[cloud] #44: hey we should have a vagrant base box

[Fedora Cloud Trac Tickets]

#44: hey we should have a vagrant base box
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 Reporter:  mattdm  |       Owner:
     Type:  task    |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal  |   Milestone:  Future
Component:  ---     |  Resolution:
 Keywords:          |
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Comment (by purpleidea):

 Replying to [comment:10 walters]:
 > Replying to [comment:8 purpleidea]:
 > > Easy to change this. (one-liner).
 >
 > I'm not so sure it's that easy.  The problem I hit with using libguestfs
 for this sort of stuff is that you really need to be sure the SELinux
 label of critical files like /etc/passwd is set.  It's hard to do that
 from the outside - doing it *inside* the system on boot means we use the
 target policy.

 Agreed... but, I do do it inside. :)
 https://github.com/purpleidea/puppet-
 gluster/blob/master/builder/Makefile#L83

 I'm not sure if this is now equivalent to the new --selinux-relabel flag
 for virt-builder. If it is, we can simplify this.



 >
 > > I actually prefer my makefile/virt-builder approach, but I obviously
 am fine with other people working on different methods.
 >
 > The makefile versus shell versus javascript or whatever is mostly a red
 herring I think.  The issue I see is more the second part - the semantics
 around how we change the contents of the target system.
 >
 > > I figured I'd step up to help with this, since it was apparently a
 "very long-standing request".
 >
 > Definitely!  Do you have some bandwidth to work on this/continue the
 conversation here?

 To be honest, not a lot, actually. If it would help, I will be in Westford
 next week, and I am happy to meet if you want to hack on this, or iterate
 quickly over some of the ideas.

 >
 > There are a few aspects to this:
 >
 > 1) Content definition - what packages are installed?
 > 2) Partition layout
 > 3) System default configuration (vagrant user, vagrant ssh keys, sudo)
 >
 > To me, Anaconda+kickstart files are the thing to use for #1 and #2.  In
 other words we're just talking about another Fedora Cloud type image,
 except with Vagrant as the "hypervisor".
 >
 > For #3, kickstart files are probably also the way to go.  My script was
 just a hack because I didn't have ostree support in Anaconda, but now I
 do.
 >
 > There's a general question here about anaconda versus virt-builder; when
 should you "rebuild" versus "post-customize".  To me the answer comes down
 to the package set.  If for example we wanted different packages in the
 Vagrant image, then it would need to be an Anaconda rebuild.
 >

 So, I must say, that I love Anaconda for it's use case, however in
 general, it's the reason that virt-builder and vagrant are so useful. The
 vagrant user or really most people (IMO), don't want to have to muck
 around with getting every anaconda setting right... If I can build this on
 top of an already built base image, then there is less chance for error.
 IOW, I'm glad Anaconda exists, but I want to use it as little as possible.

 What OS image can't you build with virt-builder? I don't know that it does
 anything to the template that can't be properly fixed with --flags to
 virt-builder... And it's easy :)

 As a side note, these comments might not make much sense in light of some
 of the os-tree stuff you're doing, but I'm not up to speed on all the
 specifics, so my commentary assumes that stuff doesn't exist. My bad if
 that's the case.


 >

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