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Grid Parameters Reference

The following is a list of parameters for use with the Edit Grid Parameters dialog.

Grid Parameters

These are different for each grid on the Backbone LAN.

Parameter

Description

account_id

An account name assigned to the grid operator by 3tera, Inc. This setting is required when installing a new grid and it must be a valid name that is registered in the 3tera user database. The id is verified prior to installation, together with the account_key (see below).

account_key

The name of a file containing a private SSH key identifying the user account. This setting is required to install a new grid and the specified key must be valid. When changing the account assigned to an existing grid with the set command, both account_id and account_key must be specified.

ctl_blk_copy

Enable/disable performing block-level volume copies on the controller. By default, block-level volume copies are performed on the grid controller; if disabled, the volume copies are offloaded to the filer thus increasing grid controller responsiveness. This parameter should be set to '0' if there will be multiple users simultaneously logged into the grid controller and performing operations that require block-level volume copies (e.g. provisioning and copying applications without volume resize). This parameter is optional.

tag

Grid billing tag. This is a free-form printable text to be included in all billing reports generated by this grid. It can be used to add keywords to the billing reports, to facilitate organizing reports from multiple grids by using customized searches through the billing data. This parameter is optional.

app_dns1
app_dns2
app_dns3

Name servers for use by applications. These values are informational only, and are displayed with the application IP ranges (see ips above) on the grid dashboard. If not specified with the new command, they will be filled in from the data specified for the grid controller (the ext_dns* values). Note however that changing the ext_dns values on an existing grid will not automatically update the app_dns values displayed on the dashboard.

reference

IP address of the reference server that is used for grid controller failover. The reference server is needed only for grids that contain exactly 2 servers (without a configured reference server, grid controller failover is not available on 2 server grids). This parameter is optional. The reference server must be pingable on its private network that is accessible by the servers within a grid. No additional software/services needs to be installed on the reference server (CA AppLogic only needs to be able to ping the reference server).

jumbo_frames_mode

Optional parameter that allows you to enable jumbo frames on the grid. If you are using 10G hardware, set the parameter to =enable. Enabling jumbo frames increases throughput when using 10G hardware.

Valid values:

=enable - provides jumbo frame support on your grid. This action changes the MTU of all private interfaces on grid nodes, controller and running appliances, if any, from 1500 to 9000.

=disable - disables jumbo frame support on your grid. This action changes the MTU of all private interfaces on grid nodes, controller and running appliances, if any, from 9000 to 1500.

=auto - Determines if your grid nodes have 10G backbone network adapters, then turns on jumbo frame support. If 10g backbone network adapters are not detected, jumbo frame support support is not turned on.

Notes:

  • At the time of grid creation, the default jumbo frames mode is auto.
  • This parameter is valid for Xen-based grids only.

snmp_enabled

Optional parameter that allows you to enable SNMP monitoring on the grid. If snmp_enabled is set to enable, the username and password must be set. For additional information, refer to the SNMP Monitoring section of the Grid User Guide.

Valid values:

=1 - enables SNMP monitoring

=0 - (default) disables SNMP monitoring

snmp_user

snmp_password

Username and password for SNMP monitoring. If snmp_enabled is set to enable, the username and password must be set. The password must be a minimum of 8 characters and a maximum of 24 characters.

Backbone LAN Parameters

The following parameters are usually the same for all grids in a single Backbone LAN. Unless the initial network setup found on the servers is incomplete, all of them have defaults and there's usually no need to override them.

Parameter

Description

ext_network

External IP network (for example, 209.79.213.0/24 ). This designates the "world-accessible" IP subnet to which the grid is connected. This, together with the ext_gateway setting is used to set the IP configuration of the controller. Default: (determined from the network configuration of the first server that is installed).
If this is empty or if the controller's IP address does not belong to the specified range, all addresses except those in the "private networks" of the grid are routed via the gateway (see below).

ext_gateway

Default gateway (for example, 209.79.213.1 ). All "world-routable" IP addresses outside the range specified by ext_network are routed via this address. This is typically set to the address of the WAN router that serves all hosts in the LAN. If the entire LAN is behind a NAT, this can be a non-routable address (for example, 192.168.x.x), but in all cases the gateway is expected to provide access to the world. Default: (determined from the network configuration of the first server that is installed).

ext_dns1 ,
ext_dns2 ,
ext_dns3

DNS server IP addresses. Default: (determined from the network configuration of the first server that is installed). If no valid DNS servers are set up on the servers, providing at least ext_dns1 is mandatory.

sm_type

Defines the type and method of access to the server management network, if one is available. The following values are defined:
ipmi_pptp IPMI control with connection over PPTP VPN. Use per-server login if provided, else automatic configuration.
ipmi_public IPMI control with connection over public internet (no-VPN). Use per-server login if provided, else automatic configuration.
none same as an empty value - disable server management
Default: (empty - do not use server management).

sm_login

Defines the login info necessary to access the server management network. The format of this info and whether it is needed at all depends on the value of sm_type. For sm_type=ipmi_pptp and its variants, use a string of this form: sm_login=vpn_gateway_host:username:password.
Default: (empty)

legacy

Setting this parameter to 1 disables L2 switch identification. If it is set to 0 (default), the BFC will listen for link-layer identification packets from the switches connected to each server and use this information to determine the topology of connections between the servers and configure the servers to use highly-available redundant connections with two or more interfaces connected to each LAN. Setting legacy=1 disables the capturing of switch identification packets and forces system to rely only on software generated link-layer connectivity probes. Note that switch identification is beneficial even if there is no redundant wiring (each server has a single connection to each of the grid's LANs). legacy=1 should be used only in low-performance setups where both LANs (external and backbone) are connected to the same physical switch on different VLANs and the switch does not provide VLAN information in its link-layer ID packets. legacy=1 can be set only for non-redundant setups ("legacy" mode); setting this option when there are two parallel connections from any server to the same LAN will cause an error and the installation will be aborted.

E-mail Notification Configuration

The following parameters are optional. Use them to set up e-mail notification alerts and periodic status summaries, if desired.

Parameter

Description

smtp_srv

Server (mail transfer agent) to use for sending messages. The default is mail.3tera.com. Note that this server is not an open relay and can be used only for test grids, or as permitted explicitly by 3tera, Inc.

to_email

A comma-separated list of e-mail addresses to send the notifications to. If this is left empty, the e-mail notifications are disabled (this is the default)

from_email

The e-mail address to use as the sender address. This should be set to an address that is recognized by the configured SMTP server (see smtp_srv above), but clearly indicates that it is originated by an automated service, for example, info-noreply@mygrid.com.

replyto_email

The e-mail address to use in the Reply-to: header. If this is left empty, the from_email value will be used.

asap_severity

The minimum severity of messages that should trigger immediate e-mail alerts. Valid values are (lowest to highest severity): progress, info, alert. Default: alert (only the highest-priority events are sent as e-mails).

asap_subject

Subject line to use in the immediate e-mail alerts. The strings {$account}, {$name}, {$controller}, {$id} and {$time} can be used in the text, they will be replaced with the configured values for account_id, grid, controller_name (or controller_ip, if no hostname is set) and the event ID and timestamp, respectively.
Default: 'Critical alert from grid {$name} ({$controller})'

summary_interval

The minimum time interval, in minutes, for sending status summaries. Status summaries are sent upon grid status changes at intervals no shorter than the specified value, even if status changes occur more frequently. The value is rounded internally to the next 5 minute multiple. If summary_interval is set to 0, e-mail summaries are disabled. Default value: 0.

summary_subject

Subject line to use in e-mail status summaries. The strings {$account}, {$name}, {$controller}, and {$time} can be used in the text, they will be replaced with the configured values for account_id, grid, controller_name (or controller_ip, if no hostname is set) and the event timestamp, respectively.
Default: 'Notification summary from grid {$name} ({$controller})'

To verify that your new e-mail settings are working correctly, execute the following command on your grid (you should receive an e-mail containing the specified dashboard message):

Tuning Options

These are usually the same for all grids on the LAN. All of them have defaults, which rarely need to be modified.

Parameter

Default

Description

extern_host

grm.3tera.net

Host or hosts (comma-separated) to use in deciding which network to use as the external network on the grid. In cases when a grid is installed in a very restricted environment and neither the distribution host, nor any of the servers have access to the public Internet, it may be impossible to automatically detect which of the LANs has access outside of the grid. Specifying this parameter is needed very rarely, even on restricted setups because the control node can make a guess based on the presence of a default route, even if there is no actual Internet access available at the time of install. Specifying this parameter tells the system to use the network on which the host is reachable as the external LAN (if multiple hosts are given, the system will try each one in turn). The other available LAN will be used as the backbone.

timezone

dist

The name of the timezone info file to use on all grid servers and on the controller. The value of this parameter can be any valid timezone name, which is a file name relative to the timezone directory (usually /usr/share/zoneinfo). Examples: US/Pacific, Africa/Timbuktu, Iceland.

In addition, the following special values are recognized:
dist : (default) set the timezone to that of the distribution server itself.
srv1 : set the timezone to the one found on the grid server listed first in the new command (not valid for the set command).

ctl_vm_mb

1024

Controller VM memory size, in MB

ctl_vm_cpu

100

Percentage of the host CPU time to allocate for the controller. This is the maximum that the controller can take, in case the CPU is scheduled to run appliance VMs. The server information for the host on which the controller is running will reflect this by showing less than 100% available resource for that server.

dom0_vm_mb

514

Server domain 0 VM memory size in MB

Valid range: 384 to 1024

impex_vol_mb

65536

Size, in MB, of the import/export volume, used as a work area to upload/download volume images and applications to or from the grid.

catalogs

system,user,proto

Comma-separated list of global catalogs to install on new grids. The catalog name can be specified either as a plain name, in which case the latest version available is installed, or it can be name-version, for example, system-0.9.2 .

applications

cPanel,TWiki,SugarCRM

Comma-separated list of applications to install on new grids. This list may include sample apps and production apps that are available on the distribution server. Name format is the same as for catalogs.
To disable installing of sample applications, set this to an empty value.

volumes

(version-specific)

Comma-separated list of template volumes to install on the grid. This setting applies only to the new and upgrade commands. If two-stage upgrade is used, the value provided with the upgrade2 command is the one actually used. Unless a special setup is needed, it is best not to set this parameter and the system use the release-specific default value.

max_pub_macs

8000

The maximum number of virtual network adapters that the grid is allowed to provision on the front-end network for running applications. If starting a new application would exceed this limit, the application start is aborted. This setting may need to be lowered from its default of 8000, if multiple grids are sharing the same front-end network switch and/or the switch's lookup tables cannot hold that many MAC addresses. Note that exceeding the hardware limit supported by the switch will cause an increase in the number of packets broadcast to all ports and may severely affect performance.
Default: 8000 (most 48-port network switches support at least this many MAC addresses).

max_bkb_macs

8000

The maximum number of virtual network adapters that the grid is allowed to provision on the grid backbone for running applications. If starting a new application would exceed this limit, the application start is aborted. This setting may need to be lowered from its default of 8000, if multiple grids are sharing the same backbone network switch and/or the switch's lookup tables cannot hold that many MAC addresses.
Default: 8000 (most 48-port network switches support at least this many MAC addresses).

desc_write_enabled

1

Setting this parameter to 0 disables the Edit Descriptor command in the GUI. See RefEditorDescEditor for details.

ipbase

10.0.0.0

Base address for the IP address space to be used by the grid's appliances. The value should be a valid class A subnet address, i.e., it must have the form x.0.0.0. The only useful values are the default 10.0.0.0 and 1.0.0.0 (which is nominally a route-able subnet, but is not used by public servers). This should be changed from its default only if the grids are being installed in an environment where 10.x.x.x subnet is already in use.