Getting Started
Getting started using Debian based distribution like Debian squeeze and Ubuntu is easy as DEBs are available for most the required components. This guide walks you through the process.
Requirements
We try to keep the requirements on external Gems to a minimum, you only need:
- A Stomp server, tested against ActiveMQ
- Ruby
- RubyGems
- Ruby Stomp Client
Packages
We strongly recommend you set up a local Apt repository that will host all the packages on your LAN, you can get the prerequisite packages here:
- ActiveMQ
- Java - OpenJDK that is included with your distribution
- Ruby - included with your distribution
- RubyGems
- Stomp Ruby Gem
- MCollective - mcollective-2.2.x-1_all.deb, mcollective-common-2.2.x-1_all.deb, mcollective-client-2.2.x-1_all.deb
The rest of this guide will assume you set up a Apt repository. Puppet Labs hosts a Apt repository with all these dependencies at apt.puppetlabs.com.
ActiveMQ
ActiveMQ is currently the most used and tested middleware for use with MCollective.
You need at least one ActiveMQ server on your network, all the nodes you wish to manage will connect to the central ActiveMQ server. Later on you can cluster the ActiveMQ servers for availability and scale.
Install
On the server that you chose to configure as the ActiveMQ server:
% apt-get install openjdk-6-jre
ActiveMQ installation instructions can be found here.
Configuring
The ActiveMQ config reference describes all of the ActiveMQ settings that MCollective cares about. For best use, skim the sections you care about while comparing it to an example activemq.xml file.
We recommend that new users:
- Start with the single-broker example config.
- Change the user account passwords.
- Set up TLS and use a TLS Stomp transport connector.
Other example config files are also available from GitHub.
Starting
Start the ActiveMQ service:
# /etc/init.d/activemq start
You should see it running in the process list:
# ps auxw|grep java
activemq 3012 0.1 14.5 1155112 152180 ? Sl Dec28 2:02 java -Dactivemq.home=/usr/share/activemq -Dactivemq.base=/usr/share/activemq -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote -Dorg.apache.activemq.UseDedicatedTaskRunner=true -Xmx512m -Djava.library.path=/usr/lib:/usr/lib64 -classpath /usr/share/java/tanukiwrapper.jar:/usr/share/activemq/bin/run.jar -Dwrapper.key=eg4_VvENzCmvtAKg -Dwrapper.port=32000 -Dwrapper.jvm.port.min=31000 -Dwrapper.jvm.port.max=31999 -Dwrapper.pid=3000 -Dwrapper.version=3.2.3 -Dwrapper.native_library=wrapper -Dwrapper.service=TRUE -Dwrapper.cpu.timeout=10 -Dwrapper.jvmid=1 org.tanukisoftware.wrapper.WrapperSimpleApp org.apache.activemq.console.Main start
You should also see it listening on port 61613 or 61614 in your network stack, depending on whether you turned on TLS.
You should open port 61613 or 61614 for all your nodes to connect to.
Marionette Collective
There are a few packages supplied and you will have potentially two type of server:
- Nodes that you wish to manage using mcollective need the mcollective and mcollective-common packages
- Nodes that you wish to use to initiate requests from also known as clients need mcollective-client and mcollective-common packages
A machine can be both at once, in which case you need to install all 3 packages. We’ll work on the assumption here that you wish to both manage your machine and use it as a client by installing all 3 packages on our initial node.
Installation
# apt-get install mcollective mcollective-client mcollective-common
# gem install stomp
Configuring
You’ll need to tweak some configs in /etc/mcollective/client.cfg, a full reference of config settings can be found here:
We’re assuming you called the machine running ActiveMQ stomp.example.net; please change as appropriate. Also note that the port should be 61614 if you turned on TLS.
# main config
libdir = /usr/libexec/mcollective
logfile = /dev/null
loglevel = error
# connector plugin config
connector = activemq
plugin.activemq.pool.size = 1
plugin.activemq.pool.1.host = stomp.example.net
plugin.activemq.pool.1.port = 61613
plugin.activemq.pool.1.user = mcollective
plugin.activemq.pool.1.password = marionette
# security plugin config
securityprovider = psk
plugin.psk = abcdefghj
You should also create /etc/mcollective/server.cfg here’s a sample, a full reference of config settings can be found on the Server Configuration Reference:
# main config
libdir = /usr/libexec/mcollective
logfile = /var/log/mcollective.log
daemonize = 1
loglevel = info
# connector plugin config
connector = activemq
plugin.activemq.pool.size = 1
plugin.activemq.pool.1.host = stomp.example.net
plugin.activemq.pool.1.port = 61613
plugin.activemq.pool.1.user = mcollective
plugin.activemq.pool.1.password = marionette
# facts
factsource = yaml
plugin.yaml = /etc/mcollective/facts.yaml
# security plugin config
securityprovider = psk
plugin.psk = abcdefghj
Replace the plugin.psk in both these files with a Pre-Shared Key of your own.
Create Facts
By default - and for this setup - we’ll use a simple YAML file for a fact source, later on you can use Puppet Labs Facter or something else.
Create /etc/mcollective/facts.yaml along these lines:
---
location: devel
country: uk
Start the Server
The packages include standard init script, just start the server:
# /etc/init.d/mcollective restart
You should see in the log file somethig like:
# tail /var/log/mcollective.log
I, [2010-12-29T11:15:32.321744 #11479] INFO -- : mcollectived:33 The Marionette Collective 1.1.0 started logging at info level
Test connectivity
If all is fine and you see this log message you can test with the client code:
% mco ping
your.domain.com time=74.41 ms
---- ping statistics ----
1 replies max: 74.41 min: 74.41 avg: 74.41
This sends out a simple ‘hello’ packet to all the machines, as we only installed one you should have just one reply.
If you install the mcollective and mcollective-common packages along wit the facts and server.cfg you should see more nodes show up here.
You can explore other aspects of your machines:
% mco find --with-fact country=uk
your.domain.com
This searches all systems currently active for ones with a fact country=uk, it got the data from the yaml file you made earlier.
If you use confiuration management tools like puppet and the nodes are setup with classes with classes.txt in /var/lib/puppet then you can search for nodes with a specific class on them - the locations will configurable soon:
% mco find --with-class common::linux
your.domain.com
The filter commands are important they will be the main tool you use to target only parts of your infrastructure with calls to agents.
See the –help option to the various mco *
commands for available options. You can now look at some of the available plugins and
play around, you might need to run the server process as root if you want to play with services etc.
Plugins
We provide limited default plugins, you can look on our sister project MCollective Plugins where you will find various plugins to manage packages, services etc.
Further Reading
From here you should look at the rest of the wiki pages some key pages are:
- Screencasts - Get a hands-on look at what is possible
- Terminology
- Introduction to Simple RPC - a simple to use framework for writing clients and agents
- ControllingTheDaemon - Controlling a running daemon
- AESSecurityPlugin - Using AES+RSA for secure message encryption and authentication of clients
- SSLSecurityPlugin - Using SSL for secure message signing and authentication of clients