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Deploy Jumphost

We will go through three phases in this section to deploy jumphost VM which you will use to deploy AI applications.

  1. Create Cloud-Init: needed to bootstrap JumpHost VM on Nutanix AHV using OpenTofu
  2. Create Jumphost VM: needed to remotely connect and run deployment workflows accessible to Nutanix Infrastructure.
stateDiagram-v2
    direction LR

    state DeployJumpHost {
        [*] --> CreateCloudInit
        CreateCloudInit --> CreateJumpHostVM
        CreateJumpHostVM --> [*]
    }

    PrepWorkstation --> DeployJumpHost 
    DeployJumpHost --> DeployFronEndVM 
    DeployJumpHost --> DeployPostgresVM 
    DeployJumpHost --> DeployHAProxyVM

Jump Host VM Requirements

Based on the Nutanix GPT-in-a-Box specifications, the following system resources are required for the Jump Host VM:

  • Target OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Minimum System Requirements:

CPU Cores Per CPU Memory Storage
2 vCPU 4 Cores 16 GiB 300 GiB

Deploy Jumphost VM via Prism UI

  1. Log into Prism Central, navigate to Compute > VMs > Table view > + Create VM.​

    • General: Name app-vm-01,
    • 2 vCPU, 4GB RAM
    • Boot Config: UEFI, attach Ubuntu/CentOS cloud image as SCSI disk 0.

  2. NICs: Add NIC on your lab subnet (DHCP enabled).

  3. Create the cloud-init file in VScode

  4. Fill in, paste userdata for hostname app-vm-01, user ubuntu/centos, SSH authorized_keys.

    #cloud-config
hostname: jumphost-user01                  # (1)
package_update: true
package_upgrade: true
package_reboot_if_required: true
packages:
  - open-iscsi
  - nfs-common
  - bind-utils
  - nmap
  - curl
  - wget
  - git
  - nodejs
  - npm
  - postgresql-client
  - python3
  - python3-pip
  - unzip
users:
  - default
  - name: ubuntu
    groups: sudo
    shell: /bin/bash
    sudo:
      - 'ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL'
    ssh-authorized-keys: 
    - ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nxxxxxxxx ...                   # (2)
runcmd:
  - systemctl stop ufw && systemctl disable ufw
  - usermod -aG docker ubuntu
  - 'su - ubuntu -c "curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ariesbabu/ocp-gitp/refs/heads/main/docs/toolsvms/install_vscode_tools.sh | bash"'
  - eject
  - reboot

    1. Change to your user name (user01, user02, etc.)

    2. Copy and paste the contents of your ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file

      If you are using a Mac, the command pbcopycan be used to copy the contents of a file to clipboard.

      cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | tr -d '\n' | pbcopy

      Cmd+v will paste the contents of clipboard to the console.

  5. Copy the contents of the cloud-init.yaml file from VSCode to Prisum UI's client configuration section

  6. Save and power on VM.

  7. Verify VM powers on successfully in VM table and console

Warning

It may take up to 10 minutes for the VM to be ready. The VM will reboot once to finish the installation process.

You can watch the console of the VM from Prism Central to make sure all the cloudinit script has finished running.

Cloudinit logs are stored in /var/log/cloud-init.log

Logon to the tools VM using SSH

ssh -l ubuntu _your_jumphost_ip # Get the IP address of the jumphost VM from Prism UI

If there are issues, monitor the cloudinit process logs

tail -f /var/log/cloud-init.log

Get the IP address of the jumphost VM from Prism UI

Connect to you Jumpbox using VSCode

  1. In you browser visit the following URL

    https://_your_jumphost_ip

    https://10.54.63.96

  2. Enter _password as the password

  3. Open the following file in VSCode Explorer window

    /home/ubuntu/.config/code-server/config.yaml

  4. Change the password to your desired password

    bind-addr: 0.0.0.0:443  # Only bind to localhost
auth: password
password: _desired_password # Replace with a strong password
cert: true

  5. Restart VSCode server daemon

    sudo systemctl restart code-server@$USER

Warning

It will take a minute or so for VSCode to start

  1. Connect to VSCode on the browser and login using the new password

Install OpenTofu

OpenTofu is a fork of Terraform that is open-source, community-driven, and managed by the Linux Foundation and is used to simplify provisioning resources using the Nutanix Terraform Provider while following Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices.

To Install OpenTofu, follow the steps below for your respective local workstation:

  1. In VSCode > Go to Terminal > New Terminal

  2. Execute the following commands

    Download the Tofu installer script:
    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL https://get.opentofu.org/install-opentofu.sh -o install-opentofu.sh
    Give it execution permissions:
    chmod +x install-opentofu.sh
    Run the installer:
    ./install-opentofu.sh --install-method