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Installing the NorthStar Controller in Standalone Mode Using a HEAT Template

This topic describes installing a standalone NorthStar Controller in an OpenStack environment using a HEAT template. These instructions assume you are using one of the provided HEAT templates.

Launch the Stack

Perform the following steps to launch the stack.

  1. Create a stack from the HEAT template file using the heat stack-create command.

Obtain the Stack Attributes

  1. Ensure that the stack creation is complete by examining the output of the heat stack-show command.

  2. Obtain the UUID of the NorthStar Controller VM and the JunosVM instances by executing the resource-list command.

  3. Using the UUIDs obtained from the resource-list command output, obtain the associated IP addresses by executing the interface-list command for each UUID.

  4. Once the NorthStar Controller VM finishes its booting process, you should be able to ping its public IP address.

    Note:

    You can use the nova console-log command to monitor the booting status.

    At this point, the NorthStar Controller VM is remotely accessible, but the JunosVM is not because it does not support DHCP. Once the NorthStar Controller RPM bundle installation is completed, the JunosVM can be remotely accessed.

  5. Connect to the NorthStar Controller VM using SSH.

    If you are using a different SSH key from the one that is defined in the HEAT template, the default credentials are root/northstar and centos/northstar.

Resize the Image

The CentOS 6 official cloud image does not resize correctly for the selected OpenStack flavor. This results in the NorthStar Controller VM filesystem size being set at 8G instead of the size that is actually specified by the flavor. Using the following procedure, you can adjust your filesystem to be in sync with the allocated disk size. Alternatively, you can hold off on the resizing procedure until after you complete the NorthStar Controller RPM bundle installation. There is a resize-vm script inside /opt/northstar/utils/.

CAUTION:

The fdisk command can have undesirable effects if used inappropriately. We recommend that you consult with your system administrator before proceeding with this workaround, especially if you are unfamiliar with the fdisk command.

  1. Determine whether the size of the VM is correct. If it is correct, you do not need to proceed with resizing.

  2. Use the fdisk command to recreate the partition.

  3. Reboot the VM to apply the partition changes.

  4. Wait until the NorthStar Controller VM has returned to an up state.

  5. Reconnect to the VM using SSH.

  6. Check the partition size again to verify that the partition was resized.

  7. If the partition size is still incorrect, use the resize2fs command to adjust the filesystem.

Install the NorthStar Controller RPM Bundle

Install the NorthStar Controller RPM bundle for an OpenStack environment as described in Installing the NorthStar Controller. The procedure uses the rpm and install-vm.sh commands.

Configure the JunosVM

For security reasons, the JunosVM does not come with a default configuration. Use the following procedure to manually configure the JunosVM using the OpenStack novnc client.

  1. Obtain the novnc client URL.

  2. Configure the JunosVM as you would in a fresh install of the Junos OS.

  3. Copy the root user of the NorthStar Controller VM SSH public key to the JunosVM. This allows configuration from the NorthStar Controller VM to the JunosVM using an ssh-key based connection.

  4. On the NorthStar Controller VM, run the net_setup.py script, and select option B to complete the configuration of the JunosVM. Once complete, you should be able to remotely ping the JunosVM IP address.

Configure SSH Key Exchange

Use the following procedure to configure SSH key exchange between the NorthStar Controller VM and the JunosVM.

  1. Log in to the NorthStar Controller server and display the contents of the id_rsa.pub file by executing the concatenate command.

    You will need the ssh-rsa string from the output.

  2. Log in to the JunosVM and replace the ssh-rsa string with the one from the id_rsa.pub file by executing the following commands.

  3. On the NorthStar Controller server, update the known hosts file by executing the following commands.