Setting up an apt-mirror for Cumulus Linux

You may want to setup a local apt repository to pull packages from for your Cumulus infrastructure. 

I followed the instructions found here: 
https://www.howtoforge.com/local_debian_ubuntu_mirror 

But I did find a few gotcha's that  I had to fix before I was able to use my local repo. Here is a sample of my /etc/apt/mirror.list

       
############# config ##################
#
# set base_path    /var/spool/apt-mirror
#
# set mirror_path  $base_path/mirror
# set skel_path    $base_path/skel
# set var_path     $base_path/var
# set cleanscript $var_path/clean.sh
# set defaultarch  
# set postmirror_script $var_path/postmirror.sh
# set run_postmirror 0
set nthreads     20
set _tilde 0
#
############# end config ##############

deb http://repo.cumulusnetworks.com CumulusLinux-2.5 main addons updates
deb http://repo.cumulusnetworks.com CumulusLinux-2.5 security-updates

# Uncomment the next line to get access to the testing component
# deb http://repo.cumulusnetworks.com CumulusLinux-2.5 testing

# Uncomment the next line to get access to the Cumulus community repository
# deb http://repo.cumulusnetworks.com/community/ CumulusLinux-Community-2.5  main addons updates

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian wheezy-backports main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main

# mirror additional architectures
#deb-alpha http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-amd64 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-armel http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-hppa http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-i386 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-ia64 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-m68k http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-mips http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-mipsel http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-powerpc http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-s390 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-sparc http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

clean http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian

I was able to use the instructions in the howto to build the mirror and present it via http. I did have some problems using it at first. Notice the error:

W: Failed to fetch http://mydebianrepo.mycompany.com/debian/dists/wheezy-backports/main/i18n/Translation-en  Hash Sum mismatch

And then I read this:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/217502/speed-up-apt-get-update-by-removing-known-ignored-translation-en

So to fix this put the line: 

Acquire::Languages "none"; 

on the Cumulus node at the end of the conf file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/70debconf

Here is my /etc/apt/sources.list

#
#

deb http://mydebianrepo.mycompany.com/CumulusLinux CumulusLinux-2.5 main addons updates
deb http://mydebianrepo.mycompany.com/CumulusLinux CumulusLinux-2.5 security-updates

# Uncomment the next line to get access to the testing component
# deb http://repo.cumulusnetworks.com CumulusLinux-2.5 testing

# Uncomment the next line to get access to the Cumulus community repository
# deb http://repo.cumulusnetworks.com/community/ CumulusLinux-Community-2.5  main addons updates
deb http://mydebianrepo.mycompany.com/debian wheezy-backports main
deb http://mydebianrepo.mycompany.com/debian wheezy main

Cumulus VX on Libvirt (CentOS 6)

You may have seen my earlier post on Cumulus VX in libvirt. I'm going to go a step further and try to emulate the environment described here:

https://docs.cumulusnetworks.com/display/VX/Using+Cumulus+VX+with+KVM

There are some pretty significant differences though, because libvirt on CentOS 6 is pretty "feature light". Nevertheless, this should result in something to work with.

You will need to build a system that can serve DHCP and HTTP on your 'default' network and then disable the dhcp section (you could delete it) in /etc/libvirt/qemu/networks/default.xml . This is because while libvirt can create manual DHCP entries (sometimes called "static dhcp" entries) using the 'host' declaration, you will not be able to pass DHCP option 239 which is required for your Zero Touch Provisioning. Queue sad trombone noise.

Next, you will want to build 4 additional networks in the Virtual Machine Manager ( localhost>details>Virtual Networks ). I built isolated networks named testnet1 thru testnet4, but you don't need to follow my silliness. Be sure to restart libvirtd after you've completed this to be sure that it has picked up all your changes. Maybe backup your XML files too, because there are situations where libvirt can blow them away. Once your DHCP server is running on the 'default' network then build 4 manual DHCP entries using the MAC addresses that you'll find below for eth0 (the ones that are on virbr0).

You will follow the instructions in the cumulus docs but instead of the KVM commands you can use virt-install to initiate the guests (adjust path to qcow2 files you copied):

sudo virt-install --os-variant=generic --ram=256 --vcpus=1 --network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio,mac=00:01:00:00:01:01 --network network=testnet1,model=virtio,mac=00:00:02:00:00:11 --network network=testnet2,model=virtio,mac=00:00:02:00:00:12 --boot hd --disk path=/home/user1/leaf1.qcow2,format=qcow2 --name=leaf1

sudo virt-install --os-variant=generic --ram=256 --vcpus=1 --network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio,mac=00:01:00:00:01:02 --network network=testnet3,model=virtio,mac=00:00:02:00:00:21 --network network=testnet4,model=virtio,mac=00:00:02:00:00:22 --boot hd --disk path=/home/user1/leaf2.qcow2,format=qcow2 --name=leaf2

sudo virt-install --os-variant=generic --ram=256 --vcpus=1 --network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio,mac=00:01:00:00:01:03 --network network=testnet1,model=virtio,mac=00:00:02:00:00:31 --network network=testnet3,model=virtio,mac=00:00:02:00:00:32 --boot hd --disk path=/home/user1/spine1.qcow2,format=qcow2 --name=spine1

sudo virt-install --os-variant=generic --ram=256 --vcpus=1 --network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio,mac=00:01:00:00:01:04 --network network=testnet2,model=virtio,mac=00:00:02:00:00:41 --network network=testnet4,model=virtio,mac=00:00:02:00:00:42 --boot hd --disk path=/home/user1/spine2.qcow2,format=qcow2 --name=spine2

 I will admit that the configs that are described in the Cumulus docs indicate that swp1 thru swp3 would be provisioned, but the virtual hardware configured is only swp1 thru swp2. I'm going to ignore swp3 for now.

If you built option 239 correctly on the DHCP scope, then you should be able to point all these instances to your ZTP script. Just remember that you do not need to run your web server on the deafult port 80, as ZTP will accept a path like 'http://192.168.122.101:1234/my_ztp_script.sh'

I haven't setup a configuration management tool on my instances yet, but that will be upcoming via my ZTP script.

Boot Cumulus VX in a libvirt KVM

Why would I want to do that?

Well, if you are running CentOS 6  and want an easy way to play with the Cumulus VX, here is a good start.

On a CentOS 6 system running a GUI
#yum groupinstall "Virtualization*"

(this will install all your libvirt bits and pieces)

Then download the Cumulus KVM image (it is a qcow2 image) and remember the path

#sudo virt-install --os-variant=generic --ram=256 --vcpus=1 --network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio,mac=00:01:00:00:01:00 --boot hd --disk path=/home/user/cumulus.qcow2 --name=cumulus1

This only provisions the eth0 interface (mgmt) but it should get you a start to playing with the product.

Enjoy!!!