How to configure Plastic Slices monitoring on an OpenFlow FOAM AM

Introduction

This page explains how to configure an OpenFlow FOAM server for central GENI operational monitoring. This page was written for

tango-monitor-foam_0.3-1

and may not work well with earlier versions. We have tested the FOAM utilities on Ubuntu 10.04 only, but expect they will also work on CentOS. If you are running a different OS and it is not obvious how to translate the instructions, please contact GPO infra.

Upgrading from previous versions

Version 0.3 of tango-monitor-foam introduces a new dependency and a config file. If you are currently running a previous version of tango-monitor-foam, you need to do the following steps of this update:

• II. Install software dependencies
• III. Upgrade the monitoring software itself
• IV. Create required directories and files: Step 1 (add a config file for monitoring)
• V. Test the new script and make sure it still works

If you are installing tango-monitor-foam for the first time or upgrading from an earlier version, read all sections to see which steps you need to take.

Variables

• <cronuser>: The user as which to run the FOAM monitoring. The scripts can run as root, or as a non-root user of your choice. (At GPO, we use the ganglia user.)
• <site>: a one-word phrase describing your site, probably the name of your university or lab (e.g. stanford, gpolab). Use the same value for all hosts your site is monitoring.

Steps to configure FOAM monitoring

I. Prepare to submit authenticated monitoring data to GMOC

You need to do these steps if you are installing monitoring for the first time.

1. IF you have not yet registered your site to submit data to GMOC, generate a password for automated monitoring data submission to use. All site resources use the same credential; you only need to do this step once for your entire site. Note: the password you use for your site registration is a new password generated for the purpose of submitting monitoring data. Do not reuse any existing passwords from your site.

2. Store your site password in a file which FOAM monitoring can use:

   sudo touch /usr/local/etc/monitoring_passwd
   sudo chown <cronuser> /usr/local/etc/monitoring_passwd
   sudo chmod 600 /usr/local/etc/monitoring_passwd
   sudo vi /usr/local/etc/monitoring_passwd
   

   Add exactly one line to this file, containing your site monitoring password.

3. Register site credentials: IF you have not yet registered your site to submit data to GMOC, follow the instructions at GENIMetaOps/SiteCredentials.

II. Install software dependencies

Install GMOC::ExchangeAPI-0.0.2 by hand (packaged versions of this module are coming soon).

1. Download the tarball onto the node (e.g. into your home directory):

   wget http://gmoc-db.grnoc.iu.edu/sources/perl-libs/GMOC-ExchangeAPI-0.0.2.tar.gz
   

2. Unpack the module into /usr/local/lib:

   cd /usr/local/lib
   sudo /bin/tar xvzf ~/GMOC-ExchangeAPI-0.0.2.tar.gz GMOC-ExchangeAPI-0.0.2/lib/GMOC --strip-components=2
   

3. Verify that this created and populated /usr/local/lib/GMOC with the ExchangeAPI module files:

   $ ls /usr/local/lib/GMOC/
   ExchangeAPI/  ExchangeAPI.pm  ExchangeAPI.pod
   

III. Install the monitoring software

Do these steps every time you install or upgrade the monitoring software.

If you are installing on Ubuntu

1. Download the tango-monitor-foam_0.3-1.deb package file from ​http://software.geni.net/local-sw/, and copy it onto your FOAM host, e.g. into ~/tango-monitor-foam_0.3-1.deb.

2. Use dpkg to install the local package. This may fail due to dependencies and say it is leaving the package "unconfigured". Therefore, invoke apt-get to fix any missing dependencies:

   sudo dpkg -i ~/tango-monitor-foam_0.3-1.deb
   sudo apt-get -f install
   

If you are installing on CentOS

1. Download the tango-monitor-foam-0.3-1.noarch.rpm package file from ​http://software.geni.net/local-sw/, and copy it onto your FOAM host, e.g. into ~/tango-monitor-foam-0.3-1.noarch.rpm.

2. Use yum localinstall to install the local package. This will install the provided file, using your standard yum repositories to find any dependencies:

   sudo yum localinstall ~/tango-monitor-foam-0.3-1.noarch.rpm
   

IV. Create required directories and files

Step 1 needs to be done the first time you upgrade to tango-monitor-foam-0.3 or later. The other steps only need to be done the first time you install tango-monitor-foam.

1. Populate the gmoc_monitoring configuration file:
   • Create the config file (the file does not contain sensitive information, and may safely be left world-readable):

     /usr/local/etc/gmoc_monitoring.conf
     

   • Edit the file and make sure it contains the variables SITENAME, ORGNAME, and POPNAME. (N.B. If you are upgrading from a previous version, all three of these variables should contain the <site> value you used in the past):

     $ cat /usr/local/etc/gmoc_monitoring.conf
     
     # GMOC short name which is your username for authenticated monitoring data submission
     SITENAME=<site>
     
     # GMOC short name of organization which manages your aggregate (may be the same as SITENAME)
     ORGNAME=<site>
     
     # GMOC short name of "POP"/lab where your aggregate is located (may be the same as SITENAME)
     POPNAME=<site>
     

2. Create required directories:

   sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/fvmetrics/monitoring
   sudo chown <cronuser> /var/cache/fvmetrics/monitoring
   
   sudo mkdir -p /var/spool/rrds/REPORT
   sudo chown -R <cronuser> /var/spool/rrds
   

3. The metric_foam script requires a FOAM password file, which it expects to find in:

   /opt/foam/etc/foampasswd
   

   This file should contain the admin password for FOAM. (This is the password you use with foamctl to run FOAM commands.)

V. Test the script

Run the monitoring and submission scripts by hand to make sure they work.

1. Check the time on your FOAM host, and make sure it is accurate. The data reporting format relies on clock accuracy, so your nodes must be running ntpd (or ntpdate regularly out of cron) in order for monitoring to work.

2. Run the metric gathering script by hand to make sure it works:

   sudo -u <cronuser> /usr/bin/metric_foam
   

   • This should produce no output
   • After this runs, a number of RRD files should be created in /var/spool/rrds/metrics

3. Run the data reporting script by hand to make sure it works:

   sudo -u <cronuser> /usr/bin/report_data_to_gmoc
   

   • This should produce no output
   • You should be able to browse to ​http://gmoc-db.grnoc.iu.edu/api-demo/, view data by Location, select your site, and find an entry for your node.

VI. Install the scripts to run from cron

This only needs to be done the first time you install the monitoring software.

Add the two scripts to cron: modify the <cronuser> crontab:

sudo -u <cronuser> crontab -e

and add the new lines:

*/1 * * * * /usr/bin/metric_foam
*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/report_data_to_gmoc