Solum Quick Start Guide

Setup Solum development environment

https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Solum/solum-development-setup

The following is a guide to deploying an app with Solum.

Overview

$ solum languagepack create <NAME> <GIT_REPO>
$ solum languagepack show <UUID/Name>
$ solum languagepack logs <UUID>
$ solum languagepack list
$ solum app create --app-file <app_file> [--param-file param_file]
$ solum app show <UUID/Name>
$ curl <application_uri>

In this document we will work with a python example to demonstrate how you can use solum to deploy an application.

Create a languagepack

Before deploying an app on Solum, we need to create a run time environment, called languagepack, for the application. A languagepack must exist in Solum, as every application deployed with Solum requires an association to a languagepack to run (even if the languagepack only implements a no-op). Languagepacks can be added to Solum in the following ways:

  1. Solum comes with pre-existing languagepacks
  2. Solum System Operator creates and adds languagepack(s) available for all users
  3. Solum User creates and adds languagepack(s) available only to that user

To learn more, see the languagepacks section of this document.

1. Authenticate to Keystone. The easiest way is to use the credentials supplied by Devstack.

$ source ~/devstack/openrc
  1. Create languagepack
$ solum languagepack create python https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum-languagepack-python.git

+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property    | Value                                                                    |
+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| status      | QUEUED                                                                   |
| source_uri  | https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum-languagepack-python.git |
| description | None                                                                     |
| uuid        | 0233f461-5fb0-4de7-8f06-5527721c3e97                                     |
| name        | python                                                                   |
+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Solum takes a few minutes to build your languagepack. You can check the state by using the languagepack show command. A languagepack is ready for use once the state changes to ‘READY’.

$ solum languagepack show python
+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property    | Value                                                                    |
+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| status      | READY                                                                    |
| source_uri  | https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum-languagepack-python.git |
| description | None                                                                     |
| uuid        | 0233f461-5fb0-4de7-8f06-5527721c3e97                                     |
| name        | python                                                                   |
+-------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

You can check logs that were generated while building the languagepack with the following command. This is a great way to debug your languagepack if it fails to build.

$ solum languagepack logs python
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| resource_uuid                        | created_at          | local_storage                                                               |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 0233f461-5fb0-4de7-8f06-5527721c3e97 | 2016-04-07 13:33:35 | /var/log/solum/worker/languagepack-2a8cd98e-8b37-4ec7-b17b-f511814a7d6f.log |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

You can find all available languagepacks with the following command

$ solum languagepack list
+--------------------------------------+--------+-------------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| uuid                                 | name   | description | status | source_uri                                                               |
+--------------------------------------+--------+-------------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 95310b74-b3ed-4150-b0bf-e64c21359900 | java   | None        | READY  | https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum-languagepack-java.git   |
| 96f889e7-e8db-4ae3-a38d-0bfda8268e30 | python | None        | READY  | https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum-languagepack-python.git |
+--------------------------------------+--------+-------------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Create your app

Solum clones code from the user’s public Git repository or user’s public/private GitHub repository. Before you begin, push your code to a Git repo. From within your devstack host, you can now run solum commands to build and deploy your application.

2. To register an app with Solum, you will need to write a appfile to describe it. The following appfile deploys a sample python application. You can find other examples in the examples/apps/ folder of the solum repo on github. To learn more, see the appfile section of this document.

version: 1
name: cherrypy
description: python web app
languagepack: python
source:
  repository: https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum-python-sample-app.git
  revision: master
workflow_config:
  test_cmd: ./unit_tests.sh
  run_cmd: python app.py
trigger_actions:
 - unittest
 - build
 - deploy
ports:
 - 80

The app is named cherrypy, and it describes a single application, running the code from the given Github repo. The code in that repo is a Python app that listens for HTTP requests and returns environment variables supplied by the user during app creation. We have configured this example to listen on port 80.

Deploy your app

3. Create an app by supplying the appfile. This registers your app with Solum. For demonstration purposes, we will use the provided example.

$ solum app create --app-file appfile.yaml --param-file params.yaml
+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property    | Value                                                               |
+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| description | Sample Python web app.                                              |
| uri         | http://10.0.2.15:9777/v1/plans/4a795b99-936d-4330-be4d-d2099b160075 |
| name        | cherrypy                                                   |
| trigger_uri |                                                                     |
| uuid        | 4a795b99-936d-4330-be4d-d2099b160075                                |
+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

The uri field above refers to the newly-registered app. At this point, your app is not deployed yet.

Your app is now ready to be deployed using the uuid from above to deploy your app.

  1. Deploy app
$ solum app deploy 4a795b99-936d-4330-be4d-d2099b160075
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property   | Value                                                               |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| wf_id      | 1                                                                   |
| created_at | 2016-04-07T13:36:45.497519                                          |
| app_id     | 7d64347c-93d6-4adf-bf70-309f9d53c034                                |
| actions    | [u'unittest', u'build', u'deploy']                                  |
| updated_at | 2016-04-07T13:36:45.497519                                          |
| source     | {u'repository': u'https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum- |
|            | python-sample-app.git', u'revision': u'master'}                     |
| config     | {u'run_cmd': u'python app.py', u'test_cmd': u'./unit_tests.sh'}     |
| id         | 97e7e2c1-8ba1-4320-9831-b5baef1d480d                                |
+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

Solum builds a Docker image by layering your app’s code on top of the related languagepack’s docker image. Then, Solum creates a stack via Heat to deploy your app. At this point, Solum is done, and in a matter of minutes your app will be deployed.

5. You can monitor the progress of your app as it builds and deploys. The status field will show the progress of your app through the process.

$ solum app show 4a795b99-936d-4330-be4d-d2099b160075
+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property        | Value                                                                  |
+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| status          | BUILDING                                                               |
| description     | Sample Python web app.                                                 |
| application_uri | None                                                                   |
| created_at      | 2015-03-10T22:47:04                                                    |
| updated_at      | 2015-03-10T22:49:59                                                    |
| name            | cherrypy                                                      |
| trigger_uri     | http://10.0.2.15:9777/v1/triggers/b6eb26e5-3b7b-416b-b932-302c514071cc |
| uuid            | 185f2741-61e0-497e-b2b7-c890c7e151dd                                   |
+-----------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  1. Run the solum app show command a few times to see the status change. You will notice the status field changes to DEPLOYMENT_COMPLETE and the application_uri is available.
$ solum app show cherrypy

+------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Property         | Value                                                               |
+------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| app_url          | 172.24.4.3:80                                                       |
| entry_points     |                                                                     |
| description      | python web app                                                      |
| created_at       | 2016-04-07T13:36:32                                                 |
| languagepack     | python                                                              |
| target_instances | 1                                                                   |
| ports            | [80]                                                                |
| source           | {u'repository': u'https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum- |
|                  | python-sample-app.git', u'revision': u'master'}                     |
| trigger          | [u'unittest', u'build', u'deploy']                                  |
| trigger_uuid     | b85bdf42-d126-4223-9a64-8c10930447e3                                |
| id               | 4a795b99-936d-4330-be4d-d2099b160075                                |
| name             | cherrypy                                                            |
+------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
'cherrypy' workflows and their status:
+-------+--------------------------------------+--------+
| wf_id | id                                   | status |
+-------+--------------------------------------+--------+
| 1     | 97e7e2c1-8ba1-4320-9831-b5baef1d480d | DEPLOYMENT_COMPLETE  |
+-------+--------------------------------------+--------+

Connect to Your App

  1. Connect to your app using the value in the app_url field.
$ curl <your_application_uri_here>

Update Your App

You can set up your Git repository to fire an on_commit action to make a webhook call to Solum each time you make a commit. The webhook call sends a POST request to http://10.0.2.15:9777/v1/triggers/<trigger_id> causing Solum to automatically build a new image and re-deploy your application.

To do this with a GitHub repo, go to your repo on the web, click on Settings, and then select “Webhooks & Services” form the left navigation menu. In the Webhooks section, click “Add Webhook”, and enter your GitHub account password when prompted. Copy and paste the value of trigger_uri from your “solum app show” command into the “Payload URL” filed. Note that this will only work if you have a public IP address or hostname in the trigger_uri field. Select the “application/vnd.github.v3+json” Payload version, determine if you only want to trigger this webhook on “git push” or if you want it for other events too by using the radio buttons and Checkboxes provided. Finish by clicking “Add Webhook”. Now next time that event is triggered on GitHub, Solum will automatically check out your change, build it, and deploy it for you.

Languagepacks

Languagepacks define the runtime environment required by your application.

To build a languagepack, solum requires a git repo containing a Dockerfile. Solum creates a Docker and stores the image for use when building and deploying your application. See the sample languagepack repo below

$ https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum-languagepack-python

Here are some best practices to keep in mind while creating a languagepack

  1. A good languagepack is reusable across application
  2. All Operating system level libraries should be defined in the languagepack
  3. Test tools should be installed in the languagepack
  4. Includes a mandatory build.sh script, which Solum CI expects and executes during the build phase

appfile

An appfile is used to define your application and passed in during application creation.

$ solum app create --app-file appfile.yaml --param-file params.yaml

In the above command, we use the –app-file flag to provide

version: 1
name: cherrypy
description: python web app
languagepack: python
source:
  repository: https://github.com/rackspace-solum-samples/solum-python-sample-app.git
  revision: master
workflow_config:
  test_cmd: ./unit_tests.sh
  run_cmd: python app.py
trigger_actions:
 - test
 - build
 - deploy
ports:
 - 80

The appfile is used to define the following

  1. The git repo where your code exists
  2. The languagepack to use
  3. A name for your application
  4. A command that executes your unittests. This command is executed during the unit test phase of the Solum CI workflow.
  5. The port which is exposed publicly for accessing your application.
  6. A command that executes your command.

App configuration and environment variables

Applications deployed using Solum can be configured using environment variables. Provide a parameter file during application creation to inject environment variables

$ solum app create --app-file appfile.yaml --param-file params.yaml

In the example above, we pass in the parameter file (shown in the table below) using the –param-file flag. The parameter file contains key value pairs which are injected into the application run time environment.

key: secret_key
user: user_name_goes_here
password: password_for_demo

Set up a Development Environment

These instructions are for those who want to contribute to Solum, or use features that are not yet in the latest release.

1. Clone the Solum repo. Solum repository is available on the OpenStack Git server.

$ mkdir ~/Solum
$ cd Solum
$ git clone https://github.com/openstack/solum.git

In addition to Solum, your environment will also need Devstack to configure and run the requisite OpenStack components, including Keystone, Glance, Nova, Neutron, and Heat.

Vagrant Dev Environment

2. We have provided a Vagrant environment to deploy Solum and its required OpenStack components via Devstack. We recommend using this approach if you are planning to contribute to Solum. This takes about the same amount of time as setting up Devstack manually, but it automates the setup for you. By default, it uses Virtualbox as its provisioner. We have tested this with Vagrant 1.5.4. The environment will need to know where your Solum code is, via the environment variable SOLUM.

$ cd ~/Solum
$ export SOLUM=~/Solum/solum
$ git clone https://github.com/rackerlabs/vagrant-solum-dev.git vagrant
$ cd vagrant

3. Bring up the devstack vagrant environment. This may take a while. Allow about an hour, more or less depending on your machine speed and its connection to the internet.

$ vagrant up --provision devstack
$ vagrant ssh devstack

Devstack

Using Vagrant is not a requirement for deploying Solum. You may instead opt to install Solum and Devstack yourself. The details of integrating Solum with Devstack can be found in contrib/devstack/README.rst.