Configuring Web or Serial Console

Overview

There are two types of console which are available in Bare Metal service, one is web console (Node web console) which is available directly from web browser, another is serial console (Node serial console).

Node web console

The web console can be configured in Bare Metal service in the following way:

  • Install shellinabox in ironic conductor node. For RHEL/CentOS, shellinabox package is not present in base repositories, user must enable EPEL repository, you can find more from FedoraProject page.

    Note

    shellinabox is no longer maintained by the authorized author. This is a fork of the project on GitHub that aims to continue with maintenance of the shellinabox project.

    Installation example:

    Ubuntu:

    sudo apt-get install shellinabox

    RHEL8/CentOS8/Fedora:

    sudo dnf install shellinabox

    You can find more about shellinabox on the shellinabox page.

    You can optionally use the SSL certificate in shellinabox. If you want to use the SSL certificate in shellinabox, you should install openssl and generate the SSL certificate.

    1. Install openssl, for example:

      Ubuntu:

      sudo apt-get install openssl

      RHEL8/CentOS8/Fedora:

      sudo dnf install openssl

    2. Generate the SSL certificate, here is an example, you can find more about openssl on the openssl page:

      cd /tmp/ca
openssl genrsa -des3 -out my.key 1024
openssl req -new -key my.key  -out my.csr
cp my.key my.key.org
openssl rsa -in my.key.org -out my.key
openssl x509 -req -days 3650 -in my.csr -signkey my.key -out my.crt
cat my.crt my.key > certificate.pem

  • Customize the console section in the Bare Metal service configuration file (/etc/ironic/ironic.conf), if you want to use SSL certificate in shellinabox, you should specify terminal_cert_dir. for example:

    [console]

#
# Options defined in ironic.drivers.modules.console_utils
#

# Path to serial console terminal program. Used only by Shell
# In A Box console. (string value)
#terminal=shellinaboxd

# Directory containing the terminal SSL cert (PEM) for serial
# console access. Used only by Shell In A Box console. (string
# value)
terminal_cert_dir=/tmp/ca

# Directory for holding terminal pid files. If not specified,
# the temporary directory will be used. (string value)
#terminal_pid_dir=<None>

# Time interval (in seconds) for checking the status of
# console subprocess. (integer value)
#subprocess_checking_interval=1

# Time (in seconds) to wait for the console subprocess to
# start. (integer value)
#subprocess_timeout=10

  • Append console parameters for bare metal PXE boot in the Bare Metal service configuration file (/etc/ironic/ironic.conf). See the reference for configuration in Appending kernel parameters to boot instances.

  • Enable the ipmitool-shellinabox console interface, for example:

    [DEFAULT]
enabled_console_interfaces = ipmitool-shellinabox,no-console

  • Configure node web console.

    If the node uses a hardware type, for example ipmi, set the node’s console interface to ipmitool-shellinabox:

    baremetal node set <node> --console-interface ipmitool-shellinabox

    Enable the web console, for example:

    baremetal node set <node> \
    --driver-info <terminal_port>=<customized_port>
baremetal node console enable <node>

    Check whether the console is enabled, for example:

    baremetal node validate <node>

    Disable the web console, for example:

    baremetal node console disable  <node>
baremetal node unset <node> --driver-info <terminal_port>

    The <terminal_port> is driver dependent. The actual name of this field can be checked in driver properties, for example:

    baremetal driver property list <driver>

    For the ipmi hardware type, this option is ipmi_terminal_port. Give a customized port number to <customized_port>, for example 8023, this customized port is used in web console url.

    Get web console information for a node as follows:

    baremetal node console show <node>
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property        | Value                                                                |
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| console_enabled | True                                                                 |
| console_info    | {u'url': u'http://<url>:<customized_port>', u'type': u'shellinabox'} |
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

    You can open web console using above url through web browser. If console_enabled is false, console_info is None, web console is disabled. If you want to launch web console, see the Configure node web console part.

Node serial console

Serial consoles for nodes are implemented using socat. It is supported by the ipmi and irmc hardware types.

Serial consoles can be configured in the Bare Metal service as follows:

  • Install socat on the ironic conductor node. Also, socat needs to be in the $PATH environment variable that the ironic-conductor service uses.

    Installation example:

    Ubuntu:

    sudo apt-get install socat

    RHEL8/CentOS8/Fedora:

    sudo dnf install socat

  • Append console parameters for bare metal PXE boot in the Bare Metal service configuration file. See the reference on how to configure them in Appending kernel parameters to boot instances.

  • Enable the ipmitool-socat console interface, for example:

    [DEFAULT]
enabled_console_interfaces = ipmitool-socat,no-console

  • Configure node console.

    If the node uses a hardware type, for example ipmi, set the node’s console interface to ipmitool-socat:

    baremetal node set <node> --console-interface ipmitool-socat

    Enable the serial console, for example:

    baremetal node set <node> --driver-info ipmi_terminal_port=<port>
baremetal node console enable <node>

    Check whether the serial console is enabled, for example:

    baremetal node validate <node>

    Disable the serial console, for example:

    baremetal node console disable  <node>
baremetal node unset <node> --driver-info <ipmi_terminal_port>

Serial console information is available from the Bare Metal service. Get serial console information for a node from the Bare Metal service as follows:

baremetal node console show <node>
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property        | Value                                                                |
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| console_enabled | True                                                                 |
| console_info    | {u'url': u'tcp://<host>:<port>', u'type': u'socat'}                  |
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

If console_enabled is false or console_info is None then the serial console is disabled. If you want to launch serial console, see the Configure node console.

Node serial console of the Bare Metal service is compatible with the serial console of the Compute service. Hence, serial consoles to Bare Metal nodes can be seen and interacted with via the Dashboard service. In order to achieve that, you need to follow the documentation for Serial Console from the Compute service.

Configuring HA

When using Bare Metal serial console under High Availability (HA) configuration, you may consider some settings below.

  • If you use HAProxy, you may need to set the timeout for both client and server sides with appropriate values. Here is an example of the configuration for the timeout parameter.

    frontend nova_serial_console
  bind 192.168.20.30:6083
  timeout client 10m  # This parameter is necessary
  use_backend nova_serial_console if <...>

backend nova_serial_console
  balance source
  timeout server 10m  # This parameter is necessary
  option  tcpka
  option  tcplog
  server  controller01 192.168.30.11:6083 check inter 2000 rise 2 fall 5
  server  controller02 192.168.30.12:6083 check inter 2000 rise 2 fall 5

  • The Compute service’s caching feature may need to be enabled in order to make the Bare Metal serial console work under a HA configuration. Here is an example of caching configuration in nova.conf.

    [cache]
enabled = true
backend = dogpile.cache.memcached
memcache_servers = memcache01:11211,memcache02:11211,memcache03:11211