sushy-tools/doc/source/user/dynamic-emulator.rst

Virtual Redfish BMC

The virtual Redfish BMC is functionally similar to the Virtual BMC tool except that the frontend protocol is Redfish rather than IPMI. The Redfish commands coming from the client get executed against the virtualization backend. That lets you control virtual machine instances over Redfish.

The libvirt backend

First thing you need is to set up some libvirt-managed virtual machines (AKA domains) to manipulate. The following command will create a new virtual machine i.e. libvirt domain `vbmc-node`:

tmpfile=$(mktemp /tmp/sushy-domain.XXXXXX)
virt-install \
   --name vbmc-node \
   --ram 1024 \
   --disk size=1 \
   --vcpus 2 \
   --os-type linux \
   --os-variant fedora28 \
   --graphics vnc \
   --print-xml > $tmpfile
virsh define --file $tmpfile
rm $tmpfile

Next you can fire up the Redfish virtual BMC which will listen at localhost:8000 (by default):

sushy-emulator
 * Running on http://localhost:8000/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)

Now you should be able to see your libvirt domain among the Redfish Systems:

curl http://localhost:8000/redfish/v1/Systems/
{
    "@odata.type": "#ComputerSystemCollection.ComputerSystemCollection",
    "Name": "Computer System Collection",
    "Members@odata.count": 1,
    "Members": [

            {
                "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Systems/vbmc-node"
            }

    ],
    "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#ComputerSystemCollection.ComputerSystemCollection",
    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Systems",
    "@Redfish.Copyright": "Copyright 2014-2016 Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF). For the full DMTF copyright policy, see http://www.dmtf.org/about/policies/copyright."
}

You should be able to flip its power state via the Redfish call:

curl -d '{"ResetType":"On"}' \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST \
     http://localhost:8000/redfish/v1/Systems/vbmc-node/Actions/ComputerSystem.Reset

curl -d '{"ResetType":"ForceOff"}' \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST \
     http://localhost:8000/redfish/v1/Systems/vbmc-node/Actions/ComputerSystem.Reset

You can have as many domains as you need. The domains can be concurrently managed over Redfish and some other tool like Virtual BMC.

UEFI boot

By default, legacy or BIOS mode is used to boot the instance. However, libvirt domain can be configured to boot via UEFI firmware. This process requires additional preparation on the host side.

On the host you need to have OVMF firmware binaries installed. Fedora users could pull them as edk2-ovmf RPM. On Ubuntu, apt-get install ovmf should do the job.

Then you need to create a VM by running virt-install with the --boot uefi option:

Example:

tmpfile=$(mktemp /tmp/sushy-domain.XXXXXX)
virt-install \
   --name vbmc-node \
   --ram 1024 \
   --boot uefi \
   --disk size=1 \
   --vcpus 2 \
   --os-type linux \
   --os-variant fedora28 \
   --graphics vnc \
   --print-xml > $tmpfile
virsh define --file $tmpfile
rm $tmpfile

This will create a new libvirt domain with path to OVMF images properly configured. Let's take a note on the path to the blob:

$ virsh dumpxml vbmc-node | grep loader
<loader readonly='yes' type='pflash'>/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd</loader>

Because now we need to add this path to emulator's configuration matching VM architecture we are running. Make a copy of stock configuration file and edit it accordingly:

$ cat sushy-tools/doc/source/admin/emulator.conf
...
SUSHY_EMULATOR_BOOT_LOADER_MAP = {
    'Uefi': {
        'x86_64': '/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd',
        ...
}
...

Now you can run sushy-emulator with the updated configuration file:

sushy-emulator --config emulator.conf

Note

The images you will serve to your VMs need to be UEFI-bootable.

The OpenStack backend

You can use an OpenStack cloud instances to simulate Redfish-managed baremetal machines. This setup is known under the name of OpenStack Virtual Baremetal. We will largely re-use its OpenStack infrastructure and configuration instructions. After all, what we are trying to do here is to set up the Redfish emulator alongside the openstackbmc tool which is used for exactly the same purpose at OVB with the only difference that it works over the IPMI protocol as opposed to Redfish.

The easiest way is probably to set up your OpenStack Virtual Baremetal cloud by following its instructions.

Once your OVB cloud operational, you log into the BMC instance and set up sushy-tools <installation> there.

Next you can invoke the Redfish virtual BMC pointing it to your OVB cloud:

sushy-emulator --os-cloud rdo-cloud
 * Running on http://localhost:8000/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)

By this point you should be able to see your OpenStack instances among the Redfish Systems:

curl http://localhost:8000/redfish/v1/Systems/
{
    "@odata.type": "#ComputerSystemCollection.ComputerSystemCollection",
    "Name": "Computer System Collection",
    "Members@odata.count": 1,
    "Members": [

            {
                "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Systems/vbmc-node"
            }

    ],
    "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#ComputerSystemCollection.ComputerSystemCollection",
    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Systems",
    "@Redfish.Copyright": "Copyright 2014-2016 Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF). For the full DMTF copyright policy, see http://www.dmtf.org/about/policies/copyright."
}

And flip its power state via the Redfish call:

curl -d '{"ResetType":"On"}' \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST \
     http://localhost:8000/redfish/v1/Systems/vbmc-node/Actions/ComputerSystem.Reset

curl -d '{"ResetType":"ForceOff"}' \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST \
     http://localhost:8000/redfish/v1/Systems/vbmc-node/Actions/ComputerSystem.Reset

You can have as many OpenStack instances as you need. The instances can be concurrently managed over Redfish and functionally similar tools.