Deployment

Deploy the solution to a physical dedicated server

Downloading the OS images and writing them to USB drives

Warning: This procedure will wipe all the data that is currently in both USB drives.

Run on Setup Workstation

The following steps should be run on the setup workstation (your Linux or macOS):

Switch to the current project:

 gcloud config set project $DEFAULT_PROJECT

Plug the 4GB (min) flash drive into the setup workstation.

Download the OS installer ISO image:

 cd $VIAI_PROVISIONING_FOLDER
 ./scripts/download-os-images.sh

The output should be similar to the following:

 [...]
 OS image downloaded and verified: viai-provisioning-configuration/ubuntu-20.04.6-live-server-amd64.iso

Take note of the OS image path that the script produces.

Write the OS installer image file on the larger (min 4GB USB drive)

You can use an image flash app like Balena Etcher or any of the following options, depending on the OS of the setup workstation:

On Linux
```
 sudo dd bs=4M if=[PATH_TO_OS_INSTALLER_ISO] of=[USB_FLASH_DRIVE] conv=fdatasync status=progress
```
On macOS

Use diskutil to list the devices attached and select the device ID, for example /dev/disk4. Then, run the following:
```
 INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE=/dev/<DEVICE ID>

 diskutil unmountDisk $INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE

 sudo dd bs=4m if="${VIAI_INSTALLER_CONFIGURATION_DATA_ISO_FILE_PATH}" of=$INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE

 sync

 sudo diskutil eject $INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE
```
Where:
- PATH_TO_OS_INSTALLER_ISO path to the OS installer ISO, noted earlier.
- USB_FLASH_DRIVE path to the raw device representing the USB flash drive where you flash the OS installer. You can use lsblk (on Linux) or diskutil list (on macOS) to get this value. Refer to this Raspberry Pi guide document for a useful reference. On macOS, use rdisk instead of disk to speed up the copy when running the dd command.
Unplug the USB flash drive.

Creating hardware installation assets

This step will generate a cloud-init CIDATA ISO file which will then be flashed to a second USB drive.

The server will boot later from the two USB drives; one will contain the operating system installation image (prepared in the steps before), and the second, generated in this step, will contain cloud-init deployment automation files.

Run this commands to create the .ISO file:

Run on Setup Workstation

export MEDIA_TYPE="USB"

./scripts/2-generate-media-file.sh \
  -d ${OUTPUT_FOLDER} \
  -t ${MEDIA_TYPE} \
  -i ${K8S_RUNTIME}

Where:

MEDIA_TYPE must be USB

After the script runs, the console will show details about the asset creation. All assets created are stored in the $OUTPUT_PATH folder.

242 extents written (0 MB)
Deleting the temporary working directory (/tmp/tmp.8He7ET4VIC)...
Results saved in the temporary working directory: /tmp/cloud-init-output
CIDATA ISO file created successfully, folder path: /tmp/tmp.dc9KQE1Xa8 , file name: cloud-init-datasource.iso
Cleaning up...

Save the path to the ISO image that was just generated in an environment variable:

export VIAI_INSTALLER_CONFIGURATION_DATA_ISO_FILE_PATH="${OUTPUT_PATH}/cloud-init-datasource.iso"

Flash the installer configuration data to the USB flash drive:

You can use again an application like Balena Etcher to write the cloud-init-datasource.iso on the second USB flash drive.

Alternatively, you can use the commands below, depending on your platform:

On Linux

sudo dd bs=4M if="${VIAI_INSTALLER_CONFIGURATION_DATA_ISO_FILE_PATH}" of=[INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE] conv=fdatasync status=progress

On macOS

Use diskutil list to list the devices attached and select the device ID, for example /dev/disk4. Then, run the following:

INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE=/dev/<DEVICE ID>

diskutil unmountDisk $INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE

sudo dd bs=4m if="${VIAI_INSTALLER_CONFIGURATION_DATA_ISO_FILE_PATH}" of=$INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE

sync

sudo diskutil eject $INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE

Where:

INSTALLER_CONFIG_DATA_USB_FLASH_DRIVE path to the raw device representing the USB flash drive where you flash the OS installer. You can use lsblk (on Linux) or diskutil list (on macOS) to get this value. Refer to this Raspberry Pi guide document for a useful reference. On macOS, use rdisk instead of disk to speed up the copy when running the dd command.

Unplug the USB flash drive.

You can now continue to physically setup the edge server.