rs-storage cookbook

Provides recipes for managing volumes on a Server in a RightScale supported cloud which include:

• Creation of single and multi-stripe volumes
• Taking backups of volumes
• Restoring from backups
• Schedule periodic backups
• Detaching and deleting volumes when server is decommissioned.

Github Repository: https://github.com/rightscale-cookbooks/rs-storage

Requirements

• Requires Chef 11 or higher
• Requires Ruby 1.9 of higher
• Platform
  • Ubuntu 12.04
  • CentOS 6
• Cookbooks
  • chef_handler
  • filesystem
  • lvm
  • marker
  • rightscale_volume
  • rightscale_backup

Usage

Creating a new volume

To create a new volume, run the rs-storage::volume recipe with the following attributes set:

• node['rs-storage']['device']['nickname'] - the nickname of the volume
• node['rs-storage']['device']['volume_size'] - the size of the volume to create
• node['rs-storage']['device']['filesystem'] - the filesystem to use on the volume
• node['rs-storage']['device']['mount_point'] - the location to mount the volume

This will create a new volume, attach it to the server, format it with the filesystem specified, and mount it on the location specified.

Provisioned IOPS on EC2

To create a volume with IOPS on EC2, set the following attribute before running rs-storage::volume recipe:

• node['rs-storage']['device']['iops'] - the value of IOPS to use

Creating a logical volume with striping

To create a logical volume with striping using LVM, run the rs-storage::stripe recipe with the following attributes set:

• node['rs-storage']['device']['nickname'] - the nickname to use as prefix for the logical volume
• node['rs-storage']['device']['count'] - number of volumes to create in the logical volume
• node['rs-storage']['device']['volume_size'] - the total size of the logical volume
• node['rs-storage']['device']['filesystem'] - the filesystem to use on the logical volume
• node['rs-storage']['device']['mount_point'] - the location to mount the logical volume

This will create the number of volumes specified in node['rs-storage']['device']['count']. Each volume created will have a nickname of "#{nickname}_#{stripe_number}". The size for each volume is calculated by the following formula:

(total_size.to_f / device_count.to_f).ceil

# For example, total size = 10, stripe count = 3
(10.0 / 3.0).ceil
# => 4.0

This will create a volume group with the name "#{nickname}-vg" and a logical volume in it with the name "#{nickname}-lv", format it with the filesystem specified, and mount it on the location specified.

Backing up volume(s) & Cleaning up backups

To create a backup of all volumes attached to the server, run the rs-storage::backup recipe with the following attributes set:

• node['rs-storage']['backup']['lineage'] - the lineage to be used for the backup

The backup process will create a snapshot of all volumes attached to the server (except the boot disk if there is one). The backup recipe also handles the cleanup of old volume snapshots and accepts the following attributes:

• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['keep_last'] - number of last backups to keep from deleting
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['dailies'] - number of daily backups to keep
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['weeklies'] - number of weekly backups to keep
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['monthlies'] - number of monthly backups to keep
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['yearlies'] - number of yearly backups to keep

This will cleanup the old snapshots on the cloud based on the criteria specified.

Restoring a volume from a backup

To restore a volume from backup, run the rs-storage::volume recipe with the same set of attributes mentioned in the previous section along with the following attribute:

• node['rs-storage']['restore']['lineage'] - the lineage to restore the backup from

This will restore the volume from the backup instead of creating a new one. By default, the backup with the latest timestamp will be restored. To restore a backup from a specific timestamp, set the following attribute:

• node['rs-storage']['restore']['timestamp'] - the timestamp of the backup to restore from (in seconds since UNIX epoch)

Restoring a logical volume composed of multiple volumes from a backup

To restore a logical volume composed of multiple volumes from a backup, run the rs-storage::stripe recipe with the same set of attributes mentioned in the previous section along with the following attribute:

• node['rs-storage']['restore']['lineage'] - the lineage to restore the backup from

This will restore multiple volumes from the backup matching the lineage. By default, the backup with the latest timestamp will be restored. To restore backup from a specific timestamp, set the following attribute:

• node['rs-storage']['restore']['timestamp'] - the timestamp of the backup to restore from (in seconds since UNIX epoch)

Scheduling automated backups of volume(s)

To schedule automated backups, run the rs-storage::schedule recipe with the following attributes set:

• node['rs-storage']['schedule']['enable'] - to enable/disable automated backups
• node['rs-storage']['schedule']['hour'] - the hour to take the backup on (should use crontab syntax)
• node['rs-storage']['schedule']['minute'] - the minute to take the backup on (should use crontab syntax)
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['lineage'] - the lineage name to be used for the backup

This will create a crontab entry to run the rs-storage::backup recipe periodically at the given minute and hour. To disable the automated backups, simply set node['rs-storage']['schedule']['enable'] to false and rerun the rs-storage::schedule recipe and this will remove the crontab entry.

Deleting volume(s)

This operation should be part of the decommission bundle in a RightScale ServerTemplate where the volumes attached to the server are detached and deleted from the cloud but this can also be used as an operational recipe. This recipe will do nothing in the following conditions:

• when the server enters a stop state
• when the server reboots

This recipe also has a safety attribute node['rs-storage']['device']['destroy_on_decommission']. This attribute will be set to false by default and should be overridden and set to true in order for the devices to be detached and deleted. If an LVM is found (created using rs-storage::stripe), the LVM will be conditionally removed before detaching the volume.

Attributes

• node['rs-storage']['device']['nickname'] - The nickname for the device or the logical volume comprising multiple of devices. Default is 'data_storage'.
• node['rs-storage']['device']['mount_point'] - The mount point for the device. Default is '/mnt/storage'.
• node['rs-storage']['device']['volume_size'] - The size (in gigabytes) of the volume to be created. If multiple devices are used, this will be the total size of the logical volume. Default is 10.
• node['rs-storage']['device']['count'] - The number of devices to be created for the logical volume. Default is 2.
• node['rs-storage']['device']['iops'] - The IOPS value to be used for EC2 Provisioned IOPS. This attribute should only be used with Amazon EC2. Default is nil.
• node['rs-storage']['device']['filesystem'] - The filesystem to be used on the device. Default is 'ext4'.
• node['rs-storage']['device']['detach_timeout'] - Amount of time (in seconds) to wait for a volume to detach during the decommission of the server. Default is 300 (5 minutes).
• node['rs-storage']['device']['destroy_on_decommission'] - Whether to destroy the device during the decommission of the server. Default is false.
• node['rs-storage']['device']['mkfs_options'] - Additional mkfs options for formatting the device. Default is '-F' which is required to avoid warnings about formatting the whole device.
• node['rs-storage']['device']['stripe_size'] - The stripe size to use on LVM. Default is 512.
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['lineage'] - The backup lineage. Default is nil.
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['keep_last'] - Maximum snapshots to keep. Default is 60.
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['dailies'] - Number of daily backups to keep. Default is 14.
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['weeklies'] - Number of weekly backups to keep. Default is 6.
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['monthlies'] - Number of monthly backups to keep. Default is 12.
• node['rs-storage']['backup']['keep']['yearlies'] - Number of yearly backups to keep. Default is 2.
• node['rs-storage']['restore']['lineage'] - The name of the lineage to restore the backups from. Default is nil.
• node['rs-storage']['restore']['timestamp'] - The timestamp to restore backup taken on or before the timestamp in the same lineage. Default is nil.
• node['rs-storage']['schedule']['enable'] - Enable/disable automated backups. Default is false.
• node['rs-storage']['schedule']['hour'] - The backup schedule hour. Default is nil.
• node['rs-storage']['schedule']['minute'] - The backup schedule minute. Default is nil.

Recipes

rs-storage::default

Simply includes the rightscale_volume::default and rightscale_backup::default recipes to meet the requirements of using the resources in these cookbooks.

rs-storage::volume

Creates a new volume from scratch or from an existing backup based on the value provided in the node['rs-storage']['restore']['lineage'] attribute. If this attribute is set, the volume will be restored from a backup matching this lineage otherwise a new volume will be created from scratch. This recipe will also format the volume using the filesystem specified in node['rs-storage']['device']['filesystem'] and mount the volume on the location specified in node['rs-storage']['device']['mount_point'].

rs-storage::stripe

Creates a new logical volume composed of volumes from scratch or from an existing backup based on the value provided in the node['rs-storage']['restore']['lineage'] attribute. If this attribute is set, the volumes will be restored from a backup matching this lineage otherwise a new logical volume composed of volumes will be created from scratch. This recipe will create a striped logical volume using LVM on the volumes and format the logical volume using the filesystem specified in node['rs-storage']['device']['filesystem']. This will also mount the volume on the location specified in node['rs-storage']['device']['mount_point'].

rs-storage::backup

Takes a backup of all volumes attached to the server (except boot disks if there are any) with the lineage specified in the node['rs-storage']['backup']['lineage'] attribute. During the backup process, the filesystem will be frozen.i The filesystem will be unfrozen even if the backup process fails with the help of a chef exception handler. This recipe will also clean up the volume snapshots based on the criteria specified in the rs-storage/backup/keep/* attributes.

rs-storage::schedule

Adds or removes the crontab entry for taking backups periodically at the minute and hour provided via node['rs-storage']['schedule']['minute'] and node['rs-storage']['schedule']['hour'] attributes. The recipe uses the node['rs-storage']['schedule']['enable'] attribute to determine wheter to add or remove the crontab entry.

rs-storage::decommission

If the node['rs-storage']['device']['destroy_on_decommission'] attribute is set to true, this recipe detaches and deletes the volumes attached to the server. This operation will be skipped if the server is entering the stop state or rebooting.

Author

Author:: RightScale, Inc. ([email protected])