) are on the Basics tab, where users set CPU and memory.
Advanced Options is shorter. It keeps run and maintenance strategy, reserved memory and the cloud config. "Install guest agent" stays there, right under the User Data it changes.
OS Type has a hint: picking an image that carries an OS label (for example Windows) on the Volumes tab can change it.
The template form uses the same layout, so creating a VM and creating a template look alike.
Nothing else changes: the same settings are saved as before.

The flow

Create VM: the Basics tab

Before, Basics only asked for CPU, memory and an SSH key. Now it also has OS Type, CPU Model and the system options.

Basics tab before (CPU, memory, SSH key) and after (OS Type, CPU Model, CPU, memory, system options, SSH key) — The moved settings are ringed on the right. The order follows our review: what the machine is, then its size, then its switches.

Advanced Options is shorter

OS Type and CPU Model leave the top of the tab, and the system options leave the very bottom, below two long editors.

Advanced Options tab before and after; after has no OS Type, CPU Model or system options — Before, users had to scroll past the cloud config editors to find TPM or EFI. After, only "Install guest agent" remains, placed under User Data because it edits that text.

OS Type explains that an image can change it

OS Type now comes before the Volumes tab, so a later image pick could silently change it. A hint says so.

Tooltip on OS Type: Selecting an image with an OS label on the Volumes tab may change the OS Type selection — We raised this in review. The hint shows when creating a VM or a template, not when editing.

Picking a Windows image sets OS Type to Windows

We pick a Windows image on Volumes, go back to Basics, and OS Type now says Windows.

Left: Volumes tab with a Windows image picked. Right: Basics tab with OS Type Windows — This auto-detect worked the same way before. The difference is that the result is now visible on the first tab instead of at the top of the last one.

The template form matches

Creating a VM template now shows the same Basics layout as creating a VM.

Template create, Basics tab, before and after — The first version of the change only moved the VM form. We asked for the template form too, and it was done in the same change.

The CPU Manager note is blue, not yellow, when creating

If no host has CPU Manager on, the form explains why CPU pinning is greyed out. On create this is now an information note.

CPU Manager note: yellow warning at the bottom of Advanced Options before, blue information under the system options on Basics after — Now that the note shows on the first tab, a yellow warning would alarm users for something that is only an explanation. When editing a VM it stays a warning, because there it is about a restart.

Video (optional)

0:00 Before · 0:23 After · 0:48 Picking a Windows image

Notes

Our review raised three points: OS Type could be changed silently by an image pick, the CPU Manager note was a warning, and the template form kept the old layout. All three were addressed before the merge (steps 3, 6 and 5).
OS Type can still be changed by the image without asking. The hint explains it. The author offered a follow-up that only auto-sets OS Type while the user has not touched it.
Our test Harvester has no Windows image and all hosts have CPU Manager on. For steps 4 and 6 we labelled one image as "windows-server-2022.iso" (Windows) and hid CPU Manager in the browser only.
How we tested: the UI just before the change and the UI at the merge, both built and served from this laptop against our test Harvester. Nothing was created on the cluster.