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Posted to dev@vcl.apache.org by Aaron Coburn <ac...@amherst.edu> on 2012/01/12 15:45:34 UTC
vcld test script
Hi, Guys,
The web front-end to the VCL has a "testsetup.php" script that tests a variety of server settings so that the web code is easier to install.
I am wondering if there might be interest in building a similar facility into the vcld -setup script. It seems that many of the questions posed on this (and the users') list relate to misconfigured networks and/or provisioning module components. Clearly, the vcld logfile captures all of this, but even that is often turned over to the list for interpretation. This could be a sort of 'dry run' image capture.
So here is a stab at what might be useful for such a script to check. My list will be biased heavily in favor of the VMware provisioning modules, because that's what we use in our installation. And I am assuming that the output would be something easy to understand.
Network:
1. can vcld get an IP address from a vmhost 'short name'
2. can vcld get an IP address from a given computer 'short name'
3. can vcld reach to the running VM(s)
4. can vcld reach to the VM host
5. can vcld transfer a file to/from the vm host
6. if the image library is enabled, is that accessible
Computer:
1. is cygwin installed and sshd running (for Windows)
2. can vcld login successfully
3. does the computer have network access
4. do the computer's MAC addresses match what is expected in the database
VM Host:
1. can vcld login to the vm host
2. are the paths listed in vmprofile available in the vmhost infrastructure
3. are certain utilities and/or commands available to vcld from inside the vmhost (i.e. copy virtual disk, create a vm, etc.)
etc, etc.
Thoughts?
Aaron
--
Aaron Coburn
Systems Administrator and Programmer
Academic Technology Services, Amherst College
(413) 542-5451 acoburn@amherst.edu
Re: vcld test script
Posted by Aaron Peeler <aa...@ncsu.edu>.
Yes, very good idea.
-AP
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:51 AM, Mark Gardner <mk...@vt.edu> wrote:
> I think that is a great idea Aaron.
>
> Mark
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Aaron Coburn <ac...@amherst.edu> wrote:
>> Hi, Guys,
>>
>> The web front-end to the VCL has a "testsetup.php" script that tests a variety of server settings so that the web code is easier to install.
>>
>> I am wondering if there might be interest in building a similar facility into the vcld -setup script. It seems that many of the questions posed on this (and the users') list relate to misconfigured networks and/or provisioning module components. Clearly, the vcld logfile captures all of this, but even that is often turned over to the list for interpretation. This could be a sort of 'dry run' image capture.
>>
>> So here is a stab at what might be useful for such a script to check. My list will be biased heavily in favor of the VMware provisioning modules, because that's what we use in our installation. And I am assuming that the output would be something easy to understand.
>>
>> Network:
>> 1. can vcld get an IP address from a vmhost 'short name'
>> 2. can vcld get an IP address from a given computer 'short name'
>> 3. can vcld reach to the running VM(s)
>> 4. can vcld reach to the VM host
>> 5. can vcld transfer a file to/from the vm host
>> 6. if the image library is enabled, is that accessible
>>
>> Computer:
>> 1. is cygwin installed and sshd running (for Windows)
>> 2. can vcld login successfully
>> 3. does the computer have network access
>> 4. do the computer's MAC addresses match what is expected in the database
>>
>> VM Host:
>> 1. can vcld login to the vm host
>> 2. are the paths listed in vmprofile available in the vmhost infrastructure
>> 3. are certain utilities and/or commands available to vcld from inside the vmhost (i.e. copy virtual disk, create a vm, etc.)
>>
>> etc, etc.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>>
>> Aaron
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Aaron Coburn
>> Systems Administrator and Programmer
>> Academic Technology Services, Amherst College
>> (413) 542-5451 acoburn@amherst.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Mark Gardner
> --
--
Aaron Peeler
Program Manager
Virtual Computing Lab
NC State University
All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which
are sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public
Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.
Re: vcld test script
Posted by Josh Thompson <jo...@ncsu.edu>.
+1 - Great idea Aaron.
Josh
On Thursday January 12, 2012 9:51:44 AM Mark Gardner wrote:
> I think that is a great idea Aaron.
>
> Mark
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Aaron Coburn <ac...@amherst.edu> wrote:
> > Hi, Guys,
> >
> > The web front-end to the VCL has a "testsetup.php" script that tests a
> > variety of server settings so that the web code is easier to install.
> >
> > I am wondering if there might be interest in building a similar facility
> > into the vcld -setup script. It seems that many of the questions posed
> > on this (and the users') list relate to misconfigured networks and/or
> > provisioning module components. Clearly, the vcld logfile captures all
> > of this, but even that is often turned over to the list for
> > interpretation. This could be a sort of 'dry run' image capture.
> >
> > So here is a stab at what might be useful for such a script to check. My
> > list will be biased heavily in favor of the VMware provisioning
> > modules, because that's what we use in our installation. And I am
> > assuming that the output would be something easy to understand.
> >
> > Network:
> > 1. can vcld get an IP address from a vmhost 'short name'
> > 2. can vcld get an IP address from a given computer 'short name'
> > 3. can vcld reach to the running VM(s)
> > 4. can vcld reach to the VM host
> > 5. can vcld transfer a file to/from the vm host
> > 6. if the image library is enabled, is that accessible
> >
> > Computer:
> > 1. is cygwin installed and sshd running (for Windows)
> > 2. can vcld login successfully
> > 3. does the computer have network access
> > 4. do the computer's MAC addresses match what is expected in the
> > database
> >
> > VM Host:
> > 1. can vcld login to the vm host
> > 2. are the paths listed in vmprofile available in the vmhost
> > infrastructure 3. are certain utilities and/or commands available to
> > vcld from inside the vmhost (i.e. copy virtual disk, create a vm, etc.)
> >
> > etc, etc.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> >
> > Aaron
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Aaron Coburn
> > Systems Administrator and Programmer
> > Academic Technology Services, Amherst College
> > (413) 542-5451 acoburn@amherst.edu
--
-------------------------------
Josh Thompson
Systems Programmer
Advanced Computing | VCL Developer
North Carolina State University
Josh_Thompson@ncsu.edu
919-515-5323
my GPG/PGP key can be found at pgp.mit.edu
All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which
are sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public
Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.
Re: vcld test script
Posted by Mark Gardner <mk...@vt.edu>.
I think that is a great idea Aaron.
Mark
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Aaron Coburn <ac...@amherst.edu> wrote:
> Hi, Guys,
>
> The web front-end to the VCL has a "testsetup.php" script that tests a variety of server settings so that the web code is easier to install.
>
> I am wondering if there might be interest in building a similar facility into the vcld -setup script. It seems that many of the questions posed on this (and the users') list relate to misconfigured networks and/or provisioning module components. Clearly, the vcld logfile captures all of this, but even that is often turned over to the list for interpretation. This could be a sort of 'dry run' image capture.
>
> So here is a stab at what might be useful for such a script to check. My list will be biased heavily in favor of the VMware provisioning modules, because that's what we use in our installation. And I am assuming that the output would be something easy to understand.
>
> Network:
> 1. can vcld get an IP address from a vmhost 'short name'
> 2. can vcld get an IP address from a given computer 'short name'
> 3. can vcld reach to the running VM(s)
> 4. can vcld reach to the VM host
> 5. can vcld transfer a file to/from the vm host
> 6. if the image library is enabled, is that accessible
>
> Computer:
> 1. is cygwin installed and sshd running (for Windows)
> 2. can vcld login successfully
> 3. does the computer have network access
> 4. do the computer's MAC addresses match what is expected in the database
>
> VM Host:
> 1. can vcld login to the vm host
> 2. are the paths listed in vmprofile available in the vmhost infrastructure
> 3. are certain utilities and/or commands available to vcld from inside the vmhost (i.e. copy virtual disk, create a vm, etc.)
>
> etc, etc.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
> Aaron
>
>
>
>
> --
> Aaron Coburn
> Systems Administrator and Programmer
> Academic Technology Services, Amherst College
> (413) 542-5451 acoburn@amherst.edu
>
>
>
>
>
--
Mark Gardner
--
Re: vcld test script
Posted by Andy Kurth <an...@ncsu.edu>.
On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 10:54 AM, Aaron Coburn <ac...@amherst.edu> wrote:
> Has there been any thought about the installation procedure of the perl code for VCL?
>
> The current approach is to manually rename the management node directory to /usr/local/vcl
>
> Wouldn't it be better to use a standard Makefile.PL for this? This would allow the modules to avoid the 'use lib "$FindBin::Bin/..."' constructs, because the modules would be in perl's @INC path. Furthermore, there are a number of places where the installation directory is hard-coded (VCL::Module::OS::Windows) -- that could all be pushed to a configuration file, written by the Makefile.PL script.
Is there something in the Windows.pm module or are you referring to
the package structure in general? I did find /usr/local/vcl being
hard-coded in the S99vcld.linux file. This should probably be
improved.
> It would also allow the vcld script to be installed in a more standard location (e.g. /usr/local/bin)
>
> Plus, this would make the code consistent with other CPAN modules. If there was interest (some time in the future) to make these libraries available on CPAN, these changes would all be necessary.
I thought about adding the VCL backend code to CPAN long ago before it
was donated to the ASF. I don't know if this would be possible or
advantageous now.
I'm very used to developing and running vcld and the Perl modules from
a single directory but I can see how using standard locations may make
it more straightforward -- especially for Linux pros. Either way, I
think an installation mechanism should allow the person installing it
to override default locations and also provide additional information.
I think a model similar to VMware's standard method of installing
things under Linux would work best:
-untar the installation files (doesn't matter where)
-run vcld-install.pl
-answer questions (or press enter to accept defaults)
-when the script is done, vcld is up and running
> Furthermore, this would make it much easier to build and run a test suite for the perl code -- ExtUtils already has a structure for supporting this. I have attached a sample Makefile.PL
I like the idea of anything that makes installation easier (and
managing the installation scripts). I'll give your Makefile.PL a try.
-Andy
>
>
>
> This is just a stub, but with a little more work, it could be used to configure /etc/vcl/vcld.conf and run the various tests that have been listed below.
>
> Aaron
>
>
> --
> Aaron Coburn
> Systems Administrator and Programmer
> Academic Technology Services, Amherst College
> (413) 542-5451 acoburn@amherst.edu
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jan 13, 2012, at 11:41 AM, Andy Kurth wrote:
>
>> I like the idea. Other tests which would be useful:
>>
>> -check VM host license expiration dates
>> -check if the network names defined in the VM profile are available on
>> the VM hosts
>> -check amount of space available for VM host datastores, management
>> node repository, and management node volume where vcld.log is being
>> written
>> -make sure required attributes are defined for VMs such as MAC
>> addresses if they are not auto-generated
>> -check if time is sychronized on VM hosts, management node, and the
>> database server
>> -send a test sysadmin email message
>>
>> The architecture of 'vcld -setup' hasn't been discussed on this list
>> so now is a good time to begin. The idea is for vcld to handle all of
>> the details so that any module just needs to implement a subroutine
>> named 'setup' and it automatically gets added to the menu. This
>> allows any module to contain options specific to itself but results in
>> a somewhat clunky menu system.
>>
>> It would be good to have a single menu option where all of the tests
>> appear yet still allow each module to implement it's own test code.
>> In order to do this, the setup_management_node sub in vcld will need
>> to be extended. I had thought about adding something like this in the
>> past but never completed it. I was thinking of adding code to vcld to
>> look for modules which implement a 'setup_check' subroutine (the same
>> way it looks for 'setup') and then put all of these under a single
>> menu option.
>>
>> There are a few bits and pieces to look at in the current code. There
>> is a setup_check subroutine in Windows.pm. It simply gets called by
>> Windows.pm::setup every time it is run. It only checks if product
>> keys have been configured. The Module.pm::setup_test_rpc_xml
>> subroutine would be another one that would be part of this.
>>
>> -Andy
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Aaron Coburn <ac...@amherst.edu> wrote:
>>> Hi, Guys,
>>>
>>> The web front-end to the VCL has a "testsetup.php" script that tests a variety of server settings so that the web code is easier to install.
>>>
>>> I am wondering if there might be interest in building a similar facility into the vcld -setup script. It seems that many of the questions posed on this (and the users') list relate to misconfigured networks and/or provisioning module components. Clearly, the vcld logfile captures all of this, but even that is often turned over to the list for interpretation. This could be a sort of 'dry run' image capture.
>>>
>>> So here is a stab at what might be useful for such a script to check. My list will be biased heavily in favor of the VMware provisioning modules, because that's what we use in our installation. And I am assuming that the output would be something easy to understand.
>>>
>>> Network:
>>> 1. can vcld get an IP address from a vmhost 'short name'
>>> 2. can vcld get an IP address from a given computer 'short name'
>>> 3. can vcld reach to the running VM(s)
>>> 4. can vcld reach to the VM host
>>> 5. can vcld transfer a file to/from the vm host
>>> 6. if the image library is enabled, is that accessible
>>>
>>> Computer:
>>> 1. is cygwin installed and sshd running (for Windows)
>>> 2. can vcld login successfully
>>> 3. does the computer have network access
>>> 4. do the computer's MAC addresses match what is expected in the database
>>>
>>> VM Host:
>>> 1. can vcld login to the vm host
>>> 2. are the paths listed in vmprofile available in the vmhost infrastructure
>>> 3. are certain utilities and/or commands available to vcld from inside the vmhost (i.e. copy virtual disk, create a vm, etc.)
>>>
>>> etc, etc.
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>>
>>>
>>> Aaron
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Aaron Coburn
>>> Systems Administrator and Programmer
>>> Academic Technology Services, Amherst College
>>> (413) 542-5451 acoburn@amherst.edu
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>
Re: vcld test script
Posted by Aaron Coburn <ac...@amherst.edu>.
Has there been any thought about the installation procedure of the perl code for VCL?
The current approach is to manually rename the management node directory to /usr/local/vcl
Wouldn't it be better to use a standard Makefile.PL for this? This would allow the modules to avoid the 'use lib "$FindBin::Bin/..."' constructs, because the modules would be in perl's @INC path. Furthermore, there are a number of places where the installation directory is hard-coded (VCL::Module::OS::Windows) -- that could all be pushed to a configuration file, written by the Makefile.PL script.
It would also allow the vcld script to be installed in a more standard location (e.g. /usr/local/bin)
Plus, this would make the code consistent with other CPAN modules. If there was interest (some time in the future) to make these libraries available on CPAN, these changes would all be necessary.
Furthermore, this would make it much easier to build and run a test suite for the perl code -- ExtUtils already has a structure for supporting this. I have attached a sample Makefile.PL
Re: vcld test script
Posted by Andy Kurth <an...@ncsu.edu>.
I like the idea. Other tests which would be useful:
-check VM host license expiration dates
-check if the network names defined in the VM profile are available on
the VM hosts
-check amount of space available for VM host datastores, management
node repository, and management node volume where vcld.log is being
written
-make sure required attributes are defined for VMs such as MAC
addresses if they are not auto-generated
-check if time is sychronized on VM hosts, management node, and the
database server
-send a test sysadmin email message
The architecture of 'vcld -setup' hasn't been discussed on this list
so now is a good time to begin. The idea is for vcld to handle all of
the details so that any module just needs to implement a subroutine
named 'setup' and it automatically gets added to the menu. This
allows any module to contain options specific to itself but results in
a somewhat clunky menu system.
It would be good to have a single menu option where all of the tests
appear yet still allow each module to implement it's own test code.
In order to do this, the setup_management_node sub in vcld will need
to be extended. I had thought about adding something like this in the
past but never completed it. I was thinking of adding code to vcld to
look for modules which implement a 'setup_check' subroutine (the same
way it looks for 'setup') and then put all of these under a single
menu option.
There are a few bits and pieces to look at in the current code. There
is a setup_check subroutine in Windows.pm. It simply gets called by
Windows.pm::setup every time it is run. It only checks if product
keys have been configured. The Module.pm::setup_test_rpc_xml
subroutine would be another one that would be part of this.
-Andy
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Aaron Coburn <ac...@amherst.edu> wrote:
> Hi, Guys,
>
> The web front-end to the VCL has a "testsetup.php" script that tests a variety of server settings so that the web code is easier to install.
>
> I am wondering if there might be interest in building a similar facility into the vcld -setup script. It seems that many of the questions posed on this (and the users') list relate to misconfigured networks and/or provisioning module components. Clearly, the vcld logfile captures all of this, but even that is often turned over to the list for interpretation. This could be a sort of 'dry run' image capture.
>
> So here is a stab at what might be useful for such a script to check. My list will be biased heavily in favor of the VMware provisioning modules, because that's what we use in our installation. And I am assuming that the output would be something easy to understand.
>
> Network:
> 1. can vcld get an IP address from a vmhost 'short name'
> 2. can vcld get an IP address from a given computer 'short name'
> 3. can vcld reach to the running VM(s)
> 4. can vcld reach to the VM host
> 5. can vcld transfer a file to/from the vm host
> 6. if the image library is enabled, is that accessible
>
> Computer:
> 1. is cygwin installed and sshd running (for Windows)
> 2. can vcld login successfully
> 3. does the computer have network access
> 4. do the computer's MAC addresses match what is expected in the database
>
> VM Host:
> 1. can vcld login to the vm host
> 2. are the paths listed in vmprofile available in the vmhost infrastructure
> 3. are certain utilities and/or commands available to vcld from inside the vmhost (i.e. copy virtual disk, create a vm, etc.)
>
> etc, etc.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
> Aaron
>
>
>
>
> --
> Aaron Coburn
> Systems Administrator and Programmer
> Academic Technology Services, Amherst College
> (413) 542-5451 acoburn@amherst.edu
>
>
>
>
>