Calvinverse / resource.hashi.server

This repository contains the source code and Packer configuration files to create an image, for either Hyper-V or Azure, that contains an instance of the Consul application configured as server instance.

resource.hashi.server

This repository contains the code used to build an Ubuntu Hyper-V VM hard disk containing the server instances of the core infrastructure application, Consul.

Image

The image is created by using the Linux base image and amending it using a Chef cookbook which configures Consul.

There are two different images that can be created. One for use on a Hyper-V server and one for use in Azure. Which image is created depends on the build command line used.

Contents

No additional applications are installed other than the ones that have been installed by the base image.

Configuration

No additional configuration is applied other than the default one for the base image.

Provisioning

No changes to the provisioning are applied other than the default one for the base image.

Logs

No additional configuration is applied other than the default one for the base image.

Metrics

No additional configuration is applied other than the default one for the base image.

Build, test and release

The build process follows the standard procedure for building Calvinverse images.

Hyper-V

For building Hyper-V images use the following command line

msbuild entrypoint.msbuild /t:build /P:ShouldCreateHypervImage=true /P:RepositoryArchive=PATH_TO_ARTIFACTLOCATION

where PATH_TO_ARTIFACTLOCATION is the full path to the directory where the base image artifact file is stored.

In order to run the smoke tests on the generated image run the following command line

msbuild entrypoint.msbuild /t:test /P:ShouldCreateHypervImage=true

Azure

For building Azure images use the following command line

msbuild entrypoint.msbuild /t:build
    /P:ShouldCreateAzureImage=true
    /P:AzureLocation=LOCATION
    /P:AzureClientId=CLIENT_ID
    /P:AzureClientCertPath=CLIENT_CERT_PATH
    /P:AzureSubscriptionId=SUBSCRIPTION_ID
    /P:AzureImageResourceGroup=IMAGE_RESOURCE_GROUP

where:

• LOCATION - The azure data center in which the image should be created. Note that this needs to be the same region as the location of the base image. If you want to create the image in a different location then you need to copy the base image to that region first.
• CLIENT_ID - The client ID of the user that Packer will use to authenticate with Azure.
• CLIENT_CERT_PATH - The client certificate which Packer will use to authenticate with Azure
• SUBSCRIPTION_ID - The subscription ID in which the image should be created.
• IMAGE_RESOURCE_GROUP - The resource group from which the base image will be pulled and in which the new image will be placed once the build completes.

For running the smoke tests on the Azure image

msbuild entrypoint.msbuild /t:test
    /P:ShouldCreateAzureImage=true
    /P:AzureLocation=LOCATION
    /P:AzureClientId=CLIENT_ID
    /P:AzureClientCertPath=CLIENT_CERT_PATH
    /P:AzureSubscriptionId=SUBSCRIPTION_ID
    /P:AzureImageResourceGroup=IMAGE_RESOURCE_GROUP
    /P:AzureTestImageResourceGroup=TEST_RESOURCE_GROUP

where all the arguments are similar to the build arguments and TEST_RESOURCE_GROUP points to an Azure resource group in which the test images are placed. Note that this resource group needs to be cleaned out after successful tests have been run because Packer will in that case create a new image.

Deploy

Hyper-V

• Download the new image to the Hyper-V hosts. The image should be distributed over at least three different Hyper-V hosts if possible to ensure that a suitable number of Consul server instances are running at all times.
• Create a new directory in a suitable location and copy the image VHDX file there.
• Create a VM that points to the image VHDX file with the following settings
  • Generation: 2
  • RAM: 1024 Mb. Do not use dynamic memory
  • Hard disk: Use existing. Copy the path to the VHDX file
• Update the VM settings:
  • Enable secure boot. Use the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority
  • Attach a DVD image that points to an ISO file containing the settings for the environment. These are normally found in the output of the Calvinverse.Infrastructure repository. Pick the correct ISO for the task, in this case the Linux Consul Server image
  • Disable checkpoints
  • Set the VM to always start
  • Set the VM to shut down on stop
• Start the VM, it should automatically connect to the correct environment once it has provisioned
• SSH into both the new VM and one of the other ServiceHub VMs
• Compare the consul info applied index stats. Once they have the same values the new machine is synced up. It is now safe to remove one of the other VMs
• SSH into the first host and give the consul leave command. Once that completes successfully you can shut the VM down by issueing the sudo shutdown now command. Then wait for it to shut down
• Once the VM has been shutdown it can be deleted and replaced with a new VM based on the new image.
• Repeat until all old instances have been replaced with new instances

Azure

The easiest way to deploy the Azure images into a cluster on Azure is to use the terraform scripts provided by the Azure service discovery repository. Those scripts will create a Consul cluster of the suitable size.