Work with Recipes in Virtualizor: Easy Guide Steps

This tutorial explains what recipes are and how they function within the Virtualizor panel. Before diving in, it’s highly recommended to review our previous post on "Create a new VPS on Virtualizor". This provides the foundational understanding needed to effectively utilize recipes.

What are Recipes in Virtualizor?

Virtualizor offers a feature called "recipes" that empowers you to customize and enhance newly created VPS instances. A recipe is essentially a collection of pre-defined code snippets (written in sh, bash, ksh, or zsh) that automatically execute on a newly created VPS’s operating system (OS). For instance, imagine you want to automatically change the hostname of a Linux VPS after its creation. While manual hostname changes are possible, recipes streamline this process. Let’s explore how to work with recipes in Virtualizor. This feature makes managing VPS much more efficient.

Step 1 – How to add a recipe in Virtualizor?

This section demonstrates how to add a new recipe within the Virtualizor panel. Begin by logging into your Virtualizor panel by accessing ServerIP:4085 in your web browser and entering your credentials. Then, navigate to the "Recipes >> Add Recipe" menu from the left-hand panel.

[Image of Recipes in virtualizor – Add a new recipe – orcacore.com]

As you can see, several fields need to be completed. Enter a descriptive name for the new recipe and select the appropriate shell type (e.g., bash). You can also optionally add a visually appealing recipe logo by entering a URL to an image file.

Next, input your actual Recipe code (the commands you want to execute on the new VPS) into the provided text area. Finally, add a clear and concise Description of the recipe’s purpose. The description is helpful for understanding the recipe’s function, especially for other users.

NOTE: The description section might have limitations on allowed HTML tags. The following tags are generally safe to use: <br>, <br/>, <p>, <a>, <b>, and <span>.

The following variables can be used within your bash code:

{{vpsid}} : VPS ID
{{vps_name}} : VID
{{vps_hostname}} : VPS Hostname
{{username}} : User Email
{{root_pass}} : Root Password
{{ips}} : IPv4 IPs
{{ips6}} : IPv6 IPs
{{ips6_subnet}} : IPv6 subnets

NOTE: The shebang line #!/bin/sh is automatically added to the beginning of your script.

If you want to restrict the recipe’s visibility to administrators only, check the "Is Admin only Recipe?" checkbox.

Finally, click the "Add Recipe" button to save your new recipe in Virtualizor.

Step 2 – How to manage Recipes in Virtualizor?

This step covers how to manage existing recipes within Virtualizor. You can easily Edit or Delete recipes by clicking the corresponding icons located at the end of each recipe’s listing. This allows for easy adjustments and cleanup of your recipe library. This feature is essential for maintaining a well-organized Virtualizor environment.

[Image of Recipes in virtualizor – list Recipes – orcacore.com]

Step 3 – Use Recipes in OS installation

You can integrate a recipe into a specific plan, or you can choose to manually execute it when creating a new VPS. For further information on plans, please refer to "Define Plans on a Virtualizor panel." Once a VPS is successfully created and its OS is running, the selected recipe will automatically execute.

Note: After configuring a recipe to run on a VPS, allow the new VPS sufficient time to fully boot up and for the recipe to complete its execution.

Conclusion

This article has explored recipes in Virtualizor, detailing their creation, management, and usage. Hopefully, you found this guide useful and informative.

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.

Alternative Solutions for Customizing VPS Provisioning

While Virtualizor recipes offer a convenient way to automate post-OS installation tasks, alternative approaches can provide greater flexibility and control. Here are two alternative solutions:

1. Cloud-Init:

Cloud-init is a widely used industry standard for initializing cloud instances. It allows you to configure various aspects of a VM or container during its initial boot process. Unlike Virtualizor recipes, which are specific to the Virtualizor panel, cloud-init is a more universal solution and can be used across different cloud platforms.

Explanation:

Cloud-init works by reading a configuration file (typically in YAML format) from a data source, such as a metadata server or a configuration drive. This configuration file contains instructions for tasks like setting the hostname, configuring network interfaces, installing packages, creating users, and executing custom scripts. The cloud-init service runs during the first boot of the instance and applies these configurations.

Advantages of using Cloud-Init:

• Portability: Cloud-init configurations are portable across different cloud platforms that support cloud-init.
• Flexibility: Cloud-init supports a wide range of configuration options, allowing for highly customized instance initialization.
• Industry Standard: Being an industry standard, cloud-init has a large community and extensive documentation.
• Idempotency: Cloud-init scripts are designed to be idempotent, meaning that they can be run multiple times without causing unintended side effects.

Implementation:

To use cloud-init with Virtualizor, you would need to ensure that the OS template you are using supports cloud-init. Most modern Linux distributions come with cloud-init pre-installed. Then, you would need to provide a cloud-init configuration file when creating the VPS. This can be done by configuring Virtualizor to pass the cloud-init configuration data to the VPS during the creation process. Virtualizor may require custom integration or scripting to achieve this.

Example Cloud-Init Configuration (YAML):

#cloud-config
hostname: my-new-vps
users:
  - name: deploy
    groups: sudo
    shell: /bin/bash
    sudo: ['ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL']
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2E... deploy@example.com
package_update: true
package_upgrade: true
packages:
  - nginx
runcmd:
  - [ sh, -c, "echo 'Hello from Cloud-Init!' > /var/www/html/index.html" ]

This configuration sets the hostname, creates a user named "deploy" with sudo privileges and an authorized SSH key, updates and upgrades packages, installs Nginx, and creates a simple HTML file.

2. Configuration Management Tools (Ansible, Chef, Puppet):

Configuration management tools like Ansible, Chef, and Puppet offer a more sophisticated approach to automating system configuration. These tools allow you to define the desired state of your systems and automatically enforce that state.

Explanation:

Configuration management tools work by using a declarative language to define the desired state of your systems. This definition is then translated into a series of tasks that are executed on the target systems. The tools ensure that the systems are in the desired state, even if they deviate from it.

Advantages of using Configuration Management Tools:

• Scalability: Configuration management tools are designed to manage large numbers of systems.
• Idempotency: The tools ensure that tasks are executed only when necessary, preventing unintended side effects.
• Version Control: Configuration management code can be stored in version control systems, allowing for easy tracking and rollback of changes.
• Modularity: Configuration management code can be organized into reusable modules, making it easier to manage complex systems.

Implementation:

To use configuration management tools with Virtualizor, you would need to install the agent software for the chosen tool (e.g., the Ansible agent) on the VPS template. Then, you would need to write configuration code that defines the desired state of your VPS. This code would be executed by the configuration management tool after the VPS is created. Like with cloud-init, Virtualizor may need custom scripting or integration to trigger the configuration management tool after VPS creation.

Example Ansible Playbook (YAML):

---
- hosts: all
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Install nginx
      apt:
        name: nginx
        state: present

    - name: Copy index.html file
      copy:
        src: files/index.html
        dest: /var/www/html/index.html

    - name: Restart nginx
      service:
        name: nginx
        state: restarted

This Ansible playbook installs Nginx, copies an index.html file to the web server’s document root, and restarts the Nginx service.

These alternative solutions, while potentially more complex to set up initially, provide greater flexibility, portability, and scalability compared to Virtualizor recipes, especially when managing a large number of VPS instances or integrating with diverse cloud environments. Work with Recipes in Virtualizor is an option, but these provide alternatives.