VNC Graphical console

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ironic/+bug/1567629

In addition to a serial console, allow ironic nodes to be accessed through a graphical console. This proposal presents the work required to create a new driver interface for accessing graphical console of a node.

Note

This specification has been retired. This was done based upon community consensus on several aspects of the design. Primarily, in that the existing console interface can serve both serial consoles and graphical consoles without the overhead and operator confusion induced through yet another different interface to set. From a secondary aspect, serial console use and interaction has fallen from favor since this feature was designed, specifically in part due to move to UEFI firmware and the overall modeling of serial ports in modern hardware, as a primary output driven by CPU interrupt triggering, which can have detrimental performance impacts on running workloads.

Problem description

End users often have to troubleshoot their instances because they might have broken their boot configuration or locked themselves out with a firewall. Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM) access is often required for troubleshooting these types of issues as serial access is not always available or correctly configured. Also, KVM provides a better user experience as compared to serial console.

Currently, ironic does not expose a node’s KVM capabilities. As such, admin users and deployers have to find alternatives to provide KVM access to their users. Also, Horizon’s VNC console is not supported for the ironic nodes provisioned by Nova.

Proposed change

• A new interface GraphicalConsoleInterface will be added. This interface will essentially have the same class API as current ConsoleInterface interface (with start_console, stop_console and get_console methods), but it will be possible to enable/disable/configure it independently from serial console access. As with other ironic driver interfaces and hardware types, operators are free to choose which implementation of a graphical console access to use by setting it to the one enabled and supported by corresponding hardware type implementations. The new interface will have following methods:

  class GraphicalConsoleInterface(BaseInterface):
      """Interface for graphical console-related actions."""
      interface_type = "graphical_console"
  
      @abc.abstractmethod
      def start_console(self, task):
          """Start a remote graphical console for the task's node.
  
          This method should not raise an exception if console already started.
  
          :param task: a TaskManager instance containing the node to act on.
          """
  
      @abc.abstractmethod
      def stop_console(self, task):
          """Stop the remote graphical console session for the task's node.
  
          :param task: a TaskManager instance containing the node to act on.
          """
  
      @abc.abstractmethod
      def get_console(self, task):
          """Get connection information about the graphical console.
  
          This method should return the necessary information for the
          client to access the graphical console.
  
          :param task: a TaskManager instance containing the node to act on.
          :returns: the graphical console connection information.
          """
  

• The following new hardware interface implementations of GraphicalConsoleInterface will be created.

  • ipmitool-vnc - For accessing graphical console using VNC.

  • no-graphical-console - For no graphical console.

  • fake - For accessing fake graphical console used for testing.

• New config options will be introduced for this interface which are as follows:

  • [DEFAULT]enabled_graphical_console_interfaces - This config option represents the list of enabled graphical console interfaces in ironic. The default value is ['no-graphical-console'].

  • [DEFAULT]default_graphical_console_interface - This config option represents the default graphical console interface to be used with various drivers. The default value will be no-graphical-console.

• Two new fields will be added to the Node object:

  • graphical_console_interface - This field represents the supported graphical console interface for the node.

  • graphical_console_enabled - This field will a Boolean value that will represent the state of console. It will be set to True via request to start the graphical console.

• While a node unprovisioning, Ironic will stop all the graphical connections to the node.

Alternatives

• Accept this limitation and only offer a serial console.

• Use out-of-band KVM access provided by administrator without Ironic support.

• Generalize and formalize concept of a console interface, and allow to have arbitrary number of console interfaces (from those declared as supported by a hardware type) to be active and enabled for a particular node.

Data model impact

• A new node field graphical_console_enabled, during upgrade/conversion will be populated from default_graphical_console_interface config option (no-graphical-console by default).

• new node field graphical_console_interface will be added.

State Machine Impact

None.

REST API impact

• Add a new optional console_type parameter to GET /v1/nodes/{node_ident}/states/console and PUT /v1/nodes/{node_ident}/states/console APIs. This parameter defines which type of console the Ironic users want to access. The default value will be serial. The possible values are as follows:

  • serial - For accessing the serial console.

  • graphical - For accessing the graphical console.

  This parameter will be included in the query string.

Example:

GET /v1/nodes/{node_ident}/states/console?console_type=graphical

The response would be same as the console interface. A new 400 HTTP response will be returned if user provides a invalid console_type.

The API microversion will need to be bumped.

Client (CLI) impact

• A new option --type will be added to OSC command openstack baremetal node console enable and openstack baremetal node console disable.

• A new option --type will be added to OSC command openstack baremetal node console show.

RPC API impact

• Add a new console_type parameter to get_console_information

• Add a new console_type parameter to set_console_mode

The RPC API microversion will need to be bumped.

Driver API impact

• The new GraphicalConsoleInterface will be included in the standardized interfaces group. It is not a mandatory interface.

Nova driver impact

Nova impacts are fully described in the VNC console support for Ironic driver [1] blueprint in Nova.

Essentially, the Ironic virt driver will have to implement get_vnc_console and call Ironic’s get/set-console-mode with the graphical type.

As per policy in Nova, changes cannot land until ironic and python-ironicclient changes have landed. The changes on the Nova side are fairly straightforward.

Ramdisk impact

None.

Security impact

• The VNC connection to the nodes are secured by a token generated while creating the console in Nova.

• With standalone Ironic deployment, this will return a URL and a user could directly connect with it. The connection to the baremetal node will not be secure.

Other end user impact

• The number of maximum connections per console, specifically VNC consoles is implementation specific. Some servers are capable of multiple connections and others aren’t.

Scalability impact

• As mentioned in the last section, the number of connections varies based on the hardware.

• TODO(mkrai): Update the number of connections a conductor can handle to address Ruby’s comment on PS7.

Performance Impact

None.

Other deployer impact

• Adds enabled_graphical_console_interfaces config option.

• Adds default_graphical_console_interface config option.

Developer impact

Driver developers can now offer multiple console interfaces rather than sticking to a single one. This actually maps much better to the reality of servers often offering a Serial-on-LAN access along with a Keyboard-Video-Mouse access.

Implementation

Assignee(s)

Primary assignee:

• mkrai

Other contributors:

• anupn

Work Items

• Introduce ipmitool.IPMIVNCConsole(BaseInterface)

• Add console_type support to the console REST API.

• Add console_type support to the RPC methods.

• Add console_type support to the OSC plugin.

• Add graphical console support to VirtualBMC

• Implement basic enable-disable + connect testing within devstack

• Update documents to explain how graphical console can be used

Dependencies

None.

Testing

• Unit tests

• CI testing of ipmitool.IPMIVNCConsole with a basic enable-disable connect test.

• Add support for graphical console support in virtual BMC for gate test.

Upgrades and Backwards Compatibility

Proper compatibility with Nova will be ensured. A newer Nova will continue to behave as it currently does when running with an older ironic. A newer ironic will expose features that Nova will simply not use.

Backwards compatibility within ironic is assured through RPC versions. Additional care is taken to ensure out-of-tree drivers are still compatible because the code will specifically handle drivers not switched to the new hardware types. Specific tests covering this part will be added. Finally, compatibility with older API clients is assured through REST API microversions.

Documentation Impact

• Documentation will be updated.

References

[1]

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/nova/+spec/ironic-vnc-console