Managing virtual machines with OpenShift Pipelines

Managing virtual machines with OpenShift Pipelines

Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines is a Kubernetes-native CI/CD framework that allows developers to design and run each step of the CI/CD pipeline in its own container.

The Tekton Tasks Operator (TTO) integrates OKD Virtualization with Pipelines. TTO includes cluster tasks and example pipelines that allow you to:

Create and manage virtual machines (VMs), persistent volume claims (PVCs), and data volumes
Run commands in VMs
Manipulate disk images with libguestfs tools

Managing virtual machines with Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview/.

Prerequisites

You have access to an OKD cluster with cluster-admin permissions.
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).
You have installed Pipelines.

Deploying the Tekton Tasks Operator resources

The Tekton Tasks Operator (TTO) cluster tasks and example pipelines are not deployed by default when you install OKD Virtualization. To deploy TTO resources, enable the deployTektonTaskResources feature gate in the HyperConverged custom resource (CR).

Procedure

Open the HyperConverged CR in your default editor by running the following command:
```
$ oc edit hco -n openshift-cnv kubevirt-hyperconverged
```
Set the spec.featureGates.deployTektonTaskResources field to true.
```
apiVersion: hco.kubevirt.io/v1beta1
kind: HyperConverged
metadata:
  name: kubevirt-hyperconverged
  namespace: kubevirt-hyperconverged
spec:
  tektonPipelinesNamespace: <user_namespace> (1)
  featureGates:
    deployTektonTaskResources: true (2)
#...
```
1 The namespace where the pipelines are to be run.
2 The feature gate to be enabled to deploy TTO resources.

The cluster tasks and example pipelines remain available even if you disable the feature gate later.
Save your changes and exit the editor.

Virtual machine tasks supported by the Tekton Tasks Operator

The following table shows the cluster tasks that are included as part of the Tekton Tasks Operator.

Table 1. Virtual machine tasks supported by the Tekton Tasks Operator
Task	Description
`create-vm-from-template`	Create a virtual machine from a template.
`copy-template`	Copy a virtual machine template.
`modify-vm-template`	Modify a virtual machine template.
`modify-data-object`	Create or delete data volumes or data sources.
`cleanup-vm`	Run a script or a command in a virtual machine and stop or delete the virtual machine afterward.
`disk-virt-customize`	Use the `virt-customize` tool to run a customization script on a target PVC.
`disk-virt-sysprep`	Use the `virt-sysprep` tool to run a sysprep script on a target PVC.
`wait-for-vmi-status`	Wait for a specific status of a virtual machine instance and fail or succeed based on the status.

Example pipelines

The Tekton Tasks Operator includes the following example Pipeline manifests. You can run the example pipelines by using the web console or CLI.

Windows 10 installer pipeline

This pipeline installs Windows 10 into a new data volume from a Windows installation image (ISO file). A custom answer file is used to run the installation process.

Windows 10 customize pipeline

This pipeline clones the data volume of a basic Windows 10 installation, customizes it by installing Microsoft SQL Server Express, and then creates a new image and template.

Running the example pipelines using the web console

You can run the example pipelines from the Pipelines menu in the web console.

Procedure

Click Pipelines → Pipelines in the side menu.
Select a pipeline to open the Pipeline details page.
From the Actions list, select Start. The Start Pipeline dialog is displayed.
Keep the default values for the parameters and then click Start to run the pipeline. The Details tab tracks the progress of each task and displays the pipeline status.

Running the example pipelines using the CLI

Use a PipelineRun resource to run the example pipelines. A PipelineRun object is the running instance of a pipeline. It instantiates a pipeline for execution with specific inputs, outputs, and execution parameters on a cluster. It also creates a TaskRun object for each task in the pipeline.

Procedure

To run the Windows 10 installer pipeline, create the following PipelineRun manifest:

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: PipelineRun
metadata:
  generateName: windows10-installer-run-
  labels:
    pipelinerun: windows10-installer-run
spec:
  params:
  - name: winImageDownloadURL
    value: <link_to_windows_10_iso> (1)
  pipelineRef:
    name: windows10-installer
  taskRunSpecs:
    - pipelineTaskName: copy-template
      taskServiceAccountName: copy-template-task
    - pipelineTaskName: modify-vm-template
      taskServiceAccountName: modify-vm-template-task
    - pipelineTaskName: create-vm-from-template
      taskServiceAccountName: create-vm-from-template-task
    - pipelineTaskName: wait-for-vmi-status
      taskServiceAccountName: wait-for-vmi-status-task
    - pipelineTaskName: create-base-dv
      taskServiceAccountName: modify-data-object-task
    - pipelineTaskName: cleanup-vm
      taskServiceAccountName: cleanup-vm-task
  status: {}

1	Specify the URL for the Windows 10 64-bit ISO file. The product language must be English (United States).

Apply the PipelineRun manifest:

$ oc apply -f windows10-installer-run.yaml

To run the Windows 10 customize pipeline, create the following PipelineRun manifest:

apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1beta1
kind: PipelineRun
metadata:
  generateName: windows10-customize-run-
  labels:
    pipelinerun: windows10-customize-run
spec:
  params:
    - name: allowReplaceGoldenTemplate
      value: true
    - name: allowReplaceCustomizationTemplate
      value: true
  pipelineRef:
    name: windows10-customize
  taskRunSpecs:
    - pipelineTaskName: copy-template-customize
      taskServiceAccountName: copy-template-task
    - pipelineTaskName: modify-vm-template-customize
      taskServiceAccountName: modify-vm-template-task
    - pipelineTaskName: create-vm-from-template
      taskServiceAccountName: create-vm-from-template-task
    - pipelineTaskName: wait-for-vmi-status
      taskServiceAccountName: wait-for-vmi-status-task
    - pipelineTaskName: create-base-dv
      taskServiceAccountName: modify-data-object-task
    - pipelineTaskName: cleanup-vm
      taskServiceAccountName: cleanup-vm-task
    - pipelineTaskName: copy-template-golden
      taskServiceAccountName: copy-template-task
    - pipelineTaskName: modify-vm-template-golden
      taskServiceAccountName: modify-vm-template-task
status: {}

Apply the PipelineRun manifest:

$ oc apply -f windows10-customize-run.yaml

Additional resources

Creating CI/CD solutions for applications using Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines

1	The namespace where the pipelines are to be run.
2	The feature gate to be enabled to deploy TTO resources.