CollabNet CUBiT allows you to self-provision your build and test systems from a library of pre-defined profiles. This reduces the traditional infrastructure provisioning and build times from days and weeks to minutes. This article shows you how to provision your own system.
As a standard CUBiT User you can allocate Free systems to yourself.
Step 1: Identifying Free Systems
First, you need to see if there are any available (or Free) systems that can be allocated.
Click Projects to see all projects you are enrolled in.
Review the system assignments shown in the Host column to see if any systems are Free. In this example, there is one Free system in the project “skull.”
If there are no Free systems, contact your CUBiT Domain Administrator.
Step 2: Provisioning a System
In this example, your project is called “skull.” To provision a system in the skull project:
Select Projects -> skull -> Hosts
A list of physical and virtual systems and their status is displayed. In this example CU012 is the parent of CU014 and CU016. CU012 is also known as the virtual host, CU014 and CU016 are virtual guests that execute on CU012.
The Model column lists the physical or virtual model type of the system.
A profile is a definition of an operating system that may or may not include an application stack. When applied to a system, that resource is built to the exact definition of the profile. Profiles are version controlled by Subversion, which allows you to reconstruct a stack at any given time.
CollabNet provides these base profiles:
Red Hat
CentOS
Solaris
Windows
When any of these profiles are applied, a fully function operating system is provisioned.
When you allocate a system, you become the owner of the system.
A system can be in various states:
Free — The machine is available; no one has used it.
Allocated — The machine has been assigned to a particular user.
Rebuild — The machine has been directed to be rebuilt.
Rebuilding — The machine is in the process of being rebuilt.
Migrate — The virtual machine has been directed to move from one host to another.
Migrating — The virtual machine is in the process of moving from one host to another.
Immutable — The machine is locked and you cannot rebuild the host until you unlock it. (This is used as a safety precaution to preserve a machine and prevent it from being changed or deleted by mistake.)
Powercycle — The machine has been directed to power off and then power on again.
A system can be allocated for a defined amount of time, from hours to indefinitely (including forever). Once the allocated time expires, the system changes from Allocated to Free.
In this example, CU014 is Free and therefore can be allocated to you. Clicking CU014 shows the following:
Step 3: Allocating the System
To allocate this system:
Click the Allocate button in the top-right corner.
You see the following screen.
You now decide how long to allocate the system for.
In this example, the system is allocated for one day. CUBiT notifies the allocated user in advance of any approaching expiration time via email.
Once allocate, you become the system owner and have administrative access to the system.
Step 4: Selecting a Version of a Profile
Once you have Confirm Allocation, you then can select a version of a profile. In this example, rhel3_base (base install of Red Hat Enterprise 3) at version 28 is selected.
Select the profile and version you want, and click Assign profile.
Confirm your choice and the system starts to build.
Typically a system takes between 10 to 20 minutes to provision.
Now your system changes its status from Free to Rebuild.
If you select the link named My Hosts after a few minutes, you see the current status of your system. After approximately 3 to 5 minutes, the status changes to Rebuilding, and during this state the system is in the process of installing. It takes approximately 20 minutes to rebuild the system. Once completed the system becomes Up.
Once the status has changed to Up, you have a fully function operating system with administrative access. Four easy steps to system provisioning that reduces a task that would normally take days!
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