install-party 0.3.0

Instantiate and manage hosts for Matrix homeserver install parties

Install Party

This is a project that creates and manages ephemeral servers for install parties/workshops of Matrix homeservers.

Install and run

Install Party can be installed via pip:

pip install install-party

Then it can be run with:

python -m install_party [mode] [options]

Creation mode

The creation mode (create) uses the OpenStack and OVH APIs to create a new host, attach a domain to it, and run a script that installs Riot and Caddy on it, so that an attendee can log in (with SSH) with the configured username and password, install a new homeserver, and directly use it with the Riot instance.

The OpenStack instance name will be {namespace}-{name} and the domain name will be {name}.{namespace}.{zone}, where:

• {namespace} is a configured namespace (e.g. the event's name as a slug)
• {zone} is a configured DNS zone (must be managed by OVH)
• {name} is the host's name (either provided, e.g. install_party create --name foo, or a randomly generated 5-letter string)

Note: currently, if attendees wish/need to use a homeserver's built-in ACME support, they must set the post the ACME support listener is listening to to 8888.

List mode

The list mode (list) prints a table listing the existing servers and domains under the namespace and DNS zone configured in the configuration file, along with their status.

If an instance has no domain attached, or if a domain isn't attached to an existing instance, they will be listed in separate tables (named ORPHANED INSTANCES and ORPHANED DOMAINS). These additional tables can be hidden by using the command-line flag --hide-orphans.

Deletion mode

The deletion mode (delete) deletes one or more instance(s) along with the associated domain name(s). The instances to delete are defined by the command-line arguments. This mode currently accepts the following arguments:

• -a/--all: delete all instances and domains in the configured namespace. Can't be used together with -s/--server NAME.
• -e/--exclude NAME: exclude one or more server(s) from the deletion. Can only be used with -a/--all. Repeat this argument for every server you want to exclude from the deletion. NAME is the name of the server (without the namespace).
• -s/--server NAME: only delete this or these server(s). Repeat this argument for every server you want to delete. NAME is the name of the server (without the namespace). Can't be used together with -a/--all.
• -d/--dry-run: run the deletion in dry run mode, i.e. no deletion will actually happen but Install Party will act as if, so that the user can check if it's doing the right thing before performing the actual operation.

One of -a/--all or -s/--server NAME must be provided.

For example, deleting every server but the ones named matrixtest1 and matrixtest2 would look like this:

install_party delete --all --exclude matrixtest1 --exclude matrixtest2

On the other hand, deleting only the servers named matrixtest1 and matrixtest2 would look like this:

install_party delete --server matrixtest1 --server matrixtest2

Configuration

The configuration is provided as a YAML configuration file. By default, a file named config.yaml in the current directory will be used, but this can be overridden by setting the environment variable INSTALL_PARTY_CONFIG to the path of the desired file.

The configuration file's content must follow the following structure. Currently, all fields are mandatory.

# General configuration that's not specific to a section.
general:
  # Namespace to use when creating/listing the instances and DNS records.
  namespace: my-super-event
  # DNS zone to create the DNS records on.
  dns_zone: example.com
  # The version of Riot to install on the hosts.
  riot_version: v1.4.2

# Configuration specific to the instances.
instances:
  # User the attendee will use when logging into the host with SSH.
  # Must already exist on the system.
  user: superevent
  # Password the attendee will use when logging into the host with SSH.
  password: superevent2019

# Configuration to connect to the OVH API.
# See https://api.ovh.com/ for a full documentation.
ovh:
  endpoint: ovh-eu
  application_key: somesecret
  application_secret: somesecret
  consumer_key: somesecret

# Configuration to connect to the OpenStack API or that is using notions
# specific to OpenStack.
# See https://docs.openstack.org/ for a full documentation.
openstack:
  # Version of the OpenStack compute API. Currently, only versions 2 and
  # above are supported.
  api_version: 2
  auth_url: https://auth.example.com/v2.0/
  tenant_name: somesecret
  tenant_id: somesecret
  username: somesecret
  password: somesecret
  region_name: GRA3
  # ID of the image to use to create the instances.
  image_id: my_super_image
  # ID of the flavor to use to create the instances.
  flavor_id: my_super_flavor

Limitations

As pointed out above, Install Party is designed to only work with domains managed by OVH and infrastructure projects managed by an OpenStack provider. There is currently no plan to expand this list of providers.