EVE-OS as Officially Supported OS
K
Kathy Giori
EVE-OS leverages Alpine Linux, therefore support for Alpine is desired too. (https://github.com/lf-edge/eve#readme)
EVE-OS however adds another layer of security plus remote management. It requires an "EVE Controller". Using the open source (OpenEVC) or commercial EVE controller (ZEDCloud service: see https://zededa.com), a sysadmin can specify sw to be installed and run on top of EVE-OS. This secure command capability from anywhere further supports multi-tenant apps (on one Metal box) that by default are fully isolated from each other. It can also run K3s clusters. The ability to install EVE-OS already works: https://github.com/lf-edge/eve/blob/master/docs/DEPLOYMENT.md
But if it could be done using an "easy button" approach (to fetch the latest iPXE cfg file to do the installation from GitHub), that would be even better. Also there's room for improvement for the EVE-OS onboarding key or cert that is needed by an EVE Controller. We can help brainstorm how to do that best.
R
Ravinder Braich
open
R
Ravinder Braich
closed
K
Kathy Giori
Ravinder Braich: Hi Ravinder. I would like this request to remain open since the EVE community is in the process of creating a "Single-use EVE installer" script that would work GREAT for this use case. It would let EVE users generate the necessary secrets for EVE-OS to be installed via iPXE, copy those secrets into the EQM web UI (or CLI), and for the resulting EQM server booted to and running EVE-OS to automatically reach out to the configured EVE Controller, and securely register itself. We can write up a design document on the LF Edge EVE repository on GitHub to explain the design in detail. I hope that will help the EQM community reconsider this request.
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Ravinder Braich
Kathy Giori: Hi Kathy. Of course, not a problem. When ready, feel free to cross link any docs/design here.
Ed Vielmetti
Alpine Linux has been delivered; see https://feedback.equinixmetal.com/changelog/alpine-linux-315-is-now-an-official-os for that info. It's possible that this eases the EVE-OS install process somewhat.
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Kathy Giori
Ed Vielmetti: The EVE-OS install process is really simple (and works using the iPXE config text field input) already. I think it would just require one more step of copying a specific release version of the ipxe.cfg file from the latest EVE-OS release and labeling it with a generic (static) name so that on the Equinix Metal front, all a user would have to do (literally) is click a tile/button labeled EVE-OS latest release. You can see the releases here: https://github.com/lf-edge/eve/releases
But currently you have to select a specific version, such as https://github.com/lf-edge/eve/releases/download/8.1.0/amd64.ipxe.efi.ip.cfg
Hope that helps.
Ed Vielmetti
Kathy Giori: Thanks, if there is a specific page that documents "how to install EVE-OS on Metal" that I can link to and read and review, we may be able to make forward progress on this faster.
K
Kathy Giori
Ed Vielmetti: indeed the DEPLOYMENT.md readme of the GitHub link in the original post explains how to do it. Or I could creat a separate readme doc just explaining Metal iPXE installation. And then update it to the “easy button” approach once ready.