`Home <index.html>`_ OpenStack-Ansible Installation Guide

==========================
Preparing the target hosts
==========================

The following section describes the installation and configuration of
operating systems for the target hosts. 

Installing the operating system
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Install the Ubuntu Server 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) LTS 64-bit operating
system on the target host. Configure at least one network interface
to access the internet or suitable local repositories. 

We recommend adding the Secure Shell (SSH) server packages to the
installation on target hosts without local (console) access.

We also recommend setting your locale to en_US.UTF-8. Other locales may
work, but they are not tested or supported.

Configuring the operating system
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#. Upgrade system packages and kernel:

   .. code-block:: shell-session

       # apt-get dist-upgrade

#. Ensure the kernel version is ``3.13.0-34-generic`` or later.

#. Install additional software packages:

   .. code-block:: shell-session

       # apt-get install bridge-utils debootstrap ifenslave ifenslave-2.6 \
         lsof lvm2 ntp ntpdate openssh-server sudo tcpdump vlan

#. Add the appropriate kernel modules to the ``/etc/modules`` file to
   enable VLAN and bond interfaces:

   .. code-block:: shell-session

      # echo 'bonding' >> /etc/modules
      # echo '8021q' >> /etc/modules

#. Configure NTP to synchronize with a suitable time source.

#. Reboot the host to activate the changes and use new kernel.

Deploying SSH keys
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ansible uses SSH for connectivity between the deployment and target hosts.

#. Copy the contents of the public key file on the deployment host to
   the ``/root/.ssh/authorized_keys`` file on each target host.

#. Test public key authentication from the deployment host to each
   target host. SSH provides a shell without asking for a
   password.

For more information on how to generate an SSH keypair as well as best
practices, refer to `GitHub's documentation on generating SSH keys`_.

.. _GitHub's documentation on generating SSH keys: https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys/

.. warning:: OpenStack-Ansible deployments expect the presence of a
             ``/root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub`` file on the deployment host.
             The contents of this file is inserted into an
             ``authorized_keys`` file for the containers, which is a
             necessary step for the Ansible playbooks. You can
             override this behavior by setting the
             ``lxc_container_ssh_key`` variable to the public key for
             the container.

Configuring LVM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

`Logical Volume Manager (LVM)`_ allows a single device to be split into multiple
logical volumes which appear as a physical storage device to the operating
system. The Block Storage (cinder) service, as well as the LXC containers that
run the OpenStack infrastructure, can optionally use LVM for their data storage.

.. note::

   OpenStack-Ansible automatically configures LVM on the nodes, and
   overrides any existing LVM configuration. If you had a customized LVM
   configuration, edit the generated configuration file as needed.

#. To use the optional Block Storage (cinder) service, create an LVM
   volume group named ``cinder-volumes`` on the Block Storage host. A
   metadata size of 2048 must be specified during physical volume
   creation. For example:

   .. code-block:: shell-session

       # pvcreate --metadatasize 2048 physical_volume_device_path
       # vgcreate cinder-volumes physical_volume_device_path

#. Optionally, create an LVM volume group named ``lxc`` for container file
   systems. If the ``lxc`` volume group does not exist, containers are
   automatically installed into the file system under ``/var/lib/lxc`` by
   default.

.. _Logical Volume Manager (LVM): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Volume_Manager_(Linux)

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.. include:: navigation.txt