This is dz - the "deploy zone" utility.
It allows you to manage zone deployments on a fleet of SmartOS systems without the need for cloud orchestration. It uses ssh for transport and authentication. There are no daemons or other changes to your SmartOS global zone.
# npm install -g deploy-zone
First register some SmartOS Hosts (make sure your user has ssh access):
# dz host add host-a.dev.example.com
# dz host add host-b.dev.example.com
# dz host add host-c.prod.example.com
That way dz knows your servers. It will also retrieve some metadata like ram and storage size. If you configured your datacenter name on the SmartOS system this will also be shown:
# dz host list
datacenter host ram storage tags
---------- ----------------------- --------- ------- ----
de-bln-f15 host-a.dev.example.com 3.87 GB 2.63 TB
de-bln-f15 host-b.dev.example.com 7.87 GB 2.63 TB
de-muc-ipx host-c.prod.example.com 107.99 GB 5.25 TB
With dz list you can view all running zones across your servers:
# dz list
host uuid type ram quota state hostname alias
----------------------- ------------------------------------ ---- ----- ----- ------- -------------------- --------------------
host-a.dev.example.com ab68ea68-d192-40a8-97c6-deca4f1710b1 OS 4096 10 running fifo.f.fruky.net fifo
host-a.dev.example.com 8662a174-12c9-412d-8e23-b0110c68a107 OS 2048 10 running blog.example.com blog
host-a.dev.example.com 0b1660f2-0894-48d0-9434-3320bab94c88 OS 1024 6000 running store-a store-a
host-a.dev.example.com c11f26ba-0395-4723-9c2b-0d98931ce182 KVM 1024 10 stopped netbsd
host-b.dev.example.com 06709ee8-ae32-48e4-a690-78276eb13825 LX 2048 100 running lx
host-b.dev.example.com 594f44de-1bb4-417e-895b-c6bc129299e9 OS 256 10 stopped dhcpv6-a
host-c.prod.example.com a4f7644b-4508-4721-ab73-57e3855fbfab OS 2048 64 running datasets.example.com datasets.example.com
host-c.prod.example.com 261b3522-8ec6-40f3-ad48-e5882d8e0a98 OS 2048 10 running graphite.example.com graphite.example.com
host-c.prod.example.com 782c2631-85d1-44d4-9645-d5701fa42736 OS 2048 10 running jenkins.example.com jenkins.example.com
This command also builds a local cache. If you want don't want to query all servers you can view the cached state with dz list -c.
The cache also enables you to start and stop zones with just passing the uuid. No need for a host parameter as dz will know where to look:
# dz start c11f26ba-0395-4723-9c2b-0d98931ce182
And there is a dz shell command to zlogin:
# dz shell d61b272f-2aea-4944-b8da-20c7b2c5331a
[Connected to zone 'd61b272f-2aea-4944-b8da-20c7b2c5331a' pts/6]
Last login: Thu Nov 6 07:55:53 on pts/2
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ ✜ CORE.IO NS │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
[ core-ns 14.2.1 | https://github.com/skylime/mi-core-ns ]
[root@ns ~]#
The dz build command provides an easy way to generate new vm images.
If you have used MIBE before you can reuse your mi-repository. If not take a look at the mi-example.
This repository contains a copy folder with files that will be copied into the vm. It also contains a packages file with information which pkgsrc packages to install. And finally there is a customize shell script which allows you to execute commands.
While this is all very simple it can be combined with zoneinit, delegated zfs datasets and the mdata tools to create a powerful deployment method for software.
There are plenty mi-* repositories on github which can serve as examples.
In contrast to MIBE (which requires modifications to the global zone) the dz build command uses imgadm create. This is also more flexible with regards to publishing datasets to remote IMGAPI servers.
This is still very experimental. It started out as one weekends proof of concept.
There are many bugs and user interface issues. Some commands (dz images, ...) are simply not working. There is no tab completion. There is no way to create new zones just yet. These are all bugs that I wish to fix and help with that is definitly welcome!
Just be warned that this far from a finished product.
SmartOS is a hypervisor for cloud deployments. If you want a cloud look at Project FiFo or SDC. A real cloud provides you with real tools for automation and management.
Yet SmartOS is a useful hypervisor on its own and deployments of many systems accross different datacenters or in constrained networks might not be the best fit for a cloud. Here dz can provide basic functionality without the need for a central management system.
The dz build command may also be useful in standard cloud environments.