Cross Community Continuous Integration

Contents:

1. Cross Community Continuous Integration

This document will contain the overview, the pipelines, and stuff.

1.1. Introduction

OPNFV has an advanced Continuous Integration (CI) machinery that provides support to OPNFV community to develop, integrate, test and release the integrated reference platform for NFV.

During the past releases, OPNFV integrated, deployed and tested different flavors (scenarios) of the platform in an entirely automated fashion, resulting in feedback to OPNFV itself and the communities OPNFV works with. This enabled communities to implement new features directly in the upstream, identify bugs and issue fixes for them.

The development and release model employed by OPNFV uses stable versions of upstream components. This helps developers and users who are after the stability however it slows down the speed of development, testing, resulting in slower pace in innovation.

In order to provide means for developers to work with OpenStack master branch, cutting the time it takes to develop new features significantly and testing them on OPNFV Infrastructure

enable OPNFV developers to identify bugs earlier, issue fixes faster, and
get feedback on a daily basis
establish mechanisms to run additional testing on OPNFV Infrastructure to
provide feedback to OpenStack community
make the solutions we put in place available to other LF Networking Projects
OPNFV works with closely
embrace the change and apply Continuous Delivery and DevOps principles and

practices to OPNFV

2. Sandbox and User Guide

2.1. The Sandbox

Users and developers need to have an easy way to bring up an environment that fits to their purpose in a simple way in order to spend time on features they are developing, bugs they are fixing, trying things out, for learning purposes or just for fun rather than dealing with the tools and mechanisms used for creating and provisioning nodes, installing different components they do not intend to touch, and so on.

We also have reality. For example, not all users or developers have full Pharos baremetal PODs or powerful machines waiting for them to use while doing their work. It is important to take this into account and provide different configuration options for the sandbox based on the requirements the people have on the environment they will be using.

Based on the observations we made and the feedback we received from the OPNFV users and the developers, XCI Team has created a sandbox that is highly configurable, simple and at the same time capable to provide a realistic environment for the people to do their work. The sandbox makes it possible to bring up the complete environment with a single command and offers variety of options to change how the stack should be deployed. The configuration of the sandbox is as easy as setting few environment variables.

XCI Sandbox aims to

  • provide means for the users and the developers to work with OpenStack master branch cutting the time it takes to develop new features significantly and testing them on their own machines of on OPNFV Infrastructure
  • enable developers to identify bugs earlier, issue fixes faster, and get feedback on a daily basis
  • establish mechanisms to run additional testing on OPNFV Infrastructure to provide feedback to OpenStack community
  • make the solutions we put in place available to other LF Networking Projects OPNFV works with closely

This sandbox provides

  • automated way to bring up and tear down complete stack
  • various flavors to pick and use
  • support for different Linux distributions
  • multiple OPNFV scenarios to install
  • ability to select different versions of upstream components to base the work on
  • ability to enable additional OpenStack services or disable others

One last point to highlight here is that the XCI itself uses the sandbox for development and test purposes so it is continuously tested to ensure it works for XCI and for the users and the developers who are using it for different purposes.

2.2. Components of the Sandbox

The sandbox uses OpenStack projects for VM node creation, provisioning and OpenStack installation.

  • openstack/bifrost: Bifrost (pronounced bye-frost) is a set of Ansible playbooks that automates the task of deploying a base image onto a set of known hardware using ironic. It provides modular utility for one-off operating system deployment with as few operational requirements as reasonably possible. Bifrost supports different operating systems such as Ubuntu, CentOS, and openSUSE. More information about this project can be seen on Bifrost documentation.
  • openstack/openstack-ansible: OpenStack-Ansible is an official OpenStack project which aims to deploy production environments from source in a way that makes it scalable while also being simple to operate, upgrade, and grow. More information about this project can be seen on OpenStack Ansible documentation.
  • opnfv/releng-xci: OPNFV Releng Project provides additional scripts, Ansible playbooks and configuration options in order for developers to have easy way of using openstack/bifrost and openstack/openstack-ansible by just setting couple of environment variables and executing a single script. More infromation about this project can be seen on OPNFV Releng documentation.

2.3. Sandbox Flavors

XCI Developer Sandbox provides 4 different configurations (flavors) that can be deployed using VM nodes.

Available flavors are listed on the table below.

Flavor Number of VM Nodes VM Specs Per Node Time Estimates
All in One (aio)
1 VM Node
controller & compute
on single/same node
1 compute node
vCPUs: 8
RAM: 12GB
Disk: 80GB
NICs: 1
Provisioning: 10 mins
Deployment: 90 mins
Total: 100 mins
Mini
3 VM Nodes
1 deployment node
1 controller node
1 compute node
vCPUs: 6
RAM: 12GB
Disk: 80GB
NICs: 1
Provisioning: 12 mins
Deployment: 65 mins
Total: 77 mins
No HA
4 VM Nodes
1 deployment node
1 controller node
2 compute nodes
vCPUs: 6
RAM: 12GB
Disk: 80GB
NICs: 1
Provisioning: 12 mins
Deployment: 70 mins
Total: 82 mins
HA
6 VM Nodes
1 deployment node
3 controller nodes
2 compute nodes
vCPUs: 6
RAM: 12GB
Disk: 80GB
NICs: 1
Provisioning: 15 mins
Deployment: 105 mins
Total: 120 mins

The specs for VMs are configurable and the more vCPU/RAM the better.

Estimated times listed above are provided as guidance and they might vary depending on

  • the physical (or virtual) host where the sandbox is run
  • the specs of the VM nodes
  • the Linux distribution
  • installed/activated OpenStack services
  • internet connection bandwidth
  • whether the boot images are recreated or not

2.3.1. Flavor Layouts

All flavors are created and deployed based on the upstream OpenStack Ansible (OSA) guidelines.

Network configuration on the nodes are same no matter which flavor is used. The VMs are attached to default libvirt network and has single NIC and VLANs. Different Linux bridges for management, storage, and tunnel are created on these VLANs. Use of more production-like network setup with multiple interfaces is in the backlog.

The differences between the flavors are documented below.

All in One

As shown on the table in previous section, this flavor consists of single node. All the OpenStack services, including Nova run on the same node.

The flavor All in One (aio) is deployed based on the process described on upstream documentation. Please check OpenStack Ansible Developer Quick Start for details.

Mini/No HA/HA

These flavors consist of multiple nodes.

  • opnfv: This node is used for driving the installation towards target nodes in order to ensure the deployment process is isolated from the physical host and always done on clean machine.
  • controller: OpenStack control plane runs on this node.
  • compute: The Nova service runs on this node.

Please see the diagram below for the host and service layout for these flavors.

_images/arch-layout-test.png

2.4. User Guide

2.4.1. Prerequisites

  • A machine with enough CPU/RAM/Disk based on the chosen flavor
  • Ubuntu 16.04, OpenSUSE Leap 42.3, Centos7
  • CPU/motherboard that supports hardware-assisted virtualization
  • Passwordless sudo
  • An SSH key generated for your user (ie ~/.ssh/id_rsa)
  • Packages to install
    • git
    • python 2.7
    • pip
    • libvirt

2.4.2. How to Use

Basic Usage

  1. If you don’t have one already, generate an SSH key in $HOME/.ssh

    ssh-keygen -t rsa

  2. Clone OPNFV releng-xci repository

    git clone https://gerrit.opnfv.org/gerrit/releng-xci.git

  3. Change into directory where the sandbox script is located

    cd releng-xci/xci

  4. Execute the sandbox script

    ./xci-deploy.sh

Issuing above command will start the sandbox deployment using the default flavor aio and the verified versions of upstream components. (pinned-versions). The sandbox should be ready between 1,5 and 2 hours depending on the host machine.

After the script finishes execution, you can login to opnfv host to start using your new deployment.

The openrc file will be available on opnfv host in HOME.

Advanced Usage

The flavor to deploy and the versions of upstream components to use can be configured by the users by setting certain environment variables. Below example deploys noha flavor using the latest of openstack-ansible master branch and stores logs in different location than what is configured.

  1. If you don’t have one already, generate an SSH key in $HOME/.ssh

    ssh-keygen -t rsa

  2. Clone OPNFV releng-xci repository

    git clone https://gerrit.opnfv.org/gerrit/releng-xci.git

  3. Change into directory where the sandbox script is located

    cd releng-xci/xci

  4. Set the sandbox flavor

    export XCI_FLAVOR=noha

  5. Set the version to use for openstack-ansible

    export OPENSTACK_OSA_VERSION=master

  6. Set where the logs should be stored

    export LOG_PATH=/home/jenkins/xcilogs

  7. Execute the sandbox script

    ./xci-deploy.sh

Please note that changing the version to use may result in unexpected behaviors, especially if it is set to master If you are not sure about how good the version you intend to use, it is advisable to use the pinned version instead.

Verifying the Basic Operation

You can verify the basic operation by using the commands below.

  1. Login to opnfv host

    ssh root@192.168.122.2

  2. Source openrc file

    source openrc

  3. Issue OpenStack commands

    openstack service list

You can also access to the Horizon UI by using the URL, username, and the password displayed on your console upon the completion of the deployment.

2.4.3. User Variables

All user variables can be set from command line by exporting them before executing the script. The current user variables can be seen from user-vars file located in releng-xci repository.

The variables can also be set directly within the file before executing the sandbox script. If you do this, you need to set RELENG_DEV_PATH environment variable where the releng-xci repo is located on your host which you modified the files in.

export RELENG_DEV_PATH=/path/to/releng-xci/

2.4.4. Pinned Versions

As explained above, the users can pick and choose which versions to use. If you want to be on the safe side, you can use the pinned versions the sandbox provides. They can be seen from pinned-versions.

OPNFV runs periodic jobs against upstream projects openstack/bifrost and openstack/ansible using latest on master branch, continuously chasing the HEAD of corresponding branches.

Once a working version is identified, the versions of the upstream components are then bumped in releng-xci repo.

2.4.5. Further Information

If you intend to use the sandbox for more advanced use cases or if you are developing XCI itself or an OPNFV scenario, please refer to XCI Developer Guide.

2.5. Limitations, Known Issues, and Improvements

The complete list can be seen using this link.

2.6. Changelog

Changelog can be seen using this link.

2.7. Testing

Sandbox is continuously tested by OPNFV XCI to ensure the changes do not impact users. In fact, OPNFV XCI itself uses the sandbox to ensure it is always in working state..

2.8. Support

OPNFV XCI issues are tracked on OPNFV JIRA Releng project. If you encounter and issue or identify a bug, please submit an issue to JIRA using this link. Please label the issue you are submitting with xci label.

If you have questions or comments, you can ask them on #opnfv-pharos IRC channel on Freenode.

3. XCI Developer Guide

This document will contain the developer guide.

3.1. Introduction

4. XCI Way of Working

This document will contain the onboarding of new projects to XCI, way of working, and release model.

4.1. Introduction

Indices and Tables