Introduction to Stacki

Anoop Rajendra!Director, Enterprise Software Development!

Open Source Stack Installer

Stacki is a very fast and ultra reliable Linux server provisioning tool … at scale. !With zero prerequisites for taking systems from bare metal to a ping and prompt. !

History

History §  Roots in Open Source!§  Started life as the Rocks Project at UCSD!§  Started in May ’00.!§  6 month project going on ~16 years!§  Roots in the HPC world!

What Problem are we trying to Solve?!

Problem

§  OS Provisioning §  Disk Configuration

§  Disk Controller Configuration §  Disk Partitioning

§  Network Configuration

§  Services configuration §  Application Deployment

§  Life-cycle management of the cluster

Server Provisioning

Problem – Contd. …

Datacenter Provisioning §  Server Provisioning

§  Heterogeneous Hardware

§  Complex Network Configuration §  Bonding

§  Bridging §  VLANs

§  Combinations of the above

Network Architecture

Frontend

Network

Backend Backend Backend Backend

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Network Architecture

Frontend

Private Network

Backend Backend Backend Backend

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Public Network

Datacenter Architecture

Frontend!

Network 1! Network 2! Network 3! Network 4!

Challenge

§  Fast!§  Correct §  Consistent §  Repeatable

How We Solve the Problem!

From Bare Metal Up

Take complete control of the Stack §  Modified CentOS Installer!§  Parallel package sharing installer!§  Database to keep persistent data about the System!§  Command Line to interact with Stacki!§  Dynamic Kickstart File Generation!

Frontend Services

Services to build backend nodes §  DHCP – MAC to IP address Mapping §  TFTP – Serve out PXE files, Installation Kernel, and RAM Disk §  Apache – Serve Kickstart files §  DNS (optional)

Services to access backend nodes §  SSH key management §  Parallel execution shell

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Stacki Positioning

DevOps / Configuration Tool

DHCP /DNS / TFTPNetworkDiskOS

In-housedevelopeddeployment

tools

- Disk Array Controller Configuration- Disk Partitioning Configuration

Download and Boot the ISO

Go to www.stacki.com and download the ISO ◦  It’s 1.2 GB ◦  “stacki” pallet plus stripped down CentOS

6.7

Boot the ISO on the host that will be your frontend

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Timezone

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Network Configuration

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Root Password

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Partitioning

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Pallet Selection

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Summary

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Installation

Installation

Adding Hosts

Method 1: Discovery Advantages §  Prior knowledge of MAC addresses Not Required!§  Automatic Sensible Hostname, IP address assignment!Disadvantages!§  Automatic Sensible Hostname, IP address assignment!§  Complex network configuration has to be done post-installation!

Run!# insert-ethers

Discovery

Discovery

Discovery

Adding Hosts

Method 2: Host Configuration Spreadsheet Advantages §  Complete control of Hostname, IP address, and network assignments!§  Easy to make changes!§  Fits very well with existing datacenter management processes.!Disadvantages!§  A little tedious the first time around!§  Requires prior knowledge of!§  MAC addresses,!§  IP address assignments!§  Physical location of machines (Rack & Position)!

Host Configuration Spreadsheet

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Frontend

Network

Backend Backend Backend Backend

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Backend Installation

§  Save your Host Configuration spreadsheet as a CSV

§  Import CSV on frontend §  # stack load hostfile file=hosts.csv

§  Tell backend nodes to install on their next PXE boot §  # stack set host boot backend action=install

§  PXE boot all backend nodes

§  Go!

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BitTorrent-Inspired Package Installation

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Stacki!

Advanced Networking

Host Configuration Spreadsheet

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Advanced Networking

Advanced Network Configuration §  Bonded interfaces!§  VLANs!§  Bridging!§  Any combo of the above!

Multiple Subnets §  Build a single cluster from hosts in multiple subnets!§  Manage hosts in multiple datacenters!!

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Disk Configuration

Disk Controller Configuration

Disk Controller Support §  LSI MegaRAID controller & derivatives!§  Intel MegaRAID!§  Dell MegaRAID!§  Cisco SAS MegaRAID!§  Any controller that supports the “storcli” or “megacli” command!

§  HP Smart Storage Controller!

§  Supports RAID 0,1,5,6,10,50,etc.!§  Configure Controllers using Spreadsheets!§  # stack load storage controller

Disk Controller Configuration Spreadsheet

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Disk Partitioning §  Sensible Default Disk partitioning §  Support for multiple disks

§  Support for file system options and mount options §  Support for Software RAID configuration

§  Disk Partitioning through spreadsheets

§  # stack load storage partition

Disk Partition Configuration Spreadsheet

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Software Footprint

Controlling Packages and Configuration §  Pallets!§  Carts!§  Boxes!§  Distributions!§  Appliances!

Pallets

Software Entity §  Contains RPMS!§  Contains Configuration in the form of XML!§  Used for installation and configuration of an Application!§  Can be applied during Frontend installation or after the fact.!§  Each pallet functionally equal to a YUM repo with extra configuration!

Example: Cloudera Pallet §  Contains RPMS required to install the Cloudera Distribution of Hadoop!§  Contains scripts to configure and starts CDH!

Example: Stacki with Cloudera Pallet Check namenodes are

empty! Format/start HDFS!

Create all directories!

Create all metastores!

Start services (Hbase, Hive, Oozie, Sqoop, Impala, etc)!

Deploy client configuration! Configure database!

Setup/assign monitors (activity, services, and host)!

Test database connections!

Validate/resolve hostnames!Consistent host timezones!

No bad kernel versions running!

(CDH) version consistency!

Java version consistency!Daemons versions consistency!

Mgmt Agents versions consistency!

Host specification/SSH ports!

MUCH MORE …!

DHCP Server/Client setup! TFTP/PXE configuration!

Server OS installation!

Node OS Install!

RAID configuration!

Boot configuration! System/data disk partitioning!

Monitoring system setup and config!

Lights Out/IPMI setup!

User accounts added and synced!SSH keys on all hosts!

Network node configuration!

Config Mgmt install and configuration!

Route configuration!OS upgrades/updates!

Site specific software and configuration!

Host specification/SSH ports!

Security!

Firewall setup!Cluster Mgmt utility! Database install and config!

Multiple network config!Package installation! MUCH MORE …!

App Config!

Site Config!

HW Install!

Without Stacki!

Stacki w/ Hadoop Pallet!

Carts

Site Specific Pallets §  Contains site-specific RPM!§  Contains site-specific configurations!§  Structurally and Functionally equivalent to a Pallet!!

Example: Client Cart §  Contains RPMS to install DevOps tools!§  Contains custom post-install scripts to configure DevOps tools!§  Contains custom post-install scripts to run DevOps tools to bring system up to requisite configuration.!

Boxes

Logical Entity §  Loose collection of Pallets and Carts!§  One-to-Many mapping to Backend Hosts!

OS Pallet!

Cloudera Pallet!

Stacki Pallet!

Pallets! Carts!

PayPal Cart!

Ansible Cart!

Boxes!

RedHat Pallet!

Stacki Pallet!PayPal Cart!

Application!

RedHat Pallet!

Cloudera Pallet!Ansible Cart!

OS Pallet!

Stacki Pallet!PayPal Cart!

Default!

Boxes

OS Pallet!

Stacki Pallet!PayPal Cart!

Default!

Stacki Pallet!PayPal Cart!

Application!

RedHat Pallet!

Cloudera Pallet!Ansible Cart!

Multiple Distributions

Default Distribution §  Based on stripped down CentOS 6.7 or 7.2 §  Used to build backend nodes

Multiple Distributions on Frontend ◦  E.g., RHEL 6.x based distribution, CentOS 6.7, etc.

Backend Nodes ó Distribution Mapping §  Any Node can be mapped to any distribution!

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Try it Out!

§  Website www.stacki.com

§  Source Code github.com/stackiq/stacki