STANDARDISE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS
AND MACHINE IMAGES WITH PACKER
Marcelo Pinheiro
http://salizzar.net - @salizzar
SUMMARY
•
Motivation
•
Installation
•
How it works
•
Inside Templates
•
Some examples
•
Our experience
•
FAQ
MOTIVATION
•
How to take control inside the
following environment issues?
•
Common workstation problems
(HD failure, dead computer)
•
Different OS’s
•
Extra machine configuration to
enable devs to work (programming
languages, databases, plugins, etc),
taking one or two days to be
ready-to-code
•
“Works on my machine” syndrome
MOTIVATION
•
Vagrant or Docker. Period.
•
Embrace virtualisation
•
Each offers a way to pre-setup your VM with necessary libraries,
databases and so on
•
No more development databases in your pre-staging DB server,
additional dependencies
•
A try to make development environment more similar to production
MOTIVATION
•
It sounds good, but… how to take control over each application VM?
•
Sometimes your team needs to use some tools that are not available in
official package repository (or are too old), forcing to manual configuration
after up a VM
•
Even running a VM, developer personal choices can contaminate the
application (example: rspec add-ons, irb plugins)
•
Some developers don’t have knowledge about Chef / Puppet recipes
•
How to maintain Vagrant Custom Boxes / Docker Custom Images when
you need to add / change tools, repositories or configs?
MOTIVATION
•
For sysadms / sysops:
•
How to export a new machine image to your
virtualisation server (KVM, Xen, VMWare, etc)
when a new OS release is launched without
“dist-upgrade”?
•
How to automate it?
MOTIVATION
•
Packer for the rescue
•
Written in Go
•
Owner: Mitchell Hashimoto
(Vagrant, Serf)
•
http://www.packer.io
INSTALLATION
•
http://www.packer.io/downloads.html
•
Download zipped binaries for your OS
•
OSX
•
Linux
•
Windows
•
FreeBSD
•
OpenBSD
INSTALLATION
•
Move binaries to your /usr/local/bin, ~/bin,
whatever
•
It’s done.
HOW IT WORKS
•
Packer recipes are JSON files
•
Validate template:
•
•
$ packer validate your_recipe.json
Run template:
•
$ packer run your_recipe.json
INSIDE TEMPLATES
•
Packer templates have the following structure:
•
Variables
•
Builders
•
Provisioners
•
Post-processors
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
VARIABLES
•
User-defined variables to be used along template
•
Can be declared in a custom file
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
VARIABLES
"variables": {!
"box_ostype":
"box_osversion":
"box_nick":
"box_arch":
"box_type":
"box_memory":
"box_cpus":
"centos",!
"6.5",!
"6.5",!
"x64",!
"base",!
"512",!
"1",!
!
"iso_arch":
"iso_type":
"iso_md5":
"x86_64",!
"netinstall",!
"939fd1d87c11ffe7795324438b85adfb",!
"ssh_user":
"ssh_pass":
"hostname":
"domain":
"vagrant",!
"vagrant",!
"vagrant-centos-6.5",!
"vagrantup.com"!
!
}
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
VARIABLES
# my_variables.json!
{!
"type":
"vmware-iso",!
"vm_name":
"mybox-vmw“,!
"guest_os_type": “centos",!
"disk_size":
“4096”,!
!
(… other definitions here…)!
}!
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS
•
Create a machine image from scratch
•
Download a ISO from official OS mirror, select a
base image to start
•
Set CPU cores, memory size, disk size
•
See documentation for further details (a lot of
options)
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS
!
"builders": [!
{!
"type":
"iso_url":
"iso_checksum":
"iso_checksum_type":
"http_directory":
"ssh_username":
"ssh_password":
"ssh_wait_timeout":
"shutdown_command":
"virtualbox-iso",!
"http://an.repository.com/an-image.iso",!
"an-checksum",!
"md5",!
"http",!
"root",!
"apassword",!
"100000s",!
"echo {{ user `ssh_user` }} | sudo halt -p",!
"boot_command": [!
"<esc> ",!
"install ",!
"auto “,!
!
(… other definitions here …)!
!
"<enter><wait>"!
]!
}!
]
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS
•
How to automate setup mundane tasks?
•
Minimal set of packages
•
Disk partition
•
Network
•
Timezone
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS
•
For CentOS: Kickstart
•
For Debian: Preseed
•
For Windows:
•
Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK)
•
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS
•
Available builders:
•
QEMU - KVM and Xen
(experimental)
!
•
OpenStack
•
Google Compute
Engine
•
VMWare
•
Virtualbox
•
Amazon EC2
•
Docker
•
Digital Ocean
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS / VMWARE & VIRTUALBOX
•
•
VMWare:
•
vmware-iso: create from scratch
•
vmware-vmx: create from a base VMX file
Virtualbox:
•
virtualbox-iso: create from scratch
•
virtualbox-ovf: create from a base OVF file
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS / QEMU
•
Create KVM / Xen images from scratch
•
Packer depends on qemu-system-x86_64, available
only on Debian at this time as a binary
•
CentOS have qemu-kvm, but you need to
manually override all Packer default options
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS / DOCKER
•
Creates a Docker image by pulling a existent,
starting a container, provision it and exports a .tar
file
•
Provision without Dockerfile
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
BUILDERS / OTHERS
•
•
For other builders, you simply need to inform:
•
username / password, API key
•
base image
•
zone and other related information
See Packer documentation
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
PROVISIONERS
•
After the setup of a machine image, it’s time to configure
it
•
Here is where magic happens:
•
Add packages, useful scripts
•
Standardise config files
•
Apply existent recipes from a CM
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
PROVISIONERS
•
Available provisioners:
•
Shell Scripts
•
File Uploads
•
Ansible
•
Chef Solo
•
Puppet
•
Salt
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
PROVISIONERS / SHELL SCRIPTS
•
Most simple way to setup machine
•
Run apt-get, yum and friends
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
PROVISIONERS / SHELL SCRIPTS
"provisioners": [!
{!
"type": "shell",!
"execute_command": "echo 'root' | sh '{{ .Path }}'",!
"scripts": [!
"scripts/locale.sh",!
"scripts/elrepo.sh"!
]!
},!
{!
"type": "shell",!
"pause_before": "30s",!
"execute_command": "echo 'root' | sh '{{ .Path }}'",!
"scripts": [!
"scripts/vagrant.sh",!
"scripts/sudoers.sh"!
]!
}!
]
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
PROVISIONERS / FILE UPLOADS
•
Need to set default configuration files or upload
some custom packages (.tar, .deb / .rpm) to be
installed later?
•
Upload them and after process with a shell script
or CM recipe
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
PROVISIONERS / FILE UPLOADS
"provisioners": [!
{!
"type":
"shell",!
"execute_command": "echo 'root' | sh '{{ .Path }}'",!
"scripts": [!
"scripts/lamp/vagrant.sh",!
"scripts/lamp/apache2.sh",!
"scripts/lamp/php5.sh",!
"scripts/lamp/mysql.sh"!
]!
},!
{!
"type":
"file",!
"source":
"files/lamp-vagrant/vhost",!
"destination": "/etc/apache2/sites-available/lamp-php"!
},!
{!
"type":
"shell",!
"execute_command": "echo 'root' | sh '{{ .Path }}'",!
"script":
"scripts/lamp/enable-vhost"!
}!
]
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
PROVISIONERS / OTHERS
•
The following provisioners requires installation before run:
•
Ansible
•
Puppet
•
Salt
•
Chef Solo is installed by Packer if not present
•
At this time, all provisioners are executed in client mode (no remote
server)
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
PROVISIONERS / OTHERS
"provisioners": [!
{!
"type": "ansible-local",!
"playbook_file": "recipes/ansible/lamp.yml"!
},!
{!
"type": "chef-solo",!
"cookbook_paths": [ "recipes/chef/lamp" ]!
},!
{!
"type": "puppet-masterless",!
"manifest_file": "recipes/puppet/lamp"!
},!
{!
"type": "salt-masterless",!
"local_state_tree": "recipes/salt/lamp"!
}!
]
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
POST-PROCESSORS
•
After create / setup a machine image, you can:
•
Convert to a Vagrant Custom Box
•
Locally add it as a Docker container
•
Publish in a Docker registry
•
Publish in a vSphere endpoint
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
POST-PROCESSORS / VAGRANT
•
Defines a box output name
•
You can attach a Vagrantfile template and other
template files (cookbooks)
•
Change compression rate if you want
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
POST-PROCESSORS / VAGRANT
"post-processors": [!
{!
"type":
"vagrant",!
“output":
"lamp-vagrant.box"!
}!
]
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
POST-PROCESSORS / DOCKER
•
You can locally import a Docker image
•
You can push a Docker image to a registry
•
•
Needs manual login (automated soon)
Important: Docker pushes a completely new
image, not incremental
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
POST-PROCESSORS / DOCKER
"post-processors": [!
{!
"type":
"docker-import",!
"repository": "salizzar/packer",!
"tag":
"0.1"!
},!
"docker-push"!
]
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
POST-PROCESSORS / VSPHERE
•
Upload to a vSphere endpoint
INSIDE TEMPLATES:
POST-PROCESSORS / VSPHERE
"post-processors": [!
{!
"type":
"vsphere",!
"host":
"a-vsphere-host.com",!
"username":
"my_user",!
"password":
"my_password",!
"cluster":
"a-cluster",!
“datacenter":
"xyz",!
"datastore":
"zyx",!
“resource_pool": "zyx",!
"vm_folder":
"images",!
"vm_name":
"lamp",!
“vm_network":
"staging"!
},!
]
SOME EXAMPLES
•
It’s time to see some code!
•
All examples are available on:
•
https://github.com/salizzar/packer-examples
OUR EXPERIENCE
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (the Terrible)
OUR EXPERIENCE
•
Prepare to argue (sometimes fight :)
•
It’s hard to change development tradition of
premature optimisation, ultra-high performance,
personal choices, “nightly build” syndrome
•
Create a culture first
OUR EXPERIENCE
•
Sometimes the better choice must be autocracy-based
•
Use OS package system ASAP (or backport / automate installation if
package not exists)
•
Introduce to developers a wisdom to use the same package of
programming language / DB / whatever that runs in production (!)
•
If is old, upgrade your app to use a newer version
•
The same for tools that “vendorize" your app libraries (maven,
bundler, etc)
OUR EXPERIENCE
•
•
Make all applications ready-to-setup-and-run with one command
•
Track all dependencies with Dockerfile or Vagrant Shell Scripts
•
Bash scripts are more easy to setup than 3rd party CM tools
at first time
Adopt a convention to make all applications more similar as
possible about their structure
•
Code generators
OUR EXPERIENCE
•
Divide to conquer
•
Adopt a bottom-up strategy
•
Minor systems that are easy to setup
•
Minor teams
•
Start to apply with more systems and greater teams
•
Standardise ASAP
OUR EXPERIENCE
•
At this time, major systems in Locaweb PaaS are Vagrant-ready
•
git clone, vagrant up, vagrant ssh
•
Docker in development
•
Internally created a gem to apply standardisation of Rails apps:
•
•
Packaging (Debian)
•
Vagrant
Packer recipes to create Vagrant custom boxes, using our mirrors
FAQ
•
Questions?
•
New recipes available on:
•
https://github.com/salizzar/packer-vmware
THANK YOU!
:)