backplane-cli

backplane-cli is a CLI tool to interact with backplane api.

Installation

Go should be installed in your local system with version 1.19

Option 1: Download from release

Download the latest binary from the GitHub releases page.

For example, to download the binary on Linux:

$ wget https://github.com/openshift/backplane-cli/releases/download/v0.1.1/ocm-backplane_0.1.1_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz
$ tar -xvzf ocm-backplane_0.1.1_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz
$ chmod +x ocm-backplane
$ mv ocm-backplane $GOBIN

Option 2: Build from source

First clone the repository somewhere in your $PATH. A common place would be within your $GOPATH.

Example:

$ mkdir $GOPATH/src/github.com/openshift
$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/openshift
$ git clone git@github.com/openshift/backplane-cli.git

$ make build

This command will build the backplane-cli binary, named ocm-backplane. This binary will be placed in $PATH. As the binary has prefix ocm-, it becomes a plugin of ocm, and can be invoked by ocm backplane.

For more information about ocm plugins, please refer https://github.com/openshift-online/ocm-cli#extend-ocm-with-plugins

Configuration

The configuration file of backplane-cli is expected to be located at $HOME/.config/backplane/config.json.

Setup bash/zsh prompt

To setup the PS1(prompt) for bash/zsh, please follow these instructions.

Usage

Command	Description
ocm backplane login <CLUSTERID/EXTERNAL_ID/CLUSTER_NAME>	Login to the target cluster
ocm backplane logout <CLUSTERID/EXTERNAL_ID/CLUSTER_NAME>	Logout from the target cluster
ocm backplane config get [flags]	Retrieve Backplane CLI configuration variables
ocm backplane config set [flags]	Set Backplane CLI configuration variables
ocm backplane console [flags]	Launch the OpenShift console of the current logged in cluster
ocm backplane cloud console	Launch the current logged in cluster's cloud provider console
ocm backplane cloud credentials [flags]	Retrieve a set of temporary cloud credentials for the cluster's cloud provider
ocm backplane elevate <reason> -- <command>	Elevate privileges to backplane-cluster-admin and add a reason to the api request, this reason will be stored for 20min for future usage
ocm backplane monitoring <prometheus/alertmanager/thanos/grafana> [flags]	Launch the specified monitoring UI (Deprecated following v4.11 for cluster monitoring stack)
ocm backplane script describe <script> [flags]	Describe the given backplane script
ocm backplane script list [flags]	List available backplane scripts
ocm backplane session [flags]	Create a new session and log into the cluster
ocm backplane status	Print essential cluster info
ocm backplane managedJob create <script> [flags]	Create a backplane managed job resource
ocm backplane managedJob get <job_name> [flags]	Retrieve a backplane managed job resource
ocm backplane managedJob list [flags]	Retrieve a list of backplane managed job resources
ocm backplane managedJob logs <job_name> [flags]	Retrieve logs of the specified managed job resource
ocm backplane managedJob delete <job_name> [flags]	Delete the specified managed job resource
ocm backplane testJob create <script> [flags]	Create a backplane test managed job on a non-production cluster for testing. To use with bash libraries, make sure the libraries are in the scripts directory in the format source /managed-scripts/<path-from-managed-scripts-scripts-dir>
ocm backplane testJob get <job_name> [flags]	Retrieve a backplane test job resource
ocm backplane testJob list [flags]	Retrieve a list of backplane test job resources
ocm backplane testJob logs <job_name> [flags]	Retrieve logs of the specified test job resource
ocm backplane upgrade	Upgrade backplane-cli to the latest version
ocm backplane version	Display the installed backplane-cli version

Login

Example

In this example, we will login to a cluster with id 123456abcdef in production environment, and we have the OCM client environment setup like this.

• Run backplane login in another terminal.

  $ ocm backplane login <cluster>
  

• Run oc command to access the target cluster.

  $ oc whoami
  system:serviceaccount:default:1234567
  

• To login to the Management cluster for HyperShift (or) the managing Hive shard of normal OSD/ROSA cluster

  $ ocm backplane login <cluster> --manager
  

• To login to the Service Cluster of a HyperShift hosted cluster or the Management Cluster

  $ ocm backplane login <cluster> --service
  

Login to multiple clusters

Logging into multiple clusters via different terminal instances.

• How to log into the first cluster

  $ ocm backplane login <cluster-id-1> --multi
  $ export KUBECONFIG= <cluster-id-1-kube-config-path>
  

  you can also directly run

  $ source <(ocm backplane login <cluster-id-1> --multi)
  

• How to log into the second cluster

  $ ocm backplane login <cluster-id-2> --multi
  $ export KUBECONFIG= <cluster-id-2-kube-config-path>
  

Login through PagerDuty incident link or ID

• Generate a User Token REST API Key and save it into backplane config file.

  $ ocm backplane config set pd-key <api-key>
  

  Replace <api-key> with the actual User Token REST API Key obtained from PagerDuty.

• To log in using the PagerDuty incident link, use the following command:

  $ ocm backplane login --pd https://{your-pd-domain}.pagerduty.com/incidents/<incident-id>
  

  Replace <incident-id> with the specific incident ID you want to access.

• Alternatively, if you have the incident ID, you can use the following command:

  $ ocm backplane login --pd <incident-id>
  

  Replace <incident-id> with the specific incident ID you want to access.

Console

• Login to the target cluster via backplane as the above.

• Run the below command and it will launch the console of the current logged in cluster.

  $ ocm backplane console
  --> Console will be available at http://127.0.x.x:xxxx
  

• Follow the above link http://127.0.x.x:xxxx to access console.

  Open in browser

  You can directly open the console in browser by adding flag -b or setting environment variable BACKPLANE_DEFAULT_OPEN_BROWSER=true. Example,

  When running this command, it will open the console in the browser automatically.

  $ ocm backplane console -b
  

  Or set the environment variable

  $ export BACKPLANE_DEFAULT_OPEN_BROWSER=true
  
  $ ocm backplane console
  

  Optionally, you can also load the enabled console plugin

  $ ocm backplane console -plugins
  

  Note: Load the console plugin from backplane-cli is not sufficient to access the console plugin, backplane-api to expose the console plugin service explicitly is needed.

Cloud Console

• Login to the target cluster via backplane as the above.

• Run the below command and it will launch the cloud console of the current logged in cluster.

  $ ocm backplane cloud console
  Console Link:
  Link: https://xxxxx
  

• Follow the above link to access the console.

  Open in browser

  You can directly open the console in the browser by adding flag -b or setting the environment variable BACKPLANE_DEFAULT_OPEN_BROWSER=true.

  When running this command, it will open the console in the browser automatically.

  $ ocm backplane cloud console -b
  

  Or set the environment variable

  $ export BACKPLANE_DEFAULT_OPEN_BROWSER=true
  $ ocm backplane cloud console
  `
  

Monitoring

Monitoring command can be used to launch the specified monitoring UI.

Run this command from within a cluster :

ocm backplane monitoring <prometheus/alertmanager/thanos/grafana> [flags]

Note: Following version 4.11, Prometheus, AlertManager and Grafana monitoring UIs are deprecated for openshift-monitoring stack, please use 'ocm backplane console' and use the observe tab for the same. Other monitoring stacks remain unaffected.

Backplane Session

Backplane session command will create an isolated environment to interact with a cluster in its own directory. The default location for this is ~/backplane.

The default session save path can be configured via the backplane config file.

{
   "url": "your-bp-url"
   "proxy-url": "your-proxy-url"
   "session-dir":"your-session-dir"
}

How to create new session?

The following command will create a new session and log in to the cluster.

## with intractive session name 
ocm backplane session <session-name> -c <cluster-id>

## only with cluster id
ocm backplane session <cluster-id> 

Backplane session keeps the session history commands in /session-name/.history file.

[ <session-name> (<cluster-info-PS1>)]$ history 
    1  2023-05-08 15:06:05 oc get nodes
    2  2023-05-08 15:06:13 oc get co
    3  2023-05-08 15:06:40 history 

Backplane session setup following environment variables.

HISTFILE    = <your-session-path>/<session-name>/.history
PATH        = <your-os-path>
KUBECONFIG  = <your-session-path>/<session-name>/<cluster-id>/config
CLUSTERID   = <cluster-id>
CLUSTERNAME = <cluster-name>

How to delete the session?

Folowing command delete the session

ocm backplane session --delete <session-name>

Backplane elevate

If you need to run some oc command(s) with elevation using backplane-cluster-admin user, you can use the elevate command for this.

Backplane elevate takes as first positional argument the reason for this elevation. If the first argument is an empty string, then it will be considered as an empty reason, but you cannot just skip the reason argument if you provide also other positional argument(s). If you want to not provide an empty string as reason, you can use the -n/--no-reason option and oc command will start at first positional argument.

The elevate command requires a none empty reason for the elevation. When a reason is provided it will be used for future usage, in order you do not have to provide a reason for each elevation commands. The reasons are stored in the kubeconfig context, so it is valid only for the cluster for which it has been provided. When a reason is created/used, the last used reason timestamp is updated in the context, and the reason will be kept for 20min after its last usage, in order to avoid bad usage.

When you use the elevate command with an empty reason, it will look if a non expired reason is stored in the current context for this server, and if there is one it will use it. If there is no reason stored in current context, then if the stdin and stderr are not redirected to pipe or file, a prompt will be done to ask for the reason.

Run an elevate command with reason

$ ocm-backplane evate 'OHSS-xxxxxx' -- get secret xxx

The provided reason will be used for elevation, but also stored for future elevation on this cluster. If a reason was already stored in the current_context, then this provided reason will be added to it.

Run an elevate command with empty reason

If you run the elevate command with an empty reason for the first time (or after the expiration), then you will be prompt for the reason if possible

$ ocm-backplane elevate '' -- get secret xxx
Please enter a reason for elevation, it will be stored in current context for 20 minutes : <here you can enter your reason>

or

$ ocm-backplane elevate -n -- get secret xxx
Please enter a reason for elevation, it will be stored in current context for 20 minutes : <here you can enter your reason>

If then you rerun an elevate command, for the same cluster, before the expiration delay, no prompt will be done and previous reason will be used for elevation.

Run elevate without command

You can initialize the reson context for a cluster without running a command, then the reason will be used for future commands

$ ocm-backplane elevate 'OHSS-xxxxxx'

or you can not provide the reason and will be prompt for it if needed

$ ocm-backplane elevate
Please enter a reason for elevation, it will be stored in current context for 20 minutes : <here you can enter your reason>

Run elevate without (stored) reason and without valid prompt

If a prompt is required but that stdin and/or stderr are redirected to file or output, then an error will be generated.

$ cat patch.json | ocm-backplane elevate -n -- patch -f -
ERRO[0000] please enter a reason for elevation
$ ocm-backplane elevate -n -- get secret xxx 2> error.txt
ERRO[0000] please enter a reason for elevation

In order to avoid those errors, you can either run the the elevate without command before or provide a none empty reason.

No issue if only stdout is redirected.

$ ocm-backplane elevate -n -- get secret xxx | grep xxx
Please enter a reason for elevation, it will be stored in current context for 20 minutes : <here you can enter your reason>

Promotion/Release cycle of backplane CLI

Backplane CLI has a default release cycle of every 2 weeks

In case of you have changes that have immediate impact and would need an immediate promotion, please reach out to:

Backplane team (alias : @backplane-team) in #sd-ims-backplane slack channel

Debugging issues

To help diagnose any issues, you can modify the default verbosity of the logger. Use -v for info level or explicitly setting the logging level by using --verbosity=debug flag.

For further information on logging levels refer to the in-built help.

$ ocm backplane help

How backplane-cli works

See design.md.

Please help us to improve. To contact the backplane team:

• @backplane-team in slack channel #sd-ims-backplane (CoreOS workspace)
• Or reach out OWNERS

Vulnerability Scanning with govulncheck

As part of our continuous integration (CI) process, we've incorporated govulncheck to identify known vulnerabilities in the backplane-cli codebase. Following each CI execution, especially when PRs are submitted, a detailed vulnerability report can be found in build-log.txt. This is nested within the artifacts/test/ directory of the ci/prow/scan-optional test. To retrieve the report:

• Click on Details next to ci/prow/scan-optional in a specific PR.
• Click Artifacts at the top-right corner of the page.
• Navigate to artifacts/test/ to view the build-log.txt containing vulnerability information.

While some detected vulnerabilities might be non-blocking at the moment, they are still reported. We encourage both users and developers to thoroughly review these reports. If any Go packages are flagged, consider updating them to their fixed versions.

To manually execute a vulnerability scan locally, run the following command:

make scan