Provisioning of bare-metal servers

The manual installation of a system is described below. The use of an installation server is recommended

The manual node installation is completely possible without network connectivity.

Preparations

  • Download the latest ISO image for Ubuntu 20.04 from

  • Or use the preseed ISO, downloadable at

  • Create a bootable USB stick from this ISO image. Alternatively you can also work with a CD

  • Perform a hardware RAID configuration if necessary, not for Ceph disks.

  • Boot bare-metal server via UEFI (recommended) from this USB stick/CD

    Note

    We prefer the use of software RAIDs to make us less dependent on hardware. But there is nothing against using hardware RAIDs.

  • Boot bare-metal server from this USB stick/CD

Manual Installation

See Ubuntu manual Installation - Screenshots for Screenshots, below the steps without Screenshots.

  • Choose English as language

  • Choose Install Ubuntu Server

  • Choose English as language (again)

  • Choose your location (e.g. Germany)

  • Choose en_US.UTF-8 as locale

  • Choose the keyboard layout from a list, use English (US)

  • Choose and configure the primary network interface

    • Depending on the environment, the network may not work at this point. Then select any interface and then select Do not configure the network at this time in the next step.

  • Set the hostname (the hostname is 60-10 and not 60-10.betacloud.xyz)

  • Set ubuntu as full name for the new user

  • Set ubuntu as the username for the account

    • The later used operator user dragon is created during the bootstrap and should not be created during the installation.

  • Set a password for the account

    • The account is only needed initially and can be deleted after completion of the bootstrap.

  • Choose Manual as partitioning method and execute the partitioning according to company specifications

  • Choose No automatic updates

  • Choose OpenSSH server as software to install

    Note

    Do not install any other software component. Everything you need will be installed later by OSISM. In particular, it is not necessary to install a desktop environment.

  • After completion, restart the system

Note

python3-minimal must be installed on the systems.

Node Partitioning

  • The use of a UEFI is recommended

  • The use of a RAID is recommended

    Note

    We prefer the use of software RAIDs to make us less dependent on hardware. But there is nothing against using hardware RAIDs.

  • The use of a LVM2 is recommended

    • system is recommended as the name for the volume group

    Note

    Dedicated disks may be provided for /var/lib/docker on the controller nodes. In this case, do not use an LV for /var/lib/docker but the devices provided for it.

  • Do not configure devices that are not required for the operating system

The use of own file systems for the following mountpoints is recommended. The minimum size and a recommended name for the logical volume are noted.

  • / (10 GByte, logical volume root)

  • /home (2 GByte, logical volume home)

  • /tmp (5 GByte, logical volume tmp)

  • /var/lib/docker (30 GByte, logical volume docker, do not set the nosuid flag on /var/lib/docker)

  • /var/log/audit (1 GByte, logical volume audit)

  • /var (10 GByte, logical volume var)

  • swap (min 8 GByte, logical volume swap)

Note

The size of the individual partitions is minimal. Depending on the node type, the individual partitions should be made larger. This applies in particular to /var/lib/docker. On controllers at least 100 GByte should be used.

A later enlargement is possible during operation.

# lvextend -L +10G /dev/mapper/system-docker
# resize2fs -p /dev/mapper/system-docker

The following is a sample view from the Ubuntu installer. This view may vary depending on the environment.

../_images/installation-partition-disks.png

Note

When using XFS as the file system for /var/lib/docker, note the following: Running on XFS without d_type support now causes Docker to skip the attempt to use the overlay or overlay2 driver.

https://docs.docker.com/storage/storagedriver/overlayfs-driver/

Preseed Installation

Prepare Ubuntu Server ISO

  • Prepare your environment as root

$ mkdir /dev/shm/ubuntu-seed
$ sudo mount -o loop,ro ubuntu-20.04-legacy-server-amd64.iso /mnt/
$ cp -rT /mnt /dev/shm/ubuntu-seed

  • Edit in both files the first entry as root

$ vim boot/grub/grub.cfg
menuentry "Install Ubuntu Server OSISM" {
    set gfxpayload=keep
    linux  /install/vmlinuz auto console-setup/ask_detect=false console-setup/layoutcode=us console-setup/modelcode=pc105 debconf/frontend=noninteractive debian-installer=en_US.UTF-8 fb=false initrd=/install/initrd.gz kbd-chooser/method=us keyboard-configuration/layout=USA keyboard-configuration/variant=USA locale=en_US.UTF-8 noapic preseed/file=/cdrom/preseed/osism-ubuntu-server.seed ---
    initrd /install/initrd.gz
}
$ vim isolinux/txt.cfg
label install
  menu label ^Install Ubuntu Server OSISM
  kernel /install/vmlinuz
  append auto console-setup/ask_detect=false console-setup/layoutcode=us console-setup/modelcode=pc105 debconf/frontend=noninteractive debian-installer=en_US.UTF-8 fb=false initrd=/install/initrd.gz kbd-chooser/method=us keyboard-configuration/layout=USA keyboard-configuration/variant=USA locale=en_US.UTF-8 noapic preseed/file=/cdrom/preseed/osism-ubuntu-server.seed vga=788 initrd=/install/initrd.gz ---

Note

Please use :w! in vim for writing readonly files

$ cat preseed/osism-ubuntu-server.seed
### Localization

# Preseeding language, country and locale
d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US.UTF-8
...
### Boot loader installation

d-i grub-installer/grub2_instead_of_grub_legacy boolean true
d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean false
d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true
d-i grub-installer/bootdev string default
d-i grub-installer/timeout string 5
# Avoid that last message about the install being complete.
d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note

  • Write new md5sum in reference file, md5sum.txt

$ md5sum boot/grub/grub.cfg
39c2565e2d6eff27b806f0b41382db66  boot/grub/grub.cfg
$ grep grub.cfg md5sum.txt
...
39c2565e2d6eff27b806f0b41382db66  ./boot/grub/grub.cfg

$ md5sum preseed/osism-ubuntu-server.seed
09361c56b41e218df314478947491cb3  preseed/osism-ubuntu-server.seed
$ grep osism md5sum.txt
09361c56b41e218df314478947491cb3  ./preseed/osism-ubuntu-server.seed

  • Build ISO file

$ mkisofs -U -A "UbuntuOSISM" -V "UbuntuOSISM" -volset "UbuntuOSISM" -J -joliet-long -r -v \
-T -o /path/to/osism-ubuntu-seed.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -eltorito-alt-boot -e boot/grub/efi.img \
-no-emul-boot /dev/shm/ubuntu-seed/

Note

Please use console, ALT+F4, for debugging

Note

UEFI boot only

Note

please use disk size minimum of 63GB (10 + 2 + 2 + 30 + 1 + 10 + 8, see partitioning above), otherwise the default LVs will be active, root/swap

Post-processing

EFI partitions

# lsblk
NAME                MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
sda                   8:0    0 59.6G  0 disk
├─sda1                8:1    0  476M  0 part  /boot/efi
└─sda2                8:2    0 59.2G  0 part
  └─md0               9:0    0 59.1G  0 raid1
    ├─system-root   253:0    0  9.3G  0 lvm   /
    ├─system-swap   253:1    0  7.5G  0 lvm   [SWAP]
    ├─system-tmp    253:2    0  1.9G  0 lvm   /tmp
    ├─system-audit  253:3    0  952M  0 lvm   /var/log/audit
    ├─system-var    253:4    0  9.3G  0 lvm   /var
    ├─system-docker 253:5    0  9.3G  0 lvm   /var/lib/docker
    └─system-home   253:6    0  1.9G  0 lvm   /home
sdb                   8:16   0 59.6G  0 disk
├─sdb1                8:17   0  476M  0 part
└─sdb2                8:18   0 59.2G  0 part
  └─md0               9:0    0 59.1G  0 raid1
    ├─system-root   253:0    0  9.3G  0 lvm   /
    ├─system-swap   253:1    0  7.5G  0 lvm   [SWAP]
    ├─system-tmp    253:2    0  1.9G  0 lvm   /tmp
    ├─system-audit  253:3    0  952M  0 lvm   /var/log/audit
    ├─system-var    253:4    0  9.3G  0 lvm   /var
    ├─system-docker 253:5    0  9.3G  0 lvm   /var/lib/docker
    └─system-home   253:6    0  1.9G  0 lvm   /home

# dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1

# efibootmgr -v | grep ubuntu
Boot0000* ubuntu     HD(1,GPT,f6b80cef-a636-439a-b2c2-e30bc385eada,0x800,0xee000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI)
Boot0018* ubuntu     HD(1,GPT,f6b80cef-a636-439a-b2c2-e30bc385eada,0x800,0xee000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU\GRUBX64.EFI)

# efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdb -p 1 -L "ubuntu2" -l "\EFI\UBUNTU\GRUBX64.EFI"
# efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdb -p 1 -L "ubuntu2" -l "\EFI\UBUNTU\SHIMX64.EFI"

Network

After the first boot depending on the environment it is necessary to create the network configuration for the management interface manually, because for example bonding or VLANs should be used.

The following examples shows how the configuration can be done with netplan or iproute2.

Note

The examples are not the final network configuration. It is a minimal sample network configuration for initial access to the systems.

The example configuration differs depending on the environment. The configuration is not a recommendation for the network design. It’s just an example configuration.

It is not necessary to manually create the finale network configuration. The final network configuration of the environment is defined during the creation of the configuration repository. The network final network configuration is depoyed during the bootstrap on the systems.

iproute2

# modprobe bonding
# ip link add bond0 type bond
# ip link set bond0 type bond miimon 100 mode 802.3ad lacp_rate 1
# ip link set eno1 down
# ip link set eno1 master bond0
# ip link set eno2 down
# ip link set eno2 master bond0
# ip link set bond0 up
# cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

# ip link add link bond0 name vlan101 type vlan id 101
# ip link set vlan101 up

# ip address add 172.17.60.10/16 dev vlan101
# ip route add default via 172.17.40.10

  • You may have to set the nameservers in /etc/resolv.conf. Temporarily remove the 127.0.0.53 entry.

Netplan

---
network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    eno1:
      dhcp4: no
    eno2:
      dhcp4: no
  bonds:
    bond0:
      dhcp4: no
      interfaces:
        - eno1
        - eno2
      parameters:
        mode: 802.3ad
        lacp-rate: fast
        mii-monitor-interval: 100
  vlans:
    vlan101:
      id: 101
      link: bond0
      addresses: [ "172.17.60.10/16" ]
      routes:
       - to: 0.0.0.0/0
         via: 172.17.40.10
      nameservers:
        search: [ betacloud.xyz ]
        addresses: [ "8.8.8.8", "8.8.4.4" ]

# netplan apply

ACPI Error

If you see this messages in dmesg, logs or journal

ACPI Error: SMBus/IPMI/GenericSerialBus write requires Buffer of length 66, found length 32 (20150930/exfield-418)
ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB.PMI0._PMM] (Node ffff8807ff5bd438), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT (20150930/psparse-542)
ACPI Exception: AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT, Evaluating _PMM (20150930/power_meter-338)

blacklist and unload kernel module acpi_power_meter.

Preseed file

 ### Localization

 # Preseeding language, country and locale
 d-i debian-installer/locale string en_US.UTF-8

 # Keyboard selection

 # Disable automatic (interactive) keymap detection.
 d-i console-setup/ask_detect boolean false
 d-i keyboard-configuration/xkb-keymap string us

### Network configuration

 # Skip network configuration
 d-i netcfg/enable boolean false
 # Set hostname and domain
 d-i netcfg/get_hostname string ubuntu-host
 d-i netcfg/get_domain string osism.customer
 # Disable that annoying WEP key dialog.
 d-i netcfg/wireless_wep string

 ### Missing drivers and firmware

 d-i hw-detect/load_firmware boolean true

 ### Mirror
 d-i mirror/http/proxy string

 ### Account setup

 # Skip creation of a root account
 d-i passwd/root-login boolean false
 d-i passwd/make-user boolean true
 # User ubuntu with password
 d-i passwd/user-fullname string ubuntu
 d-i passwd/username string ubuntu
 # Normal user's password
 d-i passwd/user-password password ubuntu
 d-i passwd/user-password-again password ubuntu
 d-i user-setup/encrypt-home boolean false
 # The installer will not warn about weak passwords.
 d-i user-setup/allow-password-weak boolean true

 ### Clock and time zone setup

 # Set hardware clock to UTC.
 d-i clock-setup/utc boolean true
 # Europe/Berlin
 d-i time/zone select Europe/Berlin
 # No NTP during installation
 d-i clock-setup/ntp boolean false

 ### Partitioning

 #d-i partman-auto/disk string /dev/sda
 # Choose LVM
 d-i partman-auto/method string lvm
 # Remove pre-existing LVM
 d-i partman-lvm/device_remove_lvm boolean true
 # Remove pre-existing software RAID array
 d-i partman-md/device_remove_md boolean true
 # Confirm to write the lvm partitions
 d-i partman-lvm/confirm boolean true
 d-i partman-lvm/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
 # Select the whole disk
 d-i partman-auto-lvm/guided_size string max
 d-i partman-auto-lvm/new_vg_name string system
 d-i partman-partitioning/confirm_write_new_label boolean true
 d-i partman/choose_partition select Finish
 d-i partman/confirm_nooverwrite boolean true
 d-i partman/confirm boolean true
 d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string     \
 efi-host-vg ::                            \
   512 512 512 fat32                       \
     $defaultignore{ }                     \
     $reusemethod{ }                       \
     method{ efi }                         \
     format{ }                             \
     .                                     \
   10240 1000 10240 ext4                   \
     $lvmok{ }                             \
     lv_name{ root }                       \
     method{ lvm } format{ }               \
     use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 }  \
     mountpoint{ / }                       \
     .                                     \
   2048 1000 2048 ext4                     \
     $lvmok{ }                             \
     lv_name{ home }                       \
     method{ lvm } format{ }               \
     use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 }  \
     mountpoint{ /home }                   \
     .                                     \
   5120 1000 5120 ext4                     \
     $lvmok{ }                             \
     lv_name{ tmp }                        \
     method{ lvm } format{ }               \
     use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 }  \
     mountpoint{ /tmp }                    \
     .                                     \
   30720 2000 30720 ext4                   \
     $lvmok{ }                             \
     lv_name{ docker }                     \
     method{ lvm } format{ }               \
     use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 }  \
     mountpoint{ /var/lib/docker }         \
     .                                     \
   1024 2000 1024 ext4                     \
     $lvmok{ }                             \
     lv_name{ audit }                      \
     method{ lvm } format{ }               \
     use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 }  \
     mountpoint{ /var/log/audit }          \
     .                                     \
   10240 3000 10240 ext4                   \
     $lvmok{ }                             \
     lv_name{ var }                        \
     method{ lvm } format{ }               \
     use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext4 }  \
     mountpoint{ /var }                    \
     .                                     \
   8192 3000 8192 swap                     \
     $lvmok{ }                             \
     lv_name{ swap }                       \
     method{ swap } format{ }              \
     use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ swap }  \
     .                                     \
   512 5000 8000000000000 ext4             \
     $lvmok{ }                             \
     lv_name{ placeholder }                \
     method{ lvm } format{ }               \
     use_filesystem{ } filesystem{  }      \
     .

 ### Apt setup

 # Repositories
 d-i apt-setup/restricted boolean true
 d-i apt-setup/universe boolean true
 d-i apt-setup/backports boolean true

 ### Package selection

 tasksel tasksel/first multiselect standard, lubuntu-desktop
 # Individual additional packages to install
 d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server python3 htop vim
 # No update during installation
 d-i pkgsel/upgrade select none
 # Language pack selection
 d-i pkgsel/language-packs multiselect en
 # No language support packages
 d-i pkgsel/install-language-support boolean false
 # No automatic updates
 d-i pkgsel/update-policy select none
 # Verbose output and no boot splash screen
 d-i debian-installer/quiet  boolean false
 d-i debian-installer/splash boolean true

 ### Boot loader installation

 d-i grub-installer/grub2_instead_of_grub_legacy boolean true
 d-i grub-installer/only_debian boolean false
 d-i grub-installer/with_other_os boolean true
 d-i grub-installer/bootdev string default
 d-i grub-installer/timeout string 5
 # Avoid that last message about the install being complete.
 d-i finish-install/reboot_in_progress note