Fediversity/deployment

Provisioning VMs via Proxmox

Quick links

Proxmox API doc

https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/api-viewer

Fediversity Proxmox

http://192.168.51.81:8006/

Basic terminology

Node

physical host

Fediversity Proxmox

• It is only accessible via Procolix's VPN:

  • Get credentials for the VPN portal and Proxmox from Kevin.

  • Log in to the VPN portal.

    • Create a New Configuration:
    • Select WireGuard (UDP)
    • Enter some name, e.g. fediversity
    • Click Download

  • Write the WireGuard configuration to a file fediversity-vpn.config next to your NixOS configuration

    • Add that file's path to .git/info/exclude and make sure it doesn't otherwise leak (for example, use Agenix to manage secrets)

  • To your NixOS configuration, add

    networking.wg-quick.interfaces.fediversity.configFile = toString ./fediversity-vpn.config;
    

• Select "Promox VE authentication server".
• Ignore the "You do not have a valid subscription" message.

Automatically

This directory contains scripts that can automatically provision or remove a Proxmox VM. For now, they are tied to one node in the Fediversity Proxmox, but it would not be difficult to make them more generic. Try:

bash proxmox/provision.sh --help
bash proxmox/remove.sh --help

Preparing the machine configuration

• It is nicer if the machine is a QEMU guest. On NixOS:

  services.qemuGuest.enable = true
  

• Choose name for your machine.

• Choose static IPs for your machine. The IPv4 and IPv6 subnets available for Fediversity testing are:

  • 95.215.187.0/24. Gateway is 95.215.187.1.
  • 2a00:51c0:13:1305::/64. Gateway is 2a00:51c0:13:1305::1.

• I have been using id XXX (starting from 001), name fediXXX, 95.215.187.XXX and 2a00:51c0:13:1305::XXX.

• Name servers should be 95.215.185.6 and 95.215.185.7.

• Check Netbox to see which addresses are free.

Manually via the GUI

Upload your ISO

• Go to Fediversity proxmox.
• In the left view, expand under the node that you want and click on "local".
• Select "ISO Images", then click "Upload".
• Note: You can also download from URL.
• Note: You should click on "local" and not "local-zfs".

Creating the VM

• Click "Create VM" at the top right corner.

General

Node

which node will host the VM; has to be the same

VM ID

Has to be unique, probably best to use the xxxx in vm0xxxx (yet to be decided)

Name

Usually vm + 5 digits, e.g. vm02199

Resource pool

Fediversity

OS

Use CD/DVD disc image file (iso)

:

Storage
:   local, means storage of the node.

ISO image
:   select the image previously uploaded

No need to touch anything else

System

BIOS

OVMF (UEFI)

EFI Storage

linstor_storage; this is a storage shared by all of the Proxmox machines.

Pre-Enroll keys

MUST be unchecked

Qemu Agent

check

Disks

• Tick "advanced" at the bottom.
• Disk size (GiB) :: 40 (depending on requirements)
• SSD emulation :: check (only visible if "Advanced" is checked)
• Discard :: check, so that blocks of removed data are cleared

CPU

Sockets

1 (depending on requirements)

Cores

2 (depending on requirements)

Enable NUMA

check

Memory

Memory (MiB)

choose what you want

Ballooning Device

leave checked (only visible if "Advanced" is checked)

Network

Bridge

vnet1306. This is the provisioning bridge; we will change it later.

Firewall

uncheck, we will handle the firewall on the VM itself

Confirm

Install and start the VM

• Start the VM a first time.
  • Select the VM in the left panel. You might have to expand the node on which it is hosted.
  • Select "Console" and start the VM.
• Install the VM as you would any other machine.
• [Shutdown the VM]{.spurious-link target="Shutdown the VM"}.
• After the VM has been installed:
  • Select the VM again, then go to "Hardware".
  • Double click on the CD/DVD Drive line. Select "Do not use any media" and press OK.
  • Double click on Network Device, and change the bridge to vnet1305, the public bridge.
• Start the VM again.

Remove the VM

• [Shutdown the VM]{.spurious-link target="Shutdown the VM"}.
• On the top right corner, click "More", then "Remove".
• Enter the ID of the machine.
• Check "Purge from job configurations"
• Check "Destroy unreferenced disks owned by guest"
• Click "Remove".

Move the VM to another node

• Make sure there is no ISO plugged in.
• Click on the VM. Click migrate. Choose target node. Go.
• Since the storage is shared, it should go pretty fast (~1 minute).

Shutdown the VM

• Find the VM in the left panel.
• At the top right corner appears a "Shutdown" button with a submenu.
• Clicking "Shutdown" sends a signal to shutdown the machine. This might not work if the machine is not listening for that signal.
• Brutal solution: in the submenu, select "Stop".
• The checkbox "Overrule active shutdown tasks" means that the machine should be stopped even if a shutdown is currently ongoing. This is particularly important if you have tried to shut the machine down normally just before.