Introduction to microcloud.10xEngineer.me

This repository forms part of the back-end RESTify service for 10xEngineer which provides the virtual lab functionality. It consists of:

• node.js RESTify server to provide the API access
• Vagrant and/or EC2 backed pool of servers
• Ubuntu LXC (Linux Containers) implemented on top of the pool of servers above to create a micro-cloud (so VM on top of VM) This is done for several reasons:
  • Due to the fact that most learning tasks aren't cpu intensive, we don't need a whole server to satisfy the user
  • We save money on the number of EC2 instances
  • LXC is able to save and restore its state very quickly, and easy to manage, esp. if the container file system is managed in 1 file
  • It's a cool concept :)
• We use http://github.com/LiftOff/GateOne to provide the terminal in a browser connectivity

To setup your environment

Microcloud and all related services should be run from virtual machine. To setup the environment

Get the microcloud repo:

git clone --recursive git@github.com:10xEngineer/microcloud.10xEngineer.git

Install vagrant http://vagrantup.com and VirtualBox

http://vagrantup.com/v1/docs/getting-started/index.html

Add 10xEngineer.me default Vagrant box

vagrant box add 10xeng-precise32 http://tenxlabs-dev.s3.amazonaws.com/tenxeng-precise32.box

Prepare local development cache (will download archive around 250 MB)

./setup_cache.sh

File don't need to be re-downloaded as long as the .cache folder remains intact. To update the file simple delete .cache/ and run the script again.

Run the environment and ssh in

vagrant up
vagrant ssh

Microcloud API

Is available within vagrant

vagrant ssh
cd /vagrant
npm install
coffee microcloud.coffee

It depends on a service broker w/associated services. In other terminal do

vagrant ssh
cd /vagrant/server
bundle install
bundle exec foreman start

After initial setup you can skip the npm install/bundle install part (unless you need to update packages).

Run tests

You will need to install mocha and should globally

npm install mocha -g
npm install should -g

then navigate to server/ and run tests

cd server/
mocha

(Tests are located in folder server/test/)

Setting up on Ubuntu

git clone https://github.com/10xEngineer/microcloud.10xEngineer.me.git

# install node.js and npm
sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nodejs npm

# install redis-server
sudo apt-get install redis-server

# install mongodb
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 7F0CEB10

# Create a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/10gen.list file and include the following line for the 10gen repository.
deb http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/ubuntu-upstart dist 10gen

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mongodb-10gen

Restoring the backup data (for testing)

# From your laptop 
scp mongobackup.tar.gz gpiXX:~

# ssh into the server 
ssh gpiXX

# unpack the tar and change the 'backup' folder name to 'dump'
tar xvf mongobackup.tar.gz && mv backup dump

# restore the data
cd dump
mongorestore

(c) 2012-2013 All works in this repository are the sole ownership and use jointly by 10xEngineer.me, Messina Ltd and Steve Messina. And may not be reproduced, reused, stolen for commercial or non-commercial means without explicit written permission from Steve Messina.