Configuring Web or Serial Console
Overview
There are two types of console which are available in Bare Metal
service, one is web console (Node web
console) which is available directly from web browser, another is
serial console (Node serial
console).
Node web console
The web console can be configured in Bare Metal service in the
following way:
-
Install shellinabox in ironic conductor node. For RHEL/CentOS,
shellinabox package is not present in base repositories, user must
enable EPEL repository, you can find more from FedoraProject
page.Note
shellinabox is no longer maintained by the authorized author. This is a fork of
the project on GitHub that aims to continue with maintenance of the
shellinabox project.Installation example:
Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install shellinabox
RHEL8/CentOS8/Fedora:
sudo dnf install shellinabox
You can find more about shellinabox on the shellinabox
page.You can optionally use the SSL certificate in shellinabox. If you
want to use the SSL certificate in shellinabox, you should install
openssl and generate the SSL certificate.-
Install openssl, for example:
Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install openssl
RHEL8/CentOS8/Fedora:
sudo dnf install openssl
-
Generate the SSL certificate, here is an example, you can find
more about openssl on the openssl
page:cd /tmp/ca openssl genrsa -des3 -out my.key 1024 openssl req -new -key my.key -out my.csr cp my.key my.key.org openssl rsa -in my.key.org -out my.key openssl x509 -req -days 3650 -in my.csr -signkey my.key -out my.crt cat my.crt my.key > certificate.pem
-
-
Customize the console section in the Bare Metal service
configuration file (/etc/ironic/ironic.conf), if you want to use SSL
certificate in shellinabox, you should specify
terminal_cert_dir
. for example:[console] # # Options defined in ironic.drivers.modules.console_utils # # Path to serial console terminal program. Used only by Shell # In A Box console. (string value) #terminal=shellinaboxd # Directory containing the terminal SSL cert (PEM) for serial # console access. Used only by Shell In A Box console. (string # value) terminal_cert_dir=/tmp/ca # Directory for holding terminal pid files. If not specified, # the temporary directory will be used. (string value) #terminal_pid_dir=<None> # Time interval (in seconds) for checking the status of # console subprocess. (integer value) #subprocess_checking_interval=1 # Time (in seconds) to wait for the console subprocess to # start. (integer value) #subprocess_timeout=10
-
Append console parameters for bare metal PXE boot in the Bare
Metal service configuration file (/etc/ironic/ironic.conf). See the
reference for configuration inkernel-boot-parameters
. -
Enable the
ipmitool-shellinabox
console interface,
for example: -
Configure node web console.
If the node uses a hardware type, for example
ipmi
, set
the node’s console interface toipmitool-shellinabox
:baremetal node set <node> --console-interface ipmitool-shellinabox
Enable the web console, for example:
baremetal node set <node> \ --driver-info <terminal_port>=<customized_port> baremetal node console enable <node>
Check whether the console is enabled, for example:
baremetal node validate <node>
Disable the web console, for example:
baremetal node console disable <node> baremetal node unset <node> --driver-info <terminal_port>
The
<terminal_port>
is driver dependent. The
actual name of this field can be checked in driver properties, for
example:baremetal driver property list <driver>
For the
ipmi
hardware type, this option is
ipmi_terminal_port
. Give a customized port number to
<customized_port>
, for example8023
,
this customized port is used in web console url.Get web console information for a node as follows:
baremetal node console show <node> +-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Property | Value | +-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | console_enabled | True | | console_info | {u'url': u'http://<url>:<customized_port>', u'type': u'shellinabox'} | +-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
You can open web console using above
url
through web
browser. Ifconsole_enabled
isfalse
,
console_info
isNone
, web console is disabled.
If you want to launch web console, see the
Configure node web console
part.Note
An error message you may encounter when enabling the console can read
Console subprocess failed to start. Timeout or error while waiting for console subprocess to start for node
along with[server] Failed to find any available port!
.
This error is coming from shellinabox itself, not from the communication
with the BMC. One potential cause for this issue is that there are
already shellinabox daemons running which block the configured port
(remove them if appropriate and retry to enable the console).
Node serial console
Serial consoles for nodes are implemented using socat. It is supported by
the ipmi
and irmc
hardware types.
Serial consoles can be configured in the Bare Metal service as
follows:
-
Install socat on the ironic conductor node. Also,
socat
needs to be in the $PATH environment variable that
the ironic-conductor service uses.Installation example:
Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install socat
RHEL8/CentOS8/Fedora:
sudo dnf install socat
-
Append console parameters for bare metal PXE boot in the Bare
Metal service configuration file. See the reference on how to configure
them inkernel-boot-parameters
. -
Enable the
ipmitool-socat
console interface, for
example: -
Configure node console.
If the node uses a hardware type, for example
ipmi
, set
the node’s console interface toipmitool-socat
:baremetal node set <node> --console-interface ipmitool-socat
Enable the serial console, for example:
baremetal node set <node> --driver-info ipmi_terminal_port=<port> baremetal node console enable <node>
Check whether the serial console is enabled, for example:
baremetal node validate <node>
Disable the serial console, for example:
baremetal node console disable <node> baremetal node unset <node> --driver-info <ipmi_terminal_port>
Serial console information is available from the Bare Metal service.
Get serial console information for a node from the Bare Metal service as
follows:
baremetal node console show <node>
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property | Value |
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| console_enabled | True |
| console_info | {u'url': u'tcp://<host>:<port>', u'type': u'socat'} |
+-----------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
If console_enabled
is false
or
console_info
is None
then the serial console
is disabled. If you want to launch serial console, see the
Configure node console
.
Node serial console of the Bare Metal service is compatible with the
serial console of the Compute service. Hence, serial consoles to Bare
Metal nodes can be seen and interacted with via the Dashboard service.
In order to achieve that, you need to follow the documentation for Serial Console <admin/remote-console-access.html#serial>
from the Compute service.
Configuring HA
When using Bare Metal serial console under High Availability (HA)
configuration, you may consider some settings below.
-
If you use HAProxy, you may need to set the timeout for both
client and server sides with appropriate values. Here is an example of
the configuration for the timeout parameter.frontend nova_serial_console bind 192.168.20.30:6083 timeout client 10m # This parameter is necessary use_backend nova_serial_console if <...> backend nova_serial_console balance source timeout server 10m # This parameter is necessary option tcpka option tcplog server controller01 192.168.30.11:6083 check inter 2000 rise 2 fall 5 server controller02 192.168.30.12:6083 check inter 2000 rise 2 fall 5
-
The Compute service’s caching feature may need to be enabled in
order to make the Bare Metal serial console work under a HA
configuration. Here is an example of caching configuration in
nova.conf
.