buffalab

BuffaLab

buffalabd is a small network server, written in Go, that provides:

• tFTP / PXE configuration files
• HTTP installation media
• A REST API for managing a lab

What is it for?

Imagine you have a small amount of hardware to use as a home lab, and you want to automate the boring bits of installing operating systems, formatting disks, installing packages, and configuration.

You could use something like Puppet or Ansible, sure, but you still have to get something up and running to leverage those tools, and they require some supporting infrastructure.

Instead, the route buffalabd takes is to use the Pre-eXecution Environment support in modern baseboard management agents to boot the OS installation over the network, by way of DHCP + PXE + HTTP. On top of this magic, buffalabd also provides an API for managing PXE boot files, so that you have a completely hands-off lab experience — no iLO or iDRAC web UIs in sight.

Configuration

buffalabd reads its configuration at startup, from buffalab.yml in the current working directory. You can supply a different file by settings its path in the $BUFFALAB_CONFIG environment variable.

Here is an example configuration:

---
# Where should the files for tFTP and HTTP be served from?
root: /srv/lab

# What port should the HTTP image server / REST API listen on?
listen: ':8085'

# What configuration flavors are supported?
flavors:
  - vanilla
  - chocolate

# What machines comprise your lab?
machines:
  - name:     lab1
    role:     leader
    mac:      aa-bb-cc-11-22-33
    type:     idrac
    ip:       10.0.0.12
    username: root
    password: calvin

  - name:     lab2
    role:     drone
    mac:      aa-bb-cc-11-22-34
    type:     idrac
    ip:       10.0.0.12
    username: root
    password: calvin

API Reference

Here are the endpoints you can hit on the API:

GET /api/status

Retrieves the current status of the lab.

curl -q http://127.0.0.1:8085/api/status | jq -r .
{
  "flavor": "vanilla",
  "nodes": {
    "lab1": "ok",
    "lab2": "fail"
  }
}

POST /api/install

Reconfigures the tFTP boot configuration for all machines in the lab, and then power-cycles all of the machines to start the installation process.

Provide the flavor name as the body of the POST data:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8085/api/install -d 'vanilla'

Returns an HTTP 204 on success, with no body.

POST /api/:machine/fail

Indicates that the named :machine has failed in its configuration steps. For example:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8085/api/lab1/fail

Returns an HTTP 204 on success, with no body.

POST /api/:machine/ok

Indicates that the named :machine has succeeded in its configuration steps. For example:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8085/api/lab2/fail

Returns an HTTP 204 on success, with no body.

Installation

You'll need a recent vintage Go toolchain. Then, all you have to do is make. Stay tuned for more information on the full Raspberry Pi experience...

It's Still Evolving

There's more features I want to add to this thing; so it's far from feature-complete. If you think this is something you'd like to use, and want to help out, raise a Github Issue and we can discuss the implementation before you go off and submit a Pull Request.