Sotolito VPS

Manage VPS using OCI containers, podman and systemd.

Installation

Create the VPS directory

mkdir -p /home/vservers/OCI-Image-Bundles/utils/bin

Install netns a utility to create bridges for OCI containers

# Export the sha256sum for verification.
$ export NETNS_SHA256="be81bc3fa68c7c9892a0b84e6429e2af5be58e74474f0dcddad78647dd741ce7"

# Download and check the sha256sum.
$ sudo curl -fSL "https://github.com/genuinetools/netns/releases/download/v0.5.3/netns-linux-386" \
  -o "/home/vservers/OCI-Image-Bundles/utils/bin/netns" \
  && echo "${NETNS_SHA256}  /home/vservers/OCI-Image-Bundles/utils/bin/netns" | sha256sum -c - \
  && mkdir -p /home/vservers/OCI-Image-Bundles/utils/bin \
  && chmod a+x "/home/vservers/OCI-Image-Bundles/utils/bin/netns"

If you're using CentOS you have to enable the centos-extras repo to install oci-register-machine hook.

Clone this repo to get the vpsctl and imagectl commands.

$ cd /home/vservers/OCI-Image-Bundles/utils
$ git clone https://github.com/SotolitoLabs/sotolito-vps.git

Setup systemd

# cp /home/vservers/OCI-Image-Bundles/utils/sotolito-vps/systemd/sotolito-vps@.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/
# mkdir /etc/systemd/system/sotolito-vps.target.wants
# systemctl daemon-reload

Add the repo to the path or copy the vpsctl and imagectl commands to /usr/local/bin.

# export PATH=$PATH:/home/vservers/OCI-Image-Bundles/utils/sotolito-vps

Quick Start

Follow the install instructions.

Create image template

# imgctl generate centos:stream9
# ln -s  centos\:stream9 sotolito-vps-base

Create VPS

# vpsctl create sotolito 10.0.0.1

Enable and start VPS

# systemctl enable sotolito-vps@sotolito
# systemct start sotolito-vps@sotolito

Usage

This commands should be executed as the root user.

Create a VPS

The create option just needs the name of the VPS, it will assign an IP automatically.

# vpsctl <name>
# vpsctl my_super_awesome_vps

Alternatively you can assign the IP manually.

# vpsctl <name> <static IP>
# vpsctl my_super_awesome_vps 192.168.1.100

Start a VPS

# systemctl start sotolito-vps@my_super_awesome_vps.service

Stop a VPS

# systemctl stop sotolito-vps@my_super_awesome_vps.service

List VPSs

# vpsctl list

Enter a VPS

# vpsctl enter my_super_awesome_vps

Networking

After creating a VPS you have to open the ports of the service being offered or configure nginx or haproxy to expose web services.

Open SSH port

The VPS IP address is located in the <vps_name>/.ip file, this IP is non-routable so we have to redirect ports on the host to the VPS to expose services.

To open the SSH port using firewalld

# VPS_STATIC_IP=$(cat sotolito/.ip)
# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone="public" --add-forward-port=port=6000:proto=tcp:toport=22:toaddr=$VPS_STATIC_IP
# firewall-cmd --reload

Create Image Templates

Images are extracted from OCI container images stored in any public or private registry.

# imgctl generate centos:stream9
# ln -s  centos\:stream9 sotolito-vps-base

TODO

• Open ports from the vpsctl command
• Kata containers
• Feed the image as parameter of the create command

References

• https://github.com/genuinetools/netns/releases