Proxy access to cluster

This page document how to access web services on private hosts.

Presently, there is no VPN access to Wikimedia Foundation's production cluster. Cloud VPS does not provide this either.

Tunnel

The below example will expose a web service from analytics1001.eqiad.wmnet:8088 at your localhost as https://localhost:9088.

ssh -N bast1002.wikimedia.org -L 9088:analytics1001.eqiad.wmnet:8088

The management network being restricted to neodymium and sarin, you can reach hosts with for example:

ssh -L 8000:scs-eqsin.mgmt.eqsin.wmnet:443 neodymium.eqiad.wmnet

Pointing then your web browser to:

https://localhost:8000, will actually show you (in this example) https://scs-eqsin.mgmt.eqsin.wmnet

If you need to reach an http port (eg. 80), don't forget to use http://localhost:8000 instead and for example :80 in the ssh command.

FoxyProxy

The preferred method by Ops for accessing the web interfaces on private nodes is via the -D option of SSH in combination with FoxyProxy.

This document will outline how to setup this method of access. This method uses Firefox and the FoxyProxy addon linked above.

1. Install FireFox and FoxyProxy.
   • Download the FoxyProxy ruleset here.
   • In FoxyProxy settings, alternate click in the main window and select Import, then choose the wmf_foxyproxy_settings file you just downloaded.
2. Setup an ssh -D session for the cluster(s) you need access to. (Repeat this as needed.)

   screen
   ssh bast1002.wikimedia.org -D 8080 # or another bastion
   # Ctrl+a c (creates new screen window)
   # Ctrl+a d (disconnects you from the screen session, allowing you to close or otherwise use terminal)
   

3. Now when you load up the url patterns in the FoxyProxy settings, it will direct those URLs via your SSH tunnel to the correct cluster over the specified ports.
4. Please note that if you use OS X, you may want to 'exec ssh-agent bash' in your terminal screen sessions before adding your ssh key to ensure they are independently keyed and not shared across sessions.

The FoxyProxy URL patterns are listed below for ease of use, some are inclusive of others, but FoxyProxy in the past had some odd issues with them, so I find it best to just leave them all in the individual rulesets to eliminate potential issues.

Some of the patterns I use are inclusive of the others, mostly because I happened to setup mgmt and didn't bother with non-mgmt for awhile. So you could always clean it up and remove the stuff that is duplication due to pattern matching:

eqiad mgmt = *.mgmt.eqiad.wmnet*
eqiad local = *.eqiad.wmnet*
esams mgmt = *.mgmt.esams.wmnet*
esams local = *.esams.wmnet*
codfw mgmt = *.mgmt.codfw.wmnet*
codfw local = *.codfw.wmnet*
ulsfo mgmt = *.mgmt.ulsfo.wmnet*
ulsfo local = *.ulsfo.wmnet*
eqsin mgmt = *.mgmt.eqsin.wmnet*
eqsin local = *.eqsin.wmnet*
labs = *.eqiad.wmflabs*

See also

• Production shell access#SSH configuration