Alpine cloudinit image option

[elico]

Hey,

I have been using cloud images of alpine linux for quite a while now and was wondering if there would be a possibility to add one into the registry. The cloud images are public at: https://www.alpinelinux.org/cloud/

For now this is the relevant image: https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.20/releases/cloud/generic_alpine-3.20.1-x86_64-bios-cloudinit-r0.qcow2

and we just need to create a cloud-init iso to create any image we would like. It can be frr or openvswitch or a web server or just plain alpine linux with user root and password alpine or what ever.

@grossmj What do you think?

[grossmj]

@elico yes that would be great. Just a plain Alpine Linux 👍

Thanks.

[grossmj]

@elico do you have any update on this or need some help?

[elico]

I have a working cloud init and it's a bit different then debian and redhat.

Thanks for checking out. I will try this evening to update with hope that i will not forget.

בתאריך יום ד׳, 31 ביולי 2024, 20:22, מאת Jeremy Grossmann ‏< @.***>:

@elico https://github.com/elico do you have any update on this or need some help?

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-registry/issues/900#issuecomment-2261003460, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AANUHMAI7PJ3IE7KTWEVTVDZPEMOFAVCNFSM6AAAAABK2PXAUKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDENRRGAYDGNBWGA . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>

[elico]

@grossmj I have published the user-data and meta-data templates at: https://git.ngtech.co.il/NgTech-LTD/disk-from-cloud-image/src/branch/master/gen-cloud-init

There is also a user-data-ovs which is using a github hosted script to generate an OVS appliance. It's very useful to use alpine based images in the registry and just for the example:

• nginx
• ovs
• apache
• iperf3
• frr
• etc...

Indeed there are benefits for Docker containers but these cannot complete many networking tasks which are for infrastructure so these VM templates will benefit GNS3 users a lot.

Thanks, Eliezer

• let me know if you need something specific from me for the alpine related images.

[grossmj]

@elico

I have tried to create a Alpine cloud appliance in https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-registry/pull/917 however I am facing some issues.

The appliance is connect to a NAT cloud so it should have access to Internet.

First the appliance takes some time to boot because it is looking for something: the cloud's instance metadata service (IMDS).

Then even though it says the default username is "alpine" and I configured the password "alpine", I can't see to be able to login:

I haven't had time to investigate more. Maybe I just missed something obvious? I just don't want to spend to much time creating / maintaining appliances.

[elico]

@grossmj I am testing it now.

[elico]

OK so an update after verifying what works. In the official alpine linux cloud images page: https://www.alpinelinux.org/cloud/

You need to download the: generic x86_64 • bios • cloudinit • vm ie: https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/v3.21/releases/cloud/generic_alpine-3.21.0-x86_64-bios-cloudinit-r0.qcow2

And you can use from the above git the user and meta data or just download the pre-packaged version from:

• https://www.ngtech.co.il/static/cloud-images/alpine-master-init.iso or the version which installs OVS ie converting the vm into a Switch based on OVS.
• https://www.ngtech.co.il/static/cloud-images/alpine-ovs-master-init.iso

I have just installed a VM on GNS3 V3.0.2. It works great and fast. You just need to remember to use the "doas" command and not use the "sudo" since in alpine the default is "doas". For root shell use: doas -u root sh

@grossmj Let me know if it's not working for you.

[grossmj]

What settings do you have for the OVS node? Do you configure 24 interfaces?

[grossmj]

I have pushed the Alpine cloud init appliance to the registry. Only the OVS version is left but I couldn't make it work.

[elico]

Very important to notice that the base image is very small in size, less than 1 GB. For actual use you need to use qemu-img resize generic_alpine-3.21.0-x86_64-bios-cloudinit-r0.qcow2 +20G before upload ing the image into GNS3.

[elico]

What settings do you have for the OVS node? Do you configure 24 interfaces?

I am using either 16 or 24. It's pretty simple to make it detect the amount of interfaces.