[ClusterLabs] Off-line build-time cluster configuration

Craig Johnston agspoon at gmail.com
Wed Apr 15 13:10:09 EDT 2020


Yes, you could think of our use case as an appliance.  I'm being
intentionally vague about the actual implementation, but the underlying
requirement to build an arbitrary cluster configuration off-line, or
pre-boot, is the key thing we're looking for help with.

Craig

On Tue, Apr 14, 2020 at 2:05 PM Strahil Nikolov <hunter86_bg at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> On April 14, 2020 9:46:14 PM GMT+03:00, Craig Johnston <agspoon at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >Hello,
> >
> >Sorry if this has already been covered, but a perusal of recent mail
> >archives didn't turn up anything for me.
> >
> >We are looking for help in configuring a pacemaker/corosync cluster at
> >the
> >time the Linux root file system is built, or perhaps as part of a
> >"pre-pivot" process in the initramfs of a live-CD environment.
> >
> >We are using the RHEL versions of the cluster products.  Current
> >production
> >is RHEL7 based, and we are trying to move to RHEL8.
> >
> >The issues we have stem from the configuration tools' expectation that
> >they
> >are operating on a live system, with all cluster nodes available on the
> >network.  This is obviously not the case during a "kickstart" install
> >and
> >configuration process.  It's also not true in an embedded environment
> >where
> >all nodes are powered simultaneously and expected to become operational
> >without any human intervention.
> >
> >We create the cluster configuration from a "system model", that
> >describes
> >the available nodes, cluster managed services, fencing agents, etc..
> >This
> >model is different for each deployment, and is used as input to create
> >a
> >customized Linux distribution that is deployed to a set of physical
> >hardware, virtual machines, or containers.  Each node, and it's root
> >file
> >system, is required to be configured and ready to go, the very first
> >time
> >it is ever booted.  The on-media Linux file system is also immutable,
> >and
> >thus each boot is exactly like the previous one.
> >
> >Under RHEL7, we were able to use the "pcs" command to create the
> >corosync.conf/cib.xml files for each node.
> >e.g.
> >      pcs cluster setup --local --enable --force --name mycluster node1
> >node2 node3
> >          pcs -f ${CIB} property set startup-fencing=false
> >          pcs -f ${CIB} resource create tftp ocf:heartbeat:Xinetd
> > service=tftp  --group grp_tftp
> >          etc...
> >
> >Plus a little "awk" "sed" on the corosync.conf file, and we were able
> >to
> >create a working configuration that worked out of the box. It's not
> >pretty,
> >but it works in spite of the fact that we feel like we're swimming up
> >stream.
> >
> >Under RHEL8 however, the "pcs cluster" command no longer has a
> >"--local"
> >option.  We can't find any tool to replace it's functionality.  We can
> >use
> >"cibadmin --empty" to create a starting cib.xml file, but there is no
> >way
> >to add nodes to it (or create the corosync.conf file with nodes".
> >
> >Granted, we could write our own tools to create template
> >corosync.conf/cib.xml files, and "pcs -f" still works.  However, that
> >leaves us in the unenviable position where the cluster configuration
> >schema
> >could change, and our tools would not be the wiser.  We'd much prefer
> >to
> >use a standard and maintained interface for configuring the cluster.
> >
> >Any suggestions would be very welcome.  While we have a non-standard
> >use-case, we don't believe it is unrealistic given the current
> >environment
> >for cloud services, and automated deployment.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >Craig
>
> I guess I'm a  little bit narrow-minded , but I don't get the whole
> concept.
>
> Why should you need to use  a ' pre-pivot" process in the initramfs of a
> live-CD environment.'   ?
>
> Can't you just pull the configuration from a central location (lile salt,
> puppet or just a plain http server ) ?
>
> Are you trying to build an apliance that selfdeploys without human
> intervention ?
>
> Best Regards,
> Strahil Nikolov
>
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