Node Stand-alone Operation

Goals

To describe the operation for a stand-alone oVirt node.
Ability to define the size of the LVM volumes if local disk is used
Ability to define a permanent file system for logging.
Define logging details at boot menu
rsyslog for running virtual machines.
Ability to define/create a swap partition on local storage.
Ability to define virtual machines through a minimal (text) interface.
Ability to define network interfaces for node through a minimal (text) interface.

Starting oVirt Nodes in stand-alone mode

oVirt Nodes can run in stand-alone mode. Stand-alone mode must be set at boot time by adding the ovirt_standalone boot option or by selecting "stand-alone mode" in the GRUB boot menu. Follow this procedure to run an oVirt Node in stand-alone mode:

Insert the livecd or live USB flash drive containing the oVirt Node.
Boot the machine. Press any key when the screen labelled "Automatic boot in X seconds" appears.
The boot menu displays. Select "Boot in stand-alone mode" and press enter to continue.

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The oVirt Node stand-alone mode menu

The "oVirt Node stand-alone mode configuration menu" appears when the Node has successfully started in stand-alone mode. The menu resembles this:

oVirt Node stand-alone mode configuration menu 
1) Networking Setup	   4) Administrator Password
2) Disk Partitioning	   5) Continue boot
3) Logging Setup	   6) Local install and reboot
Please select an option:

From this menu you can configure the settings for the oVirt Node.

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Networking Configuration

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Non-Interactive (Automated) Configuration

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Kernel Arguments

In order to configure a node's networking automatically, kernel arguments must be supplied. These arguments provide details for the network.

Kernel Argument	Description	Usage
BOOTIF	Required to trigger autoinstall. Specifies boot/management NIC	eth*\|<MAC> (as appended by pxelinux IPAPPEND 2)
ip	Specifies the IPv4 address to be used.	ip=172.31.0.100 - configures IPv4 with the given address ip=off - disables IPv4 If not present, DHCP is assumed alternative format, pxelinux style: ip=<client-ip>:<boot-server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>
netmask	Specifies the IPv4 netmask to be used. This argument is optional.	netmask=255.255.255.0
gateway	Specifies the IPv4 gateway to be used. This argument is optional.	gateway=172.31.0.1
ipv6=[type]	Tells the node to enable IPv6 networking	Allowed types are: auto uses stateless automatic configuration. dhcp uses stateful automatic configuration. any other value is treated as an IPv6 address.

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Interactive Configuration

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Networking

From the first boot menu, select the Networking option.

1) eth0
2) eth1
3) Save
4) Quit
Please select a network interface to configure:

On the screen a menu will show all network interfaces on the device, as well as an option to Save and to Quit.

Selecting an interface takes the user into configuration for that device. Configuration creates a new bridged interface to be used by the selected network device. The bridge is named for the interface selected.

1) eth0
2) eth1
3) Save
4) Quit
Please select a network interface to configure: 1
 
Configure ovirtbreth0 for use by eth0..

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IPv4 Configuration

Enable IPv4 support ([S]tatic IP, [D]HCP, [N]o or [A]bort)?

Selecting S allows the user to enter static addressing information for the interface.

IP Address: 172.31.0.100
   Netmask: 255.255.255.0
   Gateway: 172.31.0.1

Selecting D will result in the interface using DHCP to retrieve an IP address, etc.

Selecting N will result in no IPv4 addressing for the interface.

Selecting A will exit configuration for the device.

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IPv6 Configuration

Enable IPv6 supprt ([S]tatic, [D]HCPv6, A[u]to, [N]o, [A]bort)?

Selecting S allows the user to enter static addressing information, specifically the IP address and optional prefix, for the interface.

IPv6 Address: 3ffe:ffff:0000:f100::1/56

Selecting D will result in stateful automatic configuration for the interface.

Selecting U will result in stateless automatic configuration for the interface.

Selecting N will result in no IPv4 addressing for the interface.

Selecting A will exit configuration for the device.

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Saving The Configuration

Is this correct (Y/N/A)?

Selecting Y saves the configuration files to disk.

Selecting N allows the user to re-enter the configuration for the device.

Selecting A aborts the configuration and returns to main menu

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Applying The Configuration

1) eth0
2) eth1
3) Save
4) Quit
Please select a network interface to configure:

Selecting Save from the menu applies the network configuration changes and restarts the network service.

Selecting Quit exits without changing the network configuration.

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Local Storage

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Partitions

Local storage configuration creates the following partions.

Partition Label	Description
SWAP	Linux swap area.
BOOT	Contains bootloader, kernel and initramfs.
ROOT	Contains the rootfs - LiveOS folder from the liveCD image.
CONFIG	Holds configuration files for the node.
LOGGING	Holds all logs for the node.
DATA	Storage of virtual machine images.

All partitions, except BOOT, are created on logical volumes. This is to allow for easier resizing of the partitions after installation has completed.

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Non-Interactive (Automated) Setup

The following kernel arguments determine the size of partitions when automated storage configuration is performed. Any existing data and partitioning information is destroyed.

All sizes are specified in megabytes.

Kernel Argument	Description
ovirt_init= { {usb or scsi} [:serial#] or /dev/... }	Required to trigger autoinstall. Local installation target disk: usb or scsi - select disk type, as reported by udev ID_BUS, serial# - select exact disk using serial number, as reported by udev ID_SERIAL. If parameter value is not specified, first disk is taken.
ovirt_vol=BOOT_MB:SWAP_MB:ROOT_MB:CONFIG_MB:LOGGING_MB:DATA_MB	specify partition sizes. If size for the partition is 0, that partition is not created. If size for partition is skipped i.e. entered as :: in the boot parameter value, default size is used.
BOOT_MB	The size of the boot partition. Default is 50 MB.
SWAP_MB	The size of the swap partition. Default is calculated from RAM size and overcommit ratio.
ROOT_MB	The size of the root file system partition. Default is 256 MB x2 (for backup root).
CONFIG_MB	The size of the configuration partition. Default is 5 MB.
LOGGING_MB	The size of the logging partition. Default is 256 MB.
DATA_MB	The size of the data partition. Default is the remaining disk space, which is -1. If set to 0 then no data partition is created. Otherwise any value entered will specify the total size for the data partition.

The DATA partition will use remaining disk space after all other partitions are created.

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Interactive Setup

From the first boot, the user selects the Storage option. This displays the following menu:

1) Configure
2) Review
3) Partition
4) Quit
Choose an option:

Selecting Quit returns the user to the first boot menu.

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Configure

1) /dev/sdb
2) /dev/sda
3) Abort
Choose an option: 1
selected device:  (0 MB)
Change swap partition size (Currently 3040 MB)? 3040
Change boot partition size (Currently 256 MB)?  
Change root partition size (Currently 256 MB)? 512
Change logging partition size (Currently 256 MB)? 1024
Change config partition size (Currently 5 MB)?

When running in interactive mode, no device is pre-selected. The user must instead explicitly choose the device to be used. Only device detected as writable are selected.

After selecting a device, the user is then prompted to change the size for each of the partitions to be created. If the user presses Enter or enters an invalid value then the default is used.

The user is then returned to the main menu.

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Review

Displays the current proposed partition sizes.

The local disk will be repartitioned as follows:
================================================
           Physical Hard Disk: /dev/sda
      Total storage available: 114473 MB
          Swap partition size: 3040 MB
          Boot partition size: 256 MB
  Installation partition size: 512 MB
 Configuration partition size: 5 MB
       Logging partition size: 1024 MB

Actual partition sizes may change, being rounded up, based on decisions from the OS and partitioning software.

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Partition

!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!
!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!
!!WARNING!!                                                    !!WARNING!!
!!WARNING!!                                                    !!WARNING!!
!!WARNING!!    If you proceed, this will destroy all data on your local!!
!!WARNING!!    system, and your hard disk will be irreversably reconfigured!!
!!WARNING!!                                                    !!WARNING!!
!!WARNING!!                                                    !!WARNING!!
!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!
!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!WARNING!!
 
	Continue? (Y/n)

This process is destructive and unrecoverable. If the user selects the Partition option and then answers Y to continue, the hard disk will be repartitioned and loss of data will occur.

Upon completion of this process, the hard disk will be ready to have the node image installed and booted from hard disk.

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Logging

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Administrative Password

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Flow Of Events

Machine starts.
Machine determines if it's running in stand-alone mode.
- ovirt_standalone boot param to force it (available as non-default boot menu entry)
- assume stand-alone if _ovirt._tcp DNS SRV is not available
- parse pxelinux or anaconda ip boot params
  - pxelinux format: ip=<client-ip>:<boot-server-ip>:<gw-ip>:<netmask>
  - anaconda format: ip=<client-ip> netmask=<netmask> gateway=<gw-ip>
  - see anaconda/loader2/loader.c
If this is firstboot ( OVIRT_FIRSTBOOT=NO in /etc/default/ovirt records that firstboot is done)
- ovirt-config-setup runs at S99 to have HAL etc. available
1. Look for _syslog._udp DNS SRV record, set rsyslog to remote if found.
2. Prompt the user for an administrator password.
  - ovirt-config-password
3. Prompt user to configure disk storage.
  - ovirt-config-storage
  - Install node to disk?
    - ovirt-config-install
4. Prompt user to configure networking.
  - ovirt-config-networking
5. Prompt user to configure logging via rsyslog.
  - ovirt-config-logging
    1. Ask user for remote syslog server
    2. Ask user for remote syslog port
    3. Ask user for syslog protocol (udp/tcp)
    4. Restart rsyslog daemon
Finish booting.

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Configuration persistence

persisted files are bind-mounted from /config filesystem on CONFIG volume.
issues: augtool or sed -i on bind-mounted file fails: https://fedorahosted.org/augeas/ticket/32 - workaround is to unmount the file, copy the file from /config to rootfs, edit file directly in rootfs, copy back to /config and bind-mount it back to rootfs

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Default values from kernel boot params

/proc/cmdline parsed in ovirt-early, sets variables in /etc/default/ovirt
/etc/init.d/ovirt-functions sources that, all ovirt scripts source ovirt-functions
if all required values are set, perform zero-touch install (like ks)

OVIRT_STANDALONE=1 if ovirt_standalone present
OVIRT_LOCAL_BOOT=1 if ovirt_local_boot present
OVIRT_INIT ovirt_init=scsi|usb - specifies the storage device to be configured
OVIRT_VOL_* specify volume sizes:
- OVIRT_VOL_SWAP_SIZE OVIRT_VOL_BOOT_SIZE OVIRT_VOL_ROOT_SIZE OVIRT_VOL_CONFIG_SIZE OVIRT_VOL_LOGGING_SIZE
OVIRT_IPV6 ipv6=dhcp|auto
OVIRT_SYSLOG_SERVER OVIRT_SYSLOG_PORT syslog=ip:port TBD logrotate maxsize

Retrieved from "http://www.ovirt.org/page/Node_Stand-alone_Operation"

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Node Stand-alone Operation

Contents

Goals

Starting oVirt Nodes in stand-alone mode

The oVirt Node stand-alone mode menu

Networking Configuration

Non-Interactive (Automated) Configuration

Kernel Arguments

Interactive Configuration

Networking

IPv4 Configuration

IPv6 Configuration

Saving The Configuration

Applying The Configuration

Local Storage

Partitions

Non-Interactive (Automated) Setup

Interactive Setup

Configure

Review

Partition

Logging

Administrative Password

Flow Of Events

Configuration persistence

Default values from kernel boot params

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