Using Amazon Web Services

Table of contents

This guide describes how to install CFEngine on two Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) virtual machines using Amazon Web Services™ (AWS) and SSH. At the time of writing, under certain conditions, setting up an AWS account and using micro-instances is free.

One of the two machines will be a policy server, while the other will be a host.

Although these instructions walk through the steps needed to install CFEngine Enterprise on two machines, up to 25 machines can be set up using the same procedure and scripts.

This tutorial will cover the following steps:

Initial Configuration of the AWS Virtual Machines.
Configuring the Security Group.
Configuring SSH Access to the Virtual Machines Using PuTTY (for Windows machines).
Configuring the Firewall on the Policy Server.
Installing CFEngine on both the Policy Server and Host Virtual Machines.

Initial configuration of the virtual machines in AWS

Configure 2 RHEL virtual machine instances in AWS

Login to AWS.
Under Create Instance click on Launch Instance.
On the line Red Hat Enterprise Linux 64 Bit Free tier eligible press the Select button.
On the Choose Instance Type screen ensure the Micro Instances tab on the left is selected.

Configure instance details

Press Next: Configure instance details.
On the Configure instance details screen change the number of instances to 2.
Leave Network as the default.
Subnet can be No preference.
Ensure Public IP is checked.
Leave all else at their default values.

Review and launch

Click Review and launch.
Make a note of Security group name on the Review Instance Launch screen.
Click Launch.
Select Create a new key pair in the first drop down menu.
Enter anything as the Key pair name.
Click the Download Key Pair button and save the .pem file to your local computer.
After the .pem file is saved click the Launch Instance button.
On the Launch Status screen click the View Instances button.

Configure the security group

On the left hand side of the AWS console click NETWORK & SECURITY > Security Groups
Remembering the Security group name from earlier, click on the appropriate line item in the list.
Below the list of security group names will display details for the current security group.
Click the Inbound tab.
Click "Edit" button. A popup window will appear with "SSH" rule already present.
Click the +Add Rule button. Select HTTP from the drop-down list. Click "Add Rule" button again.
Select Custom TCP rule and enter 5308 in the Port range text entry. Select "Custom IP" from the drop-down menu in the "Source" column.
Copy the "Group ID" from the line containing your "Group Name" and copy the "Group ID" into the text entry in the last column. Click "Save."
Click the "Edit" button again. On the "Custom TCP" Rule, select "Anywhere" from the "Source" drop-down list. Click "Save."

Accessing the virtual machines using SSH

See: Quick-Start Guide to Using PuTTY

Install and configure the firewall

Install the firewall

Ensure you are logged into both virtual machines.
In both enter sudo yum install system-config-firewall to install.
Hit 'y' if prompted.

Configure the firewall on the policy server (AKA hub)

The following steps are only necessary for one of the two virtual machines, the one that is designated as the policy server; these steps can be omitted on the second (client machine). Note that CFEngine refers to a client machine by the name Host:

When system-config-firewall is installed, enter sudo system-config-firewall
In the Firewall Configuration screen use the Tab key to go to Customize.
Hit the Enter key. Below is the Firewall Configuration window that comes up:

The firewall Configuration window

Open port 80 (HTTPD)

On the Trusted Services screen, scroll down to WWW (HTTP), AKA port 80.
Hit the Space Bar to toggle the WWW entry (i.e. ensure it is on, showing an asterisk beside the name).

Open port 5308 (CFEngine)

Hit the Tab key again until Forward is highlighted, then hit Enter.
Hit the Tab key until Add is highlighted, then hit Enter.
Enter 5308 in the Port section.
Hit the Tab key and enter tcp in the Protocol section.
Hit the Tab key until OK is highlighted, and hit Enter.

Configuring a forward

The Port and Protocol are entered in the blue boxes, with entries of 5308 and tcp respectively. Then the Tab key is used to highlight the OK button, and the user presses Enter.

Wrapping up firewall configuration

Hit the Tab key until Close is highlighted, and hit Enter.
Hit the Tab key or arrow keys until OK is highlighted, and hit Enter.

Disabling firewall on a host (Warning: Only do this if absolutely necessary)

For the second virtual machine, which is the client machine (also called host), you may need to do the following if you see an error when bootstrapping this virtual machine in later steps: * In the Firewall Configuration screen use the Tab key to go to Firewall. * Turn off the firewall by toggling the entry with the Space bar.

Note: Turning off the firewall in a production environment is considered unsafe.

CFEngine installation overview

We ready now ready to install the CFEngine software on both the server and client virtual machines. These also referred to as the "hub" and "host" machines, respectively. During the course of the instructions outlined in this guide, you will perform the following tasks:

Install CFEngine Enterprise onto a Policy Server and onto Hosts. A Policy Server (hub) is a CFEngine instance that contains promises (business policy) that get deployed to Hosts. Hosts are clients that retrieve and execute promises.
Bootstrap the policy server to itself and then bootstrap each of the Hosts to the Policy Server. Bootstrapping establishes a trust relationship between the Policy Server and all Hosts. Thus, business policy that you create in the Policy Server can be deployed to Hosts throughout your company. Bootstrapping completes the installation process.
Log in to the Mission Portal. The Mission Portal is a graphical user interface that allows you to verify the actual state of all your Hosts, thus ensuring that your promises are being executed.
Try out the Tutorials. Links to three tutorials give you a head start on learning CFEngine.

Step 1. Download and install Enterprise on a policy server

Run the following script on your designated Policy Server (hub), the virtual machine with the configured firewall from earlier steps:

 code
$ wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/cfengine.packages/quick-install-cfengine-enterprise.sh && sudo bash ./quick-install-cfengine-enterprise.sh hub

This script installs the latest CFEngine Enterprise Policy Server on your server machine.

Step 2. Bootstrap the policy server

The Policy Server must be bootstrapped to itself. Find the IP address of your Policy Server: $ ifconfig.
Run the bootstrap command: sudo /var/cfengine/bin/cf-agent --bootstrap <IP address of policy server>

Example: $ sudo /var/cfengine/bin/cf-agent --bootstrap 172.31.3.25

Bootstrap the policy server

Upon successful completion, a confirmation message appears: "Bootstrap to '172.31.3.25' completed successfully!"

Type the following to check which version of CFEngine your are running:

/var/cfengine/bin/cf-promises --version
The Policy Server is now installed.

Step 3. Install Enterprise on host (client)

Ensure you are logged into the host machine setup earlier.
Install CFEngine client version using the following:

 code
$ wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/cfengine.packages/quick-install-cfengine-enterprise.sh && sudo bash ./quick-install-cfengine-enterprise.sh agent

Note: The installation will work on 64-bit and 32-bit client machines (the host requires a 64-bit machine).