BoltDynamicInventory

A Bolt inventory generator for VMs on various providers including orbstack and vmpooler.

Prerequisites

System Dependencies

• Ruby (version 2.7 or later)
• nmap (required for VMPooler connectivity filtering). For example, brew install nmap
• floaty (required for VMPooler). For example, gem install floaty.
• bolt

Usage

Quick Start

This bolt_dynamic_inventory gem queries either VMPooler or Orbstack and generates a Bolt inventory. It can be used in 2 ways:

• as a gem. For more information see How to use as a gem.
• as a bolt dynamic inventory plugin. For more information see How to use as a bolt dynamic plugin.

This repository also explains How to create a basic dynamic inventory plugin.

References

For a complete listing of various how-to guides and design decisions, see the documentation. The following list is a good place to start.

Getting Started

• How to setup the environment
• How to use as a gem
• How to use as a bolt dynamic plugin
• How to use the role fact
• How to create a basic dynamic inventory plugin

Provider Guides

• How to create and remove orbstack VMs from the command-line
• How to setup windows credentials for vmpooler
• How to Test VMPooler Inventory Features

Design Decisions

• ADR-0001 - Extend this gem to be a bolt inventory dynamic plugin also
• ADR-0002 - Configure bolt inventory with native ssh to keep things simple
• ADR-0003 - Gather inventory metadata via the cli to keep things simple
• ADR-0004 - Create dynamic inventory groups based on hostname regex patterns
• ADR-0005 - Add 'role' fact that matches the group name making puppet switching easier
• ADR-0006 - Extend the plugin to handle not only orbstack but vmpooler as well
• ADR-0007 - Use nmap SSH port scan for VMPooler VM connectivity filtering
• ADR-0008 - Query both ABS and vmpooler services to find all active VMs
• ADR-0009 - Cache VM data with smart TTL-based invalidation
• ADR-0010 - Surface unavailable VMs in a dedicated group instead of silently dropping

How-To Guides

• How to create a basic dynamic inventory plugin
• How to create and remove orbstack VMs from the command-line
• How to setup the environment
• How to setup windows credentials for vmpooler
• How to Test VMPooler Inventory Features
• How to use as a bolt dynamic plugin
• How to use as a gem
• How to use the role fact