bootstrap-vz is a bootstrapping framework for Debian that creates ready-to-boot images able to run on a number of cloud providers and virtual machines. bootstrap-vz runs without any user intervention and generates images for the following virtualization platforms:

• Amazon AWS EC2 (supports both HVM and PVM; S3 and EBS backed; used for official Debian images; Quick start)
• Docker (Quick start)
• Google Compute Engine (used by Google for official Debian images)
• KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine)
• Microsoft Azure
• Oracle Compute Cloud Service (used for official Debian images)
• Oracle VirtualBox (with Vagrant support)

Its aim is to provide a reproducible bootstrapping process using manifests as well as supporting a high degree of customizability through plugins.

The documentation for bootstrap-vz is available at bootstrap-vz.readthedocs.org. There, you can discover what the dependencies for a specific cloud provider are, see a list of available plugins and learn how you create a manifest.

Note to developers: The shared documentation links on github and readthedocs are transformed in a rather peculiar and nifty way.

bootstrap-vz has a master branch into which stable feature branches are merged.

After checking out the branch of your choice you can install the python dependencies by running python setup.py install. However, depending on what kind of image you'd like to bootstrap, there are other debian package dependencies as well, at the very least you will need debootstrap. The documentation explains this in more detail.

Note that bootstrap-vz will tell you which tools it requires when they aren't present (the different packages are mentioned in the error message), so you can simply run bootstrap-vz once to get a list of the packages, install them, and then re-run.

Here are a few quickstart tutorials for the most common images. If you plan on partitioning your volume, you will need the parted package and kpartx:

root@host:~# apt-get install parted kpartx

Note that you can always abort a bootstrapping process by pressing Ctrl+C, bootstrap-vz will then initiate a cleanup/rollback process, where volumes are detached/deleted and temporary files removed, pressing Ctrl+C a second time shortcuts that procedure, halts the cleanup and quits the process.

user@host:~$ sudo -i # become root
root@host:~# git clone https://github.com/andsens/bootstrap-vz.git # Clone the repo
root@host:~# apt-get install debootstrap python-pip docker.io # Install dependencies from aptitude
root@host:~# pip install termcolor jsonschema fysom docopt pyyaml pyrfc3339 # Install python dependencies
root@host:~# bootstrap-vz/bootstrap-vz bootstrap-vz/manifests/examples/docker/jessie-minimized.yml

The resulting image should be no larger than 82 MB (81.95 MB to be exact). The manifest jessie-minimized.yml uses the minimize_size plugin to reduce the image size considerably. Rather than installing docker from the debian main repo it is recommended to install the latest docker version.

user@host:~$ sudo -i # become root
root@host:~# git clone https://github.com/andsens/bootstrap-vz.git # Clone the repo
root@host:~# apt-get install qemu-utils debootstrap python-pip # Install dependencies from aptitude
root@host:~# pip install termcolor jsonschema fysom docopt pyyaml # Install python dependencies
root@host:~# modprobe nbd max_part=16
root@host:~# bootstrap-vz/bootstrap-vz bootstrap-vz/manifests/examples/virtualbox/jessie-vagrant.yml

(The modprobe nbd max_part=16 part enables the network block device driver to support up to 16 partitions on a device)

If you want to use the minimize_size plugin, you will have to install the zerofree package and VMWare Workstation as well.

user@host:~$ sudo -i # become root
root@host:~# git clone https://github.com/andsens/bootstrap-vz.git # Clone the repo
root@host:~# apt-get install debootstrap python-pip # Install dependencies from aptitude
root@host:~# pip install termcolor jsonschema fysom docopt pyyaml boto3 json_minify # Install python dependencies
root@host:~# bootstrap-vz/bootstrap-vz bootstrap-vz/manifests/official/ec2/ebs-jessie-amd64-hvm.yml

To bootstrap S3 backed AMIs, bootstrap-vz will also need the euca2ools package. However, version 3.2.0 is required meaning you must install it directly from the eucalyptus repository like this:

apt-get install --no-install-recommends python-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev gcc zlib1g-dev
pip install git+git://github.com/eucalyptus/[email protected]

bootstrap-vz tries very hard to clean up after itself both if a run was successful but also if it failed. This ensures that you are not left with volumes still attached to the host which are useless. If an error occurred you can simply correct the problem that caused it and rerun everything, there will be no leftovers from the previous run (as always there are of course rare/unlikely exceptions to that rule). The error messages should always give you a strong hint at what is wrong, if that is not the case please consider opening an issue and attach both the error message and your manifest (preferably as a gist or similar).

bootstrap-vz has a number of dependencies depending on the target platform and the selected plugins. At a bare minimum the following python libraries are needed:

• termcolor
• fysom
• jsonschema
• docopt
• pyyaml

To bootstrap Debian itself debootstrap is needed as well.

Any other requirements are dependent upon the manifest configuration and are detailed in the corresponding sections of the documentation. Before the bootstrapping process begins however, bootstrap-vz will warn you if a requirement has not been met.

The API documentation, development guidelines and an explanation of bootstrap-vz internals can be found at bootstrap-vz.readthedocs.org.

Contribution guidelines are described in the documentation under Contributing. There's also a topic regarding the coding style.

bootstrap-vz was coded from scratch in python once the bash script architecture that was used in the build-debian-cloud bootstrapper reached its limits. The project has since grown well beyond its original goal, but has kept the focus on Debian images.