/config/firstboot file should be removed

[ssorenso]

Issue: /config/firstboot file injected by the onboarding script is not deleted after the first, initial boot's configuration setup. This results in slower boot timing and potentially configuration collisions.
Original message from outside-of-group customer:

From: Carl Bevil Date: Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 4:03 PM To: *OpenStack PD Subject: Question about firstboot file
Hi,
We have a customer asking about the /config/firstboot file seen in https://github.com/F5Networks/f5-openstack-image-prep/blob/master/lib/f5_image_prep/startup. It looks like this is created when patch-image is run with the -f switch, but we are wondering when that file gets deleted. I didn’t see anything explicit in the code – can someone please explain how/when this file is deleted?
Thanks,
Carl

To fix Carl's issue, we should remove this file at the end of the processing.

[ssorenso]

From: Steven Sorenson
Date: Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 4:43 PM
To: Carl Bevil
Subject: Re: Question about firstboot file

Hello Carl,

The /config/firstboot file is created intentionally for the first time that the BIG-IP is brought online. This informs all future boots that the initial setup has been performed. This both saves time and keeps from config collision with itself in future boots.

If you look at the rest of the startup script and compare where the variable IS_FIRST_BOOT is and what it is used for, then you’ll see that some things are skipped when it is “false”. This variable is set at lines:

    local FIRST_BOOT_FILE="/config/firstboot"
    local OS_MARKER_STARTUP_COMPLETE="/.openstack_auto_config_completed"
    local IS_FIRST_BOOT="true"
    if [[ ! -f ${FIRST_BOOT_FILE} ]]; then
        IS_FIRST_BOOT="false"
    fi

Thus, by its nature, this file should never be deleted.

Thanks,
Steven Sorenson

[ssorenso]

From: Steven Sorenson
Date: Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 6:23 PM
To: Carl Bevil
Subject: Re: Question about firstboot file

Hello Carl,

My mistake, upon review of this, it may be a bug. I’m verifying with my colleagues tomorrow and will get back to you.

Thanks,
Steven

[ssorenso]

From: Steven Sorenson
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 8:51 AM
To: Carl Bevil;
Subject: Re: Question about firstboot file - Being fixed

Hello Carl,

Sorry for my earlier confusion. We acknowledge this as a bug, we have a pull request open for this bug’s fix.

Please let us know if there’s anything else we can answer or do for you or your customer.

Thanks,
Steven Sorenson

[ssorenso]

From: Carl Bevil
Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 9:53 AM
To: Steven Sorenson
Subject: RE: Question about firstboot file - Being fixed

Thanks, Steven. The thing is, the customer noticed that the file /config/firstboot was not on their system. If there is no code to delete it, does that mean the file was never created in the first place?

Carl

[ssorenso]

Hello Carl,

That is what it would imply. The file is created by the onboarding script via injecting the empty file onto the partition.

As such, your customer should perform the following steps to onboard the image:

1. On a native (not docker) linux box (VM or host):
2. Transfer the BIGIP-12.1.2.0.0249 image to your host
3. Clone the repo:
   git clone https://github.com/F5Networks/f5-openstack-image-prep
4. Run the onboarding script:
   sudo ./bin/patch-image.sh -s ./lib/f5_image_prep/startup.tar -f BIGIP-12.1.2.0.0.249.LTM_1SLOT.qcow2
5. Use the resulting image (see the last few lines of output, mine were):

+ sleep 2
+ vgchange -an
  Can't deactivate volume group "ubuntu-vg" with 2 open logical volume(s)
  0 logical volume(s) in volume group "vg-db-hda" now active
+ sleep 2
+ qemu-nbd -d /dev/nbd0
/dev/nbd0 disconnected
+ echo 'Patched image located at /home/ssorenso/.f5-image-prep/tmp/BIGIP-12.1.2.0.0.249-OpenStack.qcow2'
Patched image located at /home/ssorenso/.f5-image-prep/tmp/BIGIP-12.1.2.0.0.249-OpenStack.qcow2
+ set +x

So the location that I have is /home/ssorenso/.f5-image-prep/tmp/BIGIP-12.1.2.0.0.249-OpenStack.qcow2 for the resulting image.
What this will do is insert the startup.tar file onto the image to the BIG-IP's /config directory. It will then execute this as a part of the initial bootup cycle. This script is multi-facited and performs the following tasks:

• Initiates the network interfaces
• Configures the switch from 'configure' mode to 'ready/standby' mode
• This allows the f5-openstack-agent to initialize with the BIG-IP
• Sets the default usernames and passwords
• Creates the /config/firstboot file
  • Most relevant to this issue
• A few other tasks
  • Set the MTU to an appropriate value for some versions of BIG-IP
  • Configures a few other standard settings

I hope the above helps to direct your customer towards a solution for this.

A few more additional notes:

• Most relevant case to this one
  • Though it had to do with a password/access issue, it still had to do with onboarding instructions
  • This is in the f5-openstack-heat repo; however, it is still relevant due to the above
• Your customer’s issue in github

Please let us know if we can help you with anything else.

Thanks,
Steven Sorenson