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109 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
109 lines
4.0 KiB
Markdown
# LinuxKit with bare metal on Packet
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[Packet](http://packet.net) is a bare metal hosting provider.
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You will need to [create a Packet account] and a project to
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put this new machine into. You will also need to [create an API key]
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with appropriate read/write permissions to allow the image to boot.
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[create a Packet account]:https://app.packet.net/#/registration/
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[create an API key]:https://help.packet.net/quick-start/api-integrations
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Linuxkit is known to boot on the [Type 0]
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and [Type 1] servers at Packet.
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Support for other server types, including the [Type 2A] ARM server,
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is a work in progress.
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[Type 0]:https://www.packet.net/bare-metal/servers/type-0/
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[Type 1]:https://www.packet.net/bare-metal/servers/type-1/
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[Type 2A]:https://www.packet.net/bare-metal/servers/type-2a/
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The `linuxkit run packet` command can mostly either be configured via
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command line options or with environment variables. see `linuxkit run
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packet --help` for the options and environment variables.
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By default, `linuxkit run` will provision a new machine and remove it
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once you are done. With the `-keep` option the provisioned machine
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will not be removed. You can then use the `-device` option with the
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device ID on subsequent `linuxkit run` invocations to re-use an
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existing machine. These subsequent runs will update the iPXE data so
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you can boot alternative kernels on an existing machine.
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**Note**: The update of the iPXE configuration sometimes may take some
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time and the first boot may fail. Hitting return on the console to
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retry the boot typically fixes this.
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## Boot
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LinuxKit on Packet boots the `kernel+initrd` output from moby
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via
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[iPXE](https://help.packet.net/technical/infrastructure/custom-ipxe). iPXE
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booting requires a HTTP server on which you can store your images. The
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`-base-url` option specifies the URL to the HTTP server.
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If you don't have a public HTTP server at hand, you can use the
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`-serve` option. This will create a local HTTP server which can either
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be run on another Packet machine or be made accessible with tools
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like [ngrok](https://ngrok.com/).
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For example, to boot the toplevel [linuxkit.yml](../linuxkit.yml)
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example with a local HTTP server:
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```sh
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moby build linuxkit.yml
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# run the web server
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# run 'ngrok http 8080' in another window
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PACKET_API_KEY=<API key> linuxkit run packet -serve :8080 -base-url http://9b828514.ngrok.io -project-id <Project ID> linuxkit
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```
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To boot a `arm64` kernel on a Type 2a machine (`-machine
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baremetal_2a`) you currently need to un-compress both the kernel and
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the initrd before booting, e.g:
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```
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mv linuxkit-initrd.img linuxkit-initrd.img.gz && gzip -d linuxkit-initrd.img.gz
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mv linuxkit-kernel.img linuxkit-kernel.img.gz && gzip -d linuxkit-kernel.img.gz
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```
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**Note**: It may take several minutes to deploy a new server. If you
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are attached to the console, you should see the BIOS and the boot
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messages.
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## Console
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By default, `linuxkit run packet ...` will connect to the
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Packet
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[SOS ("Serial over SSH") console](https://help.packet.net/technical/networking/sos-rescue-mode). This
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requires `ssh` access, i.e., you must have uploaded your SSH keys to
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Packet beforehand.
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You can exit the console vi `~.` on a new line once you are
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disconnected from the serial, e.g. after poweroff.
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**Note**: We also require that the Packet SOS host is in your
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`known_hosts` file, otherwise the connection to the console will
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fail. There is a Packet SOS host per zone.
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You can disable the serial console access with the `-console=false`
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command line option.
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## Disks
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At this moment the Linuxkit server boots from RAM, with no persistent
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storage. We are working on adding persistent storage support on Packet.
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## Networking
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Some Packet server types have bonded networks; the current code does
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not support that.
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## Integration services and Metadata
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Packet supports [user state](https://help.packet.net/technical/infrastructure/user-state)
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during system bringup, which enables the boot process to be more informative about the
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current state of the boot process once the kernel has loaded but before the
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system is ready for login.
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