ironic/doc/source/admin/anaconda-deploy-interface.rst

Deploying with anaconda deploy interface

Ironic supports deploying OS with anaconda installer in addition to IPA. This deploy interface supports pxe, ipxe boot interfaces.

Configuration

The anaconda deploy interface is not enabled by default. To enable this, use the enabled_deploy_interfaces configuration option in ironic.conf

[DEFAULT]
...
enabled_deploy_interfaces = direct,anaconda
...

This change will not be effective until all Ironic conductors have been restarted.

baremetal node create --driver ipmi \
    --deploy-interface anaconda \
    --boot-interface ipxe

You can also set --deploy-interface on an existing node:

baremetal node set <NODE> --deploy-interface anaconda

Creating an OS Image

While anaconda allows installing individual RPMs the default kickstart file expects a OS tarball to be used as the OS image.

A baremetal.yum file that lists all yum/dnf commands that need to be run to generate the OS tarball. The commands normally install packages and package' groups that need to be in the image

group install 'Minimal Install'
install cloud-init
ts run

An OS tarball can be created using following set of commands using above baremetal.yum file

export CHROOT=/home/<user>/os-image
mkdir -p $(CHROOT)
mkdir -p $(CHROOT)/{dev,proc,run,sys}
chown -hR root:root $(CHROOT)
mount --bind /var/cache/yum $(CHROOT)/var/cache/yum
mount --bind /dev $(CHROOT)/dev
mount -t proc proc $(CHROOT)/proc
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs $(CHROOT)/run
mount -t sysfs sysfs $(CHROOT)/sys
dnf -y --installroot=$(CHROOT) makecache
dnf -y --installroot=$(CHROOT) shell baremetal.yum
rpm --root $(CHROOT) --import $(CHROOT)/etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-*
truncate -s 0 $(CHROOT)/etc/machine-id
umount $(CHROOT)/var/cache/yum
umount $(CHROOT)/dev
umount $(CHROOT)/proc
umount $(CHROOT)/run
umount $(CHROOT)/sys
tar cpzf os-image.tar.gz --xattrs --acls --selinux -C $(CHROOT) .

Configuring the OS Image in glance

Anaconda is a two stage installer - The stage1 consists of the kernel and ramdisk and the stage2 lives in a squashfs file. All these components can be found in the CentOS/RHEL/Fedora ISO images.

The kernel and ramdisk can be found at /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz and /images/pxeboot/initrd.img respectively in the ISO. The stage2 squashfs image can be normally found at /LiveOS/squashfs.img or /images/install.img.

The OS tarball must be configured with following properties in glance to be used with anaconda deploy driver

1. kernel_id
2. ramdisk_id
3. stage2_id

openstack image create --file ./vmlinuz --container-format aki \
    --disk-format aki --shared anaconda-kernel-<version>
openstack image create --file ./initrd.img --container-format ari \
    --disk-format ari --shared anaconda-ramdisk-<version>
openstack image create --file ./squashfs.img --container-format ari \
    --disk-format ari --shared anaconda-stage-<verison>
openstack image create --file ./os-image.tar.gz --container-format \
    compressed --disk-format raw --shared \
    --property kernel_id=<glance_uuid_vmlinuz> \
    --property ramdisk_id=<glance_uuid_ramdisk> \
    --property stage2_id=<glance_uuid_stage2> <disto-name-version>

Creating a baremetal server

Apart from uploading a custom kickstart template to glance and associating it to the OS Image as ks_template property in glance, operators can also set the kickstart template in instance_info. The kickstart template set in instance_info takes precedence over the one set in the glance image. If kickstart template is not found in instance_info or the glance image property the default kickstart template will be used to deploy the OS.

openstack baremetal node set $NODE_UUID \
    --instance_info ks_template=glance://uuid

Limitations

This deploy interface has only been tested with Red Hat based operating systems that use anaconda. Other systems are not supported.