-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ceph-users] Re: cephadm without containers
From: John Mulligan
To: ceph-users
Date: 11/21/2025, 8:27:43 PM

Hi!

There *are* a lot of options to bootstrap.  A quick and dirty grep counts
around 47 options that are unique to bootstrap (it didn't count global
options). However, environment variables strike me as a bit unwieldy. What
would your opinion of a configuration file be instead?  Are there benefits to
environment variables over a configuration file that I'm overlooking?
well, easy of use, and easy knowledge intake.
e.g --mon-addrv
as env var would be enough to have an hypothetical CEPHENV_MON_ADDRV
with the clear information of : put as value the list of host:port monitors
split-ed by comma
as configuration file: where should be this configuration placed? and with
what name? what content format does it have? can it be modular?
(to enable configuration by dropped-in files)

So, basically it boils down to the easy knowledge to do something ..
i'm struggling to understand what get configured where and the only tip
that i found so far is 
https://docs.ceph.com/en/squid/dev/config-key/#configuration

I did not find so far a template configuration with content explained and with
an example format.

i found also 
https://docs.ceph.com/en/squid/cephadm/services/#service-specification
which seems to indicate that for configuration of a service one need to create
a temporary yml and then apply it
and then 
https://docs.ceph.com/en/squid/cephadm/services/#retrieving-the-running-service-specification
show an easy way to get current configuration and then apply it
but i'm not sure how can this be used for a client configuration.

2. the second pain point is that the cephadm does not act remotely ..
it could be really useful to add a --host argument and to act through ssh on
the remote host

The cephadm binary is a bit stretched now (IMO). It acts as both something
users are expected to interact with as well as the backend for lower level
deployment operations. I think it makes it a bit harder for it to act as a
general administration tool.

For now I suggest just sticking to `ssh user@host cephadm ...` and/or tools
like ansible to invoke the cephadm version installed on the particular host.
i see, got it, i can template something for this ..

For tasks that need just the ceph command, I have a toy (protoype) tool that
you might find interesting: https://github.com/ceph/ceph/pull/66061
It allows the use of (the equivalent of) cephadm shell outside of the ceph
cluster admin nodes. If I hear people are interested in this, it will motivate
me to work on it more :-)
Do note that it's so much of a prototype you do have to check out a branch and
build it yourself if you want to try it in action, but the PR should describe
what it can do sufficiently (I hope).
Nice! yeah, it actually check what i felt the need for!!!
i will try it out and let you know how it feels or any other feedback
Thanks a lot!!


3. documentation : explanation of arguments is missing
for example for cephadm deploy
--name NAME where NAME should be type.id
i get the type which maybe i can get a list, but what is id?
an index, number? if it's an index, cannot cephadm enumerate it
automatically and just put it?
i.e i want to deploy alert mananager that would be the 6th service
in cluster, so automatically the name could be alertmanager.6 ?

--config and --config-json can be inferred that they are expecting a
filepath  but what about --keyring and --key ?
some kind of example and structure of names should be shown or linked
what content/information is present in the name of the key?
is it arbitrary?

Yes there a a lot of help texts that can be improved. Please consider filing
individual tracker tickets for these items. Putting them in the tracker makes
it easier to find in the future and adding them individually makes it easy for
leads to assign them as tasks for Jr devs (good first issue type stuff), for
example.
tracker tickets mean this? https://github.com/ceph/ceph.io/issues ?

Thanks a lot!
Adrian

Attachment: smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature

_______________________________________________
ceph-users mailing list -- [email protected]
To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]

Reply via email to