xref: /openbmc/docs/designs/virtual-media.md (revision a2667006)
1# Virtual Media (a.k.a. Remote Media)
2
3Author:
4Pawel Rapkiewicz <pawel.rapkiewicz@intel.com> <pawelr>
5
6Primary assignee:
7None
8
9Other contributors:
10Przemyslaw Czarnowski <przemyslaw.hawrylewicz.czarnowski@intel.com>
11Anna Platash <anna.platash@intel.com>
12
13Created:
146/4/2019
15
16## Problem Description
17
18Virtual Media allows users to remotely mount given ISO/IMG drive images through
19BMC to Server HOST. The Remote drive is visible in HOST as USB storage device,
20and operates in RO mode, or RW mode (keeping in mind container limitations,
21and write protection switches). This can even be used to install OS on bare
22metal system. This document focuses on few redirection options, like in-browser
23ISO/IMG image mounting, and remote CIFS/HTTPS image mounting.
24
25## References
26
27* Virtual Media is going to use Network Block Device as primary disk image
28forwarder.
29* NBDkit is being used, to serve images from remote storages over HTTPS/CIFS.
30USBGadget as way to expose Media Storage Device to HOST.
31
32## Requirements
33None
34
35## Proposed Design
36
37Virtual Media splits into two modes of operation, lets call it Proxy, and
38Legacy.
39
40* Proxy mode - works directly from browser and uses JavaScript/HTML5 to
41communicate over Secure WebSockets directly to HTTPS endpoint hosted by bmcweb
42on BMC.
43* Legacy mode - is initiated from browser using Redfish defined VirtualMedia
44schemas, then BMC process connects to external CIFS/HTTPS image pointed during
45initialization.
46
47Both methods inherit from default Redfish/BMCWeb authentication and privileges
48mechanisms.
49
50The component diagram below shows Virtual Media high-level overview
51
52```ascii
53+------------------+           +----------------------------------+     +-----------------------+
54|Remote Device|    |           |BMC|              +------------+  |     |HOST|                  |
55+-------------/    |           +---/ +--Dbus----->+VirtualMedia|  |     +----/                  |
56|                  |           |     v            +------------+  |     |                       |
57|  +------------+  |           |   +-+--------+                   |     |                       |
58|  |WebBrowser  +<----HTTPS------->+BMCWeb    |      +---------+  |     |  +----------+         |
59|  +------------+  |           |   +-+--------+      |USBGadget+<--------->+USB Device|         |
60+------------------+           |     ^               +----+----+  |     |  +----------+         |
61                               |     |                    ^       |     |                       |
62                               |     |    +------+        v       |     |                       |
63                               |     +--->+UNIX  |   +----+----+  |     |                       |
64                               |          |SOCKET+<->+NBDClient|  |     |                       |
65+------------------+           |     +--->+      |   +---------+  |     |                       |
66|Remote Storage|   |           |     |    +------+                |     |                       |
67+--------------/   |           |     |                            |     |                       |
68|                  |           |     v                            |     |                       |
69|   +-----------+  |           |   +-+-------+                    |     |                       |
70|   |ISO/IMG    +<---CIFS/HTTPS+-->+NBDkit   |                    |     |                       |
71|   +-----------+  |           |   +---------+                    |     +-----------------------+
72|                  |           |                                  |
73+------------------+           +----------------------------------+
74```
75
76Virtual Media feature supports multiple, simultaneous connections in both
77modes.
78
79### Network Block Device (NBD)
80
81Reader can notice that most connections on diagram are based on Network Block
82Device. After Sourceforge project description:
83
84> With this compiled into your kernel, Linux can use a remote server as one of
85> its block devices. Every time the client computer wants to read /dev/nbd0,
86> it will send a request to the server via TCP, which will reply with the data
87> requested. This can be used for stations with low disk space (or even
88> diskless - if you use an initrd) to borrow disk space from other computers.
89> Unlike NFS, it is possible to put any file system on it. But (also unlike
90> NFS), if someone has mounted NBD read/write, you must assure that no one else
91> will have it mounted.
92>
93> -- [https://nbd.sourceforge.io/](https://nbd.sourceforge.io/)
94
95In Virtual Media use case, it's being used to pull data from remote client, and
96present it into non BMC mounted `/dev/nbdXX` device. Then the block device is
97being provided to Host through USB Gadget.
98
99### USB Gadget
100
101Part of Linux kernel that makes *emulation* of certain USB device classes
102possible through USB "On-The-Go", if connect appropriately to Host. In Virtual
103Media case it emulates USB mass storage connected to HOST. The source or
104redirection is block device created by nbd-client `/dev/nbdXX`
105
106### Proxy Mode
107
108Proxy Mode uses browser JavaScript and WebSockets support, to create JS NBD
109Server. Browser is responsible for create HTTPS session, authenticate user, and
110receive given privileges, then upgrade HTTPS session to WSS, through mechanisms
111described by [RFC6455](HTTPS://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6455). Since WSS upgrade,
112JS application is responsible for handling all required by specification NBD
113Server commands.
114
115Multiple, simultaneous connections are supported per opening connections on
116different URIs in HTTPS server. Number of available simultaneous connections is
117being defined in configuration file described in next chapter.
118
119Encryption for proxy is supported through HTTPS/WSS channel and inherits
120encryption mechanisms directly from HTTPS server, all data transactions go
121through bmcweb.
122
123The initialization of connection will look as on diagram:
124
125```ascii
126┌───────┐                  ┌──────┐       ┌────────────┐          ┌─────────┐   ┌────┐ ┌─────────┐
127│Browser│                  │bmcweb│       │VirtualMedia│          │NBDClient│   │uDEV│ │USBGadget│
128└───┬───┘                  └──┬───┘       └─────┬──────┘          └────┬────┘   └─┬──┘ └────┬────┘
129    │ establish HTTPS session │                 │                      │          │         │
130    │─────────────────────────>                 │                      │          │         │
131    │                         │                 │                      │          │         │
132    │   upgrade to WSS on     │                 │                      │          │         │
133    │    /nbd/X endpoint      │  ╔══════════════╧════╗                 │          │         │
134    │─────────────────────────>  ║* bmcweb creates  ░║                 │          │         │
135    │                         │  ║  /tmp/nbd.X.sock  ║                 │          │         │
136    │                         │  ║* bmcweb locks new ║                 │          │         │
137    │                         │  ║  connections on   ║                 │          │         │
138    │                         │  ║  endpoint /nbd/X  ║                 │          │         │
139    │                         │  ╚══════════════╤════╝                 │          │         │
140    │                         │    Mount from:  │                      │          │         │
141    │                         │ /tmp/nbd.X.sock │                      │          │         │
142    │                         │ ────────────────>                      │          │         │
143    │                         │                 │                      │          │         │
144    │                         │                 │ Spawn NBDClient from │          │         │
145    │                         │                 │    /tmp/nbd.x.sock   │          │         │
146    │                         │                 │      to /dev/nbdX   ┌┴┐         │         │
147    │                         │                 │ ──────────────────> │ │         │         │
148    │                         │                 │                     │ │         │         │
149    │                         │                 │     Block Device    │ │         │         │
150    │                         │                 │  properties changed │ │         │         │
151    │                         │                 │ <───────────────────────────────│         │
152    │                         │                 │                     │ │         │         │
153    │                         │                 │      Configure USB mass         │         │
154    │                         │                 │    storage from /dev/nbd/X      │         │
155    │                         │                 │ ─────────────────────────────────────────>│
156    │                         │                 │                     │ │         │         │
157    │                         │                 │         Data        │ │         │         │
158    │<─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─>│
159    │                         │                 │                     │ │         │         │
160```
161
162### Legacy Mode
163
164Legacy Mode uses VirtualMedia schema, defined by DMTF, for mounting external
165CIFS/HTTPS images. The current implementation supports only stream mounting
166as for now. In this case Redfish is only used as mechanism for Virtual Media
167initialization, and is not responsible for data transmission. For data there
168is a separate component responsible for handling CIFS/HTTPS traffic called
169NBDkit.
170
171Multiple, simultaneous connections are supported through spawning additional
172nbkit instances, the number of available instances for CIFS/HTTPS is configured
173and described in details in next chapter.
174
175Encryption is based on remote storage connection, and follows Intel's Best
176security practices, as remote server support such (i.e. HTTPS requires SSL, and
177pure HTTP is not supported, for CIFS protocol version 3.0 allows enabling
178encryption and that will be provided).
179
180The flow looks like below:
181
182```ascii
183┌───────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────┐  ┌────────────┐           ┌──────┐┌─────────┐┌────┐ ┌─────────┐
184│Browser│  │CIFS/HTTPS│  │bmcweb│  │VirtualMedia│           │NBDkit││NBDClient││uDEV│ │USBGadget│
185└───┬───┘  └────┬─────┘  └──┬───┘  └─────┬──────┘           └──┬───┘└────┬────┘└─┬──┘ └────┬────┘
186    │establish HTTPS session│            │                     │         │       │         │
187    │───────────────────────>            │                     │         │       │         │
188    │           │           │            │                     │         │       │         │
189    │Create new VirtualMedia│            │                     │         │       │         │
190    │  mountpoint via POST  │            │                     │         │       │         │
191    │───────────────────────>            │                     │         │       │         │
192    │           │           │            │                     │         │       │         │
193    │           │           │ Mount from │                     │         │       │         │
194    │           │           │ CIFS/HTTPS │                     │         │       │         │
195    │           │           │  location  │                     │         │       │         │
196    │           │           │────────────>                     │         │       │         │
197    │           │           │            │                     │         │       │         │
198    │           │           │            │Spawn NBDKit mounting│         │       │         │
199    │           │           │            │    given location   │         │       │         │
200    │           │           │            │     appropriate     │         │       │         │
201    │           │           │            │   /tmp/nbd.X.sock  ┌┴┐        │       │         │
202    │           │           │            │ ──────────────────>│ │        │       │         │
203    │           │           │            │                    │ │        │       │         │
204    │           │           │            │      Spawn NBDClient from     │       │         │
205    │           │           │            │ /tmp/nbd.X.sock to /dev/nbdX ┌┴┐      │         │
206    │           │           │            │ ────────────────────────────>│ │      │         │
207    │           │           │            │                    │ │       │ │      │         │
208    │           │           │            │    Block Device properties changed    │         │
209    │           │           │            │ <──────────────────────────────────────         │
210    │           │           │            │                    │ │       │ │      │         │
211    │           │           │            │    Configure USB mass storage from /dev/nbd/X   │
212    │           │           │            │ ───────────────────────────────────────────────>│
213    │           │           │            │                    │ │       │ │      │         │
214    │           │           │            │               Data │ │       │ │      │         │
215    │           │ <─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─>│
216```
217
218### Redfish support
219
220Virtual Media Service will be exposed as Redfish VirtualMedia endpoint as
221defined by DMTF. Here are some examples.
222
223#### Virtual Media Collection schema
224Members in collection will be defined based on configuration file described in
225next sections. And will be visible despite media is inserted or not.
226
227```json
228{
229    "@odata.type": "#VirtualMediaCollection.VirtualMediaCollection",
230    "Name": "Virtual Media Services",
231    "Description": "Redfish-BMC Virtual Media Service Settings",
232    "Members@odata.count": 2,
233    "Members": [
234        {
235            "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/BMC/VirtualMedia/ISO0"
236        } ,
237        {
238            "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/BMC/VirtualMedia/1"
239        }
240    ],
241    "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#VirtualMediaCollection.VirtualMediaCollection",
242    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/BMC/VirtualMedia"
243}
244```
245
246#### Virtual Media schema
247
248```json
249{
250    "@odata.type": "#VirtualMedia.v1_1_0.VirtualMedia",
251    "Id": "ISO0",
252    "Name": "Virtual Removable Media",
253    "MediaTypes": [
254        "CD",
255        "USBStick"
256    ],
257    "Image": "https://192.168.0.1/Images/os.iso",
258    "ImageName": "Os",
259    "ConnectedVia": "URI",
260    "Inserted": true,
261    "WriteProtected": false,
262    "@odata.context": "/redfish/v1/$metadata#VirtualMedia.VirtualMedia",
263    "@odata.id": "/redfish/v1/Managers/BMC/VirtualMedia/ISO0",
264    "Oem": {
265        "OpenBMC": {
266             "@odata.type": "#OemVirtualMedia.v1_0_0.VirtualMedia",
267             "WebSocketEndpoint": "/nbd/0"
268        }
269    },
270}
271```
272
273Schema will look similar for both Proxy and Legacy Mode. Some key
274differences as follows:
275
276| Field Name           | Proxy Mode | Legacy Mode                      | Comment                             |
277| -------------------- | ---------- | -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
278| InsertMedia          | N/A        | action as described by DMTF spec |                                     |
279| Image                | N/A        | image location                   |                                     |
280| ImageName            | N/A        | image name                       |                                     |
281| ConnectedVia         | "Applet"   | as described by DMTF spec        | applies only for connected media    |
282| TransferMethod       | "Stream"   | "Stream"                         | "upload" is not supported by design |
283| TransferProtocolType | "OEM"      | as described by DMTF spec        |                                     |
284
285#### Virtual Media OEM Extension
286
287Virtual Media schema is adapted to Legacy Mode where image is given by user
288directly via Redfish action and whole connection is processed between service
289and web server.
290
291For [Proxy Mode](#Proxy-Mode) nbd data is
292served by client web browser. Having multiple connections, in order to setup
293connection, client needs the information about the location of websocket
294created by web server. This value is exposed as OEM ``WebSocketEndpoint``
295property for each item.
296
297### Inactivity timeout
298
299Virtual Media supports inactivity timeout, which will break Virtual Media
300connection after certain number of seconds of inactivity. Because nbdclient has
301mechanism for caching image, also kernel has home buffer mechanisms for block
302device, the idea is to prepare a patch on USBGadget driver, that will write USB
303gadget statistics under /proc/USBGadget/lun.X file. Those statistics will be
304observed by Virtual Media application.
305
306### Virtual Media Service
307
308Virtual Media Service is separate application that will coexist on DBus. It
309will be initialized from configuration json file, and expose all available
310for provisioning VirtualMedia objects. Virtual Media is responsible for:
311
312* Exposing current Virtual Media configuration to DBus user.
313* Spawning nbdclient, and monitor its lifetime, for Proxy connections.
314* Spawning nbdkit, and monitor its lifetime, for CIFS/HTTPS connections.
315* Monitoring uDEV for all NBD related block device changes, and
316  configure/de-configure USB Gadget accordingly.
317* Monitor NBD device inactivity period to support inactivity timeout.
318
319### Configuration
320
321Upon process startup, Virtual Media reads its config file, with the following
322structure:
323
324```json
325"InactivityTimeout": 1800,              # Timeout of inactivity on device in seconds, that will lead to automatic disconnection
326"MountPoints": {
327    "ISO0": {
328        "EndpointId": "/nbd/0",         # bmcweb endpoint (URL) configured for this type of connection
329        "Mode": 0,                      # 0 - Proxy Mode, 1 - Legacy Mode
330        "NBDDevice": "/dev/nbd0",       # nbd endpoint on device usually matches numeric value with EndpointId
331        "UnixSocket": "/tmp/nbd.sock",  # defines which Unix socket will be occupied by connection
332        "Timeout": 30,                  # timeout in seconds passed to nbdclient
333        "BlockSize": 512,               # Block size passed to nbdclient
334    }
335},
336```
337
338### DBus Interface
339
340Virtual Media will expose the following object structure. All object paths
341are representation of configuration file described above
342
343```ascii
344/xyz/openbmc_project/VirtualMedia/Proxy/ISO0
345/xyz/openbmc_project/VirtualMedia/Proxy/1
346/xyz/openbmc_project/VirtualMedia/Legacy/0
347/xyz/openbmc_project/VirtualMedia/Legacy/1
348```
349
350Each of object will implement ``xyz.openbmc_project.VirtualMedia.Process``
351interface, which will be defined as follow:
352
353| Name     | type     | input | return  | description                                                         |
354| -------- | -------- | ----- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
355| Active   | Property | -     | BOOLEAN | `True`, if object is occupied by active process, `False` otherwise  |
356| ExitCode | Property | -     | INT32   | If process terminates this property will contain returned exit code |
357
358Each object will also expose configuration of its own under
359``xyz.openbmc_project.VirtualMedia.MountPoint`` (all properties are RO)
360
361| Name                       | type     | input | return  | description                                                               |
362| -------------------------- | -------- | ----- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
363| EndPointId                 | Property | -     | STRING  | As per configuration                                                      |
364| Mode                       | Property | -     | BYTE    | As per configuration                                                      |
365| Device                     | Property | -     | STRING  | As per configuration                                                      |
366| Socket                     | Property | -     | STRING  | As per configuration                                                      |
367| Timeout                    | Property | -     | UINT16  | As per configuration                                                      |
368| BlockSize                  | Property | -     | UINT16  | As per configuration                                                      |
369| RemainingInactivityTimeout | Property | -     | UINT16  | Seconds to drop connection by server, for activated endpoint, 0 otherwise |
370| ImageURL                   | Property | -     | STRING  | URL to mounted image                                                      |
371| WriteProtected             | Property | -     | BOOLEAN | 'True', if the image is mounted as read only, 'False' otherwise           |
372
373Another interface exposed by each object are stats under
374```xyz.openbmc_project.VirtualMedia.Stats``` (all properties are RO):
375
376| Name    | type     | input | return | description                              |
377| ------- | -------- | ----- | ------ | ---------------------------------------- |
378| ReadIO  | Property | -     | UINT64 | Number of read IOs since image mounting  |
379| WriteIO | Property | -     | UINT64 | Number of write IOs since image mounting |
380
381Depends on object path, object will expose different interface for mounting image.
382
383For Proxy its ```xyz.openbmc_project.VirtualMedia.Proxy```, defined as follow:
384
385| Name    | type   | input | return  | description                                       |
386| ------- | ------ | ----- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
387| Mount   | Method | -     | BOOLEAN | Perform a mount to HOST operation on given object |
388| Unmount | Method | -     | BOOLEAN | Perform an unmount from HOST on given object      |
389
390For Legacy its ```xyz.openbmc_project.VirtualMedia.Legacy```, defined as follow:
391
392| Name    | type   | input  | return  | description                                                                                |
393| ------- | ------ | ------ | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
394| Mount   | Method | STRING | BOOLEAN | Perform a mount to HOST operation on given object, with location given as STRING parameter |
395| Mount   | Method | STRING<br>BOOLEAN<br>VARIANT<UNIX_FD,INT> | BOOLEAN | Perform a mount to HOST operation on given object, with parameters:<br><br>`STRING` : url to image. It should start with either `smb://` or `https://` prefix<br>`BOOLEAN` : RW flag for mounted gadget (should be consistent with remote image capabilities)<br>`VARIANT<UNIX_FD,INT>` : file descriptor of named pipe used for passing null-delimited secret data (username and password). When there is no data to pass `-1` should be passed as `INT`|
396| Unmount | Method | -      | BOOLEAN | Perform an unmount from HOST on given object                                               |
397
398## Alternatives Considered
399Existing implementation in OpenBMC
400
401## Impact
402Shall not affect usability of current Virtual Media implementation
403
404## Testing
405TBD
406