smartos-ubuntu

Scripts to generate modern Ubuntu images for SmartOS.

background

Since switching to Ubuntu Certified images, Joyent has not provided any recent Ubuntu images for SmartOS. The Internet has various guides for installing Ubuntu on a SmartOS, but none provide the same experience we have grown to love from Joyent's images.

As a result, this project was born to document and automate the process.

high level overview

0-setup.sh: setup an existing Ubuntu server to generate a SmartOS image

1-prep.sh: download the official cloud image from Ubuntu

2-run.sh: convert the official cloud image from Ubuntu into a SmartOS image

tutorial

Run the following on an Ubuntu server to produce the SmartOS image:

sudo apt-get -y install git
git clone https://github.com/RSully/smartos-ubuntu.git
cd smartos-ubuntu/
bash 0-setup.sh 
bash 1-prep.sh 
bash 2-run.sh 

This process takes a while (downloading and running dd). You will end up with a zvol.gz file. Use this file with imgadm in the global zone of a SmartOS host.

For example:

imgadm install -m your.json -f your.zvol.gz

Once that completes, you should see your image when you run this:

imgadm list

Create a new KVM guest using vmadm:

vmadm create -f ubuntu.json

imgadm json manifest

The imgadm install command expects a json manifest file describing your new image. We provide an example / template in the json-template directory called image.json.

You will need to adjust a few values, below we list some hints.

Use this command on Ubuntu to generate a random uuid for your image's manifest:

python -c 'from uuid import uuid4;print(uuid4())'

Use this command on Ubuntu to generate a sha1 for your new image

sha1sum *.zvol.gz

Use this command to get the images bytes (5th column):

ls -l *.zvol.gz