OpenFlight Compute Cluster Builder

This repository contains scripts for the R&D setup of OpenFlight Compute.

Cloud DNS Preparation

To support FQDNs for a custom domain on Azure & AWS a little bit of preparation is needed. The instructions below explain how to point a subdomain hosted externally to both platforms at the two platforms in order to allow for custom FQDNS.

The subdomains need to be set for both the AWS_DOMAIN and AZURE_DOMAIN application-wide settings in settings.sh. Additionally the AWS_DOMAIN_ID needs to be set to the ID of the Route53 zone and the AZURE_DOMAIN_RG needs to be set to the resource group where the DNS Zone exists. (Note: these settings can be overridden on a per-config basis)

AWS

• Create public hosted zone in Route53 for the subdomain (e.g. zone1.clusters.openflighthpc.org)
• Create an NS record for the subdomain in the external DNS provider pointing to the Route53 nameservers

Azure

• Create public hosted zone in DNS Zones for the subdomain (e.g. zone2.clusters.openflighthpc.org)
• Create an NS record for the subdomain in the external DNS provider pointing to the Azure DNS Zone nameservers

Configure Environment

Currently, this is being developed and tested on Azure.

1. Launch the latest Cloud Controller

2. Login to the controller and authorise cloud CLI tools (az login / aws configure)

3. Clone the cluster builder repository

   git clone https://github.com/openflighthpc/openflight-compute-cluster-builder
   

4. Run the setup (Note: this will create an SSH keypair at /root/.ssh/id_rsa)

   cd openflight-compute-cluster-builder
   bash setup.sh
   

5. Update the config variables to reflect desired cloud configuration

   vim configs/default.sh
   

6. Check/update the application settings

   cp settings.sh.example settings.sh
   

Create a Cluster

Cluster Using Default Configuration

• Navigate to builder directory

  cd openflight-compute-cluster-builder
  

• Create a cluster, providing the name and public SSH key to use

  bash build-cluster.sh CLUSTERNAME 'SSH PUBLIC KEY'
  

Cluster Using Alternative Configuration

In some circumstances there are common deployment configurations that make constant management of one config file time-consuming and inflexible. For this reason, multiple configuration files can exist within configs/ to allow for storage of these deployment details.

• Navigate to builder directory

  cd openflight-compute-cluster-builder
  

• Create a new config file

  cp configs/default.sh configs/mynewdeploymentconfig.sh
  

• Update variables and configuration to meet your requirements

  vim configs/mynewdeploymentconfig.sh
  

• Create a cluster, providing the name and public SSH key to use

  CONFIG=mynewdeploymentconfig bash build-cluster.sh CLUSTERNAME 'SSH PUBLIC KEY'
  

Cluster Using Password Instead of SSH Key

While less secure, this method of authorising access to a cluster may be required from time to time. In order to switch from key authorisation to password, set the AUTH variable to password in the desired config file.

When AUTH is set to password the second argument to the build script will be used as the password instead of being used as an SSH public key.

Additional Notes

• If the variable SSH_PUB_KEY is present in a config file then it will be used. This value will be overwritten if an SSH key is passed on the command line.
• If the variable PASSWORD is present in a config file then it will be used. This value will be overwritten if a password is passed on the command line.

Cloud Init

The build-cluster.sh script creates a cloud-init string that will be run on all the nodes, the cloud-init config:

• Adds the build machine's SSH public key to all nodes (for passwordless remote access, required for running of ansible playbook)
• Sets up configured SSH public key/password access (depending on config)
• Disables the firewall
• Disabled NetworkManager
• Sets the timezone to Europe/London
• Ensures that the cluster domain name is part of the search zone in /etc/resolv.conf

Versioning

The version release tags align with the tags in the openflight-ansible-playbook tags.