Boot Image Configuration Tools

SUSE Manager VM images are prepared with JeOS firstboot configuration dialogs. Using a boot image configuration tool such as Ignition is optinal now.

1. SUSE Manager Basic Configuration Using Ignition

Ignition is a provisioning tool that enables you to configure a system according to your specification on the first boot. When the system is booted for the first time, Ignition is loaded as part of an initramfs and searches for a configuration file within a specific directory (on a USB flash disk, or you can provide a URL).

Ignition uses a configuration file in the JSON format. The file is called config.ign.

The config.ign is a JSON configuration file that provides prescriptions for Ignition. You can either create the file manually in JSON, or you can use the Fuel Ignition tool to generate a basic set of prescriptions. The Fuel Ignition tool does not provide a full set of options, so you might have to modify the file manually. For more information, see https://ignite.opensuse.org/.

When installing, the configuration file config.ign must reside in the ignition subdirectory on the configuration media labeled ignition. The directory structure must look as follows:

<root directory>
└── ignition
    └── config.ign

If you intend to configure a QEMU/KVM virtual machine, provide the path to the config.ign file as an attribute of the qemu command. For example:

-fw_cfg name=opt/com.coreos/config,file=PATH_TO_config.ign

The config.ign file contains various data types: objects, strings, integers, booleans, and lists of objects. For the complete specification, see https://coreos.github.io/ignition/configuration-v3_3/.

1.1. Set Root Password Using Ignition

The SUSE Manager VM image does not set up root or any other user account. User or root authentications need to be set up during first boot. The passwd attribute is used to add users. If you intend to log in the system, create root and set the root’s password and/or add the SSH key to the Ignition configuration. You need to hash the root password, for example, by using the openssl command:

openssl passwd -6

The command creates a hash of the password you chose. Use this hash as the value of the passwordHash attribute.

The users attribute must contain at least one name attribute. ssh_authorized_keys is a list of ssh keys for the user.

Create the root/ignition/config.ign file with the following content:

{
  "ignition": {
    "version": "3.2.0"
  },
  "passwd": {
    "users": [
      {
        "name": "root",
        "passwordHash": "$2a$10$qV298UV11u9lCFDjpHpCUe1cErBiVR.G3shukxs3.2PAO1xhJWs0K"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Prepare the Ignition ISO file using the command:

mkisofs -full-iso9660-filenames -o suma_ignition.iso -V ignition root

Attach the created suma_ignition.iso file as a volume to the virtual machine at first boot. This particular example is setting the root password to linux. Substitute your password hash for the one in this example.

For more information about Ignition, see https://documentation.suse.com/sle-micro/5.4/single-html/SLE-Micro-deployment/#cha-images-ignition.