Deploy Jumphost

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

Create Cloud-Init: needed to bootstrap JumpHost VM on Nutanix AHV using OpenTofu
Create Jumphost VM: needed to remotely connect and run deployment workflows accessible to Nutanix Infrastructure.
Deploy Nutanix AI Utils: needed to bootstrap, monitor and troubleshoot Nutanix Cloud-Native AI applications using Gitops across fleet of Nutanix Kubernetes Clusters.

stateDiagram-v2
    direction LR

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

    PrepWorkstation --> DeployJumpHost 
    DeployJumpHost --> DeployNkp : Next Section (Option A)
    DeployJumpHost --> DeployNke : Next Section (Option B)

Prerequisites

OpenTofu cli, see installation instructions here.
Existing Nutanix AHV Subnet configured with IPAM
SSH Public Key needed for initial cloud-init bootstrapping
- On MacOS/Linux machine, see Generate a SSH Key on Linux example.
- On Windows machine, see Generate a SSH Key on Windows example.

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 22.04 LTS

Minimum System Requirements:

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

Create Jump Host VM

In the following section, we will create a Jump Host VM on Nutanix AHV using both Visual Studio Code (VSCode) and OpenTofu.

Open VSCode, Go to File -> New Window , Click on Open Folder and create new workspace folder (i.e., tofu-workspace).
In VSCode Explorer pane, Click on New Folder and name it: jumphost-vm
In the jumphost-vm folder, click on New File with the following name
```
cloud-init.yaml
```

Paste the following contents inside the file:

cloud-init.yaml

#cloud-config
hostname: nai-llm-jumphost
package_update: true
package_upgrade: true
package_reboot_if_required: true
packages:
  - open-iscsi
  - nfs-common
runcmd:
  - systemctl stop ufw && systemctl disable ufw
users:
  - default
  - name: ubuntu
    groups: sudo
    shell: /bin/bash
    sudo:
      - 'ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL'
    ssh-authorized-keys: 
    - ssh-rsa XXXXXX.... # (1)

Copy and paste the contents of your ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file or any public key file that you wish to use.

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.

Warning

If needed, make sure to update the target hostname and copy / paste the value of the RSA public key in the cloudinit.yaml file.

In VSCode Explorer, within the jumphost-vm folder, click on New File and create a config file with the following name:

jumphostvm_config.yaml

Update Nutanix environment access details along with any Jump Host VM configurations. See example file for details

Template fileExample file

jumphostvm_config.yaml

endpoint: "PC FQDN"
user: "PC user"                  
password: "PC password"          
cluster_name: "PE Cluster Name"  
subnet_name: "PE subnet"  
name: "nai-llm-jumphost"
num_vcpus_per_socket: "4"
num_sockets: "2"
memory_size_mib: 16384
disk_size_mib: 307200
source_uri: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04/release/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"

jumphostvm_config.yaml

endpoint: "pc.example.com"    # < Change to PC endpoint >
user: "user01"                # < Change to PC admin user> 
password: "XXXXXXXX"          # < Change to PC admin pass>
cluster_name: "mypecluster"   # < Change to PE element cluster name >
subnet_name: "VLAN.20"        # < Change to PE element subnet name >
name: "nai-llm-jumphost" # (1)!
num_vcpus_per_socket: "4"
num_sockets: "2"
memory_size_mib: 16384
disk_size_mib: 307200
source_uri: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/24.04/release/ubuntu-24.04-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"

make sure to update hostname with same name defined within cloudinit.yaml.

Tip

If you are using a Mac and pbcopy utility as suggested in the previous command's tip window, Cmd+v will paste the contents of clipboard to the console.

In VSCode Explorer pane, navigate to the jumphost-vm folder, click on New File and create a opentofu manifest file with the following name:

jumphostvm.tf

with the following content:

jumphostvm.tf

terraform {
  required_providers {
    nutanix = {
      source  = "nutanix/nutanix"
      version = "1.9.5"
    }
  }
}

locals {
  config = yamldecode(file("${path.module}/jumphostvm_config.yaml"))
}

data "nutanix_cluster" "cluster" {
  name = local.config.cluster_name
}
data "nutanix_subnet" "subnet" {
  subnet_name = local.config.subnet_name
}

provider "nutanix" {
  username     = local.config.user
  password     = local.config.password
  endpoint     = local.config.endpoint
  insecure     = true
  wait_timeout = 60
}

resource "nutanix_image" "machine-image" {
  name        = element(split("/", local.config.source_uri), length(split("/", local.config.source_uri)) - 1)
  description = "opentofu managed image"
  source_uri  = local.config.source_uri
}

resource "nutanix_virtual_machine" "nai-llm-jumphost" {
  name                 = local.config.name
  cluster_uuid         = data.nutanix_cluster.cluster.id
  num_vcpus_per_socket = local.config.num_vcpus_per_socket
  num_sockets          = local.config.num_sockets
  memory_size_mib      = local.config.memory_size_mib
  guest_customization_cloud_init_user_data = base64encode(file("${path.module}/cloud-init.yaml"))
  disk_list {
    data_source_reference = {
      kind = "image"
      uuid = nutanix_image.machine-image.id
    }
    disk_size_mib = local.config.disk_size_mib
  }
  nic_list {
    subnet_uuid = data.nutanix_subnet.subnet.id
  }

  depends_on = [nutanix_image.machine-image]
}

output "nai-llm-jumphost-ip-address" {
  value = nutanix_virtual_machine.nai-llm-jumphost.nic_list_status[0].ip_endpoint_list[0].ip
  description = "IP address of the Jump Host vm"
}

Open a terminal within VSCode, Terminal > New Terminal

Initialize and Validate your tofu code

tofu -chdir=tofu-workspace/jumphost-vm init -upgrade

tofu -chdir=tofu-workspace/jumphost-vm validate

Apply your tofu code to create Jump Host VM
```
tofu -chdir=tofu-workspace/jumphost-vm apply 
```
Type yes to confirm
Obtain the IP address of the Jump Host VM from the Tofu output
```
Outputs:

nai-llm-jumphost-ip-address = "10.x.x.x"
```

Run the Terraform state list command to verify what resources have been created

tofu state list

# Sample output for the above command

data.nutanix_cluster.cluster              # < This is your existing Prism Element cluster
data.nutanix_subnet.subnet                # < This is your existing primary subnet
nutanix_image.machine-image               # < This is the image file for `Jump Host` VM
nutanix_virtual_machine.nai-llm-jumphost  # < This is the `Jump Host` VM

Validate that the Jump Host VM is accessible using VSCode > Terminal

CommandCommand Sample

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa ubuntu@<ip-address-from-tofu-output>

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa ubuntu@10.x.x.171

Initiate Remote-SSH Connection to Jumpbox using VSCode

In VSCode, click on Settings menu icon (gear icon) > Settings > Extensions
In the search window search for Remote SSH
Install the Remote-SSH Extension from VSCode Marketplace
click on the Install button for the extenstion.
From your workstation, open Visual Studio Code.
Click View > Command Palette.
Click on + Add New SSH Host and t
Type ssh ubuntu@jumphost_VM-IP-ADDRESS>and hit Enter.

Select the location to update the config file.

Mac/LinuxWindows

/Users/<your-username>/.ssh/config

C:\\Users\\<your-username>\\.ssh\\config

Open the ssh config file on your workstation to verify the contents. It should be similar to the following content
```
Host jumphost
    HostName 10.x.x.x # (1)!
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa # (2)!
    User ubuntu
```
1. This is Jumphost VM IP address
2. This would be the path to RSA private key generated in the previous JumpHost section
Now that we have saved the ssh credentials, we are able to connect to the jumphost VM

Connect to you Jumpbox using VSCode

On VSCode, Click View > Command Palette and Connect to Host
Select the IP address of your Jump Host VM
A New Window will open in VSCode
Click the Explorer button from the left-hand toolbar and select Open Folder.
Provide the $HOME/ as the folder you want to open and click on OK.

Note

Ensure that bin is NOT highlighted otherwise the editor will attempt to autofill /bin/. You can avoid this by clicking in the path field before clicking OK.

Warning

The connection may take up to 1 minute to display the root folder structure of the jumphost VM.
Accept any warning message about trusting the author of the folder

Install Utilities on Jumphost VM

We have compiled a list of utilities that needs to be installed on the jumphost VM to use for the rest of the lab. We have affectionately called it as nai-llm utilities. Use the following method to install these utilities:

Using VSCode, open Terminal on the Jump Host VM
Install devbox using the following command and accept all defaults
```
curl -fsSL https://get.jetpack.io/devbox | bash
```

From the $HOME directory, clone the sol-cnai-infra git repo and change working directory

git clone https://github.com/nutanix-japan/sol-cnai-infra.git
cd $HOME/sol-cnai-infra/

Start the devbox shell. If nix isn't available, you will be prompted to install:
```
devbox init
devbox shell
```

Run Post VM Create - Workstation Bootstrapping tasks

sudo snap install task --classic
task ws:install-packages ws:load-dotfiles --yes -d $HOME/sol-cnai-infra/
source ~/.bashrc

Change working directory and see Task help

cd $HOME/sol-cnai-infra/ && task

# command output
task: bootstrap:silent

Silently initializes cluster configs, git local/remote & fluxcd

See README.md for additional details on Getting Started

To see list of tasks, run `task --list` or `task --list-all`

dependencies:
- bootstrap:default

commands:
- Task: bootstrap:generate_local_configs
- Task: bootstrap:verify-configs
- Task: bootstrap:generate_cluster_configs
- Task: nke:download-creds 
- Task: flux:init

Setup Docker on Jumphost

From VSC, logon to your jumpbox VM
Open VSC Terminal
Run the following commands to install docker binaries
```
cd $HOME/sol-cnai-infra/; devbox init; devbox shell
task workstation:install-docker
```
Tip

Restart the jumpbox host if ubuntu user has permission issues using docker commands.

Now the jumphost VM is ready with all the tools to deploy other sections on this site.