Prerequisites
Installing a new package in the vHost image.

Prerequisites

You need to have Distrinet installed and configured. The master host is connected to the Internet.

NOTE:

Any Ubuntu or Debian based container should work with Distrinet, providing that it offers the following:

It has a listening SSHv2 server that allows root login with key authentication,

The root home directory is /root,

The telnet command is installed,

Net-tools is installed.

Optionnally the container should have the following packages installed:

iputils-ping

iperf 2

Installing a new package in the vHost image.

Check that all the hosts have the images installed

root@master:~# ansible all -m raw -a "lxc image ls"
10.0.0.247 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ALIAS  | FINGERPRINT  | PUBLIC |            DESCRIPTION             |  ARCH  |   SIZE   |         UPLOAD DATE          |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| switch | 5448ace25988 | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 278.98MB | Apr 20, 2020 at 2:21pm (UTC) |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ubuntu | f5a783211484 | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 267.68MB | Apr 20, 2020 at 2:21pm (UTC) |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+

10.0.1.110 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ALIAS  | FINGERPRINT  | PUBLIC |            DESCRIPTION             |  ARCH  |   SIZE   |         UPLOAD DATE          |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| switch | 5448ace25988 | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 278.98MB | Apr 20, 2020 at 2:21pm (UTC) |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ubuntu | f5a783211484 | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 267.68MB | Apr 20, 2020 at 2:21pm (UTC) |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
Shared connection to 10.0.1.110 closed.

Create a new network that allows the container to connect to the external network

root@master:~# lxc network create inetbr ipv6.address=none ipv4.address=10.0.10.1/24 ipv4.nat=true

Create a file that describes a new profile that attaches the container to the new network

vim profile.conf

Put the following lines in the file and save it

config: {}
description: inet  profile
devices:
  eth0:
    name: eth0
    nictype: bridged
    parent: inetbr
    type: nic
  root:
    path: /
    pool: default
    type: disk
name: inet
used_by: []

Create the new profile and edit it with the profile.conf file

root@master:~# lxc profile create inet 
root@master:~# lxc profile edit inet < profile.conf

Create a container with the basic Distrinet ubuntu image, using the new profile

root@master:~# lxc launch ubuntu new-ubuntu --profile inet

Access to the container

root@master:~# lxc exec new-ubuntu -- bash

Install and configure the software inside the container

root@new-ubuntu:~# INSTALL AND CONFIGURE YOUR APPLICATIONS
...
...
root@new-ubuntu:~# exit

NOTE: If you use another image than the one provided by Distrinet, make sure that required dependencies are installed and configured properly. The following example shows how to make a Debian 10 image from a vanilla Debian 10 LXC image.
root@master:~# lxc launch images:debian/buster debian10 --profile inet
root@master:~# lxc exec debian10 -- bash
root@debian10:~# apt update -y && apt install -y net-tools iputils-ping inetutils-telnet iperf openssh-server
root@debian10:~# exit

Stop the updated container

root@master:~# lxc stop new-ubuntu

Publish the new image.

root@master:~# lxc publish new-ubuntu --alias new-ubuntu
Container published with fingerprint: 73fa4e3f21dc9acd1bdc76228d39fe1d40880e32c425f78b3c950e8d2010b138

Check that the container is correctly published

root@master:~# lxc image ls
+------------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
|   ALIAS    | FINGERPRINT  | PUBLIC |            DESCRIPTION             |  ARCH  |   SIZE   |         UPLOAD DATE          |
+------------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| new-ubuntu | 73fa4e3f21dc | no     |                                    | x86_64 | 294.21MB | Apr 23, 2020 at 6:29pm (UTC) |
+------------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| switch     | 5448ace25988 | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 278.98MB | Apr 20, 2020 at 2:21pm (UTC) |
+------------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ubuntu     | f5a783211484 | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 267.68MB | Apr 20, 2020 at 2:21pm (UTC) |
+------------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+

Export the container and check that it is correctly exported in the .tar.gz

root@master:~# lxc image export new-ubuntu new-ubuntu
Image exported successfully!

root@master:~# ls new-ubuntu.tar.gz
new-ubuntu.tar.gz

Distribute the new image with Ansible

root@ip-10-0-0-247:~# ansible all -m copy -a "src=new-ubuntu.tar.gz dest=new-ubuntu.tar.gz"
10.0.0.247 | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "checksum": "0844f55a24b6c712448ab8dea475acfd5ee14a58",
    "dest": "new-ubuntu.tar.gz",
    "gid": 0,
    "group": "root",
    "mode": "0644",
    "owner": "root",
    "path": "new-ubuntu.tar.gz",
    "size": 308497878,
    "state": "file",
    "uid": 0
}
10.0.1.110 | CHANGED => {
    "changed": true,
    "checksum": "0844f55a24b6c712448ab8dea475acfd5ee14a58",
    "dest": "./new-ubuntu.tar.gz",
    "gid": 0,
    "group": "root",
    "md5sum": "06d7e4ee8e3213b234d56a122be070c5",
    "mode": "0644",
    "owner": "root",
    "size": 308497878,
    "src": "/root/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1587666876.21-5732-35780808233900/source",
    "state": "file",
    "uid": 0
}

Clean the image DB in all hosts (to avoid hash collisions)

root@master:~# lxc image delete new-ubuntu
root@master:~# ansible all -m raw -a "lxc image delete ubuntu"

Import the new image in all machines.

root@master:~# ansible all -m raw -a "lxc image import new-ubuntu.tar.gz --alias ubuntu --public"
10.0.1.110 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>
Shared connection to 10.0.1.110 closed.

10.0.0.247 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>
Image imported with fingerprint: 73fa4e3f21dc9acd1bdc76228d39fe1d40880e32c425f78b3c950e8d2010b138

root@master:~# ansible all -m raw -a "lxc image ls"
10.0.0.247 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ALIAS  | FINGERPRINT  | PUBLIC |            DESCRIPTION             |  ARCH  |   SIZE   |         UPLOAD DATE          |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| switch | 5448ace25988 | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 278.98MB | Apr 20, 2020 at 2:21pm (UTC) |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ubuntu | 73fa4e3f21dc | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 294.21MB | Apr 23, 2020 at 6:37pm (UTC) |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+

10.0.1.110 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ALIAS  | FINGERPRINT  | PUBLIC |            DESCRIPTION             |  ARCH  |   SIZE   |         UPLOAD DATE          |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| switch | 5448ace25988 | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 278.98MB | Apr 20, 2020 at 2:21pm (UTC) |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
| ubuntu | 73fa4e3f21dc | yes    | Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server (20190514) | x86_64 | 294.21MB | Apr 23, 2020 at 6:37pm (UTC) |
+--------+--------------+--------+------------------------------------+--------+----------+------------------------------+
Shared connection to 10.0.1.110 closed.

Now Distrinet will use the new image.

Table of contents

Prerequisites

Installing a new package in the vHost image.