[lxc-users] Recommended techniques for dynamically provisioning containers using lxd

[P. Lowe]

Hi,

I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.

I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a
chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's
initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.

Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image,
modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon
initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the
server is restarted?

After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to
the local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched,
it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the
cookbook and apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out
rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after which it will boot with
the customized provisioning parameters for normal operation.

What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip
address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs /
keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file into the
container using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?

Thanks,

P.Lowe

[Zach Lanich]

P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very similar with SaltStack.

Best Regards,

Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com

Post by P. Lowe
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image, modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to the local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched, it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the cookbook and apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after which it will boot with the customized provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs / keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file into the container using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

[Ingo Baab]

http://mysticlabs.com/consulting/

Post by Zach Lanich
P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very
similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
/Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative/
*/Owner/CTO/*
weCreate LLC
/www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com>/

Post by P. Lowe
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a
chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's
initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image,
modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon
initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the
server is restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to
the local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched,
it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the
cookbook and apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out
rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after which it will boot with
the customized provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip
address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs /
keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file into
the container using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

[Ingo Baab]

sorry list,
- this mail was accidentally send by me to the list.. sorry.
-Ingo

Post by Ingo Baab
http://youtu.be/5PXxINlP_8Y
http://mysticlabs.com/consulting/

Post by Zach Lanich
P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very
similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
/Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative/
*/Owner/CTO/*
weCreate LLC
/www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com>/

Post by P. Lowe
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a
chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's
initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image,
modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon
initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the
server is restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to
the local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched,
it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the
cookbook and apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out
rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after which it will boot with
the customized provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip
address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs /
keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file into
the container using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

[P. Lowe]

Hi Zach,

No, I still haven't received an answer on this.

I'm still trying to determine if there is a best practice for passing
provisioning parameters to an lxd container (hostname, block device
mounts, secrets, monitoring server name for pub/sub, etc.)

I'm currently using a technique where I launch a new image, start it,
and then do a:

"lxd file push ./provision.sh /container1/etc/rc.local"

Then I restart the container and it runs the provisioning in
/etc/rc.local (pull and execute chef cookbook from git), and then
reset rc.local to empty, so that future restarts won't re-run the
provisioning.

Still trying to determine best way to pass provisioning parameters to
the container...

-P. Lowe

P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very
similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com

Post by P. Lowe
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a
chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's
initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image,
modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon
initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the
server is restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to
the local image store, so that whenever a new container is
launched, it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from
git, run the cookbook and apply all the local provisioning
operations, empty out rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after
which it will boot with the customized provisioning parameters for
normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g.
ip address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs
/ keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file
into the container using the lxc push command, or any other better
techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

[Zach Lanich]

I’m not sure of the best way to pass LXD/Container specific parameters is yet (so anyone, please chime in if you have advice), but I’m using SaltStack at the moment and doing something similar. I’m currently running w/e necessary commands to provision the container itself, setting the container’s IP via a custom dnsmasq conf file, then using lxc exec to download the latest salt bootstrap and run it, then I just trigger a key-accept on the master for the container so the container acts just like any other minion and I can run State/Scripts, etc on it from there on.

Hopefully that helps in some way lol. Still awaiting best practice advice for passing container params for provision!

Best Regards,

Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com

Post by P. Lowe
Hi Zach,
No, I still haven't received an answer on this.
I'm still trying to determine if there is a best practice for passing provisioning parameters to an lxd container (hostname, block device mounts, secrets, monitoring server name for pub/sub, etc.)
"lxd file push ./provision.sh /container1/etc/rc.local"
Then I restart the container and it runs the provisioning in /etc/rc.local (pull and execute chef cookbook from git), and then reset rc.local to empty, so that future restarts won't re-run the provisioning.
Still trying to determine best way to pass provisioning parameters to the container...
-P. Lowe

Post by Zach Lanich
P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com

Post by P. Lowe
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image, modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to the local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched, it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the cookbook and apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after which it will boot with the customized provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs / keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file into the container using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

[Umberto Nicoletti]

Why not use https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ ?

Post by Zach Lanich
I’m not sure of the best way to pass LXD/Container specific parameters is
yet (so anyone, please chime in if you have advice), but I’m using
SaltStack at the moment and doing something similar. I’m currently running
w/e necessary commands to provision the container itself, setting the
container’s IP via a custom dnsmasq conf file, then using lxc exec to
download the latest salt bootstrap and run it, then I just trigger a
key-accept on the master for the container so the container acts just like
any other minion and I can run State/Scripts, etc on it from there on.
Hopefully that helps in some way lol. Still awaiting best practice advice
for passing container params for provision!
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
*Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative*
*Owner/CTO*
weCreate LLC
*www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com>*
Hi Zach,
No, I still haven't received an answer on this.
I'm still trying to determine if there is a best practice for passing
provisioning parameters to an lxd container (hostname, block device mounts,
secrets, monitoring server name for pub/sub, etc.)
"lxd file push ./provision.sh /container1/etc/rc.local"
Then I restart the container and it runs the provisioning in /etc/rc.local
(pull and execute chef cookbook from git), and then reset rc.local to
empty, so that future restarts won't re-run the provisioning.
Still trying to determine best way to pass provisioning parameters to the container...
-P. Lowe
P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very
similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com>
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a
chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's initial
boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image,
modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial
bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is
restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to the
local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched, it will
boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the cookbook and
apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out rc.local, and then
reboot the machine, after which it will boot with the customized
provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip
address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs / keys)) to
the container? Would people just drop a config file into the container
using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

[Zach Lanich]

Umberto, I’m not 100% sure of what SaltStack uses under the hood lib wise, but it’s written in Python an already does everything that Lib does. We’re talking more of how the creation of the LXD containers themselves, including setting Mounts, Static IP, etc. SaltStack & Chef handle everything else from there once the provisioned container is connected to the master. CloudInit would certainly be an option as the 2nd part of the equation if we weren’t already using a configuration management tool.

Does that make sense, or am I’m misinterpreting your point?

Best Regards,

Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com

Why not use https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ <https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/> ?
I’m not sure of the best way to pass LXD/Container specific parameters is yet (so anyone, please chime in if you have advice), but I’m using SaltStack at the moment and doing something similar. I’m currently running w/e necessary commands to provision the container itself, setting the container’s IP via a custom dnsmasq conf file, then using lxc exec to download the latest salt bootstrap and run it, then I just trigger a key-accept on the master for the container so the container acts just like any other minion and I can run State/Scripts, etc on it from there on.
Hopefully that helps in some way lol. Still awaiting best practice advice for passing container params for provision!
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>

Post by P. Lowe
Hi Zach,
No, I still haven't received an answer on this.
I'm still trying to determine if there is a best practice for passing provisioning parameters to an lxd container (hostname, block device mounts, secrets, monitoring server name for pub/sub, etc.)
"lxd file push ./provision.sh /container1/etc/rc.local"
Then I restart the container and it runs the provisioning in /etc/rc.local (pull and execute chef cookbook from git), and then reset rc.local to empty, so that future restarts won't re-run the provisioning.
Still trying to determine best way to pass provisioning parameters to the container...
-P. Lowe

Post by Zach Lanich
P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>

Post by P. Lowe
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image, modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to the local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched, it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the cookbook and apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after which it will boot with the customized provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs / keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file into the container using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users <http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users>

_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

[Umberto Nicoletti]

P. Lowe asked:

*Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image,
modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial
bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is
restarted?*

this is exactly a cloud-init use case: cloud-init with a bootstrap script
in user-data (like EC2 does).

You could of course swap cloud-init out for a custom salt-bootstrap, clone,
state.highstate flow and still get the job done.

But as far as I am concerned I find the additional abstraction layer and
flexibility provided by cloud-init to be convenient enough.

So my suggestion for P. Lowe is:

use cloud-init to drive the bootstrap process: early init, cloning
cookbook, installing chef and whatnot

then let chef take over and complete the configuration phase.

Post by Zach Lanich
Umberto, I’m not 100% sure of what SaltStack uses under the hood lib wise,
but it’s written in Python an already does everything that Lib does. We’re
talking more of how the creation of the LXD

I think the provisioning phase or how you manage containers (creation,
move, destroy, etc) is beyond (actually it is before :-)) P. Lowe's
question scope but you could certainly do that with SaltStack or through
the container mgmt API directly.

Post by Zach Lanich
containers themselves, including setting Mounts, Static IP, etc. SaltStack
& Chef handle everything else from there once the provisioned container is
connected to the master. CloudInit would certainly be an option as the 2nd
part of the equation if we weren’t already using a configuration management
tool.
Does that make sense, or am I’m misinterpreting your point?

Hope this clarify by previously hurried email :-)

BR,
Umberto

Post by Zach Lanich
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
*Owner/CTO*
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com>
814.580.6636
On Aug 23, 2016, at 1:26 PM, Umberto Nicoletti <
Why not use https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ ?

Post by Zach Lanich
I’m not sure of the best way to pass LXD/Container specific parameters is
yet (so anyone, please chime in if you have advice), but I’m using
SaltStack at the moment and doing something similar. I’m currently running
w/e necessary commands to provision the container itself, setting the
container’s IP via a custom dnsmasq conf file, then using lxc exec to
download the latest salt bootstrap and run it, then I just trigger a
key-accept on the master for the container so the container acts just like
any other minion and I can run State/Scripts, etc on it from there on.
Hopefully that helps in some way lol. Still awaiting best practice advice
for passing container params for provision!
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
*Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative*
*Owner/CTO*
weCreate LLC
*www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>*
Hi Zach,
No, I still haven't received an answer on this.
I'm still trying to determine if there is a best practice for passing
provisioning parameters to an lxd container (hostname, block device mounts,
secrets, monitoring server name for pub/sub, etc.)
"lxd file push ./provision.sh /container1/etc/rc.local"
Then I restart the container and it runs the provisioning in
/etc/rc.local (pull and execute chef cookbook from git), and then reset
rc.local to empty, so that future restarts won't re-run the provisioning.
Still trying to determine best way to pass provisioning parameters to the container...
-P. Lowe
P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very
similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a
chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's initial
boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image,
modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial
bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is
restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to the
local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched, it will
boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the cookbook and
apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out rc.local, and then
reboot the machine, after which it will boot with the customized
provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip
address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs / keys)) to
the container? Would people just drop a config file into the container
using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users
_______________________________________________

lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users

[Zach Lanich]

That makes sense to me.

Best Regards,

Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com

Post by P. Lowe
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image, modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is restarted?
this is exactly a cloud-init use case: cloud-init with a bootstrap script in user-data (like EC2 does).
You could of course swap cloud-init out for a custom salt-bootstrap, clone, state.highstate flow and still get the job done.
But as far as I am concerned I find the additional abstraction layer and flexibility provided by cloud-init to be convenient enough.
use cloud-init to drive the bootstrap process: early init, cloning cookbook, installing chef and whatnot
then let chef take over and complete the configuration phase.
Umberto, I’m not 100% sure of what SaltStack uses under the hood lib wise, but it’s written in Python an already does everything that Lib does. We’re talking more of how the creation of the LXD
I think the provisioning phase or how you manage containers (creation, move, destroy, etc) is beyond (actually it is before :-)) P. Lowe's question scope but you could certainly do that with SaltStack or through the container mgmt API directly.
containers themselves, including setting Mounts, Static IP, etc. SaltStack & Chef handle everything else from there once the provisioned container is connected to the master. CloudInit would certainly be an option as the 2nd part of the equation if we weren’t already using a configuration management tool.
Does that make sense, or am I’m misinterpreting your point?
Hope this clarify by previously hurried email :-)
BR,
Umberto
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>
814.580.6636 <tel:[phone]>

Why not use https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ <https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/> ?
I’m not sure of the best way to pass LXD/Container specific parameters is yet (so anyone, please chime in if you have advice), but I’m using SaltStack at the moment and doing something similar. I’m currently running w/e necessary commands to provision the container itself, setting the container’s IP via a custom dnsmasq conf file, then using lxc exec to download the latest salt bootstrap and run it, then I just trigger a key-accept on the master for the container so the container acts just like any other minion and I can run State/Scripts, etc on it from there on.
Hopefully that helps in some way lol. Still awaiting best practice advice for passing container params for provision!
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>

Post by P. Lowe
Hi Zach,
No, I still haven't received an answer on this.
I'm still trying to determine if there is a best practice for passing provisioning parameters to an lxd container (hostname, block device mounts, secrets, monitoring server name for pub/sub, etc.)
"lxd file push ./provision.sh /container1/etc/rc.local"
Then I restart the container and it runs the provisioning in /etc/rc.local (pull and execute chef cookbook from git), and then reset rc.local to empty, so that future restarts won't re-run the provisioning.
Still trying to determine best way to pass provisioning parameters to the container...
-P. Lowe

Post by Zach Lanich
P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>

Post by P. Lowe
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image, modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to the local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched, it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the cookbook and apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after which it will boot with the customized provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs / keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file into the container using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users <http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users>

_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users <http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users>

_______________________________________________
lxc-users mailing list
http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users <http://lists.linuxcontainers.org/listinfo/lxc-users>

[Zach Lanich]

That makes sense to me.

Best Regards,

Zach Lanich
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com
814.580.6636

Post by P. Lowe
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image, modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is restarted?
this is exactly a cloud-init use case: cloud-init with a bootstrap script in user-data (like EC2 does).
You could of course swap cloud-init out for a custom salt-bootstrap, clone, state.highstate flow and still get the job done.
But as far as I am concerned I find the additional abstraction layer and flexibility provided by cloud-init to be convenient enough.
use cloud-init to drive the bootstrap process: early init, cloning cookbook, installing chef and whatnot
then let chef take over and complete the configuration phase.
Umberto, I’m not 100% sure of what SaltStack uses under the hood lib wise, but it’s written in Python an already does everything that Lib does. We’re talking more of how the creation of the LXD
I think the provisioning phase or how you manage containers (creation, move, destroy, etc) is beyond (actually it is before :-)) P. Lowe's question scope but you could certainly do that with SaltStack or through the container mgmt API directly.
containers themselves, including setting Mounts, Static IP, etc. SaltStack & Chef handle everything else from there once the provisioned container is connected to the master. CloudInit would certainly be an option as the 2nd part of the equation if we weren’t already using a configuration management tool.
Does that make sense, or am I’m misinterpreting your point?
Hope this clarify by previously hurried email :-)
BR,
Umberto
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>
814.580.6636 <tel:[phone]>

Why not use https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ <https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/> ?
I’m not sure of the best way to pass LXD/Container specific parameters is yet (so anyone, please chime in if you have advice), but I’m using SaltStack at the moment and doing something similar. I’m currently running w/e necessary commands to provision the container itself, setting the container’s IP via a custom dnsmasq conf file, then using lxc exec to download the latest salt bootstrap and run it, then I just trigger a key-accept on the master for the container so the container acts just like any other minion and I can run State/Scripts, etc on it from there on.
Hopefully that helps in some way lol. Still awaiting best practice advice for passing container params for provision!
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>

Post by P. Lowe
Hi Zach,
No, I still haven't received an answer on this.
I'm still trying to determine if there is a best practice for passing provisioning parameters to an lxd container (hostname, block device mounts, secrets, monitoring server name for pub/sub, etc.)
"lxd file push ./provision.sh /container1/etc/rc.local"
Then I restart the container and it runs the provisioning in /etc/rc.local (pull and execute chef cookbook from git), and then reset rc.local to empty, so that future restarts won't re-run the provisioning.
Still trying to determine best way to pass provisioning parameters to the container...
-P. Lowe

Post by Zach Lanich
P.Lowe, did you ever get an answer on this. I’m doing something very similar with SaltStack.
Best Regards,
Zach Lanich
Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Creative
Owner/CTO
weCreate LLC
www.WeCreate.com <http://www.wecreate.com/>

Post by P. Lowe
Hi,
I am investigating the use of lxd to dynamically spin up server instances.
I'm thinking about using a code-as-infrastructure approach using a chef-solo cookbook that is pulled out of git upon the container's initial boot and does all the provisioning upon initial boot.
Would people recommend creating a new container from a base image, modifying rc.local to pull the cookbook from git and launch it upon initial bootup, after which rc.local is reset to be empty and the server is restarted?
After rc.local is modified, the new container would be published to the local image store, so that whenever a new container is launched, it will boot up, run rc.local, pull the cookbook from git, run the cookbook and apply all the local provisioning operations, empty out rc.local, and then reboot the machine, after which it will boot with the customized provisioning parameters for normal operation.
What is the recommended way to send provisioning parameters (e.g. ip address, gateway, hostname, block device mounts, secrets (certs / keys)) to the container? Would people just drop a config file into the container using the lxc push command, or any other better techniques?
Thanks,
P.Lowe
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[Eric]

On Thu, Sep 8, 2016, 01:05 Zach Lanich <***@wecreate.com> wrote:
Umberto, I’m not 100% sure of what SaltStack uses under the hood lib wise,
but it’s written in Python an already does everything that Lib does. We’re
talking more of how the creation of the LXD containers themselves,
including setting Mounts, Static IP, etc. SaltStack & Chef handle
everything else from there once the provisioned container is connected to
the master. CloudInit would certainly be an option as the 2nd part of the
equation if we weren’t already using a configuration management tool

@zach, what configuration management tool are you guys using?