New Images: Ubuntu 22, CentOS 9, Rocky 9, FreeBSD 13 (dual UEFI/BIOS-bootable)

[David M. Johnson]

We are happy to announce several new standard images:

* Ubuntu 22 (UBUNTU22-64-STD,
urn:publicid:IDN+emulab.net+image+emulab-ops//UBUNTU22-64-STD)
* CentOS 9 Stream (CENTOS9S-64-STD,
urn:publicid:IDN+emulab.net+image+emulab-ops//CENTOS9S-64-STD)
* Rocky 9 (ROCKY9-64-STD,
urn:publicid:IDN+emulab.net+image+emulab-ops//ROCKY9-64-STD)
* FreeBSD 13 (FBSD132-64-STD,
urn:publicid:IDN+emulab.net+image+emulab-ops//FBSD132-64-STD).

These images feature a 64GB root filesystem in a new GPT partition
layout and will boot on UEFI firmware or BIOSes (see
https://gitlab.flux.utah.edu/emulab/emulab-devel/-/wikis/Dual-boot-UEFI-BIOS-Images
for more information).

*Important:* The UBUNTU22-64-STD image will become the new default
image for all node types (except the ibm8335 POWER8 node type) when we
deprecate UBUNTU18-64-STD, which we expect to do in June. Normally, we
would default to the current LTS, UBUNTU20-64-STD, but we are expecting
future node types to support only UEFI firmware boot (and have several
such node types already), so we want to encourage immediate use of a
standard image that can support both and boot on as many of our node
types as possible.

Key changes:

* 64GB root filesystem in a new GPT partition layout; boot on UEFI
firmware or BIOSes (see
https://gitlab.flux.utah.edu/emulab/emulab-devel/-/wikis/Dual-boot-UEFI-BIOS-Images
for more information).
* Linux images install the Emulab clientside software (i.e., our
analogue to `cloud-init`) via packages in our repositories at
https://repos.emulab.net, which makes it easier to upgrade and
maintain images for admins and users (more information at
https://gitlab.flux.utah.edu/emulab/emulab-devel/-/wikis/Emulab-Linux-Clientside-Packages).
Emulab features and configuration are spread across multiple
packages, so you have a bit more flexibility as to what is
installed. For instance, Ubuntu 22 supports both systemd-networkd
(the default) and NetworkManager for initial control network
configuration, so you can move to the latter if you have a
requirement for NetworkManager. You can install these packages on
old images as well if you like, and you will be prompted to
remove the old source installation, which you will want to agree to
do.
* CentOS 9 and Rocky 9 no longer support `systemd-networkd` in the
official release, so we have shifted them to `NetworkManager`.
* We have migrated to Xen 4.11 as the default VM image, and these new
images all run on our XEN411-64-STD image.

Architecture-specific notes:

* x86_64: the grub2 packages installed on Ubuntu 22 are rebuilds of a
newer version from Ubuntu 23 pre-release. This was necessary for
one of our UEFI node types with SEV enabled. If possible, we will
eventually migrate back to `jammy` stable packages in a future
version of this image, but the patch set that allows grub's
initramfs memory allocation to work is quite extensive. Similary,
our CentOS 9 Stream and Rocky Linux 9 images use a backported grub2
from Fedora 38.
* aarch64: there is an UBUNTU22-64-ARM image, and it is available via
the UBUNTU22-64-STD image alias.
* ppc64le: there will not be an UBUNTU22-PPC64LE (`ppc64le') image,
because Ubuntu shifted the baseline build to POWER9, so after Ubuntu
18 is deprecated, you will only have the UBUNTU20-PPC64LE image
available for use on the POWER8 `ibm8335` machines at Clemson

(https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2021-December/041740.html).

* The CentOS 9 and Rocky 9 images are only available for x86_64, as
was the case for prior CentOS images. Ubuntu images are the only
options for aarch64 and ppc64le.


Please let us know if you any comments or if you discover issues.

Thanks,

David

[David M Johnson]

On 5/8/23 15:21, David M. Johnson wrote:
> We are happy to announce several new standard images:
>
> * Ubuntu 22 (UBUNTU22-64-STD,
> urn:publicid:IDN+emulab.net+image+emulab-ops//UBUNTU22-64-STD)

> *Important:* The UBUNTU22-64-STD image will become the new default
> image for all node types (except the ibm8335 POWER8 node type) when we
> deprecate UBUNTU18-64-STD, which we expect to do in June. Normally, we
> would default to the current LTS, UBUNTU20-64-STD, but we are expecting
> future node types to support only UEFI firmware boot (and have several
> such node types already), so we want to encourage immediate use of a
> standard image that can support both and boot on as many of our node
> types as possible.

Update: the change to Ubuntu 22 as the default image for all node types
(except the ibm8335 ppc64le type) will occur *Thursday 6/29 at noon
MDT*. Currently-running experiments are not affected by this change; it
only affects experiments created after the change. Note that this only
affects profiles that do not specify an image for each node; those
profiles will then result in experiments with nodes running Ubuntu 22
instead of Ubuntu 18. Profiles that request specific images for each
node are not affected by this change. If you have profiles that do not
specify images, and do not want Ubuntu 22, please update your profiles
to use a specific image. If you have remaining profiles that use Ubuntu
18, we strongly encourage you to update them to Ubuntu 22 (for broadest
hardware compatibility) or Ubuntu 20.

David