.. _debugging:

Debugging ``cloud-init``
************************

Overview
========

This topic will discuss general approaches for testing and debugging
``cloud-init`` on deployed instances.

.. _boot_time_analysis:

Boot time analysis
==================

:command:`cloud-init analyze`
-----------------------------

Occasionally, instances don't appear as performant as we would like and
``cloud-init`` packages a simple facility to inspect which operations took the
longest during boot and setup.

The script :file:`/usr/bin/cloud-init` has an analysis sub-command,
:command:`analyze`, which parses any :file:`cloud-init.log` file into formatted
and sorted events. It allows for detailed analysis of the most costly
``cloud-init`` operations, and to determine the long-pole in ``cloud-init``
configuration and setup. These subcommands default to reading
:file:`/var/log/cloud-init.log`.

:command:`analyze show`
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Parse and organise :file:`cloud-init.log` events by stage and include each
sub-stage granularity with time delta reports.

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ cloud-init analyze show -i my-cloud-init.log

Example output:

.. code-block:: shell-session

    -- Boot Record 01 --
    The total time elapsed since completing an event is printed after the "@"
    character.
    The time the event takes is printed after the "+" character.

    Starting stage: modules-config
    |`->config-snap_config ran successfully @05.47700s +00.00100s
    |`->config-ssh-import-id ran successfully @05.47800s +00.00200s
    |`->config-locale ran successfully @05.48000s +00.00100s
    ...


:command:`analyze dump`
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Parse :file:`cloud-init.log` into event records and return a list of
dictionaries that can be consumed for other reporting needs.

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ cloud-init analyze dump -i my-cloud-init.log

Example output:

.. code-block::

    [
     {
      "description": "running config modules",
      "event_type": "start",
      "name": "modules-config",
      "origin": "cloudinit",
      "timestamp": 1510807493.0
     },...

:command:`analyze blame`
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Parse :file:`cloud-init.log` into event records and sort them based on the
highest time cost for a quick assessment of areas of ``cloud-init`` that may
need improvement.

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ cloud-init analyze blame -i my-cloud-init.log

Example output:

.. code-block::

    -- Boot Record 11 --
         00.01300s (modules-final/config-scripts-per-boot)
         00.00400s (modules-final/config-final-message)
         00.00100s (modules-final/config-rightscale_userdata)
         ...

:command:`analyze boot`
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Make subprocess calls to the kernel in order to get relevant pre-``cloud-init``
timestamps, such as the kernel start, kernel finish boot, and ``cloud-init``
start.

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ cloud-init analyze boot

Example output:

.. code-block::

    -- Most Recent Boot Record --
        Kernel Started at: 2019-06-13 15:59:55.809385
        Kernel ended boot at: 2019-06-13 16:00:00.944740
        Kernel time to boot (seconds): 5.135355
        Cloud-init start: 2019-06-13 16:00:05.738396
        Time between Kernel boot and Cloud-init start (seconds): 4.793656

Analyze quickstart - LXC
------------------------

To quickly obtain a ``cloud-init`` log, try using :command:``lxc`` on any
Ubuntu system:

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ lxc init ubuntu-daily:focal x1
    $ lxc start x1
    $ # Take lxc's cloud-init.log and pipe it to the analyzer
    $ lxc file pull x1/var/log/cloud-init.log - | cloud-init analyze dump -i -
    $ lxc file pull x1/var/log/cloud-init.log - | \
      python3 -m cloudinit.analyze dump -i -


Analyze quickstart - KVM
------------------------
To quickly analyze a KVM ``cloud-init`` log:

1. Download the current cloud image

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ wget https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/daily/server/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img

2. Create a snapshot image to preserve the original cloud image

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ qemu-img create -b focal-server-cloudimg-amd64.img -f qcow2 \
    test-cloudinit.qcow2

3. Create a seed image with metadata using :command:`cloud-localds`

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ cat > user-data <<EOF
      #cloud-config
      password: passw0rd
      chpasswd: { expire: False }
      EOF
    $  cloud-localds my-seed.img user-data

4. Launch your modified VM

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $  kvm -m 512 -net nic -net user -redir tcp:2222::22 \
        -drive file=test-cloudinit.qcow2,if=virtio,format=qcow2 \
        -drive file=my-seed.img,if=virtio,format=raw

5. Analyze the boot (:command:`blame`, :command:`dump`, :command:`show`)

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ ssh -p 2222 ubuntu@localhost 'cat /var/log/cloud-init.log' | \
       cloud-init analyze blame -i -


Running single cloud-config modules
===================================

This subcommand is not called by the init system. It can be called manually to
load the configured datasource and run a single cloud-config module once, using
the cached user data and metadata after the instance has booted. Each
cloud-config module has a module ``FREQUENCY`` configured: ``PER_INSTANCE``,
``PER_BOOT``, ``PER_ONCE`` or ``PER_ALWAYS``. When a module is run by
``cloud-init``, it stores a semaphore file in
:file:`/var/lib/cloud/instance/sem/config_<module_name>.<frequency>` which
marks when the module last successfully ran. Presence of this semaphore file
prevents a module from running again if it has already been run. To ensure that
a module is run again, the desired frequency can be overridden via the
command line:

.. code-block:: shell-session

   $ sudo cloud-init single --name cc_ssh --frequency always

Example output:

.. code-block::

   ...
   Generating public/private ed25519 key pair
   ...

Inspect :file:`cloud-init.log` for output of what operations were performed as
a result.

.. _proposed_sru_testing:

Stable Release Updates (SRU) testing for ``cloud-init``
=======================================================

Once an Ubuntu release is stable (i.e. after it is released), updates for it
must follow a special procedure called a "Stable Release Update" (`SRU`_).

The ``cloud-init`` project has a specific process it follows when validating
a ``cloud-init`` SRU, documented in the `CloudinitUpdates`_ wiki page.

Generally an SRU test of ``cloud-init`` performs the following:

 * Install a pre-release version of ``cloud-init`` from the **-proposed** APT
   pocket (e.g., **bionic-proposed**).
 * Upgrade ``cloud-init`` and attempt a clean run of ``cloud-init`` to assert
   that the new version works properly on the specific platform and Ubuntu
   series.
 * Check for tracebacks or errors in behaviour.

Manual SRU verification procedure
---------------------------------

Below are steps to manually test a pre-release version of ``cloud-init``
from **-proposed**

.. note::
    For each Ubuntu SRU, the Ubuntu Server team manually validates the new
    version of ``cloud-init`` on these platforms: **Amazon EC2, Azure, GCE,
    OpenStack, Oracle, Softlayer (IBM), LXD, KVM**

1. Launch a VM on your favorite platform, providing this cloud-config
   user data and replacing `<YOUR_LAUNCHPAD_USERNAME>` with your username:

.. code-block:: yaml

    ## template: jinja
    #cloud-config
    ssh_import_id: [<YOUR_LAUNCHPAD_USERNAME>]
    hostname: SRU-worked-{{v1.cloud_name}}

2. Wait for current ``cloud-init`` to complete, replace ``<YOUR_VM_IP>`` with
   the IP address of the VM that you launched in step 1. Be sure to make a
   note of the datasource ``cloud-init`` detected in ``--long`` output. You
   will need this during step 5, where you will use it to confirm the same
   datasource is detected after the upgrade:

.. code-block:: bash

    CI_VM_IP=<YOUR_VM_IP>
    $ ssh ubuntu@$CI_VM_IP -- cloud-init status --wait --long

3. Set up the **-proposed** pocket on your VM and upgrade to the **-proposed**
   ``cloud-init``. To do this, create the following bash script, which will
   add the **-proposed** pocket to APT's sources and install ``cloud-init``
   from that pocket:

.. code-block:: bash

    cat > setup_proposed.sh <<EOF
    #/bin/bash
    mirror=http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
    echo deb \$mirror \$(lsb_release -sc)-proposed main | tee \
        /etc/apt/sources.list.d/proposed.list
    apt-get update -q
    apt-get install -qy cloud-init
    EOF

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ scp setup_proposed.sh ubuntu@$CI_VM_IP:.
    $ ssh ubuntu@$CI_VM_IP -- sudo bash setup_proposed.sh

4. Change hostname, clean ``cloud-init``'s state, and reboot to run
   ``cloud-init`` from scratch:

.. code-block:: shell-session

    $ ssh ubuntu@$CI_VM_IP -- sudo hostname something-else
    $ ssh ubuntu@$CI_VM_IP -- sudo cloud-init clean --logs --reboot

5. Validate **-proposed** ``cloud-init`` came up without error. First, we block
   until ``cloud-init`` completes, then verify from ``--long`` that the
   datasource is the same as the one picked up from step 1. Errors will show up
   in ``--long``:

.. code-block:: shell-session

   $ ssh ubuntu@$CI_VM_IP -- cloud-init status --wait --long

Make sure the hostname was set properly to `SRU-worked-<cloud name>`:

.. code-block:: shell-session

   $ ssh ubuntu@$CI_VM_IP -- hostname

Then, check for any errors or warnings in ``cloud-init`` logs. If successful,
this will produce no output:

.. code-block:: shell-session

   $ ssh ubuntu@$CI_VM_IP -- grep Trace "/var/log/cloud-init*"

6. If you encounter an error during SRU testing:

   * Create a `new cloud-init bug`_ reporting the version of ``cloud-init``
     affected
   * Ping upstream ``cloud-init`` on Libera's `#cloud-init IRC channel`_

.. _SRU: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates
.. _CloudinitUpdates: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CloudinitUpdates
.. _new cloud-init bug: https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/issues
.. _#cloud-init IRC channel: https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.libera.chat/cloud-init