Greg Bruno's Introduction to Stacki presentation at the Stacki/SF Bay Area OpenStack meetup on 9/15/16 at the Flex Office.

1. Introduction to Stacki
Greg Bruno, PhD
VP Engineering, StackIQ

2. Open Source Stack Installer
Stacki is a very fast and ultra reliable Linux server provisioning tool … at scale.
With zero prerequisites for taking systems from bare metal to a ping and prompt.

3. How We Solve the Problem

4. Stacki Positioning
DevOps / Configuration Tool
DHCP /
DNS / TFTP
NetworkDiskOS
In-house
developed
deployment
tools
- Disk Array Controller Configuration
- Disk Partitioning Configuration

5. Datacenter Architecture
Frontend
Network
Backend Backend Backend Backend
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6. Download and Boot the ISO
Go to www.stacki.com and download the ISO
◦ It’s 1.2 GB
◦ “stacki” pallet plus stripped down CentOS 6.7
Boot the ISO on the host that will be your frontend

7. Frontend Services
Services to build backend nodes
◦ DHCP
◦ TFTP
◦ Named (optional)
Services to access backend nodes
◦ SSH key management
◦ Parallel execution shell

8. Host Configuration Spreadsheet

9. Frontend
Network
Backend Backend Backend Backend
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Backend Installation
Save your Host Configuration spreadsheet as a CSV
Import CSV on frontend
◦ “stack load hostfile file=hosts.csv”
Tell backend nodes to install on their next PXE boot
◦ “stack set host boot backend action=install”
PXE boot all backend nodes
Done!

10. BitTorrent-Inspired Package Installation
Stacki

11. Customizing Your Hosts

12. Advanced Networking
Via Host Configuration spreadsheet, you can configure:
◦ Bonded interfaces
◦ VLANs
◦ Bridging
◦ Any combo of the above
Manage hosts in multiple subnets
◦ Build a single cluster from hosts in multiple subnets
◦ Manage hosts in multiple datacenters

13. Host Configuration Spreadsheet

14. Disk Controller Configuration Spreadsheet

15. Disk Partition Configuration Spreadsheet

16. Multiple Distributions
A frontend houses a default distribution
◦ Based on stripped down CentOS 6.7 or 7.2
◦ Used to build backend nodes
Can add any number of new distributions to a frontend
◦ E.g., RHEL 6.x based distro, CentOS 6.5, etc.
Assign any backend node to any distro

17. Because my kid just went to college

18. Ubuntu
Current support for Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial
Xerus)
Backend nodes only
◦ Frontend runs CentOS
Simple backend configuration
◦ Single disk
◦ Single network

19. UEFI
Next gen BIOS
StackIQ customers asking for this
Really hard for end users
iPXE
◦ HTTP
◦ More Scalable
◦ More Fault tolerant
DHCP-less environments

20. REST Interface
Stacki has a rich command line
Now coupled with a REST interface
◦ Authenticated
◦ Access to all commands
◦ Except a few on the “naughty list”

21. Baseboard Management
Whitebox
◦ Serial console
◦ Power on / off
◦ Next boot action
◦ Serial console
Proprietary (Dell, HP)
◦ Firmware updates
◦ Remote virtual console
◦ Boot order

22. Multiple Versions
Open Source
◦ RHEL/CentOS 6.x FEs build 6.x BEs
◦ RHEL/CentOS 7.x FEs build 7.x BEs
Stacki Pro - Cross Building
◦ RHEL/CentOS 7.x FEs build 7.x and 6.x BEs

23. Discover Hardware Capabilities
Collect MAC addresses and build a “skeleton”
host configuration spreadsheet
◦ All ethernet networks
◦ BMCs
◦ Host-based VLANs
◦ Bonding

24. In the pipeline

25. High Availability for Frontends
Active/Passive Configuration
◦ Dedicated passive frontend server
Poll / Mirror database changes
◦ Mirror software repositories
◦ Git checkout latest config profiles
Heartbeat protocol to determine when active dies

26. Storage System Pallets

27. Track HW / SW deltas over time
Software Example:
◦ Poll RPM changes on nodes
◦ Compare to t=0
◦ Compare to software repository
◦ Log everything in DB
“Pallet to Dumpster”
Life Cycle Management

28. Try It Out

29. stacki.com
Download - www.stacki.com
Source & Docs - github.com/StackIQ/stacki/wiki
Discuss - groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/stacki