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Cloud-Init Overview

Cloud-init’s behavior can be configured via user-data. User-data can be given by the user at instance launch time.

Boot Stages

  1. Generator
  2. Local
  3. Network
  4. Config
  5. Final

Generator

When booting under systemd, a generator will run that determines if cloud-init.target should be included in the boot goals. By default, this generator will enable cloud-init.

Local

The purpose of the local stage is:

  • Locate “local” data sources
  • Apply networking configuration to the system (including “Fallback”)

This stage must block network bring-up or any stale configuration might already have been applied. That could have negative effects such as DHCP hooks or broadcast of an old hostname. It would also put the system in an odd state to recover from as it may then have to restart network devices.

Network

  • systemd service: cloud-init.service
  • modules: cloud_init_modules in /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg

This stage requires all configured networking to be online, as it will fully process any user-data that is found. This stage runs the disk_setup and mounts modules which may partition and format disks and configure mount points (such as in /etc/fstab). Those modules cannot run earlier as they may receive configuration input from sources only available via network. For example, a user may have provided user-data in a network resource that describes how local mounts should be done.

Config

  • systemd service: cloud-config.service
  • modules: cloud_config_modules in /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg

This stage runs config modules only. Modules that do not really have an effect on other stages of boot are run here.

Final

  • systemd service: cloud-final.service
  • modules: cloud_final_modules in /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg

This stage runs as late in boot as possible. Any scripts that a user is accustomed to running after logging into a system should run correctly here.

Fallback Network Configuration

Cloud-init will attempt to determine which of any attached network devices is most likely to have a connection and then generate a network configuration to issue a DHCP request on that interface.

Cloud-init

Metadata

Nova presents configuration information to instances it starts via a mechanism called metadata. These mechanisms are widely used via helpers such as cloud-init to specify things like the root password the instance should use.

This metadata is made available via either a config driver or the metadata service and can be somewhat customized by the user using the user data feature.

Metadata Service

Metadata service lets an instance retrieve instance specific information, e.g. hostname, IP, routes, SSH keys, user-data, vendor-data and various default settings even commands and shell scripts. All of these are generally handled by a service in the instance like cloud-init.

Supported Versions

[starbops@shitcoin ~]$ curl http://169.254.169.254/openstack
2012-08-10
2013-04-04
2013-10-17
2015-10-15
2016-06-30
2016-10-06
latest

Endpoints of Metadata Service

List all meta-data service’s endpoints by requesting http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data

[starbops@shitcoin ~]$ curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data
ami-id
ami-launch-index
ami-manifest-path
block-device-mapping/
hostname
instance-action
instance-id
instance-type
local-hostname
local-ipv4
placement/
public-hostname
public-ipv4
reservation-id
security-groups

For example, getting floating IP address bond with the instance:

[starbops@shitcoin ~]$ curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-ipv4
100.74.37.104

To see what user-data have been filled:

[starbops@shitcoin ~]$ curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/user-data
#cloud-config

#packages:
#  - htop

#ssh_authorized_keys:
#  - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCkgolYx6IoPSYnhZMdGivUJOm4AMtI0gkjFkY/53V4idbliQHAMJHGdMGYdlEm5ThOCw3DDblsQDNy7EZJaa9+T1imwrnUg0fYU13u+Tfq7Fg+TIn4hf4uG/ei2r1MLp2/lO/6dEPUGv2TiBQ+SVfB8yt2IUVIGgqNhGWJi/p5uw9O5KiAPN1UmT3CvpWYVFnfqvnDwnOMJkXg9xN8AbTkAHS1YDIljNMwBisaOvI5cjgZ5a+ovp2pdHBxZWyPAb7Y5NvlQHGtJQIlbWTcxIBu8/1YPbZlkTcgB0ghDf0upgKunqFHh/Zq3sdEEUyQ2Xr6qdVyaXwNQJhV8Kge196r ubuntu@controller

users:
  - default
  - name: starbops
    gecos: Zespre Schmidt
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    #lock_passwd: false
    #passwd: $6$rounds=4096$lDq1KTfs/T/e7$EfyJlD0aqyO7W8oSOumQySoYxfqBC5OxzGXnGrFV6AIMms5QnE0pwdwJttTw2iliFKoKfnFnGLfgauLVF2yoa1
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCkgolYx6IoPSYnhZMdGivUJOm4AMtI0gkjFkY/53V4idbliQHAMJHGdMGYdlEm5ThOCw3DDblsQDNy7EZJaa9+T1imwrnUg0fYU13u+Tfq7Fg+TIn4hf4uG/ei2r1MLp2/lO/6dEPUGv2TiBQ+SVfB8yt2IUVIGgqNhGWJi/p5uw9O5KiAPN1UmT3CvpWYVFnfqvnDwnOMJkXg9xN8AbTkAHS1YDIljNMwBisaOvI5cjgZ5a+ovp2pdHBxZWyPAb7Y5NvlQHGtJQIlbWTcxIBu8/1YPbZlkTcgB0ghDf0upgKunqFHh/Zq3sdEEUyQ2Xr6qdVyaXwNQJhV8Kge196r ubuntu@controller

#ssh_pwauth: true

#runcmd:
#  - sed -i -e '$aAllowUsers starbops' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
#  - systemctl restart ssh.service
hostname: shitcoin

How It Works

instance --> neutron-ns-metadata-proxy --> neutron-metadata-agent --> nova-api

Instance

Instance makes request to http://169.254.169.254. Because the destination does hit any rules in the routing table of the instance, it just falls back to the default route. The request follows the default route to router namespace. Here is the iptables rule for this situation:

REDIRECT  tcp  --  0.0.0.0/0      169.254.169.254  tcp dpt:80 redir ports 9697

The request being redirected is still inside the same router namespace.

neutron-ns-metadata-proxy

neutron-ns-metadata-proxy is running and listening on TCP 9697 port in each router namespaces. While processed by neutron-ns-metadata-proxy, following headers are added to the request:

X-forwarded-for: <Instance IP>
X-neutron-router-id: <Router UUID>

And the request is forwarded through UNIX socket to neutron-metadata-agent.

neutron-metadata-agent

neutron-metadata-agent listens on the socket /var/lib/neutron/metadata_proxy and communicates with public OpenStack APIs for more information. More headers are added:

X-Instance-ID: <Instance UUID>
X-Tenant-ID: <Tenant UUID>
X-Instance-ID-Signature: <HMAC secret, instance_id>

nova-api

References