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Deploying Debian

This guide walks through the process of deploying Debian through:

  • an Operating System Image
  • a Docker Image
  • Bootstrap

Using an Operating System Image

Debian distributes their Operating System in a number of different formats, which are all available on the cloud-images site.

Below are two examples of images we can use:

debian-10-openstack-amd64.qcow2    2021-03-04 10:56   577M
debian-10-openstack-amd64.raw         2021-03-04 10:53    2.0G

The first image is a qcow2 filesystem image and is a full disk image including partition tables, partitions filled with filesystems and files, and importantly, a boot loader at the beginning of the disk image. If you use the qcow2 image, you will need to convert it into a raw image by installing the qemu-img cli tool,

apt-get install -y qemu-utils

and using it to convert the image into a raw filesystem.

qemu-img convert  ./debian-10-openstack-amd64.qcow2 -O raw ./debian-10-openstack-amd64.raw

The second image is already a raw disk image which can be used as-is because it contains everything that we need to boot directly into Debian.

Optional - You can compress the raw image to save on both local disk space and network bandwidth when deploying the image.

gzip ./debian-10-openstack-amd64.raw

The raw image will need to live at an accessible web server.

Creating the Template

The template uses actions from the Artifact Hub.

  • image2disk - to write the OS image to a block device.
  • kexec - to kexec into our newly provisioned operating system.
version: "0.1"
name: debian_Focal
global_timeout: 1800
tasks:
  - name: "os-installation"
    worker: "{{.device_1}}"
    volumes:
      - /dev:/dev
      - /dev/console:/dev/console
      - /lib/firmware:/lib/firmware:ro
    actions:
      - name: "stream-debian-image"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/image2disk:v1.0.0
        timeout: 600
        environment:
          DEST_DISK: /dev/sda
          IMG_URL: "http://192.168.1.1:8080/debian-10-openstack-amd64.raw.gz"
          COMPRESSED: true
      - name: "kexec-debian"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/kexec:v1.0.0
        timeout: 90
        pid: host
        environment:
          BLOCK_DEVICE: /dev/sda1
            FS_TYPE: ext4

Important

Don't forget to pull, tag and push quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/image2disk:v1.0.0 prior to using it.

Using a Docker Image

We can easily make use of the official docker images to generate a root filesystem for use when deploying with Tinkerbell.

Downloading the Image

TMPRFS=$(docker container create debian:latest)
docker export $TMPRFS > debian_rootfs.tar
docker rm $TMPRFS

Optional - You can compress the raw image to save on both local disk space and network bandwidth when deploying the image.

gzip ./debian_rootfs.tar

The raw image will need to live at a locally accessible web server.

Creating the Template

The template uses actions from the [artifact. hub].

  • rootio - to partition our disk and make filesystems.
  • archive2disk - to write the OS image to a block device.
  • cexec - to run commands inside (chroot) our newly provisioned operating system.
  • kexec - to kexec into our newly provisioned operating system.
version: "0.1"
name: debian_bullseye_provisioning
global_timeout: 1800
tasks:
  - name: "os-installation"
    worker: "{{.device_1}}"
    volumes:
      - /dev:/dev
      - /dev/console:/dev/console
      - /lib/firmware:/lib/firmware:ro
    actions:
      - name: "disk-wipe-partition"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/rootio:v1.0.0
        timeout: 90
        command: ["partition"]
        environment:
            MIRROR_HOST: 192.168.1.2
      - name: "format"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/rootio:v1.0.0
        timeout: 90
        command: ["format"]
        environment:
            MIRROR_HOST: 192.168.1.2
      - name: "expand-debian-filesystem-to-root"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/archive2disk:v1.0.0
        timeout: 90
        environment:
            ARCHIVE_URL: http://192.168.1.1:8080/debian_rootfs.tar.gz
            ARCHIVE_TYPE: targz
            DEST_DISK: /dev/sda3
            FS_TYPE: ext4
            DEST_PATH: /
      - name: "install-grub-bootloader"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/cexec:v1.0.0
        timeout: 90
        environment:
            BLOCK_DEVICE: /dev/sda3
            FS_TYPE: ext4
            CHROOT: y
            CMD_LINE: "grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/sda"
      - name: "kexec-debian"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/kexec:v1.0.0
        timeout: 600
        environment:
            BLOCK_DEVICE: /dev/sda3
            FS_TYPE: ext4

Using Bootstrap

The final method for installing Debian is to use the grml-debootstrap installer. We will need to create an action that will invoke the installer and install to our local disk.

Creating the Dockerfile

The Dockerfile creates a new image based upon Debian, installs all of the components needed for grml-debootstrap. Then, it sets the ENTRYPOINT to execute the grml-debootstrap program to install to Debian to /dev/sda3 and install the boot-loader to /dev/sda.

FROM debian:bullseye
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y grml-debootstrap
ENTRYPOINT ["grml-debootstrap", "--target", "/dev/sda3", "--grub", "/dev/sda"]

Now create an action image from our Dockerfile and push it to registry.

docker build -t local-registry/debian:bootstrap .
docker push local-registry/debian:bootstrap

Once the new action is pushed to the local registry, it can be used as an action in a template.

actions:
  - name: "expand Debian filesystem to root"
    image: local-registry/debian:bootstrap
    timeout: 90

Creating the Template

The template uses actions from the artifact hub.

  • rootio - to partition our disk and make filesystems
  • Our custom action that will invoke the Bootstrap program.
  • kexec - to kexec into our newly provisioned operating system.

As well as the debian:bootstrap action from the local registry.

version: "0.1"
name: debian_bullseye_provisioning
global_timeout: 1800
tasks:
  - name: "os-installation"
    worker: "{{.device_1}}"
    volumes:
      - /dev:/dev
      - /dev/console:/dev/console
      - /lib/firmware:/lib/firmware:ro
    actions:
      - name: "disk-wipe-partition"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/rootio:v1.0.0
        timeout: 90
        command: ["partition"]
        environment:
            MIRROR_HOST: 192.168.1.2
      - name: "format"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/rootio:v1.0.0
        timeout: 90
        command: ["format"]
        environment:
            MIRROR_HOST: 192.168.1.2
      - name: "expand Debian filesystem to root"
        image: local-registry/debian:bootstrap
        timeout: 90
      - name: "kexec-debian"
        image: quay.io/tinkerbell-actions/kexec:v1.0.0
        timeout: 600
        environment:
            BLOCK_DEVICE: /dev/sda3
            FS_TYPE: ext4