Terraform:: OCI Provider Quickstart Guide

Following document will provide detailed steps to setup Terraform for OCI on Oracle Linux server and create a VCN in OCI compartment.

Terraform Installation:

OL7:

You can setup using YUM or follow manual steps provided below.

• Using YUM:
  
  sudo yum install -y terraform terraform-provider-oci

• Manual Steps:

1. Download terraform and terraform-provider-oci RPM’s from below URL’s.
   
   https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/developer/x86_64/getPackage/terraform-0.12.20-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
   https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/developer/x86_64/getPackage/terraform-provider-oci-3.61.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
2. Run following commands to install RPM’s
   
   sudo rpm -ivh terraform-0.12.20-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
   sudo rpm -ivh terraform-provider-oci-3.61.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm

OL6: 

In case of OL6, we need to follow manual steps to setup Terraform, and Terrform Provider for OCI.

• Manual Steps:

1. Setup Terraform:
   
   
   1. Login to your machine and switch to home directory:
      cd ~
   2. Download Terraform Binary
      wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/0.12.20/terraform_0.12.20_linux_amd64.zip
   3. Unzip Binary:
      unzip terraform_0.12.20_linux_amd64.zip
   4. Remove Binary:
      rm terraform_0.12.20_linux_amd64.zip
2. Setup Terraform OCI Provider:
   
   
   1. Login to your machine and switch to home directory:
      cd ~
   2. Create directory for plugins:
      mkdir -p .terraform.d/plugins
   3. Switch to newly created directory:
      cd .terraform.d/plugins/
   4. Download Terraform OCI Provider Binary:
      wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform-provider-oci/3.61.0/terraform-provider-oci_3.61.0_linux_amd64.zip
   5. Unzip Binary:
      unzip terraform-provider-oci_3.61.0_linux_amd64.zip
   6. Remove Binary:
      rm terraform-provider-oci_3.61.0_linux_amd64.zip
   
   
3. Add Terraform home to Path
   
   export TF_HOME=~
   export PATH=$TF_HOME:$PATH
   
   Note: You can make it permanent by adding it to ~/.bashrc file and then source it.
4. Run below command to test Terraform setup
   
   terraform version

OCI Console Setup:

1. Setup API Signing Key:
   1. Login to host and run following commands to generate API signing key for OCI user.
   2. Go to home directory and create
      cd ~
   3. mkdir ~/.oci
      openssl genrsa -out ~/.oci/oci_api_key.pem -aes128 2048
      Enter Passphrase:
   4. Secure private key:
      chmod go-rwx ~/.oci/oci_api_key.pem
      Get Finger print
   5. Generate Fingerprint:
      openssl rsa -pubout -outform DER -in ~/.oci/oci_api_key.pem | openssl md5 -c
      This fingerprint value required for Terraform OCI provider.
   6. Generate Public key:
      openssl rsa -pubout -in ~/.oci/oci_api_key.pem -out ~/.oci/oci_api_key_public.pem
   7. Copy Public key:
      cat ~/.oci/oci_api_key_public.pem
   
2. Add credentials to OCI console
   
   
   1. Login to the respective OCI Console: 
      1. Ashburn Console: https://console.us-ashburn-1.oraclecloud.com/
   2. Go to Governance and Administration --> Identity --> Users
   3. Click on your username (email id)
   4. Click on Add Public Key and paste your key from oci_api_key_public.pem. And add it.
   
   5. Please note the Fingerprint shown on the console.It should match the Fingerprint generated during API signing key generation.
   

Terraform OCI Provider Setup:

1. Create Variable File:
   1. Login to host (where terraform & terraform OCI provider already installed) and create a directory for terraform scripts.
      mkdir –p ~/tfscripts
   2. Switch to newly created directory
      cd ~/tfscripts
   3. Create a file named terraform.tfvars and add below content.

      tenancy_ocid            = "ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaaaaaaqms4qy6kxsxsdoaocxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
      user_ocid               = "ocid1.user.oc1..aaaaaaaag4jmbpa2pg5pzea4qsxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
      fingerprint             = "43:3f:3b:ce:d4:49:31:9c:3f:ef:2a:84:9f:eb:7b:3d"
      private_key_path        = "~/.oci/oci_api_key.pem"
      compartment_ocid        = "ocid1.tenancy.oc1..aaaaaaaaqms4qy6kxsxsdoaocxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
      region                  = "us-ashburn-1"
      private_key_password    = "<password>"
      

   4. tenancy_ocid: 
      1. Login to OCI console and click on top right user icon and select Tenancy name to find tenancy OCID
   5. user_ocid:
      1. Login to OCI console and Go to Governance and Administration --> Identity --> Users. Click on your username to find user OCID
   6. compartment_ocid:
      1. Login to OCI console and Go to Governance and Administration --> Identity --> Compartments. Click on your username to find user OCID
   7. fingerprint:
      1. Copy the fingerprint generated during API signing key generation.
   8. private_key_path:
      1. location of Private Key
   9. private_key_password:
      1. Private Key passphrase
   
   
   
2. Create Provider File:
   
   
   1. Create a file named provider.tf with below content.

      variable "tenancy_ocid" {
      }
       
      variable "user_ocid" {
      }
       
      variable "fingerprint" {
      }
       
      variable "region" {
      }
       
      variable "private_key_path" {
      }
       
      variable "private_key_password" {
      }
       
      variable "compartment_ocid" {
      }
       
      provider "oci" {
        tenancy_ocid         = var.tenancy_ocid
        user_ocid            = var.user_ocid
        fingerprint          = var.fingerprint
        region               = var.region
        private_key_path     = var.private_key_path
        private_key_password = var.private_key_password
      }
      
   
   
   
3. Initialize Terraform
   
   
   1. Run below command to initialize Terraform and load OCI plugin
      terraform init
   
   
   
4. Validate Terraform configuraiton
   
   
   1. Run below command to validate Terraform setup
      terraform validate
   
   
   

Create VCN in OCI:

Following steps will help you to create VCN in OCI using Terraform Provider.

1. Switch to terraform scripts directory
   cd ~/tfscripts
2. Create a file named vcn.tf and add below content

   resource "oci_core_vcn" "vcn1" {
     cidr_block     = "10.0.0.0/16"
     dns_label      = "vcn1"
     compartment_id = var.compartment_ocid
     display_name   = "vcn1"
   }
    
   output "vcn_id" {
     value = oci_core_vcn.vcn1.id
   }
   

3. Run below command to view the changes to OCI compartment
   terraform plan
   
   

4. Apply changes and VCN will be created in OCI compartment.
   terraform apply
   
   


5. Destroy to delete VCN from your compartment.
   terraform destroy
   
   

Additional References:

• https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/oci/index.html
• https://github.com/terraform-providers/terraform-provider-oci/tree/master/examples
• https://www.terraform.io/downloads.html
• https://yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/developer/x86_64/index.html
• https://www.terraform.io/docs/plugins/basics.html#installing-a-plugin
• https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/oci/guides/version-2-upgrade.html

Kubernetes:: Deploy the Web UI (Dashboard)

Recently I started exploring Kubernetes and tried to deploy the dashboard UI. Here is the list of steps followed to setup dashboard for my kubernetes cluster.


1. Refer to https://github.com/kubernetes/dashboard to get latest YAML file to setup dashboard. Run following command on your master node to deploy latest dashboard.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0-rc5/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml

2. Run below command to view the deployed dashboard details

kubectl get services --all-namespaces -o wide
kubectl get deployments --all-namespaces -o wide
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces -o wide

kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard describe pod kubernetes-dashboard
kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard describe pod dashboard-metrics-scraper

3. Create a dashboard-admin-service-account.yaml file with below content.

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: dashboard-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: dashboard-user
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: dashboard-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard

4. Run the dashboard-admin-service-account.yaml file to perform following actions.

• Create Service Account with name dashboard-user in namespace kubernetes-dashboard first.
• Create ClusterRoleBinding for ServiceAccount

kubectl apply -f dashboard-admin-service-account.yaml

5. Run below command to get token for the dashboard-user user. This is required to login to dashboard.

kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard describe secret $(kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard get secret | grep dashboard-user | awk '{print $1}') | grep token:

6. Run below command to access Dashboard from your local workstation you must create a secure channel to your Kubernetes cluster

kubectl proxy

7. Setup SSH tunneling via Putty. This step is not required, if you are accessing browser on same host.

8. Open browser and access below URL.

http://localhost:8001/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/https:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy

9. Select Token and copy the token output from step#6 into Enter token field on login screen.. Click on Sign in button.

10. Dashboard will be displayed.

Oracle Cloud (OCI):: Autonomous Database (ATP/ADW)

The Database service in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers autonomous and user-managed Oracle Database solutions.

• Autonomous databases are preconfigured, fully-managed environments that are suitable for either transaction processing or for data warehouse workloads. 
• User-managed solutions are bare metal, virtual machine, and Exadata DB systems that you can customize with the resources and settings that meet your needs.

Autonomous Database Features:

• No Human Labor: Database automatically upgrades, patches, and tunes itself while running; automates security updates with no downtime window required.
• No Human Error: SLA guarantees 99.995% reliability and availability, which minimizes costly planned and unplanned downtime to less than 30 minutes a year.
• No Manual Performance Tuning: Database consumes less compute and storage because of machine learning and automatic compression. Combined with lower manual admin costs, Oracle offers even bigger cost savings.
• Self-Securing: Oracle Autonomous Database protects you from both external attacks and malicious internal users, which means you can stop worrying about cyberattacks on unpatched or unencrypted databases.
• SQL Developer Web
• APEX Workspace
• OML Notebooks
• End-to-end automation for:
• Provisioning
• Security
• Updates
• Availability
• Performance
• Change management
• Errors

In this tutorial, I will take you through the steps to create an Autonomous Oracle Database solution (Autonomous Transaction Processing and Autonomous Data Warehouse) in Oracle Cloud Console.

Create Autonomous Transaction Processing (ATP) Database:

1. Login to Oracle Cloud Console. Browse http://cloud.oracle.com/ and click Sign In at the top of the page. Enter the Account Name and click on Next. Select Identity Provider as 'oracleidentitycloudservice' and click on Continue button under Single Sign-On Section. Enter Username and Password, click on Sign In. You're then directed to the Oracle Cloud Console.

Refer to post to get trail access to Oracle Cloud.

2. Open the navigation menu. Under Database, click Autonomous Transaction Processing.

3. Click Create Autonomous Database.

4. On the Create Autonomous Database page, provide the specify following information:

Choose a compartment:
Display Name: A friendly, display name for the DB system. The name doesn't need to be unique. An Oracle Cloud Identifier (OCID) will uniquely identify the DB system.
Database Name:  The name for the database.
Choose a workload Type: Transaction Processing
Choose a deployment Type: Serverless or Dedicated Infrastructure
Configure the Database: Choose CPU Core Count and Storage(TB)

Create Administrator Credentials:

Username: ADMIN (Default, can't be changed)
Password:
Confirm Password: Re-enter the SYS password you specified.

Choose a license type: BYOL or License Included

Click on 'Create Autonomous Database'

5. Autonomous Database Provisioning page will be displayed. Once it's provisioned click on 'DB Connection'.

6. Enter password to download the client credentials. Click on 'Download' to download the client credentials.

Connect to Autonomous Database using SQL Developer Client:

7. Open SQL Developer and Add New Database Connection. In Connection Window, specify as following and click on Test, followed by Connect.

Username: ADMIN
Password: As specified in the Create DB System page
Choose Connection Type as 'Cloud Wallet'
Configuration File: Browse the wallet zip file downloaded in previous step.
Select Service Profile.

8. Execute SQL queries to review database info.

Autonomous Database Service Console:

9. In Autonomous Database page, Click on 'Service Console' to navigate to service console page.

10 .Service Console --> Overview  - Overall Status - Storage Usage, CPU Utilization,

11. Service Console --> Activity - Monitoring Load and SQL

12. Service Console --> Administration - Administrator options. Here you can download the client credentials, reset administrator password, set resource management rules etc.

13. Set Resource Management Rules

14. Service Console --> Development - Developer options. Here you can APEX workspace, SQL Developer Web, OML Notebooks etc.

15. APEX Workspace

16. SQL Developer Web

17. OML Notebooks

Terminate Autonomous Transaction Processing Database:

18. Go to Oracle Cloud Console. Open the navigation menu. Under Database, click Autonomous Transaction Processing. Click on the Autonomous Database to open autonomous database details page. In autonomous database details page, click on Actions --> 'Terminate'.

Create Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW) Database:

19. Login to Oracle Cloud Console. Open the navigation menu. Under Database, click Autonomous Data Warehouse

20. Click Create Autonomous Database.

21. On the Create  Autonomous Database.page, provide the specify following information:

Choose a compartment:
Display Name: A friendly, display name for the DB system. The name doesn't need to be unique. An Oracle Cloud Identifier (OCID) will uniquely identify the DB system.
Database Name:  The name for the database.
Choose a workload Type: Data Warehouse
Configure the Database: Choose CPU Core Count and Storage(TB)

Create Administrator Credentials:

Username: ADMIN (Default, can't be changed)
Password:
Confirm Password: Re-enter the SYS password you specified.

Choose a license type: BYOL or License Included

Click on 'Create Autonomous Database'

22. Autonomous Database Provisioning page will be displayed. Once it's provisioned click on 'DB Connection'.

23. Enter password to download the client credentials. Click on 'Download' to download the client credentials.

Terminate Autonomous Data Warehouse Database:

24. Go to Oracle Cloud Console. Open the navigation menu. Under Database, click Autonomous Data Warehouse. Click on the Autonomous Database to open autonomous database details page. In autonomous database details page, click on Actions --> 'Terminate'.