This github repository contains the script/template files and documentation for creating a SLES service for HPE GreenLake Metal (GLM) from a SLES install .ISO file.
These are the high level steps required to generate the SLES service:
- Setup Linux system
- Downloading recipe repo from github
- Downloading a SLES .ISO file
- Build the GLM SLES image/service
These are the high level steps required to use this built GLM SLES service/image on GLM:
- Copy the built GLM SLES .ISO image to your web server
- Add the GLM SLES .YML service file to the appropriate GLM portal
- In GLM create a host using this OS image service.
These instructions and scripts are designed to run on a Linux system. These instructions were developed and tested on a Ubuntu 20.04 VM, but they should work on other distros/versions. The Linux host will need to have the following packages installed for these scripts to run correctly:
- xorriso
- isomd5sum
- syslinux-utils
On Ubuntu the necessary packages can be installed with:
sudo apt install xorriso isomd5sum syslinux-utils
The Linux host must have enough free file system space that images can be easily generated (20-40GB).
The resulting SLES .ISO image file from the build needs to be uploaded to a web server that the GLM Data Center Controller (DCC) can access over the network. More about this later.
Once you have an appropriate Linux environment setup, then download this recipe from github for building HPE GLM SLES by:
git clone https://github.com/hpe-hcss/bmaas-byoi-sles-image.git
Next you will need to manually download the appropriate SLES .ISO onto the Linux system. If you don't already have a source for the SLES .ISO files, then you might want to sign for a FREE SUSE account at https://www.suse.com/download/sles/.
This SLES tested is working for SLES 15 SP3 and SP4. Note, the "Full" version of the ISO is required. The "Online" version will not.
At this point, you should have a Linux system with:
- a copy of this repo
- a standard SLES Full .ISO file
We are almost ready to do the build, but we need to know something about your environment. When the build is done, it will generate two files:
- a GLM-modified SLES .ISO file that needs to be hosted on a web server. It is assumed that you have (or can setup) a local web server that GLM can reach over the network. You will also need login credentials on this web server so that you can upload files.
- a GLM service .YML file that will be used to add the SLES service to the GLM portal. This .YML file will have a URL to the GLM-modified SLES .ISO file on the web server.
The build needs to know what URL can be used to download the GLM-modified SLES .ISO file. We assume that the URL can be broken into 2 parts: <image-url-prefix>/<glm-custom-sles-iso>
If the image URL cannot be constructed with this simple mechanism then you probably need to customize this script for a more complex URL costruction.
So you can run the build with the following command line parameters:
./glm-build-image-and-service.sh \
-i <sles-iso-filename> \
-v <sles-version-number> \
-p <image-url-prefix> \
-o <glm-custom-sles-iso> \
-s <glm-yml-service-file>
Here is an example of running the built:
./glm-build-image-and-service.sh \
-i SLE-15-SP3-Full-x86_64-GM-Media1.iso \
-v 15SP3 \
-p http://192.169.1.131 \
-o glm-metal-sles.iso
-s glm-metal-sles-service.yml
At the end of script run, it will output the following instructions for next steps:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | This build has generated a new GreenLake Metal (GLM) SLES service/image
| | that consists of the following 2 new files:
| | glm-metal-sles.iso
| | glm-metal-sles-service.yml
| |
| | To use this new GLM SLES service/image in HPE GLM take the following steps:
| | (1) Copy the new .ISO file (glm-metal-sles.iso) to your web server (http://192.169.1.131)
| | such that the file can be downloaded from the following URL:
| | http://192.169.1.131/glm-metal-sles.iso
| | (2) Add the GreenLake Metal Service file to your GLM Portal using this command:
| | qctl services create -f glm-metal-sles-service.yml
| | (3) Create a host in GLM using this OS image service.
| +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When a SLES host is created in the GLM portal, the GLM DCC will pull down this GLM-modified SLES .ISO file. This may take a little bit of time the first time that DCC downloads the ISO from the web server.
This is the top level build script that will take a SLES install ISO and generate a SLES service.yml file that can be imported as a Host imaging Service into a GreenLake Metal portal.
glm-build-image-and-service.sh does the following steps:
- process command line arguements.
- Customize the SLES .ISO so that it works for GLM. Run: glm-image-build.sh.
- Generate GLM service file for this GLM image that we just generated. Run: glm-service-build.sh.
glm-build-image-and-service.sh usage:
glm-build-image-and-service.sh -i <sles-iso-filename> -o <glm-custom-sles-iso>
-v <sles-version-number> -p <image-url-prefix> -s <glm-yml-service-file>
| glm-build-image-and-service.sh command line options | Description |
|---|---|
| -i <sles-iso-filename> | local filename of the Full SLES .ISO file that was already downloaded. Used as input file. |
| -v <sles-version-number> | a xy SLES version number. Example: -v 15SP3 |
| -o <glm-custom-sles-iso> | local filename of the GLM-modified SLES .ISO file that will be output by the script. This file should be uploaded to your web server. |
| -p <image-url-prefix> | the beginning of the image URL (on your web server). Example: -p http://192.168.1.131. The GLM service .YML will assume that the image file will be available at a URL constructed with <image-url-prefix>/<glm-custom-sles-iso>. |
| -s <glm-yml-service-file> | local filename of the GLM .YML service file that will be output by the script. This file should be uploaded to the GLM portal. |
NOTE: The users of this script are expected to copy the <glm-custom-sles-iso> .ISO file to your web server such that the file is available at this constructed URL: <image-url-prefix>/<glm-custom-sles-iso>
This script will repack a SLES .ISO file for a GLM SLES install service that uses Virtual Media to get the install started.
The following changes are being made to the SLES .ISO:
- configure to use an autoinst.xml file on the iLO vmedia floppy and to pull the RPM packages (stage2) over vmedia
- setup for a text based install (versus a GUI install)
- set up the console to the iLO serial port (/dev/ttyS1)
The SLES .ISO is configured to use a autoinst.xml file on the iLO vmedia floppy by adding the 'autoyast=usb:///glm-autoinst.xml' option in GRUB (used in UEFI) and isolinux (used in BIOS) configuration files. This option configures SLES installer to pull the autoinst.xml file from the root of the floppy at /glm-autoinst.xml. This autoinst.xml option is setup by modifying the following files on the .ISO: boot/x86_64/loader/isolinux.cfg for BIOS EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg for UEFI
Usage:
glm-build-image-and-service.sh -i <sles.iso> -v <version> -o <glm-customizied-sles.iso>
| command line options | Description |
|---|---|
| -i <sles.iso> | Input SLES .ISO filename |
| -v <version> | SLES version number xy |
| -o <glm-customizied-sles.iso> | Output GLM SLES .ISO file |
Here are the detailed changes that are made to the SLES .ISO:
- change the default timeout to 5 seconds (instead of 60 seconds)
- change the default menu selection to the 1st entry (no media check)
- add the 'autoyast=...' option to the various lines in the file
- also setup the serial console to ttyS1 (iLO serial port) with 115200 baud
- remove the 'splash=silent' option so the user can watch kernel loading and use to triage any problems
This script generates a GreenLake Metal OS service.yml file appropriate for uploading to a GLM portal(s).
Usage:
glm-service-build.sh -s <service-template> -o <service_yml_filename>
-c <svc_category> -f <scv_flavor> -v <svc_ver>
-d <display_url> -u <secure_url>
-i <local_image_filename> [ -t <os-template> ]
| command line options | Description |
|---|---|
| -s <service-template> | service template filename (input file) |
| -o <service_yml_filename> | service filename (output file) |
| -c <svc_category> | GreenLake Metal service category |
| -f <scv_flavor> | GreenLake Metal service flavor |
| -v <svc_ver> | GreenLake Metal service version |
| -d <display_url> | used to display the image URL in user interface |
| -u <secure_url> | the real URL to the image file |
| -i <local_image_filename> | a full path to the image for this service. Used to get the .ISO sha256sum and size. |
| [ -t <os-template> ] | info template files. 1st -t option should be %CONTENT1% in service-template. 2nd -> %CONTENT2%. |
autoinst The SLES image/service can be customized by:
- Modifying the way the image is built
- Modifying the SLES autoinst file
- Modifying the cloud-init
Here is a description of the files in this repo:
| Filename | Description |
|---|---|
| README.md | This documentation |
| glm-build-image-and-service.sh | This is the top level build script that will take a SLES install ISO and generate a SLES service.yml file that can be imported as a Host imaging Service into a GreenLake Metal portal. |
| glm-image-build.sh | This script will repack SLES .ISO file for a GLM SLES install service that uses Virtual Media to get the install started. |
| glm-service-build.sh | This script generates a GreenLake Metal OS service.yml file appropriate for uploading the service to a GLM portal(s). |
| glm-service-cloud-init.template | This is the cloud-init template file that GLM will use to setup cloud-init to run on the 1st boot. |
| glm-service-ks-hostdef.cfg.template | A SLES autoinst file (templated with hostdef-v1) that is included into the core autoinst file. |
| glm-service-ks-install-env.cfg.template | The core SLES autoinst file (templated with install-env-v1) |
| glm-service-sles-service.yml.template | This is the GLM .YML service file template. |
Feel free to modify these file to suite your specifc needs. General changes that you want to contribute back via a pull request are much appreciated.
The license for this repo has yet to be determined.
The SLES autoinst file is the basis of the automated install of SLES supplied by this recipe. Many additional changes to either of the autoinst files are possible to customize to your needs.
The SLES install is driven by the primary autoinst file that is saved as glm-autoinst.xml.template in this repo. In the middle of this file is a package list that looks like this:
<packages t="list">
<package>...</package>
</packages>
Feel free to additional packages to list (as long as the packages are on the SLES .ISO).
Additional package can also be added when cloud-init runs if you prefer that.
This service uses cloud-init to customize the deployed image after an autoinst-driven SLES install. The cloud-init template is saved in this repo as glm-cloud-init.template. Customizations of this file are possible.
When the build script completes successfully you will find the following instructions there for how to add this image into your HPE GreenLake Metal portal. For example:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | This build has generated a new GreenLake Metal (GLM) SLES service/image
| | that consists of the following 2 new files:
| | glm-metal-sles.iso
| | glm-metal-sles-service.yml
| |
| | To use this new GLM SLES service/image in HPE GLM take the following steps:
| | (1) Copy the new .ISO file (glm-metal-sles.iso) to your web server (http://192.169.1.131)
| | such that the file can be downloaded from the following URL:
| | http://192.169.1.131/glm-metal-sles.iso
| | (2) Add the GreenLake Metal Service file to your GLM Portal using this command:
| | qctl services create -f glm-metal-sles-service.yml
| | (3) Create a host in GLM using this OS image service.
| +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow the instructions as directed!
After you have created your custom SLES image/server and created a host using this new service, you will want to monitor the deployment for the first few times to make sure things are going as expected. Here are some points to note:
- This image/service is setup to output to the serial console during SLES deployment and watching the serial console is the easiest way to monitor the SLES deployment/installation.
- HPE GreeLake Metal tools do not monitor the serial port(s) at this time so if an error is generated by the SLES installer, the GLM tools will not know about it.
- Sometimes for more difficult OS deployment problems you might want to gain access to the servers iLO so that you can monitor it that way. See your GLM administrator.
- There are several arbitrary setting for the file system settings (file system type, size of partition, etc) that are embedded in the autoinst file in this SLES OS image (see glm-autoinst.xml.template).
- This SLES service will set a LVM volume using all available storage on the server. This is probably not the desired behavior for all situations but it does make the service more robust (works when there is not sda but other storage is present). This will change when we get more RAID setup support implemented.
- There is NO automated installation of ProLiant Support Packs or other HPE software that might be recommended for SLES on HPE servers.
This GLM SLES recipe (by default) when deployed will:
- Not create a non-root user login. Neither the GLM SLES autoinst nor cloud-init files will create any user beyond the root user,
- Not create a root password. Neither the GLM SLES autoinst nor cloud-init files will setup any root password,
- The SSH Keys supplied in the GLM Host creation are added to the root user by the cloud-init file (see glm-cloud-init.template).
The implications of the default setup are:
- Because there is no user with a password setup, there is no way to login to the SLES host via the GLM serial console,
- The only way to login is via the root user via ssh and the GLM installed SSH Keys,
- If you want to create another non-root user account then you can add that to either the autoinst or cloud-init files as desired.
SLES is a licensed software and users need to have a valid license key from SUSE to use SLES. This install service does nothing to setup a SLES license key in any way. Users are expected to manually use SLES tools to setup a SLES license on the host.
Host network setup should happen automatically. To validate the network connectivity with curl for example:
[user@host ~]$ curl -k https://google.com
<HTML><HEAD><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
<TITLE>301 Moved</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
<H1>301 Moved</H1>
The document has moved
<A HREF="https://www.google.com/">here</A>.
</BODY></HTML>
[user@host ~]$
The GreenLake Metal will setup the cloud-init files
/etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/9?_datasource.cfg. If the network setup is
not right in these cloud-init files then it will never be right on the
deployed host. To validate the deployment of the cloud-init files see
/var/log/cloud-init-output.log.
When a host is setup with a iSCSI (Nimble/etc) volume then the Nimble volume should be automatcally setup, for example:
[root@host ~]# lsscsi
[0:0:0:0] cd/dvd iLO Virtual DVD-ROM /dev/sr0
[1:0:0:0] disk ATA MM1000GFJTE HPG5 /dev/sda
[7:0:0:0] disk Nimble Server 1.0 /dev/sdb
[root@host ~]#
These instructions also add Prometheus node_exporter to the running system. Node_exporter is needed for GL Metal to collect telemetry information about running Compute Instances for uptime calculation. If node_exporter is not running on the Compute Instance, then GL Metal will not be able to calculate uptime for it.