ManageIQ

Easy Install With Vagrant

You can test ManageIQ with Vagrant using the images that the ManageIQ project makes available on Vagrant Cloud. This is a great option if you have a Windows PC or a Mac. Note that you need 8GB of memory to run ManageIQ!

We will assume that you have Vagrant installed on your computer, and that it is configured with VirtualBox as the hypervisor. Currently only VirtualBox boxes are provided.

Step 1: Create a new box

Execute the following commands to create a new Vagrant box:

$ mkdir manageiq
$ cd manageiq
$ vagrant init manageiq/radjabov

There is now a Vagrantfile in the current directory.

Step 2: Modify Vagrantfile

You need to expose the ManageIQ web interface. Add the following setting to the Vagrantfile:

config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 443, host: 8443

This will create a port mapping so that the ManageIQ web interface can be found on https://localhost:8443.

By default ManageIQ is configured to use 6144MB and 4 CPUs. You can slightly tune this down, but you should not go below the following settings:

config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
  vb.memory = 4096
  vb.cpus = 2
end

The appliance will also need one or two extra disks, one for the PostgreSQL database (required) and one for persisting the message queue (optional). Add these like so:

  config.vm.disk :disk, name: "miq-pg", size: "4GB"
  # Uncomment this for a persistent message queue:
  # config.vm.disk :disk, name: "miq-mq", size: "4GB"

Step 3: Start ManageIQ

Start ManageIQ by executing:

$ vagrant up

Ensure you can login to the ManageIQ appliance:

$ vagrant ssh

Now that you’re on the appliance’s shell, it will need a little bit of input from you to finish starting:

$ appliance_console

This will bring up a menu-driven interface with a list of numbered options. The numbers for each option may vary. First, you want Configure Application, so enter that option’s number at the prompt and press enter.

You will be prompted to either create an encryption key or fetch one from a remote machine. Select the Create key option.

The next menu will ask how you want the database to be configured. For a basic setup to get started, Create Internal Database is an appropriate choice.

Then, it will ask about messaging. Choose Configure this appliance as a messaging server.

The console will then go about partitioning the extra disk(s) you added in Vagrantfile. You can choose the defaults here.

When it asks, “Should this appliance run as a standalone database server,” choose N (the default).

The next prompt will be “Enter the database region number.” Any number will do. 0 and 99 are common choices. For a vagrant appliance, this number isn’t especially important. Refer to the Deployment Planning Guide for information about regions when you’re ready to take ManageIQ to production.

Next will be a password prompt for the database. It will ask twice.

You may get a prompt like “Already configured on this Appliance, Un-Configure first?” Choose Y to customize the settings for the Kafka messaging server, or N to go with what’s already set–which may not work.

If you chose Y above, you’ll be asked whether to “Proceed with Configuration.” If you choose Y again, you will get the following prompts:

  • Enter the Message Server Hostname:
    • The hostname you give here must be resolvable and must not be a link-local or loopback address. The default value will come from DHCP and will vary with your local network and any network settings you applied in Vagrantfile.
  • Enter the Message Keystore Username:
    • Any name works. The default is “admin.”
  • Enter the Message Keystore Password
    • Again, you will be prompted twice
  • Configure a new persistent disk volume?
    • If you added a third disk in Vagrantfile, you may choose Y here. Otherwise, choose N.

You’ll be given a review-and-confirm dialog. Choose Y if everything looks correct. After a moment, you should be prompted to “press any key.”

ManageIQ is now up and running.

The next step is to perform some basic configuration.