10.5.0 is a major GA release that provides a revamped Managed SSH Login feature and enables your boot scripts to perform efficient package management in the style of RightLink 5-6. This release includes:

Features

  1. Updated Managed SSH Login support for Linux
  2. Expose RS_PACKAGES to RightScripts, which contains the union of all packages entries listed by any RightScript in the boot sequence. This allows ServerTemplate authors to install all packages during an early-stage boot script and avoid repeated, slow invocations of the package manager

Fixes

  1. Fix corner-case bugs with Docker image tagging (import, multiple tags, etc)
  2. Do not exit RightLink if the OS shutdown command failed since the init system would restart RightLink and the instance would go back to the operational state which negates any hard shutdown that could be done from RightScale
  3. Remove the creation of the 'rightscale' user and the policy updates of the '/home/rightscale/.ssh/authorized_keys' file

Quick Reference

Item Description
Change Log https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.5.0/CHANGES.md
Github repo for Base ServerTemplates https://github.com/rightscale/rightlink_scripts/tree/10.5.0
GitHub repo for optional example RightScripts https://github.com/rightscale/rightlink_scripts/tree/10.5.0/rll-examples
Linux Base ServerTemplate https://www.rightscale.com/library/server_templates/RightLink-10/lineage/53250
Linux Install-at-boot To run: Import Linux Base ServerTemplate, create server from ST, pick desired MCI, launch
Linux Enable-running Script: https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.5.0/rightlink.enable.sh
To run: Import Linux Base ServerTemplate, launch raw instance, copy key from
Settings > Account Settings > API credentials, SSH into raw instance
Run command:
curl -s https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.5.0/rightlink.enable.sh | bash -s -- -k "<your-key>" -d "<deployment-name>" -n "<your-server-name>" -t "RightLink 10.5.0 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/10.5.0/rightlink.enable.ps1
To run: Import Windows Base ServerTemplate, launch raw instance, copy key from
Settings > Account Settings > API credentials, Remote Desktop into raw instance
Run command:
$wc = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$wc.DownloadFile("https://rightlink.rightscale.com/rll/10.5.0/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 10.5.0 Windows 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, 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-37b95057 Official Ubuntu image locator
Azure b39f27a8b8c64d52b05eac6a62ebad85__Ubuntu-14_04_3-LTS-amd64-server-20160217.1-en-us-30GB Microsoft Azure Marketplace
Google projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/images/ubuntu-1404-trusty-v20160406 Official Ubuntu image locator
OpenStack trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.img OpenStack Image Guide
Ubuntu 12.04 AWS US-Oregon: ami-0f34d66f Official Ubuntu image locator
Azure b39f27a8b8c64d52b05eac6a62ebad85__Ubuntu-12_04_5-LTS-amd64-server-20160222-en-us-30GB Microsoft Azure Marketplace
Google projects/ubuntu-os-cloud/images/ubuntu-1204-precise-v20160320 Official Ubuntu image locator
OpenStack precise-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk1.img OpenStack Image Guide
CoreOS AWS US-Oregon: ami-4f00e32f Official CoreOS image locator
Azure 2b171e93f07c4903bcad35bda10acf22__CoreOS-Stable-835.13.0 Official CoreOS image locator
Google projects/coreos-cloud/images/coreos-stable-899-15-0-v20160405 Official CoreOS image locator
OpenStack coreos_production_openstack_image.img.bz2 Official CoreOS image locator
CentOS 7 AWS US-Oregon: ami-d2c924b2 Official CentOS image locator
Azure 5112500ae3b842c8b9c604889f8753c3__OpenLogic-CentOS-71-20150731 Microsoft Azure Marketplace
OpenStack CentOS-6-x86_64-GenericCloud-1601.qcow2 Official CentOS image locator
CentOS 6 AWS US-Oregon: ami-1255b321 Official CentOS image locator
Azure 5112500ae3b842c8b9c604889f8753c3__OpenLogic-CentOS-67-20150815 Microsoft Azure Marketplace
OpenStack CentOS-6-x86_64-GenericCloud-1601.qcow2 Official CentOS image locator
Windows 2012R2 AWS US-Oregon: ami-df8767bf Amazon Windows AMIs
Azure a699494373c04fc0bc8f2bb1389d6106__Windows-Server-2012-R2-20160126-en.us-127GB.vhd Microsoft Azure Marketplace
Google projects/windows-cloud/images/windows-server-2012-r2-dc-v20160413 Google Cloud Platform
Windows 2012 AWS US-Oregon: ami-6f90700f Amazon Windows AMIs
Azure a699494373c04fc0bc8f2bb1389d6106__Windows-Server-2012-Datacenter-20160125-en.us-127GB.vhd Microsoft Azure Marketplace
Windows 2008R2 AWS US-Oregon: ami-168c6c76 Amazon Windows AMIs
Azure a699494373c04fc0bc8f2bb1389d6106__Win2K8R2SP1-Datacenter-20160125-en.us-127GB.vhd Microsoft Azure Marketplace
Google projects/windows-cloud/images/windows-server-2008-r2-dc-v20160413 Google Cloud Platform

How-To

Quick Test (Linux Only)

  • From the marketplace import the RightLink 10.5.0 Linux Base ServerTemplate published by RightScale Engineering.
  • Create a Server from the ServerTemplate
  • Select an appropriate MCI and launch. Once the server goes operational, you will see an audit entry with the boot scripts and be able to SSH into the instance using your managed SSH key with your default or custom login name (see Server Login Control for additional information on managed SSH keys)

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/10.5.0/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 Enable Monitoring RightScript will install collectd on Ubuntu and RHEL/CentOS/Compatible OSes, and will use RightLink Monitoring on CoreOS. It could strand on other distros as there may be no support to install collectd via packages. Installation of collectd was verified with CentOS 6, CentOS 7, Ubuntu 12.04, and 14.04 but should work on other versions as well, and use of RightLink Monitoring has been tested with CoreOS stable.

  • Please see RightLink on CoreOS if adapting the Base ServerTemplate for CoreOS.

  • 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