Installing Ironic Python Agent!¶

Image Builders¶

Unlike most other python software, you must build an IPA ramdisk image before use. This is because it’s not installed in an operating system, but instead is run from within a ramdisk.

diskimage-builder¶

A production ready way to build a ramdisk image for IPA is by using ironic-python-agent-builder. The ironic-python-agent-ramdisk diskimage-builder element builds the IPA ramdisk, which installs all the required packages and configures services as needed.

tinyipa¶

Now this method is provided by ironic-python-agent-builder repository. It provides a set of scripts to build a Tiny Core Linux-based deployment kernel and ramdisk (code name tinyipa) under tinyipa folder.

Tiny Core Linux is a very minimalistic Linux distribution. Due to its small size and decreased RAM requirements it is mostly suitable for usage in CI with virtualized hardware, and is already used on a number of gate jobs in projects under OpenStack Baremetal program. On the other hand, due to its generally newer Linux kernel it also known to work on real hardware if the kernel supports all necessary components installed.

Please refer to tinyipa/README.rst for more information and build instructions.

ISO Images¶

Additionally, the IPA ramdisk can be packaged inside of an ISO for use with supported virtual media drivers. Simply use the iso-image-create utility packaged with IPA, pass it an initrd and kernel. e.g.:

./iso-image-create -o /path/to/output.iso -i /path/to/ipa.initrd -k /path/to/ipa.kernel

This is a generic tool that can be used to combine any initrd and kernel into a suitable ISO for booting, and so should work against any IPA ramdisk.

IPA Flags¶

You can pass a variety of flags to IPA on start up to change its behavior.

--standalone: This disables the initial lookup and heartbeats to Ironic. Lookup sends some information to Ironic in order to determine Ironic’s node UUID for the node. Heartbeat sends periodic pings to Ironic to tell Ironic the node is still running. These heartbeats also trigger parts of the deploy and cleaning cycles. This flag is useful for debugging IPA without an Ironic installation.
--debug: Enables debug logging.

IPA and SSL¶

During its operation IPA makes HTTP requests to a number of other services, currently including

ironic for lookup/heartbeats
ironic-inspector to publish results of introspection
HTTP image storage to fetch the user image to be written to the node’s disk (Object storage service or other service storing user images when ironic is running in a standalone mode)

When these services are configured to require SSL-encrypted connections, IPA can be configured to either properly use such secure connections or ignore verifying such SSL connections.

Configuration mostly happens in the IPA config file (default is /etc/ironic_python_agent/ironic_python_agent.conf) or command line arguments passed to ironic-python-agent, and it is possible to provide some options via kernel command line arguments instead.

Available options in the [DEFAULT] config file section are:

insecure: Whether to verify server SSL certificates. When not specified explicitly, defaults to the value of ipa-insecure kernel command line argument (converted to boolean). The default for this kernel command line argument is taken to be False. Overriding it to True by adding ipa-insecure=1 to the value of [pxe]pxe_append_params in ironic configuration file will allow running the same IPA-based deploy ramdisk in a CI-like environment when services are using secure HTTPS endpoints with self-signed certificates without adding a custom CA file to the deploy ramdisk (see below).
cafile: Path to the PEM encoded Certificate Authority file. When not specified, available system-wide list of CAs will be used to verify server certificates. Thus in order to use IPA with HTTPS endpoints of other services in a secure fashion (with insecure option being False, see above), operators should either ensure that certificates of those services are verifiable by root CAs present in the deploy ramdisk, or add a custom CA file to the ramdisk and set this IPA option to point to this file at ramdisk build time.
certfile: Path to PEM encoded client certificate cert file. This option must be used when services are configured to require client certificates on SSL-secured connections. This cert file must be added to the deploy ramdisk and path to it specified for IPA via this option at ramdisk build time. This option has an effect only when the keyfile option is also set.
keyfile: Path to PEM encoded client certificate key file. This option must be used when services are configured to require client certificates on SSL-secured connections. This key file must be added to the deploy ramdisk and path to it specified for IPA via this option at ramdisk build time. This option has an effect only when the certfile option is also set.

Currently a single set of cafile/certfile/keyfile options is used for all HTTP requests to the other services.

Securing IPA’s HTTP server itself with SSL is not yet supported in default ramdisk builds.

Hardware Managers¶

What is a HardwareManager?¶

Hardware managers are how IPA supports multiple different hardware platforms in the same agent. Any action performed on hardware can be overridden by deploying your own hardware manager.

Why build a custom HardwareManager?¶

Custom hardware managers allow you to include hardware-specific tools, files and cleaning steps in the Ironic Python Agent. For example, you could include a BIOS flashing utility and BIOS file in a custom ramdisk. Your custom hardware manager could expose a cleaning step that calls the flashing utility and flashes the packaged BIOS version (or even download it from a tested web server).

How can I build a custom HardwareManager?¶

Operators wishing to build their own hardware managers should reference the documentation available at Hardware Managers.