cloud-maker 0.8.3

Tools for building cloud images (make_provisioner and fedora2ova)

Linux Cloud bootstrap scripts (Python 2/3 version)

A successor to fedora-pack, in a language that isn’t so dead.

The main attraction is make_provisioner, which creates an image bootstrapping script: given a directory and a script within, it generates a single-file, self-extracting archive that unpacks the directory on the guest and runs the configured script.

It’s designed for convenient use as a Packer shell provisioner, or a layer in a Dockerfile.

There’s another script, fedora2ova, which converts a (possibly xz-compressed) Fedora Cloud raw disk image into a VirtualBox OVA using the VBoxManage tool.

Changes from Fedora-Pack 0.7

As noted in the description, this version uses Python 2.7 or Python 3.3.4+ instead of Perl to do all the work.

Distros and Versions are gone

Much of what the provisioner used to do has been removed in this version. We do not pre-install any dependencies; since the script can be system-specific, it can install its own dependencies and launch a stage 3 script if it wants. And now, make_provisioner works as-is on many more systems and versions, since it knows very little about them.

Cautionary note for Windows hosts

Your stage2 script may fail to start with ‘no such file or directory’ or possibly ‘bad interpreter’ if you accidentally save it with CRLF line-endings. In vim, be sure to use :set ff=unix to change the fileformat.

Byzantine command-line replaced with config file

cloud-maker’s make_provisioner uses a configuration file instead of specifying everything on the command-line. It’s in the DOS/INI format that Python’s configparser reads. So you’ll write a config like provisioner.ini, defining at least one system (one machine or machine image) as a section, then use that section name to launch the command:

python -m make_provisioner main-debian

You can specify your own config file instead of using the default:

python -m make_provisioner -c myconfig.ini webtier

Dependencies

The host requires Python 2.7 or Python 3.3.4 and runs on any OS.

Note that Python 2 support has been added to the original project, so that OS X and some Linux users won’t have to install Python 3 to get things running.

• make_provisioner has no further dependencies.

• fedora2ova requires the Fedora Cloud raw image, xorriso, and VirtualBox management tools (VBoxManage). It must run on a host that supports running Fedora as a VirtualBox guest in order for the guest’s cloud-config to perform the configuration.

On OS X, xorriso is available via homebrew, and the VirtualBox management tools are usually installed with VirtualBox itself.

Guest OS Support

The launch script generated by make_provisioner is intended to run on any Linux or BSD distro, and any other guest with a POSIX /bin/sh. Please open an issue on github if it does not.

License

MIT.