kolla-ansible/doc/source/user/virtual-environments.rst
Mark Goddard 69979efc2e Support virtualenv installation in baremetal role
Installing python packages directly to the system site-packages can
cause various problems, in particular when pip overwrites a system
package. Python virtualenvs are one solution to this issue, as they
allow python packages to be installed in an isolated environment.

This change adds support to the baremetal role for installing python
dependencies in a virtualenv. Typically we will need to enable use of
system site-packages from within this virtualenv, to support the use of
modules such as yum, apt, and selinux, which are not available on PyPI.

The path to the virtualenv is configured via the 'virtualenv' variable,
and access to site-packages is controlled via
'virtualenv_site_packages'.

When executing other kolla-ansible commands, the variable
'ansible_python_interpreter' should be set to the python interpreter
installed in 'virtualenv'. Note that this variable cannot be templated.

Change-Id: I0741923065246f9c5b168059fcd66504f2753c41
Related-Bug: #1731026
2018-01-21 08:59:49 +00:00

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.. _virtual-environments:
====================
Virtual Environments
====================
Python `virtual environments <https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/>`_ provide
a mechanism for isolating python packages from the system site packages, and
other virtual environments. Kolla-ansible largely avoids this problem by
deploying services in Docker containers, however some python dependencies must
be installed both on the Ansible control host and the target hosts.
Ansible Control Host
====================
The kolla-ansible python package and its dependencies may be installed in a
python virtual environment on the Ansible control host. For example:
.. code-block:: console
virtualenv /path/to/venv
source /path/to/venv/bin/activate
pip install -U pip
pip install kolla-ansible
deactivate
It may be advantageous to also install Ansible in the virtual environment.
.. code-block:: console
source /path/to/venv/bin/activate
(venv) pip install ansible
(venv) deactivate
To use the virtual environment, it should first be activated:
.. code-block:: console
source /path/to/venv/bin/activate
(venv) kolla-ansible --help
The virtual environment can be deactivated when necessary:
.. code-block:: console
(venv) deactivate
Note that the use of a virtual environment on the Ansible control host does not
imply that a virtual environment will be used for execution of Ansible modules
on the target hosts.
Target Hosts
============
Ansible supports remote execution of modules in a python virtual environment
via the ``ansible_python_interpreter`` variable. This may be configured to be
the path to a python interpreter installed in a virtual environment. For
example:
.. code-block:: yaml
ansible_python_interpreter: /path/to/venv/bin/python
Note that ``ansible_python_interpreter`` cannot be templated.
Kolla-ansible provides support for creating a python virtual environment on the
target hosts as part of the ``bootstrap-servers`` command. The path to the
virtualenv is configured via the ``virtualenv`` variable, and access to
site-packages is controlled via ``virtualenv_site_packages``. Typically we
will need to enable use of system site-packages from within this virtualenv, to
support the use of modules such as yum, apt, and selinux, which are not
available on PyPI.
When executing kolla-ansible commands other than ``bootstrap-servers``, the
variable ``ansible_python_interpreter`` should be set to the python interpreter
installed in ``virtualenv``.