Overview

This guide is divided into two parts. The first covers installation of RightLink 6 and second has tips and info for creating RightImages.

When installing RightLink you must first select your operating system and then select your cloud.

  • For Windows, browse the index below, download the MSI, and install it. The MSI installer will prompt you to select a cloud.
  • For Linux systems, you will install RightLink using the OS package manager. Paste the repository URL into your package manager configuration below, import the RightScale public key, and install the appropriate cloud package:

General Availability channels

Operating System Repository URL Index
Ubuntu http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/apt​ Browse
CentOS 6 and RHEL 6 http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/yum/1/el/6/x86_64
​http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/yum/1/el/6/SRPMS		 Browse
CentOS 7 and RHEL 7 http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/yum/1/el/7/x86_64
http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/yum/1/el/7/SRPMS		 Browse
SLES 11 http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/zypp/1/suse/11/x86_64
http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/zypp/1/suse/11/SRPMS​		 Browse
Windows 2008R2 and 2012 http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/msi Browse

There are different subpackages for each cloud. The following are supported.

Cloud Cloud Type Package name
Microsoft Azure azure rightlink-cloud-azure
Amazon EC2 ec2 rightlink-cloud-ec2
Google Compute Engine google rightlink-cloud-google
OpenStack openstack rightlink-cloud-openstack
SoftLayer softlayer rightlink-cloud-softlayer
vSphere vsphere rightlink-cloud-vsphere

Import the RightScale public key:

rpm --import http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/rightscale.pub

Next, write out the repo configuration using the package manager URL selected above. This example sets up installation from the GA channel for CentOS 6 and CentOS 7, respectively:

cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/RightLink.repo <<EOF
[rightlink]
name=RightLink
baseurl=http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/yum/1/el/6/x86_64
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/rightscale.pub
EOF

cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/RightLink.repo <<EOF
[rightlink]
name=RightLink
baseurl=http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/yum/1/el/7/x86_64
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/rightscale.pub
EOF

Finally, install the appropriate package for your cloud:

yum install -y rightlink-cloud-ec2

Import the RightScale public key:

curl http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/rightscale.pub | apt-key add -

Create an apt source, ensuring that you specify the right architecture and release code name. For instance, on an amd64 system that is running Ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04 respectively using a GA package:

# Ubuntu 12.04 (precise)
cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rightlink.sources.list <<EOF
deb [arch=amd64] http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/apt precise main
EOF
apt-get update

# Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty)
cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rightlink.sources.list <<EOF
deb [arch=amd64] http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/apt trusty main
EOF
apt-get update

Finally, install the appropriate package for your cloud:

apt-get install -y rightlink-cloud-ec2

Import the RightScale public key:

rpm --import http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/rightscale.pub

Next, write out the repo configuration using the package manager URL selected above. This example installs from the GA channel for SLES 11:

cat > /etc/zypp/repos.d/RightLink.repo <<EOF
[rightlink]
name=RightLink
baseurl=http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/zypp/1/suse/11/x86_64/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/rightscale.pub
EOF

Finally, install the appropriate package for your cloud:

zypper --non-interactive install rightlink-cloud-ec2

The following prerequisites must be installed first:

  • .NET 3.5 SP1
  • Powershell

After prerequisites are met, download and install the MSI from a distribution channel selected above and select your cloud in the dialog box presented.

Uninstalling RightLink (Linux)

Use the following procedure to uninstall RightLink (v5.6 - v6.3) on Linux

  1. Stop RightLink services (RigthLink Agent Controller)

    service rightlink stop
service rightscale stop

  2. Remove RightScale and RightLink packages

    RightLink 5.6-5.8

    # CentOS, RHEL
yum remove rightscale
# Debian, Ubuntu
apt-get remove rightscale

    RightLink 5.9-6.3

    # CentOS, RHEL
yum remove rightlink6 rightlink6-sandbox
# Debian, Ubuntu
apt-get purge rightlink6 rightlink6-sandbox

    Note: The uninstaller may show an error while deleting files inside /opt/rightscale/*. This is normal behavior.

  3. Remove all RightLink files (RightLink Agent Controller)

    rm -rf /etc/rightscale.d /opt/rightscale /var/lib/rightscale /etc/init.d/rightimage /var/spool/cloud /var/cache/rightscale
# verify that you have not left any rightscale files (except /usr/share/zoneinfo/right)
find / -name right*

Here are some tips for creating your own custom RightLink-enabled images.

Important! - Custom images that are built with RightLink 5.9 and higher are fully supported by RightScale. If you choose to create your own custom images instead of using the ones included in ServerTemplates published by RightScale, please refer to this document for best practices and recommended procedures.

RCA-V images require VMware tools to be installed. Please see RCA-V Image Requirements.

When creating images from scratch, follow Installing RightLink 6 to include the required packages within your image. Installation of the packages will also enable the system services for RightScale/RightLink on boot. After RightLink installation, there are also meta-packages in the RightScale software mirror to install ServerTemplate dependencies. These packages are optional and meant to improve boot times. Two flavors of meta package currently exist:

  • rightimage-extras-base - Contains optional dependency packages of the v14 Linux Base ServerTemplate.
  • rightimage-extras - Contains required dependency packages for v13 ServerTemplates. This package is deprecated for use with v14 ServerTemplates. It is now recommended to properly declare all dependencies in configuration management systems such as Chef or RightScripts.

Ubuntu Instructions:

# Import RightScale public key
curl http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/rightscale.pub | apt-key add

cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rightscale_extra.sources.list <<-EOF
deb [arch=amd64] http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightscale_software_ubuntu/latest precise main
EOF

apt-get update
apt-get install -y rightimage-extras-base

For Ubuntu 14.04 and newer only: RightScale's monitoring solution for RightLink 6 is not compatible with collectd 5. To use Collectd 5, install the RightLink 10 agent instead. Monitoring is needed for graphs, alerts, and for autoscaling arrays. rightimage-extras-base depends on collectd < 5. To satisfy this dependency, please place the apt configuration file below in /etc/apt/preferences.d/rightscale-collectd-pin-1001:

# Collectd 5 is not currently supported by the RightScale monitoring servers
# Pin to previous version from "precise" to avoid issues. These packages are
# available from http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightscale_software_ubuntu
Package: collectd
Pin: version 4.10.1-2.1ubuntu7
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: collectd-core
Pin: version 4.10.1-2.1ubuntu7
Pin-Priority: 1001

CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Instructions:

cat >/etc/yum.repos.d/RightScale-epel.repo<<-EOF
[rightscale-epel]
name=RightScale Software
baseurl=http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightscale_software/epel/6/x86_64/archive/latest/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightlink/rightscale.pub
EOF

yum install rightimage-extras-base -y

For CentOS/RHEL 7 and newer only: RightScale's monitoring solution for RightLink 6 is not compatible with collectd 5. To use Collectd 5, install the RightLink 10 agent instead. Monitoring is needed for graphs, alerts, and for autoscaling arrays. rightimage-extras-base depends on collectd < 5. To satisfy this dependency, please yum install -y yum-plugin-versionlock and place the versionlock configuration file below in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/versionlock.list:

# Collectd 5 is not currently supported by the RightScale monitoring servers
# Use ported version from CentOS 6 to avoid issues. These packages are
# available from http://mirror.rightscale.com/rightscale_software/epel
0:collectd-4.10.9-1.el7.*
0:collectd-rrdtool-4.10.9-1.el7.*

Note: Building a virtual machine image from scratch is out of the scope of this guide, and considered an advanced topic.

Before bundling running instances, you should clean-up your instance by deleting or truncating several files stored on the instance disk to ensure that a new instance does not inherit old data. Security is the main reason for performing these steps, as some files (SSH keys/host keys, for example) can leave your newly-bundled image vulnerable, particularly if you chose to publish or distribute it publicly.

While many of these files can be excluded during the bundling process, this guide takes a preventative approach by recommending some best practices for server/instance clean-up prior to the bundling process. A majority of the file removal is applicable to RightScale-managed servers, however these practices also apply to unmanaged instances after installing RightLink.

Note: This guide should work with official RightImages that are being rebundled or with custom images built from scratch but it has not been tested with every OS distribution or RightLink version available. If you experience issues, please contact RightScale Support with questions or feedback.

Prerequisites

Before working through this section, you should have the following:

  • A running cloud instance or server that has RightLink installed and configured and is ready for bundling.
  • SSH or RDP access to the server or instance

Linux Servers and Instances

The following actions should be taken on all *nix-based instances and servers (CentOS and Ubuntu tested). Each command should be run from the command line within an SSH terminal/session.

Stop Services

Use the following commands to stop NTP and Postfix:

service ntp stop
service postfix stop

Delete Files

Use the following commands to delete the following files and directories from any *nix instances. Run each command once from the command prompt:

# RightScale specific
rm -f /var/spool/cloud/*
rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
rm -rf /var/lib/rightscale
rm -rf ~rightscale/.ssh

rm -rf /tmp/*
rm -rf /tmp/.[^.]*
rm -rf /tmp/..?*
rm -rf /var/cache/*
rm -rf /var/mail/*
rm -rf /var/lib/ntp/ntp.drift
rm -f /etc/hosts.backup.*
rm -rf /etc/pki/tls/private/*
rm -rf /root/.ssh
rm -rf /root/.gem
rm -f /root/*.tar
rm -rf /root/files
rm -f /root/*
rm -f /root/.*_history /root/.vim* /root/.lesshst /root/.gemrc
rm -rf /root/.cache /root/.vim
find /etc -name \*~ -exec rm -- {} \;
find /etc -name \*.backup* -exec rm -- {} \;

Truncate and Clear Files

Zero the following files without deleting them. Note that some services will not recreate their log files if they are deleted.

find /var/spool -type f -exec cp /dev/null {} \;
find /var/log -type f -exec cp /dev/null {} \;
find /etc/ssh/ssh_host_* -type f -exec cp /dev/null {} \;

Remove Empty Password from Root

The following command removes the empty password from the root user:

sed -i s/root::/root:\*:/ /etc/shadow

Recreate Necessary Directories

Run the commands below to create the necessary directories. (If the directories do not already exist, they will be recreated.)

mkdir -p /var/cache/logwatch /var/cache/man /var/cache/nscd

Centos/RHEL-Specific Actions

Remove any custom CentOS Ruby YUM repository:

rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-ruby-custom.repo

Ensure that PHP packages are not installed and run YUM Clean:

yum -y remove php*
yum -y clean all

Ubuntu-Specific Actions

Run apt-get clean:

apt-get clean

Create specific directories:

mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives/partial /var/cache/debconf

Generate APT caches:

apt-cache gencaches

Generate Man Cache and Other Various Actions

Run the following commands last:

mandb --create
updatedb
sync

Windows Servers and Instances

When bundling a Windows server or cloud instance, it is recommended to SysPrep a windows installation. This is specifically done to prepare Windows machines for duplication or reuse by removing system specific data from Windows along with other various tasks.

In addition to this, Rightlink 5.8.8 and above provides a SysPrep provider in its code for SysPrep to initiate a cleanup of all disposable Rightlink data as well, so one must only run a SysPrep command to fully prepare the instance for bundling. Once prepared and SysPrepped, the instance should also be shutdown per best practice prior to bundling into a new image (/shutdown included in sysprep command below).

Check Rightlink Version and Upgrade if Needed

This is a CRUCIAL step to the process, since the aforementioned SysPrep provider only exists in Rightlink v5.8.8 or higher. If you are running a version of Rightlink prior to this, it is HIGHLY recommended that you upgrade to the latest available stable version of Rightlink.

Newer Rightlink packages can be found on our mirror, and directions for upgrading and/or installing the package are found on the Rightlink 5.8 Installer Page for Windows and the Upgrade Rightlink Version on Windows page.

Run SysPrep

Once we've validated that we are using Rightlink v5.8.8 or higher, it's time to run the SysPrep command. This can be run by opening up a command prompt from an remote desktop session and running the command below:

%windir%\system32\Sysprep\sysprep /oobe /generalize /shutdown

Note: Only run this command when you are satisfied with the state of the instance and are ready to bundle the image, as it will shutdown the system in preparation for a bundle action.

Bundle the Instance

At this point, you can now safely bundle or snapshot the running instance into a new image. Consult the given cloud's documentation on bundling/snapshot capabilities (if supported).

Create or Update a MultiCloud Image

When creating or adding the image to an MCI, be sure to add the provides:rs_agent_type=right_link tag to the MCI prior to adding it to a ServerTemplate. The MCI can then be added to any HEAD version of a SeverTemplate and in turn used with RightScale-managed servers.