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Custom deployment Script for VMware & Kickstart for system imaging with post deployment configuration being Salt. Salt was picked because it was both simple to
by jlawer 13y ago
Custom deployment Script for VMware & Kickstart for system imaging with post deployment configuration being Salt.
Salt was picked because it was both simple to get up and running and fairly powerful. Chef & Puppet were both evaluated first but salt clicked better with our environment. Additionally being packaged in EPEL, and running on the older system versions of python made it a lot easier to manage. Having a strong API opens up more opportunities.
The custom scripts are there to automate the system provisioning in VMWare.
Our infrastructure is run on our own hardware and use VMWare vSphere for virtualisation. As our workloads use larger instances (24gb of ram) and higher then average IOPS, we found it cheaper to run our own hardware (including labour costs). This is further helped by the fact our usage is fairly consistent and as such we are able to run much of our infrastructure at capacity (with a reasonable safety margin).
I am currently working building an interface that will combine the deployment, management, monitoring (performance and fault), networking and configuration across all the components of our infrastructure to make it more "Cloud Like" as the younger developers seem unable to perform even basic administration tasks that were expected of the older developers.
- Patrick_Devine 13y agoWhen you say VMware & Kickstart do you mean you're using the VMware scripted installer? I did the design for that and was the lead engineer for a long time.
- jlawer 13y agoI'm not familiar with the scripted installer or if it would have fit our needs. No, the script is a python one using PySphere to interface with the vSphere server. It creates a new vm with appropriate disk, ram, vcpu and networking to the right networks. The script also creates a PXELinux config file so when the system boots it gets a custom PXE configuration with directs it to boot the CentOS installer with a kickstart file that has been created for it. This kickstart file specifies the hostname, network configuration, default packages, system password and Salt configuration. The system does an unattended install. Once the system boots it binds to the Salt Master and pulls down its configuration which configures the server to its role (App server, database, redis, etc). It was done this way mostly because I was familiar with it from my days as a red hatter, but there also was a bit of a desire to not get too tied into VMWare. We are relatively small (though run ~ 50 servers), and only afforded VMware through the Essentials Plus package. We are not a VMware shop by any measure, and will be looking for the best option (be it physical systems, virtual infrastructure or cloud providers) when our hardware support & software licenses expire.
- rglauser 13y agoVery compelling. I am filling in some of the content gaps for SaltConf (SLC, Jan. 28-30, 2014, www.saltconf.com) and would love to have you talk at the conference. This topic is a really good fit for content I am looking for. Speakers get a free conference pass. If you would be interested, please send a note to saltconf at saltstack dot com and I'll be in touch with next steps.