Ganeti Web Manager is a Django-based web application that allows administrators and clients access to their ganeti clusters.

Ganeti compatibility:

>=2.4.x

supported

2.2.2

mostly supported

2.3.1

mostly supported

2.1.x

mostly supported

2.0.x

unsupported but may work

1.x

unsupported

Browser compatibility:

• Mozilla Firefox >= 3.x
• Chrome / Chromium

The VNC console requires WebSockets or flash support and HTML5 support in the browser.

Project page

http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr

Mailing List

http://groups.google.com/group/ganeti-webmgr

IRC

#ganeti-webmgr on freenode.net

Twitter

http://twitter.com/ganetiwebmgr

Note: Installing from the tarball is the preferred method. After installing the dependencies, please download the tarball instead of cloning the repository.

Overview:

1. Install dependencies: Python, Pip, Fabric, VirtualEnv
2. Get the Ganeti Web Manager code: Clone from the repository or download a release tarball
3. Deploy fabric environment: fab dev deploy or fab deploy
4. Configure Settings: Copy settings.py.dist to settings.py and make any modifications
5. Sync database, then run the server: ./manage.py syncdb --migrate, then ./manage.py runserver

This section explains how to automatically install Ganeti Web Manager using Fabric. Fabric simplifies the installation process by automatically installing dependencies into a virtual environment.

Related Topics:

• Read more about why Fabric is strongly recommended¹
• Troubleshoot an installation using Fabric²
• Manual installation³

Ganeti Web Manager is compatible with the following:

Ganeti

Ganeti >= v2.2.x is supported. v2.1.x and v2.0.x are unsupported and sometimes work but can cause problems (see #8973). Lower versions are not supported.

Browsers:

Mozilla Firefox >= v3.x Google Chrome or Chromium

Other contemporary browsers may also work, but are not supported. The web-based VNC console requires browser support of WebSockets and HTML5.

Databases:

MySQL or SQLite. SQLite is not recommended in production environments.

Operating Systems:

GWM has been tested on Debian 7, Ubuntu 11.10, 12.04 and CentOs 5 and 6. Debian 6 is supported, provided the Pip, Virtualenv and Fabric packages are updated to the versions listed below.

Python

>=2.5, python >=2.6 recommended

Pip

>= 0.8.2

Fabric

>=1.0.1

VirtualEnv

>= 1.6.1

Pip is required for installing Fabric and a useful tool to install Virtualenv

• install pip:

  $ sudo apt-get install python-pip

• devel libraries may be needed for some pip installs:

  $ sudo apt-get install python-dev

• install fabric and virtualenv:

  $ sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv
  $ sudo apt-get install fabric

Either download and unpack the latest release, or check it out from the repository:

$ git clone git://git.osuosl.org/gitolite/ganeti/ganeti_webmgr

Switch to project directory (Fabric commands only work from a directory containing a fabfile):

$ cd ganeti_webmgr/

Run Fabric to automatically create python virtual environment with required dependencies. Choose either production or development environment

• production environment:

  $ fab deploy

• development environment:

  $ fab dev deploy

• activate virtual environment:

  $ source venv/bin/activate

In the project root, you'll find a default settings file called settings.py.dist

Copy it to settings.py:

$ cp settings.py.dist settings.py

If you want to use another database engine besides the default SQLite (not recommended for production), edit settings.py, and edit the following lines to reflect your wishes (note that postgresql is not supported at this time and the install will fail, see issue #3237):

DATABASE_ENGINE = ''   # <-- Change this to 'mysql', 'postgresql',
                              'postgresql_psycopg2' or 'sqlite3'
DATABASE_NAME = ''     # <-- Change this to a database name, or a file for
                              SQLite
DATABASE_USER = ''     # <-- Change this (not needed for SQLite)
DATABASE_PASSWORD = '' # <-- Change this (not needed for SQLite)
DATABASE_HOST = ''     # <-- Change this (not needed if database is localhost)
DATABASE_PORT = ''     # <-- Change this (not needed if database is localhost)

Initialize Database:

$ ./manage.py syncdb --migrate

Build the search indexes:

$ ./manage.py rebuild_index

.. note: Running `./manage.py update_index` on a regular basis ensures
         that the search indexes stay up-to-date when models change
         in Ganeti Web Manager.

Everything should be all set up! Run the development server with:

$ ./manage.py runserver

Deploying a production server requires additional setup steps.

1. Change the ownership of the whoosh_index directory to apache:

   $ chown apache:apache whoosh_index/

2. Change your SECRET_KEY and WEB_MGR_API_KEY to unique (and hopefully unguessable) strings in your settings.py.

3. Configure the Django Cache Framework to use a production capable backend in settings.py. By default Ganeti Web Manager is configured to use the LocMemCache but it is not recommended for production. Use Memcached or a similar backend.:

   CACHES = {
       'default': {
           'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.locmem.LocMemCache',
       }
   }

4. For versions >= 0.5 you may need to add the full filesystem path to your templates directory to TEMPLATE_DIRS and remove the relative reference to 'templates'. We've had issues using wsgi not working correctly unless this change has been made.
5. Ensure the server has the ability to send emails or you have access to an SMTP server. Set EMAIL_HOST, EMAIL_PORT, and DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL in settings.py. For more complicated outgoing mail setups, please refer to the django email documentation (http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.2/topics/email/)

6. Follow the django guide to deploy with apache. (http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/deployment/modwsgi/)

   Here is an example mod_wsgi file:

   import os
   import sys
   
   path = '/var/lib/django/ganeti_webmgr'
   
   # activate virtualenv
   activate_this = '%s/venv/bin/activate_this.py' % path
   execfile(activate_this, dict(__file__=activate_this))
   
   # add project to path
   if path not in sys.path:
       sys.path.append(path)
   
   # configure django environment
   os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'settings'
   
   import django.core.handlers.wsgi
   application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

7. Set VNC_PROXY to the hostname of your VNC AuthProxy server in settings.py. The VNC AuthProxy does not need to run on the same server as Ganeti Web Manager:

   VNC_PROXY = 'my.server.org:8888'

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/Install

Before you can start using Ganeti Web Manager, you will need to create a user and password on the Ganeti cluster.

Here is an example with user "jack" and password "abc123":

$ echo -n 'jack:Ganeti Remote API:abc123' | openssl md5

Add the hash to the RAPI users file and restart ganeti-rapi. Depending on the version of Ganeti you are running, you will need to either use /var/lib/ganeti/rapi_users (Ganeti <=2.3.x ) or /var/lib/ganeti/rapi/users (Ganeti >=2.4.x ).

An example hash entry might look like the following:

# Hashed password for jack
jack {HA1}54c12257ee9be413f2f3182435514aae write

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/Managing_Clusters#Ganeti-RAPI-users-and-passwords

1. Use the admin user created during syncdb to log in.
2. Import a cluster: Clusters -> Add Cluster
3. Fill out properties and click save

When the cluster is created it will automatically synchronize the list of Virtual Machines with information from the Ganeti cluster.

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/Importing_a_Cluster

Permissions may be granted to both clusters and virtual machines. The permissions system is intended to allow users to manage themselves. Any object that can have its permissions edited will have a Users tab.

Adding users to objects:

1. Navigate to Group, Cluster, or Virtual Machine detail page
2. Click Add New User
3. Select user or group
4. Select permissions
5. Save

Updating permissions:

1. Navigate to Group, Cluster, or Virtual Machine detail page
2. Click Users tab
3. Click permissions column
4. Select permissions and save

Deleting permissions:

1. Navigate to Group, Cluster, or Virtual Machine detail page
2. Click Users tab
3. Click the delete icon

Deleting a user will remove all permissions, and other properties associated with the user such as cluster quotas.

Users may belong to any number of user groups. User groups can be assigned permissions and quotas just like users. Users inherit permissions from groups and may act on their behalf to create virtual machines.

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/Permissions

Quotas restrict the usage of cluster resources by users and groups. Default quotas can be set by editing clusters, if no quota is set unlimited access is allowed. This will affect all users and groups.

The default quota can be overridden on the cluster users page:

1. Clusters -> Cluster -> Users
2. Click on the quota
3. Edit values

Leaving a value empty specifies unlimited access for that resource.

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/Permissions#Quotas

You can find Virtual Machines with no permissions via Admin -> Orphaned VMs. This will force a synchronization of all clusters and display Virtual Machines that do not have any permissions assigned.

You only need to grant permissions directly on virtual machines if you are granting access to non-admin users.

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/Managing_Clusters#Orphaned-Virtual-Machines

Ganeti Web Manager uses a cache system that stores information about Ganeti clusters in the database. This allows the following:

---  Ganeti  ---

/

/

Cluster -> <- Bulk

Model <- cache <- Updater

• Permissions are stored in the database and are associated to the cached objects
• The cached data can be searched and or filtered
• Limits the amount of traffic between the web server and Ganeti cluster.

The cache system is transparent and will load cached data automatically when the object is initialized.

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/Cache_System

Ganeti Web Manager provides an in browser console using noVNC, an HTML5 client. noVNC requires WebSockets to function. Support for older browsers is provided through a flash applet that is used transparently in the absence of WebSockets.

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/VNC

VNC Auth proxy⁴ is required for the console tab to function. VNC servers do not speak websockets and our proxy allows your ganeti cluster to sit behind a firewall, VPN, or NAT.

Set the host and port that the proxy will be running at with the VNC_PROXY setting. For development this is typically "localhost:8888" but for production you would use the name of the server its running on. See the instructions in settings.py for more details.

Twisted VNC Authproxy is started with twistd, the twisted daemon. Eventually we will include init.d scripts for better managing the daemon. You may want to open port 8888 in your firewall for production systems:

$ twistd --pidfile=/tmp/proxy.pid -n vncap

Browsers that do not support WebSockets natively are supported through the use of a flash applet. Flash applets that make use of sockets must retrieve a policy file from the server they are connecting to. Twisted VNCAuthProxy includes a policy server. It must be run separately since it requires a root port. You may want to open port 843 in your firewall for production systems.

Start the policy server with twistd:

$ sudo twistd --pidfile=/tmp/policy.pid -n flashpolicy

You may encounter an issue where twisted fails to start and gives you an error. This is usually caused by the environment variable PYTHONPATH not being exported correctly if you sudo up to root. To fix it type:

$ export PYTHONPATH="."

Try executing twisted again and it should work.

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/VNC#VNC-Authproxy

Ganeti Web Manager allows users to store SSH Keys. Each virtual machine has a view that will return SSH keys for users with access. This can be used as a Ganeti post-install hook to deploy user's keys on the VMs.

To allow VMs to copy keys, copy util/hooks/sshkeys.sh to the instance definition hooks directory on every node in the cluster and make the file executable. Next, add the required variables to the variant config file or main instance definition config file. The config file can be found in util/hooks/sshkeys.conf and includes documentation for each variable.

Also see: http://code.osuosl.org/projects/ganeti-webmgr/wiki/PermissionsSSHKeys