Cloudpipe Image Creation Automation

Cloudpipe is used in OpenStack to provide access to project’s instances when using VLAN networking mode. It is just a custom Virtual Machine (VM) prepared in a special way, i.e. coming with an accordingly configured openvpn and startup scripts. More details on what cloudpipe is and why it is needed are available in OpenStack documentation.
The process of creating an image involves a lot of manual steps which crave to be automated. To simplify these steps, I wrote a simple script that uses some libvirt features to provide fully automated solution, in a way that you don’t even have to bother with preparing base VM manually.
The solution can be found on a github and consists of 3 parts:

• The first ubuntukickstart.sh is the main part. Only this part should be executed. When you run it, it will configure the virtual network and PXE. Then it will start a new VM to install a minimal server Ubuntu by kickstart, so the installation is fully automated and unattended.
• The second cloudpipeconf.sh is used to turn minimal server Ubuntu to cloudpipe. It is being executed when the VM is ready to make this turning.
• The last ssh.fs is used to ssh into the VM and shutdown it.

So, if you need the cloudpipe image, just run ubuntukickstart.sh and wait. You’ll get the cloudpipe image without any mouse clickings and keyboard pressings!
More detailed information about how it works can be found in README file.
Don’t hesitate to leave a comment If you have any questions or concerns.