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+# CORD Quick Start Guide using Virtual Machine Nodes
+
+[*This description is for bringing up a CORD POD on virtual
+machines on a single physical host. The purpose of this solution
+is to give the user an experience of bring up a CORD on bare
+metal.*]
+
+This tutorial walks you through the steps to bring up a CORD "POD"
+on a single server using multiple virtual machines which
+represent the physical nodes of a production deployment.
+
+Specifically, the tutorial covers the following:
+
+1. Bring up a build environment
+1. Fetch and build the binary artifacts
+1. Deploy the software to the target *seed* server
+1. Bring up and auto configure / provision compute nodes and
+switches in the POD
+1. Run some tests on the platform
+1. Clean up
+
+### What you need (Prerequisites)
+
+You will need a build machine (can be your developer laptop) and a target
+server.
+
+Build host:
+
+* Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows with a 64-bit OS
+* Git (2.5.4 or later) - [TODO add pointers and/or instructions]
+* Vagrant (1.8.1 or later) - [TODO add pointers and/or instructions]
+* Access to the Internet (at least through the fetch phase)
+* SSH access to the target server
+
+### Bring up and Use the CORD Build Environment
+
+On the build host, clone the CORD integration repository and switch into its
+top directory:
+
+For now you can clone the repository anonymously:
+
+```
+git clone https://gerrit.opencord.org/cord
+cd cord
+```
+
+If -- for whatever reason -- you decide to clone the repo as a private
+repository using ssh, then you should add your private key to your local ssh
+forwarding agent, because we will clone additional CORD repositories within
+the Vagrant environment using the same git access mode, and this will require
+your local agent to know your identity:
+
+```
+ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
+```
+
+Bring up the standardized CORD build and development environment (VM) and the
+VM that will play the role of the head end in the sample CORD POD. This will
+take a few minutes, depending on your connection speed:
+
+```
+vagrant up corddev prod
+```
+
+Login to the build environment:
+
+```
+vagrant ssh corddev -- -L 8080:localhost:80
+```
+
+Switch to the CORD integration directory, which is shared from your host:
+
+```
+cd /cord
+```
+
+### Fetch and Build the CORD Artifacts
+
+Pre-fetch all pre-requisites needed to build all components for CORD. This is
+the step that takes the longest time as a large number of images and files
+need to be downloaded.
+
+```
+./gradlew fetch
+```
+> *What this does:*
+>
+> This command pulls the Docker registry image down from the
+> Internet as well as performs a `git submodule update
+> --recursive` on the source tree to pull down from the GIT
+> repositories all the sub projects referenced by the `cord`
+> repository.
+
+_NOTE: The first time you run `./gradlew` it will download from the Internet
+the `gradle` binary and install it locally. This is a one time operation._
+
+Time to build artifacts needed for deployment:
+
+```
+./gradlew buildImages
+```
+> *What this does:*
+>
+> This command visits each submodule in the project and
+> build any Docker images that are part of the project. These
+> Docker images are stored in the local Docker daemon's
+> data area.
+
+Prime the target server so that it is minimally ready to
+receive the images. This includes starting a *Docker
+Registry* on the target server (`prod`).
+
+### Prepare the Target Server and Push Images to Target Server
+
+```
+./gradlew prime
+```
+> *What this does:*
+>
+> This uses and Ansible playbook to install docker on the
+> target server as well as start a docker registry on that
+> server.
+
+Let's publish all artifacts to the staging registry (Docker registry). Here we
+must specify the IP address of the target server (`prod`).
+
+```
+./gradlew -PtargetReg=10.100.198.201:5000 publish
+```
+> *What this does:*
+>
+> This command pushes all the images that have been built to
+> the registry specified using the `-PtargetReg` command line
+> option. The address used above, `10.100.198.201:5000`,
+> refers to the `prod` VM created at the start of this guide
+> using `vagrant up`.
+
+### Deploy and Configure Bare Metal Services on Target Server
+
+Deploy the head node software to the the target server (`prod`).
+
+**NOTE:** The default MAAS deployment does not support power management for
+virtual box based hosts. As part of the MAAS installation support was added for
+power management, but it does require some additional configuration. This
+additional configuration is detailed in the #virtual-box-power-management
+section below, but is mentioned here because when deploying the head node an
+additional parameter must be set. This parameter specifies the username on the
+host machine that should be used when SSHing from the head node to the host
+machine to remotely execute the `vboxmanage` command. This is typically the
+username used when logging into your laptop or desktop development machine.
+This should be specified in the `config/default.yml` file as the
+`power_helper_user` value, this values defaults to `cord`.
+```
+./gradlew Deploy
+```
+> *What this does:*
+>
+> This command uses and Ansible playbook to configure networking
+> on the target server and then installs Canonical's MAAS (Metal
+> as a Service) software on the target server. This software
+> provides PXE boot, DHCP, DNS, and HTTP image download for the
+> CORD POD.
+>
+> After installing the base software component, the Ansible
+> playbook configures the MAAS server including default users
+> and DHCP/DNS, as well as starts the boot image downloaded
+> from the Internet.
+>
+> Lastly, after the software is configure, the Ansible script
+> starts several Docker containers that help manage automation
+> of the POD's host and switch resources as they become
+> available.
+
+At this point you can view the MAAS web UI by visiting the following URL
+```
+http://localhost:8080/MAAS
+```
+
+To authenticate to the UI you can use the user name `cord` with
+the password `cord`.
+
+Browse around the UI and get familiar with MAAS via documentation at
+`http://maas.io`
+
+**NOTE**: Before moving on the the next step it is import to ensure that MAAS
+has completed the download and processing of the operating system images
+required to PXE boot additional servers. This can be done either by viewing the
+`Images` tab in the MAAS UI or by the following commands run on the target
+(head) node.
+```
+sudo apt-get install -y jq
+APIKEY=$(sudo maas-region-admin apikey --user=cord)
+maas login cord http://localhost/MAAS/api/1.0 $APIKEY
+maas cord boot-resources read | jq 'map(select(.type != "Synced"))'
+```
+
+It the output of of the above commands is not a empty list, `[]`, then
+the images have not yet been completely downloaded. depending on your
+network speed this could take several minutes. Please wait and then
+attempt the last command again until the returned list is empty, `[]`.
+When the list is empty you can proceed.
+
+### Create and Boot Compute Nodes
+To create a compute node you use the following vagrant command. This command
+will create a VM that PXE boots to the interface on which the MAAS server is
+listening. **This task is executed on your host machine and not in the
+development virtual machine.**
+```
+vagrant up compute_node1
+```
+
+Vagrant will create a UI, which will popup on your screen, so that the PXE boot
+process of the compute node can be visually monitored. After an initial PXE
+boot of the compute node it will automatically be shutdown.
+
+The compute node Vagrant machine it s bit different that most Vagrant machine
+because it is not created with a user account to which Vagrant can connect,
+which is the normal behavior of Vagrant. Instead the Vagrant files is
+configured with a _dummy_ `communicator` which will fail causing the following
+error to be displayed, but the compute node Vagrant machine will still have
+been created correctly.
+```
+The requested communicator 'none' could not be found.
+Please verify the name is correct and try again.
+```
+
+The compute node VM will boot, register with MAAS, and then be shut off. After
+this is complete an entry for the node will be in the MAAS UI at
+`http://localhost:8888/MAAS/#/nodes`. It will be given a random hostname made
+up, in the Canonical way, of a adjective and an noun, such as
+`popular-feast.cord.lab`. _The name will be different for everyone._ The new
+node will be in the `New` state.
+
+If you have properly configured power management for virtualbox (see below)
+the host will be automatically transitioned from `New` through the start of
+`Commissioning` and `Acquired` to `Deployed`.
+
+The `Vagrant` file defines 3 compute node machines you can start using the
+process as defined above. The three machines can be started using the commands
+```
+vagrant up compute_node1
+vagrant up compute_node2
+vagrant up compute_node3
+```
+> *What this does:*
+>
+> As each compute node is booted, it downloads and installs an Ubuntu OS images
+> and is automated through the MAAS deployment workflow. This is the same
+> workflow that will be executed if the hosts were not virtual hosts. During
+> this process the hosts will be rebooted several times.
+>
+> After a host has reached the `Deployed` state in MAAS an additional
+> provisioning step will be executed that customizes the compute node for
+> use in a CORD POD. This step includes updating the network configuration of
+> the compute node as well as deploying some standard software, such as
+> `Docker`.
+
+### Create and Boot Example (False) Switch
+Included with the virtual compute nodes is an additional vagrant machine VM
+that can be used to test the provisioning of a switch. This VM is configured so
+that the CORD POD automation will assume it is a switch and run additional
+provisioning on this *false* switch to deploy software and utility scripts.
+**This task is executed on your host machine and not in the development virtual
+machine.**
+
+The following command can be used to start the *false* switch.
+```
+vagrant up switch
+```
+
+#### Virtual Box Power Management
+Virtual box power management is implemented via helper scripts that SSH to the virtual box host and
+execute `vboxmanage` commands. For this to work The scripts must be configured with a username and host
+to utilize when SSHing and that account must allow SSH from the head node guest to the host using
+SSH keys such that no password entry is required.
+
+To enable SSH key based login, assuming that VirtualBox is running on a Linux based system, you can copy
+the MAAS ssh public key from `/var/lib/maas/.ssh/id_rsa.pub` on the head known to your accounts `authorized_keys`
+files. You can verify that this is working by issuing the following commands from your host machine:
+```
+vagrant ssh headnode
+sudo su - maas
+ssh yourusername@host_ip_address
+```
+
+If you are able to accomplish these commands the VirtualBox power management should operate correctly.