Manually configure the WEKA cluster using the resources generator

Detailed workflow for manually configuring the WEKA cluster using the resource generator in a multi-container backend architecture.

Perform this workflow using the resources generator only if you are not using the automated WMS, WSA, or WEKA Configurator.

The resources generator generates three resource files on each server in the /tmp directory: drives0.json, compute0.json, and frontend0.json. Then, you create the containers using these generated files of the cluster servers.

Before you begin

  1. Download the resources generator from the GitHub repository to your local server: https://github.com/weka/tools/blob/master/install/resources_generator.py.

Example:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/weka/tools/master/install/resources_generator.py

  1. Copy the resources generator from your local server to all servers in the cluster.

Example for a cluster with 8 servers:

for i in {0..7}; do scp resources_generator.py weka0-$i:/tmp/resources_generator.py; done

  1. To enable execution, change the mode of the resources generator on all servers in the cluster.

Example for a cluster with 8 servers:

pdsh -R ssh -w "weka0-[0-7]" 'chmod +x /tmp/resources_generator.py'

Workflow

  1. Remove the default container

  2. Generate the resource files

  3. Create a cluster

  4. Configure the SSD drives

  5. Create compute containers

  6. Create frontend containers

  7. Configure number of data and parity drives

  8. Configure number of hot spares

  9. Name the cluster

1. Remove the default container

Command: weka local stop default && weka local rm -f default

Stop and remove the auto-created default container created on each server.

2. Generate the resource files

Command: resources_generator.py

To generate the resource files for the drive, compute, and frontend processes, run the following command on each backend server:

./resources_generator.py --net <net-devices> [options]

The resources generator allocates the number of cores, memory, and other resources according to the values specified in the parameters.

The best practice for resources allocation is as follows:

  • 1 drive core per NVMe device (SSD).

  • 2-3 compute cores per drive core.

  • 1-2 frontend cores if deploying a protocol container. If there is a spare core, it is used for a frontend container.

  • Minimum of 1 core for the OS.

Example 1: according to the best practice

For a server with 24 cores and 6 SSDs, allocate 6 drive cores and 12 compute cores, and optionally you can use 2 cores of the remaining cores for the frontend container. The OS uses the remaining 4 cores.

Run the following command line: ./resources_generator.py --net eth1 eth2 --drive-dedicated-cores 6 --compute-dedicated-cores 12 --frontend-dedicated-cores 2

Example 2: a server with a limited number of cores

For a server with 14 cores and 6 SSDs, allocate 6 drive cores and 6 compute cores, and optionally you can use 1 core of the remaining cores for the frontend container. The OS uses the remaining 1 core.

Run the following command line: ./resources_generator.py --net eth1 eth2 --drive-dedicated-cores 6 --compute-dedicated-cores 6 --frontend-dedicated-cores 1

Contact Professional Services for the recommended resource allocation settings for your system.

Parameters

Name
Value
Default

compute-core-ids

Specify the CPUs to allocate for the compute processes. Format: space-separated numbers

compute-dedicated-cores

Specify the number of cores to dedicate for the compute processes.

The maximum available cores

compute-memory

Specify the total memory to allocate for the compute processes.

Format: value and unit without a space.

Examples: 1024B, 10GiB, 5TiB.

The maximum available memory

core-ids

Specify the CPUs to allocate for the WEKA processes. Format: space-separated numbers.

drive-core-ids

Specify the CPUs to allocate for the drive processes. Format: space-separated numbers.

drive-dedicated-cores

Specify the number of cores to dedicate for the drive processes.

1 core per each detected drive

drives

Specify the drives to use.

This option overrides automatic detection. Format: space-separated strings.

All unmounted NVME devices

frontend-core-ids

Specify the CPUs to allocate for the frontend processes. Format: space-separated numbers.

-

frontend-dedicated-cores

Specify the number of cores to dedicate for the frontend processes.

1

max-cores-per-container

Override the default maximum number of cores per container for IO processes (19). If provided, the new value must be lower.

19

minimal-memory

Set each container's hugepages memory to 1.4 GiB * number of IO processes on the container.

net*

Specify the network devices to use. Format: space-separated strings.

no-rdma

Don't take RDMA support into account when computing memory requirements.

False

num-cores

Override the auto-deduction of the number of cores.

All available cores

path

Specify the path to write the resource files.

'.'

spare-cores

Specify the number of cores to leave for OS and non-WEKA processes.

1

spare-memory

Specify the memory to reserve for non-WEKA requirements.

Argument format: a value and unit without a space.

Examples: 10GiB, 1024B, 5TiB.

The maximum between 8 GiB and 2% of the total RAM

weka-hugepages-memory

Specify the memory to allocate for compute, frontend, and drive processes.

Argument format: a value and unit without a space.

Examples: 10GiB, 1024B, 5TiB.

The maximum available memory

3. Create a cluster

Explore the two methods to create a new WEKA cluster.

Create the cluster (two-step method)

This method involves two main stages. First, you create the initial drives0 container on each server. Second, you run a single command from one server to form the cluster using those initial containers.

Procedure

  1. On each server that will be part of the cluster, run the weka local setup container command to create the initial drives0 container.

    • Specify the path to the drives0.json resource file.

    • Do not include the --join-ips or --clusterize options at this stage.

    • -n sets the container name, in this example drives0. Otherwise, it uses the resource filename.

  2. From one of the servers, run the weka cluster add command.

    • Provide the hostnames of the servers and their corresponding management IP addresses.

    • You must provide at least five servers.

    Example

Parameters

Parameter
Description

hostnames*

(Required) Hostnames or IP addresses, separated by spaces. If port 14000 is not the default for the drives, you can specify hostnames:port or ips:port.

host-ips

IP addresses of the management interfaces, separated by commas.

  • Use a list of ip+ip address pairs for a high availability (HA) configuration.

  • If the cluster connects to both IB and Ethernet, you can specify up to four management IPs (ip+ip+ip+ip) for redundancy.

  • Default: IP of the first network device of the container.

Notes:

  • The weka local setup container command uses pre-configured IP addresses from the generated resource file. It only modifies entries that are empty or contain the default 127.0.0.1 address. To force an overwrite of the ips field, use the --overwrite_resource_ips flag.

  • If you use hostnames, ensure a reliable hostname-to-IP resolution mechanism is in place.

  • For a high availability (HA) configuration, you must define at least two network cards for each container.

  • After the command succeeds, the cluster enters an initialization phase. Some commands only run during this phase.

  • After formation, each container receives a container-ID. Run weka cluster container to display the list of containers and their IDs.

Create the cluster (single-step auto-clusterization)

This method uses a single command, run on all servers (for example, with a parallel shell utility), to auto-cluster. Containers start, discover peers using the join IPs, and automatically form the cluster.

Before you begin

  • You must have a list of at least five management IP addresses from servers that will be part of the new cluster.

Procedure

  1. On each server, run the weka local setup container command.

    • Include the --join-ips option and provide at least five management IPs that will be part of the new cluster.

    • Include the --clusterize option to trigger the auto-clusterization process.

    • For InfiniBand (IB) installations, the --join-ips parameter must specify the IP addresses of the IPoIB interfaces.

    • -n sets the container name, in this example drives0. Otherwise, it uses the resource filename.

High availability (HA) with auto-clusterization

The --join-ips argument does not support the + notation for defining HA.

To configure HA with auto-clusterization, use the --management-ips argument when creating the container. You can provide multiple specific IPs or multiple network interface names.

Example using network interface names for HA:

4. Configure the SSD drives

Command: weka cluster drive add

To configure the SSD drives on each server in the cluster, or add multiple drive paths, use the following command:

Parameters

Name
Value

container-id*

The Identifier of the drive container to add the local SSD drives.

device-paths*

List of block devices that identify local SSDs. It must be a valid Unix network device name. Format: Space-separated strings. Example, /dev/nvme0n1 /dev/nvme1n1

5. Create compute containers

Command: weka local setup container

For each server in the cluster, create the compute containers using the resources generator output file compute0.json.

Parameters

Name
Value

resources-path*

A valid path to the resource file.

join-ips

IP:port pairs for the management processes to join the cluster. In the absence of a specified port, the command defaults to using the standard WEKA port 14000. Set the values, only if you want to customize the port.

To restrict the client’s operations to only the essential APIs for mounting and unmounting operations, connect to WEKA clusters through TCP base port + 3 (for example, 14003).

The IP:port value must match the value used to create the container. Format: comma-separated IP addresses. Example: --join-ips 10.10.10.1,10.10.10.2,10.10.10.3:15000

6. Create frontend containers

Command: weka local setup container

For each server in the cluster, create the frontend containers using the resources generator output file frontend0.json.

Command example for installing a stateful client with restricted privileges

Parameters

Name
Value

resources-path*

A valid path to the resource file.

join-ips

IP:port pairs for the management processes to join the cluster. In the absence of a specified port, the command defaults to using the standard WEKA port 14000. Set the values, only if you want to customize the port. Format: comma-separated IP addresses. Example: --join-ips 10.10.10.1,10.10.10.2,10.10.10.3:15000

client

Set the container as a client.

auto-remove-timeout

Specify timeout (in seconds) for automatically removing inactive client containers. Only applicable when used with the --client flag.

restricted

Set a client container with restricted privileges as a regular user regardless of the logged-in role.

7. Configure the number of data and parity drives

Command: weka cluster update --data-drives=<count> --parity-drives=<count>

Example: weka cluster update --data-drives=4 --parity-drives=2

8. Configure the number of hot spares

Command: weka cluster hot-spare <count>

Example: weka cluster hot-spare 1

9. Name the cluster

Command: weka cluster update --cluster-name=<cluster name>

What to do next?

Perform post-configuration procedures

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