Getting Started With ProfitBricks

ProfitBricks provides an enterprise-grade Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution that can be managed through a browser-based "Data Center Designer" (DCD) tool or via an easy to use API. A unique feature of the ProfitBricks platform is that it allows you to define your own settings for cores, memory, and disk size without being tied to a particular server size.

Dependencies

  • profitbricks >= 3.0.0

Configuration

  • Using the new format, set up the cloud configuration at /etc/salt/cloud.providers or /etc/salt/cloud.providers.d/profitbricks.conf:

my-profitbricks-config:
  driver: profitbricks

  # Set the location of the salt-master
  #
  minion:
    master: saltmaster.example.com

  # Configure ProfitBricks authentication credentials
  #
  username: user@domain.com
  password: 123456
  # datacenter_id is the UUID of a pre-existing virtual data center.
  datacenter_id: 9e6709a0-6bf9-4bd6-8692-60349c70ce0e
  # Connect to public LAN ID 1.
  public_lan: 1
  ssh_public_key: /path/to/id_rsa.pub
  ssh_private_key: /path/to/id_rsa

Note

Changed in version 2015.8.0.

The provider parameter in cloud provider definitions was renamed to driver. This change was made to avoid confusion with the provider parameter that is used in cloud profile definitions. Cloud provider definitions now use driver to refer to the Salt cloud module that provides the underlying functionality to connect to a cloud host, while cloud profiles continue to use provider to refer to provider configurations that you define.

Virtual Data Center

ProfitBricks uses the concept of Virtual Data Centers. These are logically separated from one another and allow you to have a self-contained environment for all servers, volumes, networking, snapshots, and so forth.

A list of existing virtual data centers can be retrieved with the following command:

salt-cloud -f list_datacenters my-profitbricks-config

Authentication

The username and password are the same as those used to log into the ProfitBricks "Data Center Designer".

Profiles

Here is an example of a profile:

profitbricks_staging
  provider: my-profitbricks-config
  size: Micro Instance
  image: 2f98b678-6e7e-11e5-b680-52540066fee9
  cores: 2
  ram: 4096
  public_lan: 1
  private_lan: 2
  ssh_public_key: /path/to/id_rsa.pub
  ssh_private_key: /path/to/id_rsa
  ssh_interface: private_lan

profitbricks_production:
  provider: my-profitbricks-config
  image: Ubuntu-15.10-server-2016-05-01
  disk_type: SSD
  disk_size: 40
  cores: 8
  cpu_family: INTEL_XEON
  ram: 32768
  public_lan: 1
  private_lan: 2
  public_firewall_rules:
    Allow SSH:
      protocol: TCP
      source_ip: 1.2.3.4
      port_range_start: 22
      port_range_end: 22
    Allow Ping:
      protocol: ICMP
      icmp_type: 8
  ssh_public_key: /path/to/id_rsa.pub
  ssh_private_key: /path/to/id_rsa
  ssh_interface: private_lan
  volumes:
    db_data:
      disk_size: 500
    db_log:
      disk_size: 50
      disk_type: HDD
      disk_availability_zone: ZONE_3

The following list explains some of the important properties.

size

Can be one of the options listed in the output of the following command:

salt-cloud --list-sizes my-profitbricks
image

Can be one of the options listed in the output of the following command:

salt-cloud --list-images my-profitbricks
disk_size

This option allows you to override the size of the disk as defined by the size. The disk size is set in gigabytes (GB).

disk_type

This option allow the disk type to be set to HDD or SSD. The default is HDD.

disk_availability_zone

This option will provision the volume in the specified availability_zone.

cores

This option allows you to override the number of CPU cores as defined by the size.

ram

This option allows you to override the amount of RAM defined by the size. The value must be a multiple of 256, e.g. 256, 512, 768, 1024, and so forth.

availability_zone

This options specifies in which availability zone the server should be built. Zones include ZONE_1 and ZONE_2. The default is AUTO.

public_lan

This option will connect the server to the specified public LAN. If no LAN exists, then a new public LAN will be created. The value accepts a LAN ID (integer).

public_firewall_rules

This option allows for a list of firewall rules assigned to the public network interface.

Firewall Rule Name:

protocol: <protocol> (TCP, UDP, ICMP) source_mac: <source-mac> source_ip: <source-ip> target_ip: <target-ip> port_range_start: <port-range-start> port_range_end: <port-range-end> icmp_type: <icmp-type> icmp_code: <icmp-code>

nat

This option will enable NAT on the private NIC.

private_lan

This option will connect the server to the specified private LAN. If no LAN exists, then a new private LAN will be created. The value accepts a LAN ID (integer).

private_firewall_rules

This option allows for a list of firewall rules assigned to the private network interface.

Firewall Rule Name:

protocol: <protocol> (TCP, UDP, ICMP) source_mac: <source-mac> source_ip: <source-ip> target_ip: <target-ip> port_range_start: <port-range-start> port_range_end: <port-range-end> icmp_type: <icmp-type> icmp_code: <icmp-code>

ssh_private_key

Full path to the SSH private key file.

ssh_public_key

Full path to the SSH public key file.

ssh_interface

This option will use the private LAN IP for node connections (such as bootstrapping the node) instead of the public LAN IP. The value accepts 'private_lan'.

cpu_family

This option allow the CPU family to be set to AMD_OPTERON or INTEL_XEON. The default is AMD_OPTERON.

volumes:

This option allows a list of additional volumes by name that will be created and attached to the server. Each volume requires 'disk_size' and, optionally, 'disk_type'. The default is HDD.

deploy

Set to False if Salt should not be installed on the node.

wait_for_timeout

The timeout to wait in seconds for provisioning resources such as servers. The default wait_for_timeout is 15 minutes.

For more information concerning cloud profiles, see here.