Applies to SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6

8 The Crowbar Web Interface

Abstract

The Crowbar Web interface runs on the Administration Server. It provides an overview of the most important deployment details in your cloud, including a view on the nodes and which roles are deployed on which nodes, and on the barclamp proposals that can be edited and deployed. In addition, the Crowbar Web interface shows details about the networks and switches in your cloud. It also provides graphical access to some tools with which you can manage your repositories, back up or restore the Administration Server, export the Chef configuration, or generate a supportconfig TAR archive with the most important log files.

8.1 Logging In

The Crowbar Web interface uses the HTTP protocol and port 80.

Procedure 8.1: Logging In to the Crowbar Web Interface
  1. On any machine, start a Web browser and make sure that JavaScript and cookies are enabled.

  2. As URL, enter the IP address of the Administration Server, for example:

    http://192.168.124.10/
  3. Log in as user crowbar. If you have not changed the password, it is crowbar by default.

Procedure 8.2: Changing the Password for the Crowbar Web Interface
  1. After being logged in to the Crowbar Web interface, select Barclamp › Crowbar.

  2. Select the Crowbar barclamp entry and Edit the proposal.

  3. In the Attributes section, click Raw to edit the configuration file.

  4. Search for the following entry:

    "crowbar": {
         "password": "crowbar"
  5. Change the password.

  6. Confirm your change by clicking Save and Apply.

8.2 Overview: Main Elements

After logging in to Crowbar, you will see a navigation bar at the top-level row. Its menus and the respective views are described in the following sections.

Crowbar UI—Dashboard (Main Screen)
Figure 8.1: Crowbar UI—Dashboard (Main Screen)

8.2.1 Nodes

Dashboard

This is the default view after logging in to the Crowbar Web interface. The Dashboard shows the groups (which you can create to arrange nodes according to their purpose), which nodes belong to each group and which state the nodes and groups are in. In addition, the total number of nodes is displayed in the top-level row.

The color of the dot in front of each node or group indicates the status. If the dot for a group shows more than one color, hover the mouse pointer over the dot to view the total number of nodes and the statuses they are in.

  • Gray means the node is being discovered by the Administration Server or that there is no up-to-date information about a deployed node. If the status is shown for a node longer than expected, check if the chef-client is still running on the node.

  • Yellow means the node has been Discovered. As long as the dot is still blinking, the respective node is being installed and booted.

  • Green means the node is in status Ready.

  • Red means the node is in status Problematic.

During the initial state of the setup, the Dashboard only shows one group called sw_unknown into which the Administration Server is automatically sorted. Initially, all nodes (except the Administration Server) are listed with their MAC address as a name. However, it is recommended to create an alias for each node. This makes it easier to identify the node in the admin network and on the Dashboard. For details on how to create groups, how to assign nodes to a group and how to create node aliases, see Section 9.2, “Node Installation”.

Bulk Edit

This screen allows you to edit multiple nodes at once instead of editing them individually. It lists all nodes, including their Name (in form of the MAC address), their Hardware configuration, their Alias (used within the admin network), their Public Name (name used outside of the SUSE OpenStack Cloud network), their Group, their Intended Role, their Platform (the operating system that is going to be installed on the node), their License (if available), and their allocation status. You can toggle the list view between Show unallocated or Show all nodes.

For details on how to fill in the data for all nodes and how to start the installation process, see Section 9.2, “Node Installation”.

HA Clusters

This menu entry only appears if your cloud contains a High Availability setup. The overview shows all clusters in your setup, including the Nodes that are members of the respective cluster and the Roles assigned to the cluster. It also shows if a cluster contains Remote Nodes and which roles are assigned to the remote nodes.

Actives Roles

This overview shows which roles have been deployed on which node(s). The roles are grouped according to the service to which they belong. You cannot edit anything here. To change role deployment, you need to edit and redeploy the respective barclamp as described in Chapter 10, Deploying the OpenStack Services.

8.2.2 Barclamps

All Barclamps

This screen shows a list of all available barclamp proposals, including their Status, Name and a short Description. From here, you can Edit individual barclamp proposals as described in Section 10.1, “Barclamps”.

Crowbar

This screen only shows the barclamps that are included with the core Crowbar framework. They contain general recipes for setting up and configuring all nodes. From here, you can Edit individual barclamp proposals.

OpenStack

This screen only shows the barclamps that are dedicated to OpenStack service deployment and configuration. From here, you can Edit individual barclamp proposals.

Deployment Queue

If barclamps are applied to one or more nodes that are nor yet available for deployment (for example, because they are rebooting or have not been fully installed yet), the proposals will be put in a queue. This screen shows the proposals that are Currently deploying or Waiting in queue.

8.2.3 Utilities

Exported Items

The Exported Files screen allows you to export the Chef configuration and the supportconfig TAR archive. The supportconfig archive contains system information such as the current kernel version being used, the hardware, RPM database, partitions, and the most important log files for analysis of any problems. To access the export options, click New Export. After the export has been successfully finished, the Exported Files screen will show any files that are available for download.

Repositories

This screen shows an overview of the mandatory, recommended and optional repositories for all architectures of SUSE OpenStack Cloud. On each reload of the screen the Crowbar Web interface checks the availability and status of the repositories. If a mandatory repository is not present, it is marked red in the screen. Any repositories marked green are usable and available to each node in the cloud. If you activate the check box for a repository in the Active column, the managed nodes will automatically be configured to use this repository.

You cannot edit any repositories in this screen. If you need additional, third-party repositories (or want to modify the repository metadata), edit /etc/crowbar/repos.yml. Find an example of a repository definition below:

suse-12.1:
  x86_64:
    Custom-Repo-12.1:
      url: 'http://example.com/12-SP1:/x86_64/custom-repo/'
      ask_on_error: true # sets the ask_on_error flag in the autoyast profile for that repo
      priority: 99 # sets the repo priority for zypper

Alternatively, use YaST Crowbar module to add or edit repositories as described in Section 7.4, “Repositories.

Swift Dashboard

This screen allows you to run swift-dispersion-report on the node or nodes to which it has been deployed. Use this tool to measure the overall health of the swift cluster. For details, see http://docs.openstack.org/liberty/config-reference/content/object-storage-dispersion.html.

Backup & Restore

This screen lets you create a backup of the Administration Server and download it. You can also restore from a backup or upload a backup image from your local file system. For details, see Section 11.5, “Backing Up and Restoring the Administration Server”.

Cisco UCS

SUSE OpenStack Cloud can communicate with a Cisco UCS Manager instance via its XML-based API server to perform the following functions:

  • Instantiate UCS service profiles for Compute Nodes and Storage Nodes from predefined UCS service profile templates

  • Reboot, start, and stop nodes.

The following prerequisites need to be fulfilled on the Cisco UCS side:

  • Templates for Compute Nodes and Storage Nodes need to be created. These service profile templates will be be used for preparing systems as SUSE Cloud nodes. Minimum requirements are a processor supporting AMD-V or Intel-VT, 8 GB RAM, one network interface and at least 20 GB of storage (more for Storage Nodes). The templates need to be named suse-cloud-compute and suse-cloud-storage.

  • A user account with administrative permissions needs to be created for communicating with SUSE OpenStack Cloud. The account needs to have access to the service profile templates listed above. It also need permission to create service profiles and associate them with physical hardware.

To initially connect to the Cisco UCS Manager provide the login credentials of the user account mentioned above. The API URL has the form http://UCSMANAGERHOST/nuova. Click Login to connect. Once connected, you will see a list of servers and associated actions. Applying an action with the Update button can take up to several minutes.

8.2.4 Help

From this screen, you can access HTML and PDF versions of the SUSE OpenStack Cloud manuals. .

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