Setting up a LAVA pipeline instance

Initial considerations

  1. The default setup of the LAVA packages and codebase is for the current dispatcher and the V1 distributed deployment but this will change during 2017 before the old code is removed. Until then, installations will continue to provide both models.
  2. A LAVA pipeline instance can have existing remote worker support alongside but uses a completely different mechanism to identify remote workers and run jobs on pipeline devices.
  3. If both systems are enabled, devices can support both pipeline and current JSON submissions. Devices can be made exclusive to prevent JSON submissions.
  4. The default setup provides both mechanisms, the only step required to allow pipeline submissions to devices connected to http://localhost is to have pipeline devices available.
  5. Distributed deployments need changes on each worker, see Changes for existing remote workers but this can be avoided if all devices on the instance are suitable for the pipeline.
  6. Pipeline setup is a much simplified task for admins but still contains some manual steps. See Detailed changes.
  7. If only pipeline devices are to be supported, the dispatchers running lava-slave do not need to have the lava-server package installed. Each dispatcher does need to be able to connect to the ZMQ port specified in the lava-master configuration of the instance (which is then the only machine related to that instance which has lava-server installed). The lava-server package on the master should be installed as a single master instance of LAVA.
  8. The ZMQ protocol incorporates buffering at each end such that either the lava-master or the lava-slave service can be restarted at any time without affecting currently running jobs or requiring any changes or restarts at the other end of the connection. There are no other connections required between the slave and the master and the outgoing request from the slave is initiated by the slave, so it is possible for the slave to be behind a local firewall, as long as the relevant ports are open for outgoing traffic. i.e. the slave pulls from the master, the master cannot push to the slave. (This does then mean that a hacking session would be restricted to those with access through such a firewall.)

Detailed changes

The pipeline design designates the machine running Django and PostgreSQL as the lava-master and all other machines connected to that master which will actually be running the jobs are termed lava-slave machines.

Dependencies and recommends

Debian has the concept of Dependencies which must be installed and Recommends which are optional but expected to be useful by most users of the package in question. Opting out of installing Recommends is supported when installing packages, so if admins have concerns about extra packages being installed on the slaves (e.g. if using ARMv7 slaves or simply to reduce the complexity of the install) then Recommends can be omitted for the installation of these dependencies,

The 2016.6 release adds a dependency on python-guestfs. The Recommends for GuestFS can be omitted from the installation, if admins desire, but this needs to be done ahead of the upgrade to 2016.6:

$ sudo apt --no-install-recommends install python-guestfs

Installing lava-dispatcher

If this slave has no devices which will be used by the current dispatcher, only by the pipeline, i.e. exclusive devices, only lava-dispatcher needs to be installed, not lava-server:

$ sudo apt install lava-dispatcher
  1. Change the dispatcher configuration in /etc/lava-dispatcher/lava-slave to allow the init script for lava-slave (/etc/init.d/lava-slave) to connect to the relevant lava-master instead of localhost. Change the port numbers, if required, to match those in use on the lava-master:

    /etc/lava-dispatcher/lava-slave
    
    # Configuration for lava-slave daemon
    
    # URL to the master and the logger
    # MASTER_URL="tcp://<lava-master-dns>:5556"
    # LOGGER_URL="tcp://<lava-master-dns>:5555"
    
    # Logging level should be uppercase (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR)
    # LOGLEVEL="DEBUG"
    
    # Encryption
    # If set, will activate encryption using the master public and the slave
    # private keys
    # ENCRYPT="--encrypt"
    # MASTER_CERT="--master-cert /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/<master.key>"
    # SLAVE_CERT="--slave-cert /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/<slave.key_secret>"
    
  2. Restart lava-slave once the changes are complete:

    $ sudo service lava-slave restart
    
  3. The administrator of the master will then be able to allocate pipeline devices to this slave.

Note

For security reasons, the slave does not declare the devices connected to it to the master. The LAVA configuration on the slave actually needs no knowledge of what is connected or where as long as services like ser2net are configured. All the LAVA configuration data is stored solely in the database of the master. Once this data is entered by the admin of the master, the slave then needs to connect and the admin can then select that slave for the relevant devices. Once selected, the slave can immediately start running pipeline jobs on those devices.

The administrator of the master will require the following information about the devices attached to each slave:

  1. Confirmation that a suitable template already exists, for each device i.e. Adding support for a device of a known type
  2. A completed and tested device dictionary for each device.

This information contains specific information about the local network setup of the slave and will be transmitted between the master and the slave in clear text over ZMQ. Any encryption would need to be arranged separately between the slave and the master. Information typically involves the hostname of the PDU, the port number of the device on that PDU and the port number of the serial connection for that device. The slave is responsible for ensuring that these ports are only visible to that slave. There is no need for any connections to be visible to the master.

Adding pipeline workers to the master

A worker which only has exclusive pipeline devices attached can be installed as a pipeline worker. These workers need to be manually added to the master so that the admins of the master have the ability to assign devices in the database and enable or disable the worker.

To add a new pipeline worker:

$ sudo lava-server manage pipeline-worker --hostname <HOSTNAME>

To add a pipeline worker with a description:

$ sudo lava-server manage pipeline-worker --hostname <HOSTNAME> --description <DESC>

To add a pipeline worker in a disabled state:

$ sudo lava-server manage pipeline-worker --hostname <HOSTNAME> --disable

Pipeline workers are enabled or disabled in the Django admin interface by changing the display field of the worker. Jobs submitted to devices on that worker will fail, so it is also recommended that the devices would be made offline at the same time. (The django admin interface has support for selecting devices by worker and taking all selected devices offline in a single action.)

..seealso:: Adding your first QEMU device

Using ZMQ authentication and encryption

lava-master and lava-slave use ZMQ to pass control messages and log messages. When using a slave on the same machine as the master, this traffic does not need to be authenticated or encrypted. When the slave is remote to the master, it is strongly recommended that the slave authenticates with the master using ZMQ curve so that all traffic can then be encrypted and the master can refuse connections which cannot be authenticated against the credentials configured by the admin.

To enable authentication and encryption, you will need to restart the master and each of the slaves. Once the master is reconfigured, it will not be possible for the slaves to communicate with the master until each is configured correctly. It is recommended that this is done when there are no test jobs running on any of the slaves, so a maintenance window may be needed before the work can start. ZMQ is able to cope with short interruptions to the connection between master and slave, so depending on the particular layout of your instance, the changes can be made on each machine before the master is restarted, then the slaves can be restarted. Make sure you test this process on a temporary or testing instance if you are planning on doing this for a live instance without using a maintenance window.

Encryption is particularly important when using remote slaves as the control socket (which manages starting and ending testjobs) needs to be protected when it is visible across open networks. Authentication ensures that only known slaves are able to connect to the master. Once authenticated, all communication will be encrypted using the certificates.

Protection of the secret keys for the master and each of the slaves is the responsibility of the admin. If a slave is compromised, the admin can delete the certificate from /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/ and restart the master daemon to immediately block that slave.

Create certificates

Encryption is supported by default in lava-master and lava-slave but needs to be enabled in the init scripts for each daemon. Start by generating a master certificate on the master:

$ sudo /usr/share/lava-dispatcher/create_certificate.py master

Now generate a unique slave certificate on each slave. The default name for any slave certificate is just slave but this is only relevant for testing. Use a name which relates to the hostname or location or other unique aspect of each slave. The admin will need to be able to relate each certificate to a specific slave machine:

$ sudo /usr/share/lava-dispatcher/create_certificate.py foo_slave_1

Distribute public certificates

Copy the public component of the master certificate to each slave. By default, the master public key will be /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/master.key and needs to be copied to the same directory on each slave.

Copy the public component of each slave certificate to the master. By default, the slave public key will be /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/slave.key.

Admins need to maintain the set of slave certificates in /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d - only certificates declared by active slaves will be used but having obsolete or possibly compromised certificates available to the master is a security risk.

Preparation

Once enabled, the master will refuse connections from any slave which are either not encrypted or lack a certificate in /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/. So before restarting the master, stop each of the slaves:

$ sudo service lava-slave stop

Enable master encryption

The master will only authenticate the slave certificates if the master is configured with the --encrypt option. Edit /etc/lava-server/lava-master to enable encryption:

# Encryption
# If set, will activate encryption using the master public and the slave
# private keys
ENCRYPT="--encrypt"

If you have changed the name or location of the master certificate or the location of the slave certificates, specify those locations and names explicitly:

# MASTER_CERT="--master-cert /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/<master.key>"
# SLAVES_CERTS="--slaves-certs /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d"

Note

Each master needs to find the secret key for that master and the directory containing all of the public slave keys copied onto that master by the admin.

See also

Preparation

Enable slave encryption

See also

Preparation

Edit /etc/lava-dispatcher/lava-slave to enable encryption by adding the enabling the --encrypt argument:

# Encryption
# If set, will activate encryption using the master public and the slave
# private keys
ENCRYPT="--encrypt"

If you have changed the name or location of the master certificate or the location of the slave certificates, specify those locations and names in /etc/lava-dispatcher/lava-slave explicitly:

# MASTER_CERT="--master-cert /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/<master.key>"
# SLAVE_CERT="--slave-cert /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/<slave.key_secret>"

Note

Each slave refers to the secret key for that slave and the public master key copied onto that slave by the admin.

Restarting master and slaves

For minimal disruption, the master and each slave can be prepared for encryption and authentication without restarting any of the daemons. Only upon restarting the master will the slaves need to authenticate.

Once all the slaves are configured restart the master and check the logs for a message showing that encryption has been enabled on the master. e.g.

2016-04-26 10:08:56,303 LAVA Daemon: lava-server manage --instance-template=/etc/lava-server/{{filename}}.conf
 --instance=playground dispatcher-master --encrypt --master-cert /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/master.key_secret
 --slaves-certs /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d pid: 17387
2016-04-26 09:08:58,410 INFO Starting encryption
2016-04-26 09:08:58,411 DEBUG Opening master certificate: /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/master.key_secret
2016-04-26 09:08:58,411 DEBUG Using slaves certificates from: /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d
2016-04-26 09:08:58,411 INFO [INIT] LAVA dispatcher-master has started.

Now restart each slave in turn and watch for equivalent messages in the logs:

2016-04-26 10:11:03,128 LAVA Daemon: lava-dispatcher-slave
 --master tcp://localhost:5556 --hostname playgroundmaster.lavalab
 --socket-addr tcp://localhost:5555 --level=DEBUG
 --encrypt --master-cert /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/master.key
 --slave-cert /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/slave.key_secret pid: 17464
2016-04-26 10:11:03,239 INFO Creating ZMQ context and socket connections
2016-04-26 10:11:03,239 INFO Starting encryption
2016-04-26 10:11:03,240 DEBUG Opening slave certificate: /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/slave.key_secret
2016-04-26 10:11:03,240 DEBUG Opening master certificate: /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/master.key
2016-04-26 10:11:03,241 INFO Connecting to master as <playgroundmaster.lavalab>
2016-04-26 10:11:03,241 INFO Connection is encrypted using /etc/lava-dispatcher/certificates.d/slave.key_secret
2016-04-26 10:11:03,241 DEBUG Greeting the master => 'HELLO'
2016-04-26 10:11:03,241 INFO Waiting for the master to reply
2016-04-26 10:11:03,244 DEBUG The master replied: ['HELLO_OK']
2016-04-26 10:11:03,244 INFO Connection with the master established

(This example does use authentication and encryption over localhost, but that is why the machine is called playground.)

Adding pipeline devices to a worker

Admins use the Django admin interface to add devices to workers using the worker drop-down in the device detail page.

It is up to the admin to ensure that pipeline devices are assigned to pipeline workers and devices which can run JSON jobs are assigned only to distributed deployment workers.

Note

A pipeline worker may have a description but does not have a record of the IP address, uptime or architecture in the Worker object.

Changes for existing remote workers

On an existing remote worker, a lava-master daemon will already be running on localhost (doing nothing). Once the migration to the pipeline is complete, the lava-server package can be removed from all workers, so the above information relates to this endpoint. In the meantime, remote workers should have lava-master disabled on localhost once the slave has been directed at the real master as above.

Disabling lava-master on workers

Note

A pipeline worker will only have lava-dispatcher installed, so there will be no lava-master daemon which is installed by lava-server.

Warning

Only do this on the remote worker but make sure it is done on all remote workers before submitting pipeline jobs which would need the devices on those workers.

If a new worker does not need to run jobs using the current dispatcher, i.e. if all devices on this worker are exclusive, then lava-server does not need to be installed and there is no lava-master daemon to disable.

For existing workers, pipeline jobs will be likely be mixed with JSON jobs. This leads to lava-server being installed on the workers (solely to manage the JSON jobs). On such workers, lava-master should be disabled once lava-slave has been reconfigured:

$ sudo invoke-rc.d lava-master stop
$ sudo update-rc.d lava-master remove
$ sudo chmod a-x /etc/init.d/lava-master
$ sudo service lava-master status

Removing the executable bits stops the lava-master being re-enabled when the packages are updated.