Chapter 15. Using the validation framework

Red Hat OpenStack Platform includes a validation framework that you can use to verify the requirements and functionality of the undercloud and overcloud. The framework includes two types of validations:

  • Manual Ansible-based validations, which you execute through the openstack tripleo validator command set.
  • Automatic in-flight validations, which execute during the deployment process.

You must understand which validations you want to run, and skip validations that are not relevant to your environment. For example, the pre-deployment validation includes a test for TLS-everywhere. If you do not intend to configure your environment for TLS-everywhere, this test fails. Use the --validation option in the openstack tripleo validator run command to refine the validation according to your environment.

15.1. Ansible-based validations

During the installation of Red Hat OpenStack Platform director, director also installs a set of playbooks from the openstack-tripleo-validations package. Each playbook contains tests for certain system requirements and a set of groups that define when to run the test:

no-op
Validations that run a no-op (no operation) task to verify to workflow functions correctly. These validations run on both the undercloud and overcloud.
prep
Validations that check the hardware configuration of the undercloud node. Run these validation before you run the openstack undercloud install command.
openshift-on-openstack
Validations that check that the environment meets the requirements to be able to deploy OpenShift on OpenStack.
pre-introspection
Validations to run before the nodes introspection using Ironic Inspector.
pre-deployment
Validations to run before the openstack overcloud deploy command.
post-deployment
Validations to run after the overcloud deployment has finished.
pre-upgrade
Validations to validate your OpenStack deployment before an upgrade.
post-upgrade
Validations to validate your OpenStack deployment after an upgrade.

15.2. Listing validations

Run the openstack tripleo validator list command to list the different types of validations available.

Procedure

  1. Source the stackrc file. 

    $ source ~/stackrc

  2. Run the openstack tripleo validator list command:

    • To list all validations, run the command without any options: 

      $ openstack tripleo validator list

    • To list validations in a group, run the command with the --group option: 

      $ openstack tripleo validator list --group prep
Note

For a full list of options, run openstack tripleo validator list --help.

15.3. Running validations

To run a validation or validation group, use the openstack tripleo validator run command. To see a full list of options, use the openstack tripleo validator run --help command.

Procedure

  1. Source the stackrc file: 

    $ source ~/stackrc

  2. Create and validate a static inventory file called inventory.yaml. 

    $ tripleo-ansible-inventory --static-yaml-inventory inventory.yaml
$ openstack tripleo validator run  --group pre-introspection -i inventory.yaml

  3. Enter the openstack tripleo validator run command:

    • To run a single validation, enter the command with the --validation option and the name of the validation. For example, to check the undercloud memory requirements, enter --validation check-ram: 

      $ openstack tripleo validator run --validation check-ram

      If the overcloud uses a plan name that is different to the default overcloud name, set the plan name with the --plan option: 

      $ openstack tripleo validator run --validation check-ram --plan myovercloud

      To run multiple specific validations, use the --validation option with a comma-separated list of the validations that you want to run. For more information about viewing the list of available validations, see Listing validations.

    • To run all validations in a group, enter the command with the --group option: 

      $ openstack tripleo validator run --group prep

      To view detailed output from a specific validation, run the openstack tripleo validator show run --full command against the UUID of the specific validation from the report: 

      $ openstack tripleo validator show run --full <UUID>

15.4. Viewing validation history

Director saves the results of each validation after you run a validation or group of validations. View past validation results with the openstack tripleo validator show history command.

Prerequisites

  • You have run a validation or group of validations.

Procedure

  1. Source the stackrc file: 

    $ source ~/stackrc

  2. View a list of all validations: 

    $ openstack tripleo validator show history

    To view history for a specific validation type, run the same command with the --validation option: 

    $ openstack tripleo validator show history --validation ntp

  3. View the log for a specific validation UUID with the openstack tripleo validator show run --full command: 

    $ openstack tripleo validator show run --full 7380fed4-2ea1-44a1-ab71-aab561b44395

15.5. Validation framework log format

After you run a validation or group of validations, director saves a JSON-formatted log from each validation in the /var/logs/validations directory. You can view the file manually or use the openstack tripleo validator show run --full command to display the log for a specific validation UUID.

Each validation log file follows a specific format:

  • <UUID>_<Name>_<Time>

    UUID
    The Ansible UUID for the validation.
    Name
    The Ansible name for the validation.
    Time
    The start date and time for when you ran the validation.

Each validation log contains three main parts:

plays

The plays section contains information about the tasks that the director performed as part of the validation:

play
A play is a group of tasks. Each play section contains information about that particular group of tasks, including the start and end times, the duration, the host groups for the play, and the validation ID and path.
tasks
The individual Ansible tasks that director runs to perform the validation. Each tasks section contains a hosts section, which contains the action that occurred on each individual host and the results from the execution of the actions. The tasks section also contains a task section, which contains the duration of the task.

stats

The stats section contains a basic summary of the outcome of all tasks on each host, such as the tasks that succeeded and failed.

validation_output

If any tasks failed or caused a warning message during a validation, the validation_output contains the output of that failure or warning.

15.6. In-flight validations

Red Hat OpenStack Platform includes in-flight validations in the templates of composable services. In-flight validations verify the operational status of services at key steps of the overcloud deployment process.

In-flight validations run automatically as part of the deployment process. Some in-flight validations also use the roles from the openstack-tripleo-validations package.