Install and configure for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS

This section describes how to install and configure the Bare Metal service for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and CentOS 8.

Install and configure prerequisites

The Bare Metal service is a collection of components that provides support to manage and provision physical machines. You can configure these components to run on separate nodes or the same node. In this guide, the components run on one node, typically the Compute Service’s compute node.

It assumes that the Identity, Image, Compute, and Networking services have already been set up.

Set up the database for Bare Metal

The Bare Metal service stores information in a database. This guide uses the MySQL database that is used by other OpenStack services.

  1. In MySQL, create an ironic database that is accessible by the ironic user. Replace IRONIC_DBPASSWORD with a suitable password:

    # mysql -u root -p
mysql> CREATE DATABASE ironic CHARACTER SET utf8mb3;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ironic.* TO 'ironic'@'localhost' \
       IDENTIFIED BY 'IRONIC_DBPASSWORD';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ironic.* TO 'ironic'@'%' \
       IDENTIFIED BY 'IRONIC_DBPASSWORD';

Note

When creating the database to house Ironic, specifically on MySQL/MariaDB, the character set cannot be 4 byte Unicode characters. This is due to an internal structural constraint. UTF8, in these database platforms, has traditionally meant utf8mb3, short for “UTF-8, 3 byte encoding”, however the platforms are expected to move to utf8mb4 which is incompatible with Ironic.

Install and configure components

  1. Install from packages (using dnf)

    # dnf install openstack-ironic-api openstack-ironic-conductor python3-ironicclient

  2. Enable services

    # systemctl enable openstack-ironic-api openstack-ironic-conductor
# systemctl start openstack-ironic-api openstack-ironic-conductor

The Bare Metal service is configured via its configuration file. This file is typically located at /etc/ironic/ironic.conf.

Although some configuration options are mentioned here, it is recommended that you review all the Sample Configuration File so that the Bare Metal service is configured for your needs.

It is possible to set up an ironic-api and an ironic-conductor services on the same host or different hosts. Users also can add new ironic-conductor hosts to deal with an increasing number of bare metal nodes. But the additional ironic-conductor services should be at the same version as that of existing ironic-conductor services.

Configuring ironic-api service

  1. The Bare Metal service stores information in a database. This guide uses the MySQL database that is used by other OpenStack services.

    Configure the location of the database via the connection option. In the following, replace IRONIC_DBPASSWORD with the password of your ironic user, and replace DB_IP with the IP address where the DB server is located:

    [database]

# The SQLAlchemy connection string used to connect to the
# database (string value)
connection=mysql+pymysql://ironic:IRONIC_DBPASSWORD@DB_IP/ironic?charset=utf8

  2. Configure the ironic-api service to use the RabbitMQ message broker by setting the following option. Replace RPC_* with appropriate address details and credentials of RabbitMQ server:

    [DEFAULT]

# A URL representing the messaging driver to use and its full
# configuration. (string value)
transport_url = rabbit://RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD@RPC_HOST:RPC_PORT/

    Alternatively, you can use JSON RPC for interactions between ironic-conductor and ironic-api. Enable it in the configuration and provide the keystone credentials to use for authentication:

    [DEFAULT]

rpc_transport = json-rpc

[json_rpc]

# Authentication type to load (string value)
auth_type = password

# Authentication URL (string value)
auth_url=https://IDENTITY_IP:5000/

# Username (string value)
username=ironic

# User's password (string value)
password=IRONIC_PASSWORD

# Project name to scope to (string value)
project_name=service

# Domain ID containing project (string value)
project_domain_id=default

# User's domain id (string value)
user_domain_id=default

    If you use port other than the default 8089 for JSON RPC, you have to configure it, for example:

    [json_rpc]
port = 9999

  3. Configure the ironic-api service to use these credentials with the Identity service. Replace PUBLIC_IDENTITY_IP with the public IP of the Identity server, PRIVATE_IDENTITY_IP with the private IP of the Identity server and replace IRONIC_PASSWORD with the password you chose for the ironic user in the Identity service:

    [DEFAULT]

# Authentication strategy used by ironic-api: one of
# "keystone" or "noauth". "noauth" should not be used in a
# production environment because all authentication will be
# disabled. (string value)
auth_strategy=keystone

[keystone_authtoken]

# Authentication type to load (string value)
auth_type=password

# Complete public Identity API endpoint (string value)
www_authenticate_uri=http://PUBLIC_IDENTITY_IP:5000

# Complete admin Identity API endpoint. (string value)
auth_url=http://PRIVATE_IDENTITY_IP:5000

# Service username. (string value)
username=ironic

# Service account password. (string value)
password=IRONIC_PASSWORD

# Service tenant name. (string value)
project_name=service

# Domain name containing project (string value)
project_domain_name=Default

# User's domain name (string value)
user_domain_name=Default

  4. Create the Bare Metal service database tables:

    $ ironic-dbsync --config-file /etc/ironic/ironic.conf create_schema

  5. Restart the ironic-api service:

    Fedora/RHEL8/CentOS8/SUSE:

    sudo systemctl restart openstack-ironic-api

    Ubuntu:

    sudo service ironic-api restart

Configuring ironic-api behind mod_wsgi

Bare Metal service comes with an example file for configuring the ironic-api service to run behind Apache with mod_wsgi.

Note

This is optional, the ironic APIs can be run using independent scripts that provide HTTP servers. But it is generally considered more performant and flexible to run them using a generic HTTP server that supports WSGI (such as Apache or nginx).

  1. Install the apache service:

    Fedora/RHEL8/CentOS8:

    sudo dnf install httpd

    Debian/Ubuntu:

    apt-get install apache2

    SUSE:

    zypper install apache2

  2. Download the etc/apache2/ironic file from the Ironic project tree and copy it to the apache sites:

    Fedora/RHEL8/CentOS8:

    sudo cp etc/apache2/ironic /etc/httpd/conf.d/ironic.conf

    Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo cp etc/apache2/ironic /etc/apache2/sites-available/ironic.conf

    SUSE:

    sudo cp etc/apache2/ironic /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/ironic.conf

  3. Edit the recently copied <apache-configuration-dir>/ironic.conf:

    1. Modify the WSGIDaemonProcess, APACHE_RUN_USER and APACHE_RUN_GROUP directives to set the user and group values to an appropriate user on your server.

    2. Modify the WSGIScriptAlias directive to point to the automatically generated ironic-api-wsgi script that is located in IRONIC_BIN directory.

    3. Modify the Directory directive to set the path to the Ironic API code.

    4. Modify the ErrorLog and CustomLog to redirect the logs to the right directory (on Red Hat systems this is usually under /var/log/httpd).

  4. Stop and disable the ironic-api service. If ironic-api service is started, the port will be occupied. Apach will fail to start:

    Fedora/RHEL8/CentOS8/SUSE:

    sudo systemctl stop openstack-ironic-api
sudo systemctl disable openstack-ironic-api

    Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo service ironic-api stop
sudo service ironic-api disable

  5. Enable the apache ironic in site and reload:

    Fedora/RHEL8/CentOS8:

    sudo systemctl reload httpd

    Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo a2ensite ironic
sudo service apache2 reload

    SUSE:

    sudo systemctl reload apache2

Note

The file ironic-api-wsgi is automatically generated by pbr and is available in IRONIC_BIN directory. It should not be modified.

Configure another WSGI container

A slightly different approach has to be used for WSGI containers that cannot use ironic-api-wsgi. For example, for gunicorn:

gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:6385 'ironic.api.wsgi:initialize_wsgi_app(argv=[])'

If you want to pass a configuration file, use:

gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:6385 \
    'ironic.api.wsgi:initialize_wsgi_app(argv=["ironic-api", "--config-file=/path/to/_ironic.conf"])'

Configuring ironic-conductor service

  1. Replace HOST_IP with IP of the conductor host.

    [DEFAULT]

# IP address of this host. If unset, will determine the IP
# programmatically. If unable to do so, will use "127.0.0.1".
# (string value)
my_ip=HOST_IP

    Note

    If a conductor host has multiple IPs, my_ip should be set to the IP which is on the same network as the bare metal nodes.

  2. Configure the location of the database. Ironic-conductor should use the same configuration as ironic-api. Replace IRONIC_DBPASSWORD with the password of your ironic user, and replace DB_IP with the IP address where the DB server is located:

    [database]

# The SQLAlchemy connection string to use to connect to the
# database. (string value)
connection=mysql+pymysql://ironic:IRONIC_DBPASSWORD@DB_IP/ironic?charset=utf8

  3. Configure the ironic-conductor service to use the RabbitMQ message broker by setting the following option. Ironic-conductor should use the same configuration as ironic-api. Replace RPC_* with appropriate address details and credentials of RabbitMQ server:

    [DEFAULT]

# A URL representing the messaging driver to use and its full
# configuration. (string value)
transport_url = rabbit://RPC_USER:RPC_PASSWORD@RPC_HOST:RPC_PORT/

    Alternatively, you can use JSON RPC for interactions between ironic-conductor and ironic-api. Enable it in the configuration and provide the keystone credentials to use for authenticating incoming requests (can be the same as for the API):

    [DEFAULT]

rpc_transport = json-rpc

[keystone_authtoken]

# Authentication type to load (string value)
auth_type=password

# Complete public Identity API endpoint (string value)
www_authenticate_uri=http://PUBLIC_IDENTITY_IP:5000

# Complete admin Identity API endpoint. (string value)
auth_url=http://PRIVATE_IDENTITY_IP:5000

# Service username. (string value)
username=ironic

# Service account password. (string value)
password=IRONIC_PASSWORD

# Service tenant name. (string value)
project_name=service

# Domain name containing project (string value)
project_domain_name=Default

# User's domain name (string value)
user_domain_name=Default

    You can optionally change the host and the port the JSON RPC service will bind to, for example:

    [json_rpc]
host_ip = 192.168.0.10
port = 9999

    Warning

    Hostnames of ironic-conductor machines must be resolvable by ironic-api services when JSON RPC is used.

  4. Configure credentials for accessing other OpenStack services.

    In order to communicate with other OpenStack services, the Bare Metal service needs to use service users to authenticate to the OpenStack Identity service when making requests to other services. These users’ credentials have to be configured in each configuration file section related to the corresponding service:

    • [neutron] - to access the OpenStack Networking service

    • [glance] - to access the OpenStack Image service

    • [swift] - to access the OpenStack Object Storage service

    • [cinder] - to access the OpenStack Block Storage service

    • [inspector] - to access the OpenStack Bare Metal Introspection service

    • [service_catalog] - a special section holding credentials the Bare Metal service will use to discover its own API URL endpoint as registered in the OpenStack Identity service catalog.

    For simplicity, you can use the same service user for all services. For backward compatibility, this should be the same user configured in the [keystone_authtoken] section for the ironic-api service (see “Configuring ironic-api service”). However, this is not necessary, and you can create and configure separate service users for each service.

    Under the hood, Bare Metal service uses keystoneauth library together with Authentication plugin, Session and Adapter concepts provided by it to instantiate service clients. Please refer to Keystoneauth documentation for supported plugins, their available options as well as Session- and Adapter-related options for authentication, connection and endpoint discovery respectively.

    In the example below, authentication information for user to access the OpenStack Networking service is configured to use:

    • Networking service is deployed in the Identity service region named RegionTwo, with only its public endpoint interface registered in the service catalog.

    • HTTPS connection with specific CA SSL certificate when making requests

    • the same service user as configured for ironic-api service

    • dynamic password authentication plugin that will discover appropriate version of Identity service API based on other provided options

      • replace IDENTITY_IP with the IP of the Identity server, and replace IRONIC_PASSWORD with the password you chose for the ironic user in the Identity service

    [neutron]

# Authentication type to load (string value)
auth_type = password

# Authentication URL (string value)
auth_url=https://IDENTITY_IP:5000/

# Username (string value)
username=ironic

# User's password (string value)
password=IRONIC_PASSWORD

# Project name to scope to (string value)
project_name=service

# Domain ID containing project (string value)
project_domain_id=default

# User's domain id (string value)
user_domain_id=default

# PEM encoded Certificate Authority to use when verifying
# HTTPs connections. (string value)
cafile=/opt/stack/data/ca-bundle.pem

# The default region_name for endpoint URL discovery. (string
# value)
region_name = RegionTwo

# List of interfaces, in order of preference, for endpoint
# URL. (list value)
valid_interfaces=public

    By default, in order to communicate with another service, the Bare Metal service will attempt to discover an appropriate endpoint for that service via the Identity service’s service catalog. The relevant configuration options from that service group in the Bare Metal service configuration file are used for this purpose. If you want to use a different endpoint for a particular service, specify this via the endpoint_override configuration option of that service group, in the Bare Metal service’s configuration file. Taking the previous Networking service example, this would be

    [neutron]
...
endpoint_override = <NEUTRON_API_ADDRESS>

    (Replace <NEUTRON_API_ADDRESS> with actual address of a specific Networking service endpoint.)

  5. Configure enabled drivers and hardware types as described in Enabling drivers and hardware types.

    1. If you enabled any driver that uses Direct deploy, Swift backend for the Image service must be installed and configured, see Configure the Image service for temporary URLs. Ceph Object Gateway (RADOS Gateway) is also supported as the Image service’s backend, see Ceph Object Gateway support.

  6. Configure the network for ironic-conductor service to perform node cleaning, see Node cleaning from the admin guide.

  7. Restart the ironic-conductor service:

    Fedora/RHEL7/CentOS7/SUSE:

    sudo systemctl restart openstack-ironic-conductor

    Ubuntu:

    sudo service ironic-conductor restart

Configuring single-process ironic

As an alternative to starting separate API and conductor instances, you can start ironic services that combine an API and a conductor in the same process. This may be particularly beneficial in environments with limited resources and low number of nodes to handle.

Note

This feature is available starting with the Yoga release series.

  1. Start with setting up the environment as described in both Configuring ironic-api service and Configuring ironic-conductor service, but do not start any services. Merge configuration options into a single configuration file.

    Note

    Any RPC settings will only take effect if you have more than one combined service started or if you have additional conductors.

    If you don’t plan to have more than one conductor, you can disable the RPC completely:

    [DEFAULT]
rpc_transport = none

  2. Stop existing services if they are already started:

    Fedora/RHEL/CentOS/SUSE:

    sudo systemctl stop openstack-ironic-api
sudo systemctl stop openstack-ironic-conductor

    Ubuntu:

    sudo service ironic-api stop
sudo service ironic-conductor stop

  3. Start or restart the ironic service:

    Fedora/RHEL8/CentOS8/SUSE:

    sudo systemctl restart openstack-ironic

    Ubuntu:

    sudo service ironic restart