Azure virtual machine extension readiness by rishabkumar7 · Pull Request #107 · learntocloud/linux-ctfs

rishabkumar7 · 2026-06-02T19:52:53Z

This pull request makes several improvements to the CTF deployment and testing scripts, with a focus on more robust VM reboot and test coordination, improved Azure release setup, and better logging and error handling. The changes also clarify documentation and update the minimum Terraform version for Azure.

Key changes include:

Test Script and Reboot Coordination Improvements

Refactored test script state files to use a persistent directory (${HOME}/.linux-ctfs-test) to ensure they survive VM reboots, and added a --post-reboot flag for explicit post-reboot verification. The test script now checks for the reboot marker and cleans up state after verification. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Extracted the logic for copying the test script to the VM into a new _copy_test_script function, and ensured it is called before both initial and post-reboot test runs. [1] [2] [3]
Improved error handling and logging during VM reboot and post-reboot testing, including explicit checks for SSH availability and reboot success. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Azure Release Mode and Setup Reliability

Migrated Azure release setup to use the VM Custom Script Extension rather than SSH-based provisioning, improving reliability and surfacing errors more clearly in Azure logs. The readiness wait is now handled by Terraform waiting for the extension to complete. [1] [2] [3]
Improved the Azure setup script to wait for cloud-init, retry apt-get update on failure, and clarify error messages to reference the correct logs. [1] [2]

Documentation and Version Updates

Updated the minimum required Terraform version for Azure to v1.14.0 and clarified troubleshooting steps, including where to find logs if the setup fails.
Updated contributor documentation to explain the differences in setup readiness and test coordination between Azure, AWS, GCP, and contributor (local) mode.

…ing guidance

…ider

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR improves CTF deployment reliability—especially for Azure release-mode readiness—by moving Azure setup into a VM Custom Script Extension and strengthening the reboot + post-reboot test coordination used by the CTF testing harness.

Changes:

Switched Azure release setup from SSH-based readiness polling to an azurerm_virtual_machine_extension-driven setup flow (Terraform now waits on extension completion).
Refactored reboot test coordination so state survives VM reboots and added an explicit --post-reboot verification phase.
Updated docs and troubleshooting guidance, including Azure’s minimum Terraform version and relevant VM-side logs.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
`CONTRIBUTING.md`	Documents provider differences in setup readiness and contributor vs release testing flow.
`azure/README.md`	Updates Azure troubleshooting guidance and Terraform minimum version.
`azure/main.tf`	Implements Azure release setup via Custom Script Extension and adds setup-script robustness (cloud-init wait, apt retries).
`.github/skills/ctf-testing/test_ctf_challenges.sh`	Persists reboot-test state across reboots and adds `--post-reboot` mode.
`.github/skills/ctf-testing/deploy_and_test.sh`	Improves reboot/test orchestration and refactors test-script copy logic for reuse.

+    mkdir -p "${TEST_STATE_DIR}"
    sort -u /var/ctf/completed_challenges 2>/dev/null | wc -l > "$PROGRESS_SNAPSHOT"
    touch "$REBOOT_MARKER"
    echo "Reboot marker created. Re-run after reboot to verify services."


 # TEST EXECUTION
 # =============================================================================

+# Copy test script to VM and execute it



+Setup readiness differs by provider:
+
+- Azure release mode uses VM Custom Script Extension, so Terraform waits for extension success or failure.


-            echo "  Restarting Azure VM..."
+            echo "  Restarting Azure VM..." >&2
            az vm restart --resource-group ctf-resources --name ctf-vm
            # az vm restart waits by default, but add explicit wait for running state


…s and reboot verification

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

.github/skills/ctf-testing/deploy_and_test.sh:441

Same stdout contract issue as Azure: gcloud compute instances reset may write to stdout, which would pollute _reboot_vm's stdout return value and break new_ip=$(_reboot_vm ...). Redirect stdout so only the IP is emitted on stdout.

        gcp)
            echo "  Restarting GCP VM..." >&2
            local zone
            zone=$(cd "${REPO_ROOT}/${provider}" \
                && terraform output -raw zone 2>/dev/null \
                || echo "us-central1-a")
            gcloud compute instances reset ctf-instance --zone="${zone}" --quiet
            # Wait for VM to be running

+_copy_test_script() {
+    local provider="$1"
+    local ip="$2"
+
+    _log INFO "Copying test script to VM..."
+    # shellcheck disable=SC2086
+    _sshpass_cmd scp ${SSH_OPTS} "${TEST_SCRIPT}" "${SSH_USER}@${ip}:/tmp/test_ctf_challenges.sh"
+}


        azure)
-            echo "  Restarting Azure VM..."
+            echo "  Restarting Azure VM..." >&2
            az vm restart --resource-group ctf-resources --name ctf-vm
-            # az vm restart waits by default, but add explicit wait for running state
-            az vm wait \
-                --resource-group ctf-resources \
-                --name ctf-vm \
-                --created \
-                --timeout 120 2>/dev/null || true
            ;;


Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

.github/skills/ctf-testing/deploy_and_test.sh:441

_reboot_vm is documented to return the VM IP via stdout, but the GCP reboot path runs gcloud compute instances reset ... without redirecting its output. If gcloud prints status text to stdout, it will corrupt the captured new_ip value (new_ip=$(_reboot_vm ...)) and break the post-reboot flow.

            echo "  Restarting GCP VM..." >&2
            local zone
            zone=$(cd "${REPO_ROOT}/${provider}" \
                && terraform output -raw zone 2>/dev/null \
                || echo "us-central1-a")
            gcloud compute instances reset ctf-instance --zone="${zone}" --quiet
            # Wait for VM to be running

 # Parse arguments
 WITH_REBOOT=false
+POST_REBOOT=false
 for arg in "$@"; do
    case $arg in
        --with-reboot)
            WITH_REBOOT=true
            shift
            ;;
+        --post-reboot)
+            POST_REBOOT=true
+            shift
+            ;;
    esac
 done


…flags

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

.github/skills/ctf-testing/deploy_and_test.sh:440

_reboot_vm is intended to return only the VM IP via stdout (logs go to stderr), but the GCP reboot path calls gcloud compute instances reset without redirecting its stdout. If gcloud prints anything, it will corrupt the captured IP (new_ip=$(...)). Redirect stdout to stderr (or /dev/null) to enforce the function contract consistently across providers.

            zone=$(cd "${REPO_ROOT}/${provider}" \
                && terraform output -raw zone 2>/dev/null \
                || echo "us-central1-a")
            gcloud compute instances reset ctf-instance --zone="${zone}" --quiet

            WITH_REBOOT=true
-            shift
+            ;;
+        --post-reboot)
+            POST_REBOOT=true
+            ;;


…clarity and prevent conflicting flags

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

+  azure_release_extension_script = <<-EOF
+    #!/bin/sh
+    exec /bin/bash <<'LINUX_CTFS_SETUP'
+    ${local.release_setup_script}
+    LINUX_CTFS_SETUP
  EOF


+            echo "  Restarting Azure VM..." >&2
+            az vm restart --resource-group ctf-resources --name ctf-vm >&2
            ;;


…ript formatting in main.tf

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

            ;;
        gcp)
-            echo "  Restarting GCP VM..."
+            echo "  Restarting GCP VM..." >&2


…ilure in _reboot_vm function

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

rishabkumar7 and others added 3 commits June 1, 2026 15:33

Update README and main.tf for CTF setup improvements and troubleshoot…

ab3d147

…ing guidance

Update CONTRIBUTING.md to clarify setup readiness differences by prov…

6d91186

…ider

Fix post-reboot CTF test flow

fc8e50d

Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

rishabkumar7 requested a review from Copilot June 2, 2026 20:24

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of rishabkumar7 June 2, 2026 20:24 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 2, 2026

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Update documentation and scripts for clarity on Terraform requirement…

7d56841

…s and reboot verification

rishabkumar7 requested a review from Copilot June 4, 2026 14:32

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of rishabkumar7 June 4, 2026 14:33 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

Improve logging messages for Azure VM restart and test script copying

e4a4bdd

rishabkumar7 requested a review from Copilot June 4, 2026 14:45

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of rishabkumar7 June 4, 2026 14:45 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 4, 2026

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Comment thread .github/skills/ctf-testing/test_ctf_challenges.sh

Comment on lines 61 to 75

# Parse arguments

WITH_REBOOT=false

POST_REBOOT=false

for arg in "$@"; do

case $arg in

--with-reboot)

WITH_REBOOT=true

shift

;;

--post-reboot)

POST_REBOOT=true

shift

;;

esac

done

Enhance argument parsing in test_ctf_challenges.sh to handle unknown …

e2cb4b0

…flags

rishabkumar7 requested a review from Copilot June 4, 2026 15:01

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of rishabkumar7 June 4, 2026 15:01 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 4, 2026

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Comment thread .github/skills/ctf-testing/test_ctf_challenges.sh

Comment on lines 67 to +71

WITH_REBOOT=true

shift

;;

--post-reboot)

POST_REBOOT=true

;;

Refactor argument parsing in test_ctf_challenges.sh to improve usage …

f68b169

…clarity and prevent conflicting flags

rishabkumar7 requested a review from Copilot June 4, 2026 21:10

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of rishabkumar7 June 4, 2026 21:10 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 4, 2026

View reviewed changes

Fix Azure VM restart command to return error on failure and adjust sc…

1f66560

…ript formatting in main.tf

rishabkumar7 requested a review from Copilot June 5, 2026 14:03

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of rishabkumar7 June 5, 2026 14:03 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 5, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread .github/skills/ctf-testing/deploy_and_test.sh

;;

gcp)

echo " Restarting GCP VM..."

echo " Restarting GCP VM..." >&2

Redirect gcloud command error output to stderr and return error on fa…

e596fb3

…ilure in _reboot_vm function

rishabkumar7 requested a review from Copilot June 5, 2026 21:40

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of rishabkumar7 June 5, 2026 21:40 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jun 5, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread .github/skills/ctf-testing/test_ctf_challenges.sh Outdated

Potential fix for pull request finding

ea632ca

Co-authored-by: Copilot Autofix powered by AI <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

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Azure virtual machine extension readiness#107

Azure virtual machine extension readiness#107
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		Setup readiness differs by provider:

		- Azure release mode uses VM Custom Script Extension, so Terraform waits for extension success or failure.

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rishabkumar7 commented Jun 2, 2026

Test Script and Reboot Coordination Improvements

Azure Release Mode and Setup Reliability

Documentation and Version Updates

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