Previous Topic: message status outputNext Topic: Metering Gateway Application Operation


Metering System Companion

Functional Overview

The Metering Gateway Application - MGT - provides a gateway through which grids running within a particular datacenter can report their license and metering data to 3Tera's metering system BMS (that is, the metering server).

MGT provides an input interface through which grids within the datacenter can report their metering data over SSH. In addition, MGT implements an output interface through which it reports metering data to CA's metering system over HTTPS though port #443.

MGT reports any metering data it has received to 3Tera's metering system once a day at a specific time parametrized through a property. If MGT fails to report the metering data at the specified time, MGT retries to send the data each hour and logs a message to the grid dashboard.

Once MGT has successfully reported its metering data to CA's metering system, it archives the metering data and retains it for a parametrized amount of time. When the age of the metering data has exceeded the parametrized time, MGT permanently deletes the metering data.

MGT serves a single metering account; if multiple accounts need to be operated within the same datacenter, multiple MGTs need to be run.

MGT is configured with the account name and the SSH public key required for grids to report their data to it. MGT provides a simple menu-driven interface through which user's may manage the SSL certificate used for communicating with 3Tera's metering system. The menu-driven interface is accessed by logging into the running application.

Boundary
Properties

Property Name

Type

Description

in_ip

IP

This is the IP address at which the application provides services to grids within the datacenter. This property is mandatory.

in_netmask

IP

Netmask for the network on which in_ip resides. Default: 255.255.255.0

in_gateway

IP

Address of the IP gateway to be used to route traffic. This property must be specified to access the MGT application from hosts outside of the IP network on which MGT is running (that is, most cases). Use 0.0.0.0 to disable. Default: 0.0.0.0

in_allowed_hosts

String

List of hosts or subnets allowed to connect. Separate multiple entries with spaces or commas. Supported format example: 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.0/255.255.255.0. Default: 0.0.0.0/0 (all allowed)

out_ip

IP

IP address of the public interface of the MGT application. This property is mandatory.

out_netmask

IP

Netmask of the public interface of the MGT application. Default: 255.255.255.0

out_gateway

IP

The default network gateway for the public interface. This property is mandatory.

dns1

IP

IP address of a DNS server for host name resolutions. Used to resolve the metering server name. This property is mandatory

dns2

IP

IP address of a backup DNS server for host name resolutions. Used to resolve the metering server name. Default: 0.0.0.0

datacenter_name

String

Customer datacenter name. This property is mandatory.

account_name

String

Customer account name. This property is mandatory.

account_pub_key

String

Customer public SSH key. This property is mandatory.

report_hour

Integer

Hour at which MGT is to report its metering data to 3Tera's metering system. The value may be 0 through 23. Default is 12 (12 noon).

retention_days

Integer

Number of days MGT is to retain archived metering data. Once the number of days has expired, the metering data is permanently deleted provided that it has been successfully reported to 3Tera's metering system. If set to 0, no metering data is not retained and is permanently deleted once it has been successfully reported to 3Tera's metering system. Default is 30.

The IP addresses configured in the in_ip and out_ip properties must be IP addresses available on your AppLogic grid. You can find them, together with the netmask, gateway and DNS servers on the dashboard of your grid. 3tera is working to make it possible for AppLogic to provide these addresses automatically.

Resources

Resource

Minimum

Maximum

Default

CPU

0.3

28

1.3

Memory

320M

40 GB

896 MB

Bandwidth

4 Mbps

8 Gbps

900 Mbps

User Volumes

The application uses a single data volume that is used to store and retain the metering data received from grids that report to MGT. The data volume is part of the application and is already configured into the appliance instance that uses it. However, the volume should be resized before the application is started for the first time such that the volume can hold at least 30 days of metering data for all grids that report their metering data to MGT (approximately 4 MB per grid).

This section contains the following topics:

Metering Gateway Application Operation

MGT Implementation Details