setup-scripts

name	setup-scripts
description	Guide for editing setup-automation scripts (setup-vscode.sh, setup-containerlab.sh, setup-control.sh) and the workshop content structure. Use when modifying setup scripts, debugging VM boot issues, changing exercise files, or working with the network-workshop directory.

Setup Scripts & Workshop Content Guide

VM Environment Constraints

rhel-9.6 (vscode VM)

This is a bare base image. It has almost nothing pre-installed:

• No git — download repo via GitHub tarball: curl -sL https://github.com/.../archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz | tar xz -C /tmp
• No podman — requires RHSM registration first, then dnf install
• No dnf repos — must register with subscription-manager using REG_USER/REG_PASS env vars before any dnf install
• No pip — install via curl -sL https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3
• No ansible-navigator — install via pip as the rhel user with --user flag

ansiblebu-containerlab-v2 (containerlab VM)

• Has containerlab, podman pre-installed
• Has stale /etc/hosts entries from image build — always delete and rewrite rtr1-4 entries, never trust a grep guard
• No deployer-managed SSH keys (all VMs are isolated) — must generate keys and push via sshpass

aap-2.6-2-ceh (control VM)

• Has AAP, podman pre-installed
• Needs registry login for registry.redhat.io EE images
• Waits for SSH key from containerlab before running lab-automation

Script Execution Order Matters

setup-vscode.sh

1. code-server install + config
2. sudoers + loginctl enable-linger
3. RHSM register → dnf install git, podman, sshpass
4. Download repo tarball
5. Install bundled RPMs (fallback/extras)
6. Copy exercise files to ~rhel/network-workshop
7. Install pip → ansible-navigator
8. PATH setup (~/.local/bin)
9. Pre-pull network EE
10. Router SSH access wrappers
11. chown fix on ~/.config and ~/.local

Key ordering rules:

• RHSM + dnf before anything that needs podman/git/sshpass
• Bundled RPMs after tarball download (they're in the repo)
• chown -R rhel:rhel ~/.config ~/.local at the end (script runs as root and creates dirs that rhel user needs to own)
• loginctl enable-linger before any podman usage (prevents cgroupv2 systemd warnings)

setup-containerlab.sh

1. Clone repo
2. Install bundled RPMs (must be before push_ssh_key — needs sshpass)
3. Generate SSH key + push to control (via sshpass, not sudo -u ssh)
4. Router access (/etc/hosts, SSH config, wrappers, profile.d)

Key ordering rules:

• install_rpms before push_ssh_key_to_control (sshpass needed)
• /etc/hosts entries: always sed -i '/rtr[1-4]/d' then append (never use grep guard — stale image entries fool it)
• SSH config needs Hostname directives per router (not just User)

Credentials & Environment Variables

Variable	Used By	Purpose
REG_USER	control (registry), vscode (RHSM)	Red Hat account username
REG_PASS	control (registry), vscode (RHSM)	Red Hat account password
CONTROLLER_PASSWORD	control	AAP admin password
GATEWAY_HOSTNAME	control	AAP gateway URL
GUID	control, ui-config	Unique lab instance ID
DOMAIN	control, ui-config	Base domain for routes

Workshop Content Structure

What goes on the vscode server (~/network-workshop/)

network-workshop/
├── .ansible-navigator.yml    ← navigator config (inventory, EE image)
├── playbook.yml              ← provided for exercise 2 (SNMP config)
├── lab_inventory/hosts       ← inventory with rtr1-4 via containerlab ports
├── 1-explore/                ← exercise READMEs + images
├── 2-first-playbook/         ← exercise READMEs only
├── 3-facts/                  ← READMEs + facts.yml (answer key)
└── 4-resource-module/        ← READMEs + resource/gathered/multivendor.yml

Rules:

• Only playbook.yml at top level — it's the "provided" playbook for exercise 2
• Answer key playbooks stay inside their exercise folders only
• .ansible-navigator.yml must NOT have /etc/ansible/ volume mount (doesn't exist on rhel-9.6)

AAP job templates (bootstrapped by lab-automation)

• Network-Restore is created dynamically by the backup job, NOT pre-provisioned. The bootstrap deletes both "Network-Restore" and "Network Automation - Restore" to prevent duplicates.

Testing Setup Scripts on a Live VM

Run the latest script without redeploying:

curl -sL https://github.com/rhpds/zt-network-automation-workshop/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz | tar xz -C /tmp
sudo bash /tmp/zt-network-automation-workshop-main/setup-automation/setup-vscode.sh
cat /tmp/progress.log

The script is idempotent — RPMs skip if installed, pip skips satisfied deps, code-server detects existing install.

Debugging Boot Failures

1. Check /tmp/progress.log on the failing VM
2. Common failure points:
   • "No private key found" → SSH key gen/push failed (check sshpass)
   • "Could not resolve hostname rtrX" → /etc/hosts not written
   • "container engine could not be found: podman" → RHSM not registered
   • "Permission denied: ~/.local" → missing chown after root operations
   • "Port and url not defined" → type: vs url: mistake in ui-config