Cloud Server Configuration Options

To deliver a Managed Cloud experience, Rackspace runs support automation on every cloud server that we build. We have extended this capability by creating a build_config metadata key that you can use to specify the Rackspace-provided common tools that you want installed on your Rackspace cloud servers configured with Rackspace-recommended best practices.

Many of the build_config metadata key options are available only when you use the Cloud Servers API to build your servers. Building your servers through the API gives you increased flexibility to configure the server how you want it and ensures that it does not conflict with any automation that you have running. If you build servers through the Cloud Control Panel, you can select only from the most common of these options.

To take advantage of this feature when using the API, you use any of the defined build_config metadata key options that are available for your specific service level (Managed Infrastructure or Managed Operations)
and pass your specified values to the scripts.

Note: This functionality is available only when you create a server. If you want any of the tools installed after you have created the server, you must download the tools and configure them individually on the servers. If you have the Managed Operations SysOps service level, ask a Rackspace cloud engineer to install the tools on your behalf.

Build configuration options

Depending upon your service level, the following options are available for the build_config metadata key:

gateway

• Available to all customers.
• Used with virtual network devices, such as the Fortigate-VM. This option creates a Cloud Network suitable for routing traffic and configures the virtual network device as the gateway for the Cloud Network.

rack_user_only

• Available to Managed Operations customers.
• Creates a Rackspace username and password for Rackspace Support to deliver System Administrator level support. This option does not add or configure any additional components.

base_mgdops_config

• Available to Managed Operations customers.
• Builds a regular Managed Operations server from a base image with a Rackspace username and password, installs and configures the Rackspace Monitoring agent to the Rackspace defaults, installs and configures
  Cloud Backup to the Rackspace defaults, installs all the support packages, and enables automatic updates. This configuration is the standard Managed Operations configuration.

backup_agent_only

• Available to Managed Infrastructure customers.
• Available to Managed Operations customers.
• Installs the Cloud Backup agent.

backup_defaults

• Available to Managed Infrastructure customers.

• Available to Managed Operations customers.

• Installs the Cloud Backup agent and configures a default backup set and schedule.

  By default, the following directories are backed up:

  For Linux® Managed Cloud servers:

  • /etc
  • /home
  • /var/www
  • /var/lib/mysqlbackup

  For Windows® Managed Cloud servers:

  • c:\users
  • c:\InetPub

monitoring_agent_only

• Available to Managed Infrastructure customers.
• Available to Managed Operations customers.
• Installs the Rackspace Monitoring agent.

monitoring_defaults

• Available to Managed Infrastructure customers.

• Available to Managed Operations customers.

• Installs the Rackspace Monitoring agent and configures default monitoring, disk, and CPU checks.

  For Managed Operations service level customers, this option also configures default file system alerts that are sent to Rackspace.

auto_updates

• Available to Managed Infrastructure customers.
• Available to Managed Operations customers.
• Enables automatic updates of server software.

You can combine the build_config options, for example:

• monitoring_defaults with auto_updates installs the monitoring agent configured with Rackspace best practices and turns on automatic updates.

• backup_agent_only installs the Cloud Backup agent but does not configure Rackspace backups. You must separately identify the directories that you want backed up after the agent is installed.

Build options for configuration management software (Chef®, Puppet®, Ansible®, and Salt)

Using the API to build a server with a core option passed does not conflict with configuration management software. Such builds have a Rackspace account and nothing more. If you want additional components, you must pass them with the build_config metadata key.

The following example shows the build option for a Managed Infrastructure server:

nova boot --flavor 2 --image [image] --meta build_config=core www.example.com

The following example shows the build option for building a Managed Operations server with a Rackspace username and password only and backup ability:

nova boot --flavor 2 --image [image] --meta build_config= rack_user_only,driveclient fileserver.example.com

The following example shows a good option for a customer who wants a Managed Infrastructure server that has monitoring and backups available, but no updates or additional packages:

nova boot --flavor 2 --image [image] --meta build_config=core,driveclient,monitoring db.example.com 

If you use configuration management software, wait for the post-build configuration to complete before performing your configuration management. For standard and workload-optimized cloud servers only, you can obtain the Managed Operations or Managed Infrastructure post-build automation status via the Cloud Servers API. Look for the metadata key value informationrax_service_level_automation. Depending on the current status of the Managed Cloud post-build automation process, the metadata key has one of the following values:

• Pending
• In Progress
• Complete
• Build Error
• Authentication Error

When the metadata key is Complete, you can begin your configuration management.