Instance templates and setup actions

Instance template represent common configuration for instances, reusable across several instances. It is required to use an instance template to launch an instance. Instances stay linked to their instance template for their whole lifecycle.

What is configured through the instance templates includes, but is not limited to:

  • Identities able to SSH to the instance

  • Cloud credentials for the managed DSS

  • Installation of additional dependencies and ressources

  • Pre-baked and custom configurations for DSS

To create, edit and delete templates, head to the Instance templates in the left menu of FM. The following document explains each section of the configuration.

SSH Key

Use this field to enter a public SSH key that will be deployed on the instance. This is useful for admins to connect to the machine with SSH. This field is optional.

This key will be available on the centos account, i.e. you will be able to login as centos@DSS.HOST.IP

User-assigned managed identities

In most cases, your DSS instances will require Azure credentials in order to operate. These credentials will be used notably to integrate with ACR and AKS

The recommended way to offer Azure credentials to DSS instance is the use of an User-Assigned Managed Identity.

Keep “restrict access to metadata server” enabled so that DSS end-users cannot access these credentials.

Atypical options

There may be some cases where you want setup to have additional permissions at startup time (see setup actions).

If that’s needed, you can add a “Startup managed identity” that will only be available during startup and that will be replaced by the “Runtime managed identity” once startup is complete.

Setup actions

Setup actions are configuration steps ran by the agent. As a user, you create a list a setup actions you wish to see executed on the machine.

Setup Kubernetes and Spark-on-Kubernetes

This task takes no parameter and pre-configures DSS so you can use Kubernetes clusters and Spark integration with them. It prepares the base images and enables DSS Spark integration.

Install system packages

This setup action is a convenient way to install additional system packages on the machine should you need them. It takes a list of CentOS package names as only parameter.

Add authorized SSH keys

This setup action ensures the SSH public key passed as a parameter is present in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file of the default admin account. The default admin is the centos user with currently provided images.

Install a JDBC driver

Instances come pre-configured with drivers for PostgresSQL, MariaDB, Snowflake, AWS Athena and Google BigQuery. If you need another driver, this setup action eases the process. It can download a file by HTTP, HTTPS, from S3 bucket or from an ABS container.

Install JDBC Driver parameters

Parameter

Expected value

Database type
The type of database you will use.
This parameter has no actual effect, it is used for readability.

URL
This field expects the full address to the driver file or archive.

Download from HTTP(S) endpoint:
http(s)://hostname/path/to/file.(jar|tar.gz|zip)
Redirections are solved before download.

Download from a S3 bucket:
s3://BUCKET_NAME/OBJECT_NAME
Download from Azure Blob Storage:
abs://STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME/CONTAINER_NAME/OBJECT_NAME
Use a driver available on the machine:
file://path/to/file.(jar|tar.gz|zip)

Paths in archive
This field must be used when the driver is shipped as a tarball or a ZIP file.
Add here all the paths to find the JAR files in the driver archive.
Paths are relative to the top of the archive. Wildcards are supported.
Examples of paths:
*.jar

subdirA/*.jar
subdirB/*.jar

HTTP Headers

List of HTTP headers to add to the query. One header per line.

Header1: Value1
Header2: Value2

Parameter ignored for all other kinds of download.

HTTP Username
HTTP

If the endpoint expect Basic Authentication, use this parameter to specify the
user name.

Azure

If the instance have several Managed Identities, set the client_id of the
targeted one in this parameter.

To connect to Azure Blob Storage with a SAS Token (not recommended), set the
value of this parameter to token.

HTTP Password
HTTP

If the endpoint expect Basic Authentication, use this parameter to specify the
password.

Azure

To connect to Azure Blob Storage with a SAS Token (not recommended), store the
token value in this parameter.

Datadir subdirectory

For very specific use-cases only, we recommend to let it empty.

Run Ansible tasks

This setup action allows you to run arbitrary ansible tasks at different point of the startup process.

The Stage parameter specificies at which point of the startup sequence it must be executed. There is three stages:

  • Before DSS install: These tasks will be run before the agent installs (if not already installed) or upgrades (if required) DSS.

  • After DSS install: These tasks will be run once DSS is installed or upgraded, but not yet started.

  • After DSS is started: These tasks will be run once DSS is ready to receive public API calls from the agent.

The Ansible tasks allows you to Write a YAML list of ansible tasks as if they were written in a role. Available tasks are base Ansible tasks and Ansible modules for Dataiku DSS. When using Dataiku modules, it is not required to use the connection and authentication options. It is automatically handled by FM.

Some additional facts are available:

  • dataiku.dss.port

  • dataiku.dss.datadir

  • dataiku.dss.was_installed: Available only for stages After DSS install and After DSS startup

  • dataiku.dss.was_upgraded: Available only for stages After DSS install and After DSS startup

  • dataiku.dss.api_key: Available only for stage After DSS startup

Example:

---
- dss_group:
    name: datascienceguys
- dss_user:
    login: dsadmin
    password: verylongbutinsecurepassword
    groups: [datascienceguys]

Ansible is ran with the unix user held by the agent, and can run administrative tasks with become.