Use Container-backed Remote CLIs and Clients

Remote platform CLIs can be used in any shell after sourcing the generated remote CLI/client RC file. This RC file sets up the required environment variables and aliases for the remote CLI commands.

Prerequisites

  • Consider adding the following command to your .login or shell rc file, such that your shells will automatically be initialized with the environment variables and aliases for the remote CLI commands.

    Otherwise, execute it before proceeding:

    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# source remote_client_platform.sh
    
  • You must have completed the configuration steps described in Configuring Container-backed Remote CLIs and Clients before proceeding.

  • If you specified repositories that require authentication when configuring the container-backed remote CLIs, you must perform a docker login to that repository before using remote CLIs for the first time

Procedure

  • For simple StarlingX system CLI and Kubernetes kubectl CLI commands:

    Note

    The first usage of a remote CLI command will be slow as it requires that the docker image supporting the remote CLIs/clients be pulled from the remote registry.

    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# system host-list
    +----+--------------+-------------+----------------+-------------+--------------+
    | id | hostname     | personality | administrative | operational | availability |
    +----+--------------+-------------+----------------+-------------+--------------+
    | 1  | controller-0 | controller  | unlocked       | enabled     | available    |
    | 2  | controller-1 | controller  | unlocked       | enabled     | available    |
    | 3  | compute-0    | worker      | unlocked       | enabled     | available    |
    | 4  | compute-1    | worker      | unlocked       | enabled     | available    |
    +----+--------------+-------------+----------------+-------------+--------------+
    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# kubectl -n kube-system get pods
    NAME                                       READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
    calico-kube-controllers-767467f9cf-wtvmr   1/1     Running     1          3d2h
    calico-node-j544l                          1/1     Running     1          3d
    calico-node-ngmxt                          1/1     Running     1          3d1h
    calico-node-qtc99                          1/1     Running     1          3d
    calico-node-x7btl                          1/1     Running     4          3d2h
    ceph-pools-audit-1569848400-rrpjq          0/1     Completed   0          12m
    ceph-pools-audit-1569848700-jhv5n          0/1     Completed   0          7m26s
    ceph-pools-audit-1569849000-cb988          0/1     Completed   0          2m25s
    coredns-7cf476b5c8-5x724                   1/1     Running     1          3d2h
    ...
    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd#
    

    Note

    Some CLI commands are designed to leave you in a shell prompt, for example:

    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# openstack
    

    or

    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# kubectl exec -ti <pod_name> -- /bin/bash
    

    In most cases, the remote CLI will detect and handle these commands correctly. If you encounter cases that are not handled correctly, you can force-enable or disable the shell options using the <FORCE_SHELL=true> or <FORCE_NO_SHELL=true> variables before the command.

    For example:

    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# FORCE_SHELL=true kubectl exec -ti <pod_name> -- /bin/bash
    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# FORCE_NO_SHELL=true kubectl exec <pod_name> -- ls
    

    You cannot use both variables at the same time.

  • If you need to run a remote CLI command that references a local file, then that file must be copied to or created in the working directory specified in the -w option on the ./config_client.sh command.

    For example:

    root@myclient:/home/user# cp /<someDir>/test.yml $HOME/remote_cli_wd/test.yml
    root@myclient:/home/user# cd $HOME/remote_cli_wd
    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# kubectl -n kube-system  create -f test.yml
    pod/test-pod created
    root@myclient:/home/user/remote_cli_wd# kubectl -n kube-system  delete -f test.yml
    pod/test-pod deleted
    
  • For Helm commands:

    % cd $HOME/remote_cli_wd
    

    Note

    When using helm, any command that requires access to a helm repository (managed locally) will require that you be in the $HOME/remote_cli_wd directory and use the –home ./.helm option. For the host local installation, it requires the users $HOME and ends up in $HOME/.config and $HOME/.cache/helm.

    % helm --home ./.helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
    % helm --home ./.helm repo update
    % helm --home ./.helm repo list
    % helm --home ./.helm search repo
    % helm --home ./.helm install wordpress bitnami/wordpress
    

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