Creating a controller

The bootstrap command is used to create a controller for a given cloud:

juju bootstrap <cloud name> [<controller name>]

The controller name is optional. If one is not supplied, then a name is assigned based on the cloud and region.

To learn about configuration options available at bootstrap time, see:

• Configuring controllers
• Configuring models
• Using constraints

Examples

This list of examples provides a good overview of the different things that can be done at controller-creation time:

• Create a controller interactively
• Set default model constraints for a controller
• Set controller constraints for a new controller
• Create a controller of a specific series
• Create a controller using configuration values
• Create a controller using a non-default region
• Create a controller using a different MongoDB profile
• Change timeout and retry delays
• Create a new controller without changing contexts
• Configuring/enabling a remote syslog server
• Placing a controller on a specific MAAS node
• Specifying an agent version
• Passing a cloud-specific setting

Create a controller interactively

You can create a controller interactively like this:

juju bootstrap

You will be prompted for what cloud and region to use as well as the controller name. Do not use this method if you want to specify anything else.

Set default model constraints for a controller

Below, all machines (including the controller) in the LXD controller's models will have at least 4GiB of memory:

juju bootstrap --constraints mem=4G localhost

Set controller constraints for a new controller

This example shows how to request at least 4GiB of memory and two CPUs for an AWS controller:

juju bootstrap --bootstrap-constraints "mem=4G cores=2" aws

If any of the constraints are also used with --constraints then the ones given via --bootstrap-constraints will be used.

Create a controller of a specific series

The controller will be deployed upon Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic) by default.

For our example, we name the resulting LXD controller 'lxd-bionic' to reflect that:

juju bootstrap localhost lxd-bionic

To select a different series the --bootstrap-series option is used.

Below, a google (GCE) controller based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial) is requested explicitly (and is given the name 'gce-xenial'):

juju bootstrap --bootstrap-series=xenial google gce-xenial

Create a controller using configuration values

This example uses a previously defined configuration file called config-rackspace.yaml as well as individual configuration values. The latter values take precedence over those included in the file:

juju bootstrap \
    --config=~/config-rackspace.yaml   \
    --config image-stream=daily        \
    rackspace controller-rackspace

Create a controller using a non-default region

The clouds command lists available clouds and denotes a default region for each. To specify a different region during controller creation:

juju bootstrap aws/us-west-2 mycontroller

This is where omitting a custom controller name could be appropriate, as doing so will result in a name based on the non-default region. Here the controller would be named 'aws-us-west-2':

juju bootstrap aws/us-west-2

Create a controller using a different MongoDB profile

MongoDB has two memory profile settings available, 'default' and 'low'. The first setting is the profile shipped by default with MongoDB. The second is a more conservative memory profile that uses less memory. To select which one your controller uses when it is created, use:

juju bootstrap --config mongo-memory-profile=low

Change timeout and retry delays

You can change the default timeout and retry delays used by Juju by setting the following keys in your configuration:

For example, to increase the timeout between the client and the controller from 10 minutes to 15, enter the value in seconds:

juju bootstrap --config bootstrap-timeout=900 localhost lxd-faraway

Create a new controller without changing contexts

When a new controller is created, by default, the context will change to the 'default' model of that controller. In some cases (e.g. when scripting) this may not be desirable. The --no-switch option disables this behaviour:

juju bootstrap --no-switch localhost lxd-new

Configuring/enabling a remote syslog server

Create an Azure controller and configure for log forwarding:

juju bootstrap azure --config logconfig.yaml

To enable forwarding on all the controller's models by default:

juju bootstrap azure --config logforward-enabled=true --config logconfig.yaml

See Remote logging for a more thorough treatment of log forwarding.

Placing a controller on a specific MAAS node

To create a controller and have it run on a specific MAAS node:

juju bootstrap maas-prod --to <host>.maas

Specifying an agent version

When a controller is created, it is possible to influence what agent version will be used across the controller and its models. This is covered in Agent versions and streams.

Passing a cloud-specific setting

View if your chosen backing cloud has any special features and then pass the feature as an option.

Firstly, reveal any features:

juju show-cloud --include-config aws

The bottom portion of the output looks like this:

The available config options specific to ec2 clouds are:
vpc-id:
  type: string
  description: Use a specific AWS VPC ID (optional). When not specified, Juju requires
    a default VPC or EC2-Classic features to be available for the account/region.
vpc-id-force:
  type: bool
  description: Force Juju to use the AWS VPC ID specified with vpc-id, when it fails
    the minimum validation criteria. Not accepted without vpc-id

Secondly, create the controller by placing it (and its models) within it:

juju boootstrap --config vpc-id=vpc-86f7bbe1 aws