This is a tile generation utility for PCF tiles. Tiles are the installation package format used by Pivotal's Ops Manager to deploy add-on software such as services and their brokers, buildpacks, or anything else that needs to be installable in both public and private cloud deployments.

The current release of the tile generator supports tiles that have any combination of the following package types:

• Cloud Foundry Applications
• Cloud Foundry Buildpacks
• Cloud Foundry Service Brokers (both inside and outside the Elastic Runtime)
• Docker images (both inside and outside the Elastic Runtime)

For a 7-minute introduction into what it is and does, see [this screencast] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WeJbqNJWzQ).

1. Check out the tile-generator repo:

git clone https://github.com/cf-platform-eng/tile-generator.git

2. Change to the root directory of the tile generator, and pull down the generator's dependencies:

cd tile-generator
pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Add the bin directory of tile-generator to your path:

export PATH=`pwd`/bin:$PATH

If you expect to frequently use the tile generator, you may want to add this to your shell's startup script, i.e. .profile

4. Then, from within the root directory of the project for which you wish to create a tile, initialize it as a tile repo (we recommend that this be a git repo, but this is not required):

   cd <your project dir>
   tile init

5. Edit the generated tile.yml file to define your tile (more details below)

6. Build your tile

   tile build

The generator will first create a BOSH release (in the release subdirectory), then wrap that release into a Pivotal tile (in the product subdirectory). If required for the installation, it will automatically pull down the latest release version of the Cloud Foundry CLI.

The repository includes a sample tile that exercises most of the features of the tile generator (it is used by the CI pipeline to verify that things work correctly). You can build this sample using the following steps:

cd sample
src/build.sh
tile build

The sample tile includes a Python application that is re-used in several packages, sometimes as an app, sometimes as a service broker. One of the deployments (app3) uses the sample application inside a docker image that is currently only modified by the CI pipeline. If you modify the sample app, you will have to build your own docker image using the provided Dockerfile and change the image name in sample/tile.yml to include the modified code in app3.

All required configuration for your tile is in the file called tile.yml. tile init will create an initial version for you that can serve as a template. The first section in the file describes the general properties of your tile:

name: tile-name # By convention lowercase with dashes
icon_file: resources/icon.png
label: Brief Text for the Tile Icon
description: Longer description of the tile's purpose

The icon_file should be a 128x128 pixel image that will appear on your tile in the Ops Manager GUI. By convention, any resources used by the tile should be placed in the resources sub-directory of your repo, although this is not mandatory. The label text will appear on the tile under your icon.

Next you can specify the packages to be included in your tile. The format of each package entry depends on the type of package you are adding.

Applications (including service brokers) that are being cf pushed into the Elastic Runtime use the following format:

- name: my-application
  type: app or app-broker
  manifest:
    any options that you would normally specify in a cf manifest.yml, including
    buildpack:
    command:
    domain:
    host:
    instances:
    memory:
    path:
    env:
    services:
  health_check: none                 # optional
  configurable_persistence: true     # optional
  needs_cf_credentials: true         # optional
  auto_services: p-mysql p-redis     # optional

Note: for applications that are normally pushed as multiple files (node.js for example) you should zip up the project files plus all dependencies into a single zip file, then edit tile.yml to point to the zipped file:

cd <your project dir>
tar -zcvf resources/<your project name>.tgz .

If your application is a service broker, use app-broker as the type instead of just app. The application will then automatically be registered as a broker on install, and deleted on uninstall.

health_check lets you configure the value of the cf cli --health_check_type option. Expect this option to move into the manifest as soon as CF supports it there. Currently, the only valid options are none and port.

configurable_persistence: true results in the user being able to select a backing service for data persistence. If there is a specific broker you want to use, you can use the auto-services feature described below. If you want to bind to an already existing service instance, use the services proeprty of the manifest instead.

needs_cf_credentials causes the application to receive two additional environment variables named CF_ADMIN_USER and CF_ADMIN_PASSWORD with the admin credentials for the Elastic Runtime into which they are being deployed. This allows apps and services to interact with the Cloud Controller.

auto_services is described in more detail below.

Most modern service brokers are pushed into the Elastic Runtime as normal CF applications. For these types of brokers, use the Pushed Application format specified above, but set the type to app-broker or docker-app-broker instead of just app or docker-app.

Some service brokers support operator-defined service plans, for instance when the plans reflect customer license keys. To allow operators to add plans from the tile configuration, add the following section:

dynamic_service_plans:
- name: description
  type: string
  description: "Some Description"
  configurable: true
- name: key1
  type: integer
  description: "Key 1 of type integer"
  configurable: true
- name: key2
  type: secret
  description: "Key 2 of type Password"
  configurable: true

Name and GUID fields will be supplied by default for each plan, but all other fields are optional and customizable.

For an external service broker, use:

- name: my-application
  type: external-broker
  uri: http://broker3.example.com
  username: user
  password: secret
  internal_service_names: 'service1,service2'

- name: my-buildpack
  type: buildpack
  files:
  - path: resources/buildpack.zip

Applications packages as docker images can be deployed inside or outside the Elastic Runtime. To push a docker image as a CF application, use the Pushed Application format specified above, but use the docker-app or docker-app-broker type instead of just app or app-broker. The docker image to be used is then specified using the image property:

- name: app1
  type: docker-app
  image: test/dockerimage
  manifest:
    ...

If this app is also a service broker, use docker-app-broker instead of just docker-app. This option is appropriate for docker-wrapped 12-factor apps that delegate their persistence to bound services.

Docker applications that require persistent storage can not be deployed into the Elastic Runtime. These can be deployed to separate BOSH-managed VMs instead by using the docker-bosh type:

- name: docker-bosh1
  type: docker-bosh
  cpu: 5
  memory: 4096
  ephemeral_disk: 4096
  persistent_disk: 2048
  instances: 1
  manifest: |
    containers:
    - name: redis
      image: "redis"
      command: "--dir /var/lib/redis/ --appendonly yes"
      bind_ports:
      - "6379:6379"
      bind_volumes:
      - "/var/lib/redis"
      entrypoint: "redis-server"
      memory: "256m"
      env_vars:
      - "EXAMPLE_VAR=1"
    - name: mysql
      image: "google/mysql"
      bind_ports:
      - "3306:3306"
      bind_volumes:
      - "/mysql"
    - name: elasticsearch
      image: "bosh/elasticsearch"
      links:
      - mysql:db
      depends_on:
      - mysql
      bind_ports:
      - "9200:9200"

If a docker image cannot be downloaded by BOSH dynamically, its better to provide a ready made docker image and package it as part of the BOSH release. In that case, specify the image as a local file.

- name: docker-bosh2
  type: docker-bosh
  files:
  - path: resources/cfplatformeng-docker-tile-example.tgz
  cpu: 5
  memory: 4096
  ephemeral_disk: 4096
  persistent_disk: 2048
  instances: 1
  manifest: |
    containers:
    - name: test_docker_image
      image: "cfplatformeng/docker-tile-example"
      env_vars:
      - "EXAMPLE_VAR=1"
      # See below on custom forms/variables and binding it to the docker env variable
      - "custom_variable_name=((.properties.customer_name.value))"

Also, refer to docker-bosh for more details.

You can pass custom properties to all applications deployed by your tile by adding the to the properties section of tile.yml:

properties:
- name: author
  type: string
  label: Author
  value: Tile Ninja

If you want the properties to be configurable by the tile installer, place them on a custom for instead:

forms:
- name: custom-form1
  label: Test Tile
  description: Custom Properties for Test Tile
  properties:
  - name: customer_name
    type: string
    label: Full Name
  - name: street_address
    type: string
    label: Street Address
    description: Address to use for junk mail
  - name: city
    type: string
    label: City
  - name: zip_code
    type: string
    label: ZIP+4
    default: '90310'
  - name: country
    type: dropdown_select
    label: Country
    options:
    - name: country_us
      label: US
      default: true
    - name: country_elsewhere
      label: Elsewhere

Properties defined in either section will be passed to all pushed applications as environment variables (the name of the environment variable will be the same as the property name but in ALL_CAPS). They can also be referenced in other parts of the configuration file by using (( .properties.<property-name> )) instead of a hardcoded value.

Tile generator automates the provisioning of services. Any application (including service brokers and docker-based applications) that are being pushed into the Elastic Runtime can automatically bound to services through the auto_services feature:

- name: app1
  type: app
  auto_services: p-mysql p-redis

You can specify any number of service broker names separated by spaces (not proper yaml yet, sorry!). During deployment, the generated tile will create an instance of each service, using the first available plan, if one does not already exist, and then bind that instance to your package.

Service instances provisioned this way survive updates, but will be deleted when the tile is uninstalled.

configurable_persistence is really just a special case of auto_services, letting the user choose between some standard brokers.

By default, the tile generator will create a single new org and space for any packages that install into the Elastic Runtime, using the name of the tile and appending -org and -space, respectively. The default memory quota for a newly created or will be 1024 (1G). You can change any of these defaults by specifying the following properties in tile.yml:

org: test-org
org_quota: 4096
space: test-space

If your cf packages need outbound access (including access to other packages within the same tile), you will need to apply an appropriate security group. The following option will remove all constraints on outbound traffic:

apply_open_security_group: true

The tile generator will default to a recent stemcell supported by Ops Manager. In most cases the default will be fine, as the stemcell is only used to execute CF command lines and/or the docker daemon. But if you have specific stemcell requirements, you can override the defaults in your tile.yml file by including a stemcell-criteria section and replacing the appopriate values:

stemcell_criteria:
  os: 'ubunty-trusty'
  version: '3146.5'     NOTE: You must quote the version to force the type to be string

The tile generator uses semver versioning. By default, tile build will generate the next patch release. Major and minor releases can be generated by explicitly specifying tile build major or tile build minor. Or to override the version number completely, specify a valid semver version on the build command, e.g. tile build 3.4.5.

No-op content migration rules are generated for every prior release to the current release, so that Ops Manager will allow tile upgrades from any version to any newer version. This depends on the existence of the file tile-history.yml. In a pinch, if you need to be able to upgrade from a random old version to a new one, you can edit that file, or do:

tile build <old-version>
tile build <new-version>

The new tile will then support upgrades from old-version.

$ tile build
name: tibco-bwce
icon: icon.png
label: TIBCO BusinessWorks Container Edition
description: BusinessWorks edition that supports deploying to Cloud Foundry
version: 0.0.2

bosh init release
bosh generate package cf_cli
bosh generate package bwce_buildpack
bosh generate job install_bwce_buildpack
bosh generate job remove_bwce_buildpack
bosh create release --final --with-tarball --version 0.0.2

tile generate release
tile generate metadata
tile generate errand install_bwce_buildpack
tile generate errand remove_bwce_buildpack
tile generate content-migrations

created tile tibco-bwce-0.0.2.pivotal

This tile includes a single large buildpack, and takes less than 15 seconds to build including the CF CLI download and the BOSH release generation.

init [<tile-name>]
build [patch|minor|major|<version>]

• sparameswaran supplied most of the actual template content, originally built as part of cf-platform-eng/bosh-generic-sb-release
• frodenas contributed most of the docker content through cloudfoundry-community/docker-boshrelease
• joshuamckenty suggested the jinja template approach he employed in opencontrol