Creating an End-User VM Image

These are the instructions for creating an end-user VM from scratch.

VM Configuration

• Using VirtualBox:
  
  • 1 Core
  • 3G RAM
  • 500G System Disk (VDI, Dynamically Allocated)
  • Set network to "Attached to Bridged Adapter"
    
    

Base OS Install

• Centos 6.4 x86-64
• English language and keyboard
• hostname: localhost.localdomain (the default)
  
  • if it is localhost it should set it to the dhcp hostname provided.
• eth0:
  
  • Clear "Device MAC address"
  • Connect automatically
  • IPv4 Settings
    
    • Automatic (DHCP)
      
      
• set timezone to america/indiana/indianapolis, clock uses utc
• root password is 'changeme'
• partitioning:
  
  • custom layout
    
    • /dev/sda1:  500M ext4 mounted as /boot
    • /dev/sda2:  (remainder of disk) Physical volume
    • Volume Group:  vg_avalon
      
      • PVs: /dev/sda2
      • LV lv_swap 2G
      • LV lv_root (remainder of disk) ext4 mounted as /
• Desktop install
• Reboot / Firstboot
  
  • Leave all of the defaults, except...
  • Do Not create a new user
• Log in as root
  
  • do not check "do not show me this again" to the "you are running as root" dialog.  Just close it.
  • yum update
  • open these ports in the firewall:
    
    • tcp/22
    • tcp/80
    • tcp/1935
    • tcp/18080
  • clean up eth0 configuration in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:
    
    • remove UUID
    • remove any DHCP_CLIENT_ID
• OPTIONAL:
  
  • shut down the VM
  • at this point the vm is at "baseOS" and can be used as a cloning point

net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
 net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1

Avalon Install

• OPTIONAL:
  
  • clone the baseOS image as puppet-YYMMDD
• Use the installation notes from https://github.com/avalonmediasystem/avalon-installer
  
  • When setting FACTER_* environment variables, set
    
    • FACTER_avalon_dropbox_password to "changeme"
    • FACTER_avalon_hostname to "localhost.localdomain"
• HACK:
  • add avalon to the dropbox group
  • verify that /var/avalon/dropbox is mode 2775

Demo Content

• OPTIONAL:
  
  • clone the puppet image as democontent-YYMMDD

• Get the demo fixtures bundle

  cd /tmp
  wget http://dlib.indiana.edu/~cjcolvar/DemoFixturesBatch.tar.gz     #We need a better place to serve this from
  tar xvzf DemoFixturesBatch.tar.gz
  chown -R avalondrop.dropbox DemoFixturesBatch
  mv DemoFixturesBatch /var/avalon/dropbox

  Monitor progress at http://<whatever>:18080.  

• Modify /var/www/avalon/current/app/views/catalog/_home_text.html.erb and replace sample content with something like:

   <ul class="thumbnails">
  	<li class="span3"><h5>Featured Video</h5><a href="<%= media_object_path('avalon:1') %>" class="thumbnail" <%= image_tag "thumbnail.name.png", alt: "Featured Video" %></a></li>
  	<li class="span3"><h5>Featured Video</h5><a href="<%= media_object_path('avalon:2') %>" class="thumbnail" <%= image_tag "thumbnail.name.png", alt: "Featured Video" %></a></li>
  	<li class="span3"><h5>Featured Video</h5><a href="<%= media_object_path('avalon:3') %>" class="thumbnail" <%= image_tag "thumbnail.name.png", alt: "Featured Video" %></a></li>
  </ul>

  Thumbnail images should be stored in /var/www/avalon/current/app/assets/images

• Remove source data

  rm /tmp/DemoFixturesBatch.tar.gz
  rm -rf /var/avalon/dropbox/DemoFixturesBatch

VM Image Prep

• OPTIONAL:
  
  • clone the latest democontent image as dist-YYMMDD
• Install avalon-vm-1.0-1.noarch.rpm to install the firstboot changes and tools
  
  • Binary Package:  http://avalonmediasystem.org/downloads/avalon-vm-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
  • Source Package: http://avalonmediasystem.org/downloads/avalon-vm-1.0-1.src.rpm
• Prepare the disk for compacting
  

  • deleted files still take up space on the disk image.  Write a big zero file to clear out that unused data

    dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/foo bs=1M count=8192 oflags=direct; rm /tmp/foo

• run /usr/share/avalon/dist-prep to prepare the machine for release
• clear the command line history  (history -c)
• shutdown the VM
• Compact the disk image

  • On the host run:

    VBoxManage modifyhd avalon-vm-disk-YYMMDD.vdi --compact

• Export the appliance
  
  • use a 0.9 version OVA
  • use a MANIFEST
• copy the OVA to the distribution point