A BIG note about running ICO 2.4.0.1

I successfully installed ICO 2.4.0.1 using 2 machines:

1: Deployment Server (where I could then run the 'ds wizard' command)

2: My all-in-one deployment to a KVM hypervisor.

Both machines are running RHEL 6.5 and have lots of CPU, RAM and disk.

My HUGE problem after install was that the Deployment Server automatically started an unnecessary dnsmasq process. And because of this, I could not create any new instances. Every time I tried, I got errors similar to the following in /var/log/nova/compute.log (and similar in network.log also):

2015-01-27 13:29:14.987 19521 ERROR oslo.messaging.rpc.dispatcher [-] Exception during message handling: Remote error: ProcessExecutionError Unexpected error while running command.
Command: sudo nova-rootwrap /etc/nova/rootwrap.conf env CONFIG_FILE=["/etc/nova/nova.conf"] NETWORK_ID=3 dnsmasq --strict-order --bind-interfaces --conf-file=/etc/dnsmasq.conf --pid-file=/var/lib/nova/networks/nova-br1002.pid --listen-address=10.10.1.3 --except-interface=lo --dhcp-range=set:franknet,10.10.1.3,static,255.255.255.0,120s --dhcp-lease-max=256 --dhcp-hostsfile=/var/lib/nova/networks/nova-br1002.conf --dhcp-script=/usr/bin/nova-dhcpbridge --leasefile-ro --domain=novalocal --no-hosts --addn-hosts=/var/lib/nova/networks/nova-br1002.hosts
Exit code: 2
Stdout: u''
Stderr: u"2015-01-27 13:29:13.983 10307 INFO nova.openstack.common.periodic_task [req-0d06a702-1f2a-4b95-a8f3-0f8665d4c83b None None] Skipping periodic task _periodic_update_dns because its interval is negative\n2015-01-27 13:29:13.985 10307 INFO nova.network.driver [req-0d06a702-1f2a-4b95-a8f3-0f8665d4c83b None None] Loading network driver 'nova.network.linux_net'\n2015-01-27 13:29:13.986 10307 DEBUG nova.servicegroup.api [req-0d06a702-1f2a-4b95-a8f3-0f8665d4c83b None None] ServiceGroup driver defined as an instance of db __new__ /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/servicegroup/api.py:65\n2015-01-27 13:29:14.107 10307 DEBUG stevedore.extension [-] found extension EntryPoint.parse('file = nova.image.download.file') _load_plugins /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/stevedore/extension.py:156\n2015-01-27 13:29:14.121 10307 DEBUG stevedore.extension [-] found extension EntryPoint.parse('file = nova.image.download.file') _load_plugins /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/stevedore/extension.py:156\n\ndnsmasq: failed to create listening socket for 10.10.1.3: Address already in use\n"
[u'Traceback (most recent call last):\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/oslo/messaging/rpc/dispatcher.py", line 134, in _dispatch_and_reply\n    incoming.message))\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/oslo/messaging/rpc/dispatcher.py", line 177, in _dispatch\n    return self._do_dispatch(endpoint, method, ctxt, args)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/oslo/messaging/rpc/dispatcher.py", line 123, in _do_dispatch\n    result = getattr(endpoint, method)(ctxt, **new_args)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/network/floating_ips.py", line 193, in deallocate_for_instance\n    super(FloatingIP, self).deallocate_for_instance(context, **kwargs)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/network/manager.py", line 563, in deallocate_for_instance\n    instance=instance)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/network/manager.py", line 246, in deallocate_fixed_ip\n    address, instance=instance)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/network/manager.py", line 980, in deallocate_fixed_ip\n    self._teardown_network_on_host(context, network)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/openstack/common/lockutils.py", line 249, in inner\n    return f(*args, **kwargs)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/network/manager.py", line 1906, in _teardown_network_on_host\n    self.driver.update_dhcp(elevated, dev, network)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/network/linux_net.py", line 1004, in update_dhcp\n    restart_dhcp(context, dev, network_ref)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/openstack/common/lockutils.py", line 249, in inner\n    return f(*args, **kwargs)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/network/linux_net.py", line 1118, in restart_dhcp\n    _execute(*cmd, run_as_root=True)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/network/linux_net.py", line 1211, in _execute\n    return utils.execute(*cmd, **kwargs)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/utils.py", line 165, in execute\n    return processutils.execute(*cmd, **kwargs)\n', u'  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/nova/openstack/common/processutils.py", line 196, in execute\n    cmd=sanitized_cmd)\n', u'ProcessExecutionError: Unexpected error while running command.\nCommand: sudo nova-rootwrap /etc/nova/rootwrap.conf env CONFIG_FILE=["/etc/nova/nova.conf"] NETWORK_ID=3 dnsmasq --strict-order --bind-interfaces --conf-file=/etc/dnsmasq.conf --pid-file=/var/lib/nova/networks/nova-br1002.pid --listen-address=10.10.1.3 --except-interface=lo --dhcp-range=set:franknet,10.10.1.3,static,255.255.255.0,120s --dhcp-lease-max=256 --dhcp-hostsfile=/var/lib/nova/networks/nova-br1002.conf --dhcp-script=/usr/bin/nova-dhcpbridge --leasefile-ro --domain=novalocal --no-hosts --addn-hosts=/var/lib/nova/networks/nova-br1002.hosts\nExit code: 2\nStdout: u\'\'\nStderr: u"2015-01-27 13:29:13.983 10307 INFO nova.openstack.common.periodic_task [req-0d06a702-1f2a-4b95-a8f3-0f8665d4c83b None None] Skipping periodic task _periodic_update_dns because its interval is negative\\n2015-01-27 13:29:13.985 10307 INFO nova.network.driver [req-0d06a702-1f2a-4b95-a8f3-0f8665d4c83b None None] Loading network driver \'nova.network.linux_net\'\\n2

Once I killed the offending dnsmasq process, I could successfully create instances.

SOURCE: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_launch_an_instance_on_OpenStack

How to remove a bridged network interface in Red Hat Linux

So ICO 2.4 requires the Deployment Server machine to have interface br0 defined as a bridge connected to eth0. However, ICO 2.4.0.1 does NOT want br0, but wants eth0. I had already created br0 using the virsh command, so I had to look up how to remove it, and it's very simple once you find it:

virsh iface-unbridge br0

and that's it. It puts all of the configuration back on eth0 and you're in business.

I'm giving up on ICO 24 on RHEL 6.6

After installing the Deployment Service (which gives you the ds command), I tried to deploy an all-in-one ICO environment, and it failed very badly. So badly that multiple components stopped running and there was no recovering from it. So I'm now starting over with RHEL 6.5.

Getting IBM Cloud Orchestrator to install on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6

This is probably fixed in ICO 2.4.1, but in 2.4, you need to modify a file to get the installation to work on RHEL 6.6 because it believes that only RHEL 6.4 and 6.5 are supported. You'll encounter an error when you run through the ds wizard command.

The file you need to update (after installing the Deployment Service) is:

/opt/ibm/cloud-deployer/precheck.json

In that file, you'll see multiple stanzas similar to this:

             "os": {
                        "release": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release",
                        "arch": "64",
                        "version": ["6.5","6.4"]

               },

You need to update the line that contains "version" to be:

                        "version": ["6.6","6.5","6.4"]

And then the wizard can complete.

Some background:

I found this because I saw the error: 

"DeployTaskFailed: Failed to execute deployment task: deploy-precheck, error message: precheck failed on ico24demo.mynet.foo: ico24demo.mynet.fooincorrect os version,expected:['6.5', '6.4']actually:6.6\n\n"

And I ran the following command in multiple directories:

grep -r "6\.5" *

until I found the file I needed to change.

Configuring RHEL prerequisites for IBM Cloud Orchestrator 2.4

Introduction

The first basic requirement for your systems when deploying ICO 2.4 is to have DNS name resolution working correctly. For some reason or another, this is the area that has the largest number and most frequent problems in every single enterprise. So this short post is meant to help you get something going quickly, normally in a test environment, until you can communicate with your networking team to get the problems solved permanently.

My Simple Environment

My test environment is the demo configuration with one RHEL 6.6 server with 8 cores and 32GB of RAM, with KVM for virtualization.

Setting Your Hostname

You need to set your hostname to a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), and in a test environment, the format just needs to be correct - the actual name doesn't have to be registered anywhere. For example, I named my host ico24demo.mynet.foo. I don't care if .foo is a valid root or not because I get to make the rules in my own environment.

To permanently set your hostname to an FQDN if you didn't do it at install time, you need to edit the file:

/etc/sysconfig/network

and set:

HOSTNAME=your.full.fqdn

If you don't want to reboot to have it set, also run the following as root:

hostname your.full.fqdn

Update Your Hosts File

You also need to update your /etc/hosts file with your hostname and IP. So edit /etc/hosts and add that information for your host. In my environment, my hostname is ico24demo.mynet.foo and my static IP address is 192.168.1.250. So here's my /etc/hosts entry:

192.168.1.250     ico24demo.mynet.foo   ico24demo

Start dnsmasq

dnsmasq is a simple DNS server (and DHCP and some other things) that we'll configure locally for name resolution.

I picked a pretty standard installation for my Red Hat server (software development system with all of the Virtualization options selected), and it automatically installed the dnsmasq-2.48.14.el6.x86_64 package. You can check to see if you have this package installed with:

rpm -q -a | grep dnsmasq

If it's not installed, install it.

Assuming it is installed, make sure it's not already running with:

ps -ef | grep dnsmasq

If it is, kill it with:

service stop dnsmasq

The above may or may not work. If the process is still running kill it with the kill command.

And now that your /etc/hosts file has your host information, start dnsmasq with:

service start dnsmasq

Test Your New DNS Server

Probably the easiest way to test your server is to first edit your /etc/resolv.conf file to set your nameserver to your local machine. So my local IP is 192.168.1.250, and the IP address of my subnet's nameserver is 192.168.1.1. So in my /etc/resolv.conf file, I have the following:

# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 192.168.1.250
nameserver 192.168.1.1

Now run the command:

host 192.168.1.250

The correct output for me is:

250.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer ico24demo.mynet.foo.

If you get something different, go back over the steps above. But if it's correct, keep going.

Make the Nameserver Change Permanent

Go to System->Preferences->Network Connections to set your nameserver to be your local IP address.

A non-GUI way to do this is to update your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file to set the DNS server.

Good luck!

APM UI 7.7 - Creating Windows Services

If you've installed APM UI v7.7 on a Windows server, you probably have noticed that IBM doesn't create Windows services.  As a result, none of the services start after a reboot, etc.

Below are the steps necessary to create Windows services for APM UI and SCR (Service Component Repository).  In this scenario, we have the SCR database using DB2 vs. Derby.

We've also included the commands necessary to create the service for SCR on Derby (however, this hasn't been tested).

Assumptions
Our base install directory for the APM UI is C:\IBM\APMUI - your path may differ, adjust the commands below as appropriate.

Procedure

• Download the Apache Commons Daemon (link).
• Extract commons-daemon-1.0.15-bin-windows.zip and copy prunsrv.exe to C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\
• Open a Command Prompt and change into your C:\IBM\APMUI\bin directory 

• Create the Windows service for SCR and have it depend on Tcpip and DB2 being up first.

prunsrv //IS//SCR --Startup=auto --DisplayName="IBM APMUI - SCR" --Description="IBM WebSphere Liberty Profile SCR" ++DependsOn=Tcpip ++DependsOn=DB2-0 --LogPath=C:\IBM\APMUI\usr\servers\apmui\logs --StdOutput=auto --StdError=auto --StartMode=exe --StartPath=C:\IBM\APMUI --StartImage=C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\server.bat --StartParams=start#scr --StopMode=exe --StopPath=C:\IBM\APMUI --StopImage=C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\server.bat --StopParams=stop#scr

• Create the Windows service for APMUI and have it depend on SCR being up first.

prunsrv //IS//APMUI --Startup=auto --DisplayName="IBM APMUI - APMUI" --Description="IBM WebSphere Liberty Profile APMUI" ++DependsOn=SCR --LogPath=C:\IBM\APMUI\usr\servers\apmui\logs --StdOutput=auto --StdError=auto --StartMode=exe --StartPath=C:\IBM\APMUI --StartImage=C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\server.bat --StartParams=start#apmui --StopMode=exe --StopPath=C:\IBM\APMUI --StopImage=C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\server.bat --StopParams=stop#apmui

Derby vs. DB2

If you have SCR running under Derby vs. DB2, you can create a third service for SCRDERBY.  The start-up of SCR would then depend on SCRDERBY instead of DB2-0.

• Create the Windows service for SCRDERBY and have it depend on TCPIP being up first

prunsrv //IS//SCRDERBY --Startup=auto --DisplayName="IBM APMUI - SCRDERBY" --Description="IBM WebSphere Liberty Profile SCRDERBY" ++DependsOn=Tcpip --LogPath=C:\IBM\APMUI\usr\servers\apmui\logs --StdOutput=auto --StdError=auto --StartMode=exe --StartPath=C:\IBM\APMUI --StartImage=C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\server.bat --StartParams=start#scrderby --StopMode=exe --StopPath=C:\IBM\APMUI --StopImage=C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\server.bat --StopParams=stop#scrderby

• In this case, have the SCR service depend on SCRDERBY instead of DB2.

prunsrv //IS//SCR --Startup=auto --DisplayName="IBM APMUI - SCR" --Description="IBM WebSphere Liberty Profile SCR" ++DependsOn=Tcpip ++DependsOn=SCRDERBY --LogPath=C:\IBM\APMUI\usr\servers\apmui\logs --StdOutput=auto --StdError=auto --StartMode=exe --StartPath=C:\IBM\APMUI --StartImage=C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\server.bat --StartParams=start#scr --StopMode=exe --StopPath=C:\IBM\APMUI --StopImage=C:\IBM\APMUI\bin\server.bat --StopParams=stop#scr


The name specified after //IS// is effectively the "short name" for the service.  So, you can issue commands such as "net start apmui", "net stop scrderby", etc. based on those names.  As with all services, you can use the full Display Name  if you enjoy typing (net start "IBM APMUI - APMUI", etc.)

The typical startup sequence would be:

• net start scrderby (if running Derby vs. DB2)
• net start scr
• net start apmui

The typical shutdown sequence would be:

• net stop apmui
• net stop scr
• net stop scrderby (if running Derby vs. DB2)

prunsrv Documentation/Usage:

Here's a link to the prunsrv documentation/usage.


Sample - APMUI Service

Sample - APMUI Service Dependencies

MongoDB Setup and Monitoring with Application Insight

Introduction

MongoDB might be new to you.  It certainly was new to us, so when we took some time to experiment with IBM SmartCloud Monitoring - Application Insight of a MongoDB, our first hurdle was setting up MongoDB!  It should be noted that stand-alone DB instances are not currently supported by the monitoring agent, so we needed to build up a clustered/replicated MongoDB configuration.  This is common in a production environment, but a bit more than we expected to need in the lab.

MongoDB Setup Overview

Our MongoDB setup was accomplished using a single virtual machine.  While this isn't a recommended setup for a production environment, it is perfectly fine for this testing.  Our setup included the following overall steps:

1. Create 3 databases, each configured to use unique paths and ports (ports: 37017, 37018, 37019)
2. Connect to the "soon-to-be" primary database (port 37017) and configure the replica set.
3. Add second (port 37018) and third (port 37019) databases to the replica set.
4. Installed a demo database using JSON import
5. Started a Configuration Server (port 37020)
6. Started mongos, pointing at Configuration Server and listening on port 37021
7. Connected to mongos (port 37021)
8. Added replica set to Shard
9. Enabled Sharding on our demodb
10. Enabled Sharding on the collection (aka table)

A special thanks to the following website for providing some demo database data and a nice presentation on MongoDB and Ruby apps.  Also thanks to the MongoDB docs for creating a cluster.

You may ask, why 3 databases, aren't 2 enough?  This is because the recommended MINIMUM number of databases for a Replica Set is 3.  If your setup only has 2 databases, Application Insight will flag the Global MongoDB Status as a Warning.

MongoDB Setup

VM hostname is "openpulse".
Replica Set is named "rs1".

Download MongoDB (we used 64-bit Linux) from here.
Untar file.  Location of files will be referred to as $MEDIA
The remaining commands assume the $MEDIA/bin directory are in your path.

mkdir -p /srv/mongodb/rs1-0 /srv/mongodb/rs1-1 /srv/mongodb/rs1-2
# Start up 3 databases

mongod --port 37017 --dbpath /srv/mongodb/rs1-0 --replSet rs1 --smallfiles --oplogSize 128

mongod --port 37018 --dbpath /srv/mongodb/rs1-1 --replSet rs1 --smallfiles --oplogSize 128

mongod --port 37019 --dbpath /srv/mongodb/rs1-2 --replSet rs1 --smallfiles --oplogSize 128

# Connect to to-be-primary

mongo --port 37017

#Give Primary a configuration for a replication set

rsconf = {

           _id: "rs1",

           members: [

                      {

                       _id: 0,

                       host: "openpulse:37017"

                      }

                    ]

         }

#Initiates the replica set

rs.initiate( rsconf )

#Displays Replication set

rs.conf()

#Add 2nd db - NOTE: you might need to wait for prompt to change to PRIMARY before continuing.

rs.add("openpulse:37018")

#Add 3rd db

rs.add("openpulse:37019")

#Display Replication set, confirm three are listed

rs.conf()

#Install DemoDB

curl -L http://c.spf13.com/OSCON/venuesImport.json | mongoimport --port 37017 -d demodb -c venues

#Start a config server

mkdir /data/configdb2

mongod --configsvr --dbpath /data/configdb2 --port 37020

#Start mongos pointing at config server

mongos --port 37021 --configdb openpulse:37020

#Connect to mongos

mongo --host openpulse --port 37021

#Add replica set to shard

sh.addShard( "rs1/openpulse:37017" )

#Shows replica set and other stats

db._adminCommand("connPoolStats");

#Connect to mongos

mongo --host openpulse --port 37021

#Enable sharding for the DB

sh.enableSharding("demodb")

#switch DB

use demodb

#Set index for sharding

db.venues.ensureIndex( { _id : "hashed" } )

db.venues.getIndexes()

#Setup sharding of the collection (table)

sh.shardCollection("demodb.venues", { "_id": "hashed" })

MongoDB Agent Setup

Reference IBM documentation here.

Our monitoring instance is named "Pulse21"

mongodb-agent.sh install

mongodb-agent.sh config pulse21

Agent configuration started...

Edit "Monitoring Agent for MongoDB" settings? [ 1=Yes, 2=No ] (default is: 1):

Agent Configuration :

Configuration variables for agent start up

The directory where the Java runtime is located. This value is optional. The agent will use the built in Java by default. Use this to over ride the Java to be used.

Java (default is: ):

Allows the user to say whether these system is a cluster or single replication set. This value is optional. By default the agent will monitor a cluster.

Type [ 1=Cluster, 2=Single Set ] (default is: 1):

Port Number for the router of a MongoDB cluster or a mongod instance of a MongoDB replication set being monitored. This value is optional. The agent will automatically discover the cluster location if only one is present on the system. This is used to over ride discovery of a cluster or explicitly monitor a replication set.

Port (default is: ): 37021  (Note: this is the port of the mongos process, not the individual databases)

The ip address for the host system of the router or the mongod instance. This value is optional. The agent will automatically discover the default ip address. This is used to select a particular interface on a system where MongoDB is bound to only one of several addresses.

Host (default is: ):

Agent configuration completed...

As a reminder, you should restart appropriate instance(s) for new configuration settings to take effect.

./mongodb-agent.sh start pulse21

Processing. Please wait...

Starting Monitoring Agent for MongoDB ...

Monitoring Agent for MongoDB started

Application Insight Screenshots

Thanks,
Anthony Segelhorst and Jamie Carl