From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Marius Bakke Subject: Re: Hosting a GuixSD server on commodity hosting platforms, a journey Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2016 16:08:03 +0100 Message-ID: <87bmwxt38s.fsf@kirby.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> References: <878ts212ic.fsf@dustycloud.org> <871sxt1sho.fsf@dustycloud.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="=-=-="; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature" Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:60080) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cC6UU-0007ji-IT for help-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Nov 2016 10:08:15 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cC6UQ-0005tM-0Z for help-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Nov 2016 10:08:10 -0500 Received: from out5-smtp.messagingengine.com ([66.111.4.29]:55090) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cC6UP-0005si-QG for help-guix@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Nov 2016 10:08:05 -0500 In-Reply-To: <871sxt1sho.fsf@dustycloud.org> List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-guix-bounces+gcggh-help-guix=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Help-Guix" To: Christopher Allan Webber , help-guix --=-=-= Content-Type: text/plain Christopher Allan Webber writes: > Christopher Allan Webber writes: > >> What am I doing wrong? I'm not totally sure... I feel like I'm >> navigating a jungle out here in the OpenStack / Rackspace docs. Here's >> one thing I found: >> >> https://community.rackspace.com/products/f/25/t/7186 >> >> So I probably need to execute this "import" command. I guess that's >> what's next... > > Well, I did a bit more exploration tonight with *some* progress, but > still not success. I followed the above link and got a task to generate > an image based off my file. Looks like the task took! And it showed up > in "image-list" with the glance command line client. Sounds like > progress! > > And hey, if I try to create the server now via the web UI... if I look > to create an image based off the images list from > "Saved -> Deleted Servers (!!!)" menu, I indeed see my image listed. > Cool! So I select that and click "create server". > > Ok... I wait a bit. It says it's initializing it! > > Uhoh, suddenly the status turns to ERROR. What's ERROR? I don't know. > It says ERROR, and it's red. Hovering over it suggests I ask support. > Hm. > > I wonder if I used the Nova command line client if I'd get more > information, or if there's a way to query the API to get more info. > > Still, that's *some* progress... I kicked off generating an image > generated via GuixSD, even if it didn't work at all... :) > > Relatedly! User dvc in #guix on freenode suggests looking at > https://www.vultr.com/ which looks quite affordable and hey! It has a > "custom ISO" option. If we can convert our USB boot stick thingy > (presumably via xorriso) we could try generating a base server image > from there. I'd prefer to have a workflow where I go from handing off > something made with "guix system vm-image" to some API, but maybe in the > meanwhile Vultr would be a lower barrier to entry. > > In the meanwhile, anyone familiar enough with Nova or Rackspace want to > give me hints on how to find out more about what ERROR means, more > specifically? ;) I've had the questionable privilege of working on Openstack for some time, and indeed have a GuixSD system running on it. I can tell you that any errors you see are not necessarily representative of what's happening in the back-end, although it does sound like the Rackspace GUI just spits out a generic message, instead of a flat-out lie.. The image I used was created by installing a bare-bones GuixSD to an LVM device (e.g. with Qemu), then dumping this with `dd` before first boot to create a "RAW" image. RAW is supported (required, actually) by Glance if Ceph is used as the backing storage, but Rackspace only supports VHD. I haven't looked into the fstab of the generated VM image, but it may be hard-coded to '/dev/vda' whereas Xen creates '/dev/xvda' (IIRC). Though it should at least try to boot if that was the case. My best advice is to try doing a normal install in a VM from the USB image (qcow2 probably works) and then convert it to the format your cloud platform expects, instead of booting the VM image directly. I used GPT with a "bios_grub" partition FWIW. Make sure to use (title 'label) and appropriate FS labels, since the root device path may vary between cloud platforms. On a vaguely related note, I'm slowly working on a "native" GuixSD hosting platform, where you will be able to submit (and share!) configuration files and get a VM and/or disk image back. It's still a long way off, but I could use some help building the web front-end once the back-end is ready. Feel free to contact me for more details :) --=-=-= Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQEzBAEBCgAdFiEEu7At3yzq9qgNHeZDoqBt8qM6VPoFAlg+61MACgkQoqBt8qM6 VPqk/gf7B64g73mW/xzomXGaaPTSU6tXeGnLkcVzwQ8ZbmJXaw4nyrXBrszfR7zh SPHz0SYPydVQapyNYe9KApCH5/aOb4OoHL1vKoq9vWo57tm67ysEnrrKhmWlt2Hc RonctUtsDUqbtraHTOqtzydq5g6HSCKESHCOO/1Roav+K9ebAuFEDBKa7E19CqWa 3CmNZMA93QfxhKBTKyC9tE7+JlsF5YF8ATrxjCMmNSSMhoRkMUI2R44L7P73dxAv vVd0CSrXsjFEDdlxNP4yhxyLWXEtEmuNm8q9CQWSlX4uCr2T+CSSGe6HaskXpGx8 618/mWeAN9+mzmoXAnLNvYpZwVMWIA== =hOsr -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=-=-=--