Incomplete commands and configuration options on VNC configuration with novnc

Bug #988978 reported by Marco CONSONNI
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
openstack-manuals
Fix Released
Undecided
Tom Fifield

Bug Description

I was able to install Horizon following instructions here http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/openstack-compute/install/content/ch_install-dashboard.html

After that, I found the instructions for configuring VNC here http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/openstack-compute/install/content/ch_install-dashboard.html

I decided to install the NOVNC option that allows connecting to instances through a web browser and, consequently, through Horizon, the dashboard.

These are step I took and why:

1)
 I didn't install nova-consoleauth (command sudo apt-get install nova-consoleauth) because this is already done here http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/openstack-compute/install/content/installing-the-cloud-controller.html. Please note that originally nova-consoleauth was not installed at this point but, according to a bug I submitted, the instruction was added. I submitted the bug because in a subsequent step I found that command "nova-manage service list" displayed the status of nova-consoleauth so I thought that this component needed installation. Very likely, the inconsistency was due to the fact that the command result was reported after the installation of such a component...

NO BUG HERE

2)
Then I jumped to the instructions starting with sentence "To use this nova-novncproxy" and, I found a bug: after submitting command "git clone http://github.com/cloudbuilders/noVNC.git" you need to do "cd noVNC" and then do the two remaining commands "git checkout vnc_redux" and "utils/nova-novncproxy --flagfile=[path to flagfile]"

BUG: need to add "cd noVNC"

3)
I restarted all the services and I followed the instructions starting with "Accessing a VNC console through a web browser" but I got a bad result:

+-------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Type | Url |
+-------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| novnc | http://127.0.0.1:6080/vnc_auto.html?token=461aec4c-a7c1-43a9-a64c-7764dbc08996 |
+-------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The address in the URL contains a "bad" address (127.0.0.1:6080) that cannot be used outside the controller and what's worse is that it makes Horizon not work.
In order to fix the problem I added "novncproxy_base_url=http://<myIPAddress>:6080/vnc_auto.html" to nova.conf.

BUG: add "novncproxy_base_url=http://<myIPAddress>:6080/vnc_auto.html" to nova.conf.

Conclusion: by fixing the two bugs shown above, I was able to run VNC.

--------------

However, I found out more.

Instead of downloading the code as shown at step 2 above, I found out that I get the same result by installing novnc from the package.

I did the following:

"apt-get install novnc"

This installs nova-novncproxy service that, as far as I understand, is the same thing as what you get with step 2) above with the advantage that you don't need to manually run the executable, as reported there.

Also in this case, the configuration reported in the document AND the bug fixing I reported at step 3) are needed.

Revision history for this message
Marco CONSONNI (marco-consonni) wrote :

Let me add my conclusion, I forgot to do that...

In case the novnc installation I made with command "apt-get install novnc" is fine (actually it works, but I'm not sure there are other "contraindications" I don't know), I would put that in the document: it's easier and, very likely, more correct because nova-novncproxy is installed as a serviceand, for example, it automatically restarts at reboot.

In addition, I would suggest some content re-arrangement in that paragraph because the commands related to the other VNC access (via java thick client) do not seem to be very related to the dashboard (the component which this chapter is dedicated to).

Tom Fifield (fifieldt)
Changed in openstack-manuals:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Tom Fifield (fifieldt) wrote :

Hi,

Thanks for the report!

I have submitted a fix for point #2 at: https://review.openstack.org/#/c/6858/

However, regarding the nova.conf flag in point #3, I can see this text in the manual:

o enable vncproxy in your cloud, in addition to running one or both of the proxies and nova-consoleauth, you need to configure the following options on your compute hosts.
.....
    novncproxy_base_url=[base url for client connections] defaults to http://127.0.0.1:6080/vnc_auto.html. This is the public base url to which clients will connect. ?token=abc will be added to this url for the purposes of auth. When using the system as described in this document, an appropriate value is http://$SERVICE_HOST:6080/vnc_auto.html where SERVICE_HOST is a public hostname.

Is it possible that you just missed this ?

Regards,

Tom

Tom Fifield (fifieldt)
Changed in openstack-manuals:
status: Confirmed → In Progress
Revision history for this message
Marco CONSONNI (marco-consonni) wrote :

Hi Tom,

yeah, I very likely missed that.
Sorry about that.

Ciao.

Tom Fifield (fifieldt)
Changed in openstack-manuals:
assignee: nobody → Tom Fifield (fifieldt)
Revision history for this message
OpenStack Infra (hudson-openstack) wrote : Fix merged to openstack-manuals (master)

Reviewed: https://review.openstack.org/6858
Committed: http://github.com/openstack/openstack-manuals/commit/d934bb0d919599a3a3d51fd9cca6f31eff25b779
Submitter: Jenkins
Branch: master

commit d934bb0d919599a3a3d51fd9cca6f31eff25b779
Author: Tom Fifield <email address hidden>
Date: Fri Apr 27 17:58:10 2012 +1000

    bug 988978 fix noVNC install doc

    Change-Id: I0e041c6c717e92c85bea15b8552a4718f6096ab6

Changed in openstack-manuals:
status: In Progress → Fix Committed
Tom Fifield (fifieldt)
Changed in openstack-manuals:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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