ironic-specs/specs/approved/override-pxe-options-via-glance-property.rst
Devananda van der Veen dd42ff0341 Add "Ramdisk impact" section to spec template
As per the weekly meeting today [1] we have agreed to add a
new section to the spec template for changes that affect the
IPA ramdisk.

[1] http://eavesdrop.openstack.org/meetings/ironic/2016/ironic.2016-05-23-17.00.log.txt

Change-Id: I0f62e233dc7f2ad3e9940439f8ad7740de5e65c9
2016-07-15 13:43:34 +01:00

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..
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
License.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
========================================
Override PXE options via Glance property
========================================
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ironic/+bug/1526409
The proposal presents the work required to allow PXE boot an image using
a specific kernel command line for that image.
Problem description
===================
Some images requires having specific kernel command line to boot
correctly. Currently, Ironic tries to determine things like the root
filesystem the image is on ("root=" kernel command line) by getting the
UUID of the image filesystem and setting as the root= parameter. This is
not correct for all images because some may need to boot from a different
root filesystem, e.g:
* The device path of its LVM volume [root=/dev/mapper/vg-lv_root]
* From one squashfs filesystem [root=live:<path>]
* A btrfs subvolume [root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/<UUID of btrfs-root>]
As a real example, the Fedora Atomic uses ``lvm`` and ``ostree``. It
requires a kernel command line as the example below to boot properly::
nofb nomodeset vga=normal console=tty1 no_timer_check
rd.lvm.lv=atomicos/root root=/dev/mapper/atomicos-root
ostree=/ostree/boot.0/fedora-atomic/a002a2c2e44240db614e09e82c/0
Proposed change
===============
In the same way Ironic look at the Glance image properties to find out the
Glance UUID for the image's kernel and ramdisk (kernel_id and ramdisk_id)
and populate the node's ``instance_info`` field with the ``kernel`` and
``ramdisk`` keys.
This spec propose having a new image's property field called
``kernel_cmdline`` that Ironic will look at, and if present, it will
populate the node's ``instance_info`` field with a ``kernel_cmdline``
key.
If the ``instance_info.kernel_cmdline`` is populate Ironic will skip
getting the root partition filesystem UUID and will use the command
line from the ``instance_info`` field instead of the default one in
the template. It's important to note that the values present at the
``pxe_append_params`` configuration option will still be appended at
the end of the image's custom kernel command line by Ironic.
Setting the keys in the ``instance_info`` field is important because
it also allows Ironic to operate in standalone mode without Glance.
Alternatives
------------
Always use whole disk images when deploying images that requires a
specific kernel command line
Data model impact
-----------------
None
State Machine Impact
--------------------
None
REST API impact
---------------
None
Client (CLI) impact
-------------------
None
RPC API impact
--------------
None
Driver API impact
-----------------
None
Nova driver impact
------------------
None
Ramdisk impact
--------------
N/A
.. NOTE: This section was not present at the time this spec was approved.
Security impact
---------------
None
Other end user impact
---------------------
None
Scalability impact
------------------
None
Performance Impact
------------------
None
Other deployer impact
---------------------
Deployers that wants to deploy an image with a specific kernel command
line should know and set it in Glance image's property prior to trying
to boot the image.
Developer impact
----------------
None
Implementation
==============
Assignee(s)
-----------
Primary assignee:
lucasagomes <lucasagomes@gmail.com>
Other contributors:
None
Work Items
----------
* Make Ironic look at the ``kernel_cmdline`` image property in Glance
and if present set it to the node's ``instance_info`` field
* When preparing to boot the user's image, make Ironic check if the
node's ``instance_info`` field contains a key called ``kernel_cmdline``
(along with ``kernel_id`` and ``ramdisk_id``) and if so, use that kernel
command line to boot the image.
Dependencies
============
None
Testing
=======
* Unit Tests
Upgrades and Backwards Compatibility
====================================
None
Documentation Impact
====================
The Ironic deploy documentation will be updated to reflect the changes
made by this spec.
References
==========
* `Kernel parameters <https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt>`_
* `Project atomic <http://www.projectatomic.io>`_