Migrate inspection rules from Inspector¶

https://storyboard.openstack.org/#!/story/2010275

This specification finishes the work started in /approved/merge-inspector by migrating the inspection rules API.

Please see the Glossary for the concepts required to understand this specification.

Problem description¶

Inspection is a pretty opinionated process. A few areas often require site-specific customizations:

Auto-discovery. For example, credentials may be populated for new nodes following a certain pattern or by fetching them from a CMDB.
Validation logic. Some operators want to fail inspection if the nodes do not fulfill certain criteria. In the context of auto-discovery, such a validation may be used to prevent unexpected machines from getting enrolled.

These requests can be covered by inspection hooks. But, as explained in alternatives, writing and deploying hooks can be too inflexible.

Proposed change¶

Migrate a streamlined version of introspection rules from Inspector.

These useful features are added on top of what Inspector provides:

Built-in rules

Allow operators to load rules from a YAML file. These rules will be always present, won’t be stored in the database and won’t be deletable. Such rules are both an easier way to write hooks and a replacement for awkward Inspector’s configuration options such as [discovery]enabled_bmc_address_version.

Phases

In Inspector, rules are always run at the end of processing. We’ll add a new field phase to rules with values:

early - run before any other processing, even before auto-discovery and lookup. Such rules will not have access to the node object.
preprocess - run after the preprocess phase of all inspection hooks, but before the main phase.
main (the default) - run after all inspection hooks.

Updating rules

Inspector does not provide API for updating rules. There is no reason for that, and we’ll add PATCH support for them.

Sensitive rules

Conditions and actions of the rules may contain sensitive information, e.g. BMC information. If a rule is marked as sensitive, its actions and conditions will not be returned as part of the GET request response. It will not be possible to make a sensitive rule not sensitive.

Error messages resulting from running sensitive rules will also be a bit terse to avoid accidentally disclosing sensitive information.

Priorities

In Inspector, rules are always run in the creation order. This is obviously inconvenient, so in Ironic we’ll add priorities to them. Priorities between 0 and 9999 can be used by all rules, negative value and values above 10000 are reserved for built-in rules. The default priority is 0. Rules within the same priority are still run in the creation order for compatibility.

Database storage

Currently, Inspector spreads each rule into three tables (rules, conditions and actions). This may be more correct from the database design perspective, but is actually inconvenient to work with, since conditions and actions are never accessed outside of a Rule context. Nor are rules ever accessed without their conditions and actions. This specification buts them as JSON fields inside the Rule table.

Consistent arguments for conditions and actions

A condition has a field attribute that is special-cased to be a field of either the node or the inventory. This specification changes both to structure with one operation and several arguments, see data model impact.

Alternatives¶

Use the inspection hooks mechanism. Hooks are less flexible since they require Python code to be installed alongside Ironic and the service to be restarted on any change. The former is especially problematic for container-based deployments.
Radically change the rules DSL to something less awkward, e.g. Ansible-like miniscript. While I still want to do it eventually, I think such an undertaking will increate the scope of this already large work too much. With API versioning in place, we can always change the language under the hood.
Allow API users to upload Python code. No comments.
Seriously, though, write the rules in Lua or any other “grown-up” embedded language. I haven’t researched this option enough. Maybe it’s the way to go? Will deployers mind a new C dependency (on liblua or LuaJIT)?
Copy inspection rules verbatim, no removals, no additions. I don’t see why not make small improvements for better long-term maintenance. Some of the additions are related to security.
Make inspection rules into a service separate from Ironic. Defeats the purpose of the Inspector merger. For example, no access to the node database means less efficient operations.
Do not migrate inspection rules at all. They do bring a bit of complexity, but also proved a helpful instrument for operations. CERN uses them, which is my benchmark for usefulness among advanced operators.

Data model impact¶

Adapted from Inspector with the additions described in Proposed change:

class Rule(Base):
    uuid = Column(String(36), primary_key=True)
    created_at = Column(DateTime, nullable=False)
    updated_at = Column(DateTime, nullable=True)
    priority = Column(Integer, default=0)
    description = Column(String(255), nullable=True)
    scope = Column(String(255), nullable=True)  # indexed
    sensitive = Column(Boolean, default=False)
    phase = Column(String(16), nullable=True)  # indexed
    conditions = Column(db_types.JsonEncodedList(mysql_as_long=True))
    actions = Column(db_types.JsonEncodedList(mysql_as_long=True))

Conditions and actions¶

In this specification, both conditions and actions have the same base structure:

op - operation: either boolean (conditions) or an action (actions).
args - a list (in the sense of Python *args) or a dict (in the sense of Python **kwargs) with arguments.

The special attributes for actions in Inspector get a different form:

Instead of invert: put an exclamation mark (with an optional space) before the op, e.g. eq - !eq.
Instead of just multiple, support an Ansible-style loop field. On actions, several actions are run. On conditions, the multiple field defines how to join the results. Same as in Inspector:

any (the default)
require any to match

all
require all to match

first
effectively, short-circuits the loop after the first iteration

last
effectively, only runs the last iteration of the loop.

Variable interpolation¶

String arguments are processed by Python formatting with node, ports, port_groups, inventory and plugin_data objects available, e.g. {node.driver_info[ipmi_address]}, {inventory[interfaces][0][mac_address]}.

When running in the early phase, only inventory and plugin_data are available.

The node is actually a proxy mapping taking into account the mask_secrets option (described in other deployer impact).

If a value is a string surrounded by single curly brackets { and } (no unformatted text), we’ll evaluate what is inside and avoid converting it into a string. This way, lists and dictionaries can be passed to actions and loop. This behavior will likely be implemented by hooking into the Formatter class.

Available conditions¶

Unlike in Inspector, a list of conditions will be built into Ironic:

is-true(value): Check if value evaluates to boolean True. On top of actual booleans, non-zero numbers and strings “yes”, “true” (in any case) are evaluated to True.
is-false(value): Check if value evaluates to boolean False. On top of actual booleans, zero None and strings “no”, “false” (in any case) are evaluated to False.

Note

These conditions can both be false for some values (e.g. random strings). This is intentional.

is-none(value)

Check if value is None.

is-empty(value)

Check if value is None or an empty string, list or a dictionary.

eq/lt/gt(*values, *, force_strings=False)

Check if all values are equal/less than/greater than. If force_strings, all values will be converted to strings first.

Note

Inspector has ne, le and ge, which can be implemented via !eq, !gt and !lt instead.

in-net(address, subnet)

Check if the given address is in the provided subnet.

contains(value, regex)

Check if the value contains the given regular expression.

matches(value, regex)

Check if the value fully matches the given regular expression.

one-of(value, values)

Check if the value is in the provided list. Similar to contains, but also works for non-string values. Equivalent to:

- op: eq
  args: [<value>, "{item}"]
  loop: <values>

Available actions¶

Similar to Inspector, actions will be plugins from the entry point ironic.inspection_rules.actions. Coming with Ironic are:

fail(msg): Fail inspection with the given message.
set-plugin-data(path, value): Set a value in the plugin data.
extend-plugin-data(path, value, *, unique=False): Treat a value in the plugin data as a list, append to it. If unique is True, do not append if the item exists.
unset-plugin-data(path): Unset a value in the plugin data.
log(msg, level="info"): Write the message to the Ironic logs.

The following actions are not available in the early phase:

set-attribute(path, value): Set the given path (in the sense of JSON patch) to the value.
extend-attribute(path, value, *, unique=False): Treat the given path as a list, append to it.
del-attribute(path): Unset the given path. Fails on invalid node attributes, but does not fail on missing subdict fields.
set-port-attribute(port_id, path, value): Set value on the port identified by a MAC or a UUID.
extend-port-attribute(port_id, path, value, *, unique=False): Treat the given path on the port as a list, append to it.
del-port-attribute(port_id, path): Unset value on the port identified by a MAC or a UUID.

Note

Here path is a path in the sense of a JSON patch used by Ironic API.

Examples¶

Partly taked from the Inspector docs, using YAML format.

- description: Initialize freshly discovered nodes
  sensitive: true
  conditions:
    - op: is-true
      args: ["{node.auto_discovered}"]
    - op: "!is-empty"
      args: ["{plugin_data[bmc_address}"]
  actions:
    - op: set-attribute
      args: ["/driver", "ipmi"]
    - op: set-attribute
      args: ["/driver_info/ipmi_address", "{plugin_data[bmc_address]}"]
    - op: set-attribute
      args: ["/driver_info/ipmi_username", "admin"]
    - op: set-attribute
      args: ["/driver_info/ipmi_password", "pa$$w0rd"]

Note

The plugin_data[bmc_address] field is a side-effect of the validate_interfaces hook.

- description: Initialize Dell nodes using IPv6
  sensitive: true
  conditions:
    - op: is-true
      args: ["{node.auto_discovered}"]
    - op: contains
      args: ["{inventory[system_vendor][manufacturer]}", "(?i)dell"]
  actions:
    - op: set-attribute
      args: ["/driver", "idrac"]
    - op: set-attribute
      args: ["/driver_info/redfish_address", "https://{inventory[bmc_v6address]}"]
    - op: set-attribute
      args: ["/driver_info/redfish_username", "root"]
    - op: set-attribute
      args: ["/driver_info/redfish_password", "calvin"]

State Machine Impact¶

None (rules are running in the INSPECTING state)

REST API impact¶

Migrate the API mostly verbatim, changing the prefix to inspection_rules, adding PATCH and more options for listing:

POST /v1/inspection_rules

Create an inspection rule. The request body is the representation of the rule. All fields, except for built_in can be set on creation. Only actions are required (rules with empty conditions run unconditionally).

Returns HTTP 400 on invalid input.

GET /v1/inspection_rules/<uuid>

Return one inspection rule. The output fields mostly repeat the database fields, adding a boolean built_in field.

For sensitive rules, null is returned instead of conditions and actions.

Returns HTTP 404 if the rule is not found.

GET /v1/inspection_rules[?detail=true/false&scope=...&phase=...]

List all inspection rules. If detail is false or omitted, conditions and actions are not returned. Filtering by scope and phase is possible.

Returns HTTP 400 on invalid input.

PATCH /v1/inspection_rules/<uuid>

Update one rule and return it. Sensitive rules can be updated, but the result does not contain conditions or actions in any case.

Returns HTTP 404 if the rule is not found.

Returns HTTP 400 if the input is invalid, e.g. trying to modify built_in, change sensitive to false or set priority outside of the allowed range (0 to 9999).

DELETE /v1/inspection_rules/<uuid>

Remove one rule.

Returns HTTP 404 if the rule is not found.

Returns HTTP 400 if the rule is built-in.

DELETE /v1/inspection_rules

Remove all rules except for built-in ones.

Client (CLI) impact¶

“openstack baremetal” CLI¶

Inspection rules CRUD, adapted from the Introspection Rules CLI, simply replacing introspection with inspection:

$ openstack baremetal inspection rule import <file>
$ openstack baremetal inspection rule list [--long]
$ openstack baremetal inspection rule get <rule ID>
$ openstack baremetal inspection rule delete <rule ID>

The mass-deletion command is changed for clarity:

$ # Inspector version:
$ openstack baremetal introspection rule purge
$ # New version:
$ openstack baremetal inspection rule delete --all

Updating will be possible:

$ openstack baremetal inspection rule set <rule ID> \
      [--actions '<JSON>'] [--conditions '<JSON>'] \
      [--sensitive] [--scope '<scope>'] [--phase 'early|preprocess|main'] \
      [--uuid '<uuid>'] [--description '<description>']
$ openstack baremetal inspection rule unset <rule ID> \
      [--conditions] [--scope] [--description]

Also adding a way to create from fields instead of one JSON:

$ openstack baremetal inspection rule create \
      --actions '<JSON>' [--conditions '<JSON>'] \
      [--sensitive] [--scope '<scope>'] [--phase 'early|preprocess|main'] \
      [--uuid '<uuid>'] [--description '<description>']

“openstacksdk”¶

The baremetal module will be updated with the standard CRUD plus mass-deletion:

def inspection_rules(details=False): pass
def get_inspection_rule(rule): pass
def patch_inspection_rule(rule, patch): pass
def update_inspection_rule(rule, **fields): pass
def delete_inspection_rule(rule, ignore_missing=True):
def delete_all_inspection_rules(): pass

RPC API impact¶

None

Driver API impact¶

No driver impact. Operators may opt for running inspection rules on nodes with all inspect interfaces, including out-of-band ones.

Nova driver impact¶

None

Ramdisk impact¶

None

Security impact¶

Inspection rules have access to all node and inventory data. Thus, they should be restricted to admins only.

Other end user impact¶

None

Scalability impact¶

None

Performance Impact¶

Having a lot of inspection rules will make inspection longer. But it should not affect the rest of the system.

Other deployer impact¶

The new section [inspection_rules] will have these options:

built_in

An optional path to a YAML file with built-in inspection rules. Loaded on service start and thus not modifiable via SIGHUP.

default_scope

The default value for scope for all rules where this field is not set (excluding built-in ones).

mask_secrets

Whether to mask secrets in the node information passed to the rules:

always (the default) - always remove things like BMC passwords.
never - never mask anything, pass full node objects to all rules.
sensitive - allow secrets for rules marked as sensitive.

supported_interfaces

A regular expression to match inspect interfaces that run inspection rules. Defaults to ^(agent|inspector)$ to limit the rules to only in-band implementations. Can be set to .* to also run on all nodes.

One option will be added to the [auto_discovery] section:

inspection_scope: The default value of inspection scope for nodes enrolled via auto-discovery. Simplifies targeting such nodes with inspection rules.

Developer impact¶

Actions are provided via plugins with entry points in the ironic.inspection_rules.actions namespace:

class InspectionRuleActionBase(metaclass=abc.ABCMeta):
    """Abstract base class for rule action plugins."""

    formatted_params = []
    """List of params to be formatted with python format."""

    supports_early = False
    """Whether the action is supported in the early phase."""

    def call_early(self, rule, *args, **kwargs):
        """Run action in the early phase."""
        raise NotImplementedError

    @abc.abstractmethod
    def __call__(self, task, rule, *args, **kwargs):
        """Run action on successful rule match."""

Note

The interface in Inspector supports several additional validation features. I hope to derive the valid arguments from method signatures instead.

Implementation¶

Assignee(s)¶

Primary assignee:: Dmitry Tantsur (IRC: dtantsur, dtantsur@protonmail.com)
Other contributors:: TBD

Work Items¶

See the RFE.

Dependencies¶

/approved/merge-inspector

Testing¶

Add functional tests exercising inspection rules CRUD actions.
Update the in-band inspection job to have a simple rule that we can verify is run (e.g. it sets something in the node’s extra).

Upgrades and Backwards Compatibility¶

Existing rules will not be automatically migrated from Inspector to Ironic since the conversion may not be always trivial (e.g. around variable interpolation or loops).

Documentation Impact¶

API reference will be updated.
User guide will be migrated from Inspector with a couple of real-life examples.

Migrate inspection rules from Inspector

Migrate inspection rules from Inspector¶

Problem description¶

Proposed change¶

Alternatives¶

Data model impact¶

Conditions and actions¶

Variable interpolation¶

Available conditions¶

Available actions¶

Examples¶

State Machine Impact¶

REST API impact¶

Client (CLI) impact¶

“openstack baremetal” CLI¶

“openstacksdk”¶

RPC API impact¶

Driver API impact¶

Nova driver impact¶

Ramdisk impact¶

Security impact¶

Other end user impact¶

Scalability impact¶

Performance Impact¶

Other deployer impact¶

Developer impact¶

Implementation¶

Assignee(s)¶

Work Items¶

Dependencies¶

Testing¶

Upgrades and Backwards Compatibility¶

Documentation Impact¶

References¶

Ironic Specs 0.0.1.dev764

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