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A tool for launching an arbitrary number of virtual machines

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Zerg

Zerg is a tool for launching an arbitrary number of virtual machines and running a task on all of them at once.

  • Tested on Ubuntu 12.04
  • YMMV on OSX, however it is recommended you use the provided dev VM
  • JSON config files
  • Supports vagrant virtualbox, vagrant-aws and vagrant-libvirt providers
  • planned support for more hypervisor orchestration tools and providers
  • Ruby 1.9 required

Attributions

Zerg uses a number of open source projects to work properly:

Develop (OSX)

Install Vagrant. Then:

git clone git@github.com:MTNSatelliteComm/zerg.git zerg
cd zerg/dev_env
vagrant plugin install vagrant-berkshelf
vagrant plugin install vagrant-butcher
vagrant plugin install vagrant-omnibus
vagrant up --provision
vagrant ssh
cd /zerg

See if Virtualbox is functioning normally:

VBoxManage --version

Use

From Rubygems:

gem install zergrush

From source:

cd zerg
rake install

cd to a folder where you would like to use zerg from and:

zerg init
zerg rush <task name>

'zerg init' command initializes two example tasks - helloworld and helloaws. Try them with:

zerg rush helloworld

Note that prior to trying the helloaws task you will need to set some environment variables:

  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID - AWS key id
  • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - AWS secret key
  • AWS_KEY_PAIR - AWS key pair name
  • AWS_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH - path to the private key .pem
  • AWS_SECURITY_GROUP - name of an AWS security group to use

You will then be able to run the task with:

zerg rush helloaws

Tasks

Zerg task files are json files that are loaded by zerg, validated, and then transformed into a Vagrantfile. Vagrant is then launched against that generated vagrantfile.

Task JSON schema

  • num_instances - number of virtual machines that'll be started
  • synced_folders - array of folders to sync
    • host_path - path to folder on the host
    • guest_path - path to folder on the guest that host_path will map to
    • options - array of options corresponding to Vagrant sync folder options
  • tasks - array of tasks. Task definitions vary by driver type. For example: Vagrant driver schema
  • vm - description of all VM instances.
    • private_ip_range - IP address range in CIDR notation used for all private ip addresses, unless said address is explicitly specified by another option. First host ip in range is always the host machine.
    • driver - properties of a hypervisor 'driver'. Currently only Vagrant is supported
      • drivertype - Type of the 'driver' Only 'vagrant' is currently supported.
      • driveroptions - options for the driver, defined by driver plugin
    • instances - array of detailed descriptions of each/some of the vm instances. Last definition in the array is applied to the rest of remaining instances. For example: if num_instances is 3 and there are 2 items in instances array, then first VM will correspond to the first item, and the other two VMs will correspond to the second.
      • basebox - basebox file location or URL
      • keepalive - keep this instance around after all tasks are finished
      • tasks - array of tasks to run. Task properties are defined by driver plugin
      • synced_folders - array of synchronized folders
        • host_path - path on host
        • guest_path - corresponding path on guest
        • additional - addtional properties defined by driver plugin
      • forwarded_ports - array of port forwarding descriptions
        • guest_port port on guest to be forwarded
        • host_port - port on host to be forwarded to
        • additional - addtional properties defined by driver plugin
      • networks - array of networks to be setup - NAT/bridging/etc. Network options are defined by driver plugin
      • ssh - SSH options
        • username - ssh username
        • host - ssh host, normally autodetected
        • port - host ssh port
        • guest_port - guest ssh port
        • private_key_path - path to the private key file
        • forward_agent - do SSH agent forwarding
        • additional - addtional properties defined by driver plugin

Example task

Below example task that:

  • will start 5 virtual machines using vagrant
  • first machine will be backed by VirtualBox
  • other machines will be backed by AWS
  • first machine will run some shell commands and will have a private network and a public network, bridged over host's AirPort adapter. It will also stay up after all other tasks are doen running
  • second machine will have git installed on it with chef client
  • all other machines will run 'starter' cookbook through chef solo
{
    "num_instances": 5,
    "vm": {
        "driver": {
            "drivertype": "vagrant",
            "driveroptions": [
                {
                    "providertype": "virtualbox",
                    "provider_options" : {
                        "gui": false,
                        "memory": 256
                    }
                },
                {
                    "providertype": "aws",
                    "provider_options" : {
                        "instance_type": "t1.micro",
                        "access_key_id": "YOUR_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID",
                        "secret_access_key": "YOUR_AWS_SECRET",
                        "keypair_name": "AWS_KEYPAIR_NAME",
                        "ami": "ami-3fec7956",
                        "region": "us-east-1",
                        "security_groups": [ "your_security_group" ]
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        "private_ip_range": "192.168.50.0/24",
        "instances": [
            {
                "basebox": "http://files.vagrantup.com/precise32.box",
                "keepalive": true,
                "tasks": [
                    {
                        "type": "shell",
                        "inline": "ping -c 3 192.168.50.1; echo \"ZERG RUSH FIRST!\""
                    }        
                ],
                "networks": [
                    {
                        "type": "private_network"
                    },
                    {
                        "type": "public_network",
                        "bridge": "en1: Wi-Fi (AirPort)"
                    }         
                ],
                "synced_folders": [
                    {
                        "host_path": "~",
                        "guest_path": "/zerg/hosthome"
                    }        
                ],
                "forwarded_ports": [
                    {
                        "guest_port": 8080,
                        "host_port": 80
                    }        
                ],
            },
            {
                "basebox": "https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant-aws/raw/master/dummy.box",
                "keepalive": false,
                "tasks": [
                    {
                        "type": "chef_client",
                        "chef_server_url": "CHEF_URL",
                        "validation_key_path": "CHEF_VALIDATION_KEYPATH",
                        "client_key_path": "CHEF_CLIENT_KEYPATH",
                        "validation_client_name": "CHEF_VALIDATION_CLIENT_NAME",
                        "delete_node": true,
                        "delete_client": true,
                        "run_list": ["recipe[git]"]
                    }        
                ],
                "ssh": {
                    "username": "ubuntu",
                    "private_key_path": "PATH_TO_YOUR_PK"      
                }
            },
            {
                "basebox": "https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant-aws/raw/master/dummy.box",
                "keepalive": false,
                "tasks": [
                    {
                        "type": "chef_solo",
                        "cookbooks_path": ["~/cookbooks"],
                        "run_list": ["recipe[starter]"]
                    }        
                ],
                "ssh": {
                    "username": "ubuntu",
                    "private_key_path": "PATH_TO_YOUR_PK"      
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Other commands

CLI help is available from the gem:

zerg help

Environment variables

By default Zerg will look for '.hive' in the current directory. You can override this location by setting an enviroment variable:

export HIVE_CWD=/path/to/wherever/you/want

Tests

cd zerg
bundle exec cucumber features/

Plugins

Zerg plugins are ruby gems. Each plugin gem must have an 'init.rb' file lib/gem_name/init.rb

required in the init.rb file:

require 'zerg'

class Vagrant < ZergGemPlugin::Plugin "/driver"
    def rush hive_location, task_name, task_hash, debug
        # 'zerg rush <task>' functionality.   
    end

    def clean hive_location, task_name, task_hash, debug
        # 'zerg clean <task>' functionality.
    end

    def halt hive_location, task_name, task_hash, debug
        # 'zerg halt <task>' functionality 
    end

    def task_schema
        # return a chunk of JSON schema for defining task item in tasks array
    end

    def option_schema
        # return a chunk of JSON schema for defining driver options
    end

    def folder_schema
        # return a chunk of JSON schema for defining driver-specific sync_folder options
    end

    def port_schema
        # return a chunk of JSON schema for defining driver-specific port forwarding options
    end

    def ssh_schema
        # return a chunk of JSON schema for defining driver-specific ssh options
    end
end

also, in the gem's gemspec file the following metadata must be present:

Gem::Specification.new do |s|
  s.name        = "your_plugin"
 
 ...

  # metadata that marks this as a zergrush plugin
  s.metadata = { "zergrushplugin" => "driver" }
end

Known issues

Vagrant inside vagrant

Running 64bit virtualbox VMs inside dev_env VM will most likely fail:

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20589&start=15

hashicorp/vagrant#572

You should still be able to run 32bit virtualbox boxes inside another VM though.

Security

JSON config files allow for snippets of ruby code to be passed through (#{ENV['BLAH']})

Not a problem locally, but would be BAD for a REST API

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