1 Objectives

Install and use the Ganeti Web Manager.

2 Choose server

You could choose to install GWM on a server separate from your Ganeti nodes, or you could install it inside a VM. If it is installed in a VM it needs to be connected to your management network or able to route traffic there.

It's not a good idea to install it directly on the host server, but for the purposes of this host it is sufficient; or if you have a running Debian VM instance you can install it there.

3 Choose hostname

Ganeti web manager is best installed in its own virtual host with its own domain name. In this example we will use "hostX.ws.nsrc.org", but replace it with your own hostname.

The DNS must be set up so that this name resolves to the IP address of the server running ganeti web manager. (If you are installing into a VM instance, check with the instructors that the IP you are using has a resolvable hostname in the DNS)

4 Installation

Ganeti Web Manager is a python/django web application, and is a little tricky to install and deploy the first time.

As there is no installable package, you will have to install from source. These instructions are suitable for an Ubuntu or Debian host.

Note: don't follow the instructions on the osuosl.org wiki as these are stale. The current documentation is on readthedocs.org

For this exercise you should be root. It's also helpful for debugging if you log your entire session into a file.

$ sudo -s
# script install.log
# 

A transcript of the subsequent session is written to install.log until you type exit.

4.1 Install dependencies

# apt-get install build-essential git wget curl libffi-dev
# apt-get install python-dev python-setuptools python-pip python-memcache memcached
# pip install pip --upgrade
# pip install setuptools --no-use-wheel --upgrade
<< if that command fails, logout and login again and retry >>
# pip install fabric virtualenv --upgrade
# apt-get install python-mysqldb mysql-server mysql-client

(Note that fabric and virtualenv are available as packages but they are too old, so we use 'pip' to fetch the latest ones)

If this is the first time that mysql server has been installed, it will prompt you for a root password. Give the class root password.

4.2 Unpack and build the source

Login as root. Fetch the ganeti-webmgr source tarball, preferably from a local copy to save time and bandwidth.

# cd /tmp
# wget http://www.ws.nsrc.org/downloads/ganeti/ganeti-webmgr-0.10.2.tar.gz
# cd /var/lib
# tar -xvzf /tmp/ganeti-webmgr-0.10.2.tar.gz
# cd ganeti_webmgr
# fab deploy

The "fab deploy" step automatically fetches and builds all the dependencies.

4.3 Link to libraries

Some packages exist in the system but are not in the python virtual environment (venv) so as a workaround add some symlinks.

cd /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/venv/lib/python2.7
ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/_mysql.so .
ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/_mysql_exceptions.py .
ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/MySQLdb .
ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/memcache.py .
cd /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr

4.4 Create a database

Connect to the database as the root user (you will be prompted for the database root password)

# mysql -uroot -p

Now create a database and give access to a new user with a password of your choice. This is the password that the application will use to connect to the database. For security it should be different to the root password.

mysql> create database ganeti_webmgr;
mysql> grant all on ganeti_webmgr.* to 'ganeti_webmgr'@'localhost'
       identified by 'SomePassWord';
mysql> exit;

4.5 Create settings

# cd /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr
# cp settings.py.dist settings.py
# vi settings.py

In another window generate two more random strings, and copy-paste them into the config at the places shown. These random strings don't need to be remembered or stored anywhere else.

# head -c18 /dev/urandom | base64
# head -c18 /dev/urandom | base64

Change these settings: note especially the ENGINE change from sqlite3 to mysql.

...
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',

         # Or path to database file if using sqlite3.
        'NAME': 'ganeti_webmgr',
        'USER': 'ganeti_webmgr',
        'PASSWORD': 'SomePassWord',    # Use your own database password
...
SITE_DOMAIN = 'hostX.ws.nsrc.org'
...
SECRET_KEY = '<randomstring1>'
...
VNC_PROXY = 'hostX.ws.nsrc.org:8888'
...
WEB_MGR_API_KEY = "<randomstring2>"   # Use your own random API key

And add the following to the end of settings.py:

# Django caching framework
CACHES = {
    'default': {
        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.memcached.MemcachedCache',
        'LOCATION': '127.0.0.1:11211',
    },
}

ALLOWED_HOSTS = [
    'hostX.ws.nsrc.org',
]

4.6 Populate the database

This creates the tables and also creates the first username/password which you will use to login to the web interface later.

# cd /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr
# source venv/bin/activate
# ./manage.py syncdb --migrate
...
You just installed Django's auth system, which means you don't have any superusers defined.
Would you like to create one now? (yes/no): yes
Username (leave blank to use 'nsrc'): admin
E-mail address: yourmail@yourdomain
Password:
Password (again):

If there is a problem with creating the superuser, fix the issue (see below) then you can retry that step with:

# cd /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr
# source venv/bin/activate
# ./manage.py createsuperuser

4.7 Build files

Continue with the following commands:

# ./manage.py rebuild_index
WARNING: This will irreparably remove EVERYTHING from your search index.
Your choices after this are to restore from backups or rebuild via the `rebuild_index` command.
Are you sure you wish to continue? [y/N] y

...

# ./manage.py collectstatic
You have requested to collect static files at the destination
location as specified in your settings.

This will overwrite existing files!
Are you sure you want to do this?

Type 'yes' to continue, or 'no' to cancel: yes

4.8 Set permissions

The whoosh_index directory created by rebuild_index needs to be writable by Apache.

# chown -R www-data:www-data /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/whoosh_index

4.9 Install web server

# apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-wsgi

In the following steps, remember to change hostX.ws.nsrc.org to the hostname you are using for the ganeti web manager.

Create file /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/django.wsgi containing:

import os
import sys

path = '/var/lib/ganeti_webmgr'

# activate virtualenv
activate_this = '%s/venv/bin/activate_this.py' % path
execfile(activate_this, dict(__file__=activate_this))

# add project to path
if path not in sys.path:
    sys.path.append(path)

# configure django environment
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'settings'

import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

Create file /etc/apache2/sites-available/ganeti_webmgr containing:

<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName hostX.ws.nsrc.org
DocumentRoot "/var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/static"
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/ganeti-error.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/ganeti-access.log common

Alias /robots.txt /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/static/robots.txt
Alias /favicon.ico /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/static/favicon.ico

AliasMatch ^/([^/]*\.css) /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/static/styles/$1

Alias /media/ /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/media/
Alias /static/ /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/static/

<Directory /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/static>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>

<Directory /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/media>
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>

WSGIScriptAlias / /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/django.wsgi
WSGIDaemonProcess hostX.ws.nsrc.org python-path=/var/lib/ganeti_webmgr:/var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages processes=2 threads=15 display-name=%{GROUP}
WSGIProcessGroup hostX.ws.nsrc.org

<Directory /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr>
<Files django.wsgi>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Files>
</Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Enable the virtual host:

# a2ensite ganeti_webmgr
# service apache2 reload

4.10 Start VNC auth proxy

For VNC access to instances, the VNC auth proxy needs to be started. (TODO: set this up in a startup script e.g. /etc/rc.local)

# /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr/venv/bin/twistd --pidfile=/tmp/proxy.pid -n vncap \
        -c tcp:8888:interface=0.0.0.0 &

Compatibility note: Chrome 30+ may not work with the software installed.

Patches to txWS.py are in the reply to this ticket

4.11 Test

Point web browser at http://hostX.ws.nsrc.org/

If you just get "It works!" then disable the default site:

# a2dissite default
# service apache2 reload

then try again. You should get the Ganeti web manager login page.

5 Troubleshooting

5.1 Errors seen at the console

• If you get a python error involving AES keys then ensure that the two random keys you generated in settings.py are exactly 24 characters long.

• If you get a python error about getlocale returning null then try typing

  export LANG=en_US

  and then re-run the command which gave the error.

• Other locale errors can be fixed by:

  apt-get install locales
  vi /etc/locale.gen   # uncomment the line "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" and save
  locale-gen
  update-locale LANG="en_US.UTF-8" LANGUAGE="en_US:en"

• If you forget the mysql password which you gave to the ganeti_webmgr account, you can reset it using the mysql root password.

  # mysql -uroot -p
  << enter the mysql root password >>
  
  mysql> set password for 'ganeti_webmgr'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('SomePassWord');
  mysql> exit;

  If you have forgotten the mysql root password, follow these instructions

5.2 Errors seen in the browser

• If you get "Internal Server Error" then start by looking at /var/log/apache2/ganeti-error.log. Also check that you have pasted the contents of django.wsgi correctly. (If you paste into vi and forget to go into insert mode first, note that the first i of import will be consumed)

• If you still get the default webserver page, then edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default and insert the following line after <VirtualHost *:80>

  ServerName localhost

  Then reload apache (service apache2 reload)

• If you get an error involving sqlite3 then you probably forgot to change the ENGINE value in settings.py. Go back, change this setting, then re-run the commands under the heading "Populate the database"

• If you get a login page but the username/password does not work, you can (re)create the user account using

  # cd /var/lib/ganeti_webmgr
  # ./manage.py createsuperuser

6 Adding clusters

If everything works, you should get a login page where you can login with the admin username and password you created earlier. So you now want to connect to the cluster(s) you wish to manage.

6.1 Create a RAPI key

You need to set up a password for ganeti_webmgr to talk to the ganeti cluster daemons using the ganeti remote API (RAPI).

On the ganeti master node, generate a strong random password like this:

# head -c18 /dev/urandom | base64
0GReg6zUJqIGZ77FkK7+Qiua

Take a careful note of this raw password, e.g. by pasting it into a file on your laptop, as you will need to enter it into ganeti web manager.

Now take a specially-formatted hash of this password (use your random password in place of 0GReg...):

# echo -n 'ganeti_webmgr:Ganeti Remote API:0GReg6zUJqIGZ77FkK7+Qiua' | openssl md5

<< the response will be something like this >>
(stdin)= 2e6d881bf6a705413bf6a88a051af17e

Finally, as root create a file /var/lib/ganeti/rapi/users containing this one line (use your hash in place of 2e6d8...)

ganeti_webmgr {HA1}2e6d881bf6a705413bf6a88a051af17e write

and replicate it to the other nodes:

# gnt-cluster copyfile /var/lib/ganeti/rapi/users

You don't need to remember this hash, only the original random password.

6.2 Add cluster in web interface

• Click on "Clusters", "Add Cluster"
• Hostname: gntN.ws.nsrc.org
  • Username: ganeti_webmgr
  • Password: 0GReg6zUJqIGZ77FkK7+Qiua (i.e. the RAPI password you created)
  • (It's possible to leave username and password blank, but then you will only have read-only access to the cluster)
• Leave the rest as defaults and click "Add"

At this point you should see an overview of the cluster details. Click on the "Refresh" button to update all the information in the ganeti web manager database (this may be necessary if some changes to the cluster were made via the gnt command line)

Click on the "Nodes" tab to see the state of the individual nodes in the cluster, and the "Virtual Machines" tab to see VMs.

6.3 Console issues

If you cannot get the console to work in the web interface, it may be because you have set a VNC password. If you intend to use the ganeti web manager for console access, you should turn this off:

gnt-cluster modify -H kvm:vnc_password_file=,vnc_bind_address=

7 Using snf-image with Ganeti Web Manager

With snf-image 0.15.1 and later you can define OS variants such as snf-image+wheezy which can be selected from the drop-down in the GWM instance creation wizard.

# /etc/ganeti/snf-image/variants/wheezy.conf
IMG_PASSWD=abc123
IMG_FORMAT=diskdump
IMG_ID=debian_base-7.0-x86_64
IMG_PROPERTIES='{"OSFAMILY":"linux","ROOT_PARTITION":"1","USERS":"root"}'

Create one of these for each available OS type. You will also need to edit /etc/ganeti/snf-image/variants.list to list your available variants.

A future version of snf-image will allow you to store a hashed version of the password instead of cleartext:

IMG_PASSWD_HASH='$1$zzzz$2H9FclhReiwMQ4x.16GH0/'