[StarCluster] Custom AMI .ssh directories disappearing on restart

[danny jacobs]

Hi Justin,

Mounting my own /home makes sense, but why do I want to run the
createusers plugin each time I start the server?

Thanks
~Danny

On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 8:44 AM, Justin Riley <justin.t.riley at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Danny,
>
> First of all if you always want to use the same SSH keys for all 30
> users you need to specify an EBS volume for StarCluster to attach,
> mount, and NFS-share on /home, e,g:
>
> [volume myhome]
> volume_id = vol-923923
> mount_path = /home
>
> [cluster smallcluster]
> ...
> volumes = myhome
>
> This will preserve the entire /home folder when the cluster is
> terminated. The next time the cluster is started, using the
> 'smallcluster' template above, the /home folder will be reattached and
> the SSH keys will be reused by the createusers plugin.
>
> Concerning the 'disappearing' of .ssh I'm guessing you ran the plugin
> using the 'runplugin' command which does a quick one-time run of the
> plugin. In general if you wish to use a plugin every time you start a
> cluster you need to put the plugin in one of your cluster template's
> plugins list, e.g.:
>
> [cluster smallcluster]
> ...
> volumes = myhome
> plugins = createusers
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> ~Justin
>
> On 5/4/12 9:35 PM, danny jacobs wrote:
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> Background:
>> I created my own EBS-backed AMI by copying one of the starcluster AMIs
>> in the way described in the docs. ie
>>
>> starcluster start -o -s 1 -i m1.large -n ami-999d49f0 imagehost
>> <installed some stuff>
>> starcluster ebsimage <ami id> myami
>>
>> Then I substituted the output ami id into the starcluster config file,
>> Node_IMAGE_ID = <myami id>
>>
>> and started up a cluster with my new ami
>> Finally I ran the createusers plugin (with the 30 users example).
>>
>> Problem:
>> I am able to connect as any of the new users with the ssh keys
>> automatically downloaded as a tarball; all is well.
>> But when I terminate and then restart a new instance of the cluster,
>> the .ssh directories are gone.  The userXXX directories are still
>> there but no more userXXX/.ssh.
>>
>> Is this supposed to be? What am I doing wrong?
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> ~Danny
>>
>> Arizona State University
>> School of Earth and Space Exploration
>> Low Frequency Cosmology
>> Phone:           (505) 500 4521
>> Homepage:     http://loco.lab.asu.edu/~jacobs/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> StarCluster mailing list
>> StarCluster at mit.edu
>> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/starcluster
>



-- 
~Danny

Arizona State University
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Low Frequency Cosmology
Phone:           (505) 500 4521
Homepage:     http://loco.lab.asu.edu/~jacobs/