10.2.1 is a major GA release that brings support for the Windows OS as well as some new features and bug fixes. This release includes:

Features

  1. Added support for the Windows operating system
  2. Added the RightScale Networking Agent scripts to the RightLink installer. The RightScale Networking Agent is needed with using the RightScale Cloud Appliance for vSphere (RCA-V) with dynamic or static IP address allocation as well as when some global settings are defined (routes to rightscale, DNS, NTP)
  3. RSC version changed to v4.0.0

Linux Specific Features

  1. Built-in utilization monitoring (cpu, memory, disk I/O utilization), tags for the core are automatically set (rs_monitoring:state and rs_monitoring:util)
  2. Built-in cpu, df monitoring, plus metrics beyond std collectd, this can be enabled via the RLL API
  3. Added support for Universal Cloud Appliance, specifically making keep-alive requests to the appliance and supporting the resurrection case (instance stop-start transition while RL10 is running)

Windows Specific Features

  1. Added rightlink.install.ps1 to perform RightLink installation on a custom image for Windows. RightLink now ships with userdata-fetcher.ps1 which runs at startup. This script grabs RightScale authentication tokens from each cloud's userdata service at startup, enabling RightLink to boot for custom images
  2. Built-in monitoring for Windows
  3. Windows decommission bundle is executed before sending OS shutdown
  4. Proxy support added for Windows.

Fixes

  1. Fixed RightNet websocket message expiration to better deal with clock skew
  2. Added retry logic when local proxy errors are encountered, mostly due to network issues
  3. Creating rightlink user home dir in script/install.sh (added -m -d /home/rightlink to useradd)
  4. Environment is now passed through in sudo commands for rightlink user
  5. Managed login fix for GCE
  6. Fix zombie sudo process when running RightScripts
  7. Improved enable script so cloud-init is not required
  8. Remove rightlink user if uninstalling RL10

Quick Reference

Item Description
Change Log https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.2.1/CHANGES.md
Github repo for Base ServerTemplates https://github.com/rightscale/rightlink_scripts/tree/10.2.1
Linux Base ServerTemplate https://www.rightscale.com/library/server_templates/RightLink-10/lineage/53250
Linux Install-at-boot Tag:
rs_agent:mime_include_url=https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.2.1/rightlink.boot.sh
To run: Import Linux Base ServerTemplate, create server from ST, pick desired MCI, launch
Linux Enable-running Script: https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.2.1/rightlink.enable.sh
To run: Import Linux Base ServerTemplate, launch raw instance, copy key from 'settings>API credentials', SSH into raw instance
Run command:
curl -s https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.2.1/rightlink.enable.sh | bash -s -- -l -k <your-key> -d <deployment-name> -n <your-server-name> -t RightLink 10.2.1 Linux Base -a us-3.rightscale.com -c <cloud_type>
Windows Base ServerTemplate https://www.rightscale.com/library/server_templates/RightLink-10/lineage/55964
Windows Enable-running Script: https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.2.1/rightlink.enable.ps1
To run: Import Windows Base ServerTemplate, launch raw instance, copy key from 'settings>API credentials', Remote Desktop into raw instance
Run command:
$wc = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$wc.DownloadFile(https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.2.1/rightlink.enable.ps1, rightlink.enable.ps1);
Powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File rightlink.enable.ps1 -k <your-key> -d <deployment-name> -n <your-server-name> -t RightLink 10.2.1 Linux Base -a us-3.rightscale.com -c <cloud_type>
Known Limitations
  • When using install-at-boot or custom images on vSphere/Softlayer on Linux, be aware of cloud-init limitations
  • Ensure hypervisor timezone matches instance timezone on Windows or time may be misset. If time is off you may not be able to run operational scripts.

RightScale tested images

The following images were tested by RightScale and known to work with this version of RightLink 10. This list is not intended as a recommendation of these images, it is simply intended as a reference so you can locate known-to-work images and compare with your own images if you are having difficulties.

Known to work means that the following features work: enable a running bare instance using the rightlink.enable.sh or rightlink.enable.ps1 script, reboot the instance, stop and start the instance, create the rightscale user and support managed login (Linux only), install the RightLink 10 init scripts, and install monitoring (collectd on Linux).

Note: except for VMware the tests for this release use official images prepared by the OS vendor or the cloud vendor. In some cases this leads to failures due to problems with the specific images that can easily be overcome using a custom image.

OS Clouds Images Image Provenance
Ubuntu 14.04 AWS US-Oregon: ami-ade1d99d Official Ubuntu image locator
OpenStack ubuntu-14.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.img Official Ubuntu image locator
Google ubuntu-1404-trusty-v20150909a Official Ubuntu image locator
Ubuntu 12.04 AWS US-Oregon: ami-255a6115 Official Ubuntu image locator
OpenStack ubuntu-12.04-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.img Official Ubuntu image locator
Google ubuntu-1204-precise-v20150910 Official Ubuntu image locator
CentOS 7 AWS US-Oregon: ami-c7d092f7 Official CentOS image locator
OpenStack CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud-1503.qcow2 Official CentOS image locator
CentOS 6 OpenStack CentOS-6-x86_64-GenericCloud-20141129_01.qcow2 Official CentOS image locator
Windows 2012R2 AWS US-Oregon: ami-dfccd1ef Amazon Windows AMIs
Windows 2012 AWS US-Oregon: ami-e3c8d5d3 Amazon Windows AMIs
Windows 2008R2 AWS US-Oregon: ami-d53c21e5 Amazon Windows AMIs

How-To

Quick Test (Linux Only)

  • From the marketplace import the RightLink 10.2.1 Linux Base ServerTemplate published by RightScale Engineering.
  • Create a Server from the ServerTemplate
  • Select an appropriate MCI and launch, the ST should go operational, you should see an audit entry with the boot scripts, you should be able to SSH into the instance using your managed SSH key and you should be logged in as user 'rightscale' from which you can sudo

Adapting the Base ServerTemplate

  • You can clone the base ST and insert a different MCI of your choice, the MCI needs to have the required rs_agent tags (see below)
  • Alternatively, you can create you own ST using your own MCI

  • Standard MCI tags (see RightLink 10: Cloud-init for additional tags for Linux):

    rs_agent:type=right_link_lite

    rs_agent:mime_include_url=https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.2.1/rightlink.boot.sh
    (for Install-at-boot on Linux)

  • AWS, Softlayer, Openstack Juno, Google, and RCA-V (vSphere) have been tested; Other images on other clouds with a functioning cloud-init should work, but have not been explicitly tested by RightScale (see above).

  • The collectd monitoring script only works for Ubuntu and RHEL/CentOS/Compatible OSes and will strand for most other distros as there isn't code to install collectd for those alternate OSes. The monitoring script was verified with CentOS 6, CentOS 7, Ubuntu 12.04, and 14.04 but should work on other versions as well.

  • The environment variables available to RightScripts are different, and there are no RS_REBOOT or RS_OS_TYPE variables. Write idempotent scripts using the capabilities of the shell, such as testing for the presence of files. Dispatch based on the presence of tools or file system locations you need instead of a OS type variable.
  • No rs_tag command, instead RightLink 10 can proxy API 1.5 requests and add authentication along the way
  • No built-in Chef support
  • RightScript log output is not sanitized to remove credential values! (Some of them are by the platform but this will change soon.) The sanitization has lots of problems, the only proper solution is for the script writer to ensure sensitive credentials are not output to stdout/stderr!
  • For a full list of changes see Incompatibilities with RightLink 6