Presentation at the 2012 Evergreen International Conference about GenaSYS, a program developed to automate Evergreen ILS server clusters.

1. You Don't Have to Be a Mechanic to
Drive a Car: Automating Evergreen
Cluster Installation
2012 Evergreen International Conference
Chris Sharp, Georgia Public Library Service
Andy Witter & Josh Lamos, Emerald Data Networks

2. 2010: The PINES Bucket Project
Goals were to identify:
•code changes
•configurations
•any other differences between a "vanilla"
Evergreen installation and what is running in
PINES

3. Assumptions: You
• you have a working familiarity/facility with
Linux filesystem structure/navigation
• you've installed Evergreen by hand before
• you have the skills/knowledge to optimize
Evergreen for your setup
• you're interested in automating repetitive
tasks

4. Assumptions: 17 Machines
• lvs01 • memcache01
• lvs02 • memcache02
• brick01-head • reporter01
• brick02-head • sip01
• db01 (master database) • sip02
• db02 (master hot spare) • utility01
• db03 (reports queries) • admin01
• logger01 • monitor01
• backup01

5. Other GenaSYS Assumptions
• 3 public IP addresses
• a serial cable (to connect lvs machines)
• possible to virtualize any machine (though DB
is recommended on bare metal)

6. GenaSYS Benefits
• Packaged files that can be used again to
rebuild a machine on new hardware
• Init scripts that ease/automate startup and
shutdown
• Convenience features
• “attach” and “detach” bash aliases to remove a
brick from rotation)
• “extras” scripts (e.g., brick_ctl.sh) are added to
the opensrf user’s search path

7. GenaSYS Defaults
• Templates for OpenSRF/Evergreen
configuration files – based on original
versions but configured for clustered instance
• Templates for Apache configuration files
optimized for clustered instance
• OS-level configurations for networking, NFS,
logging, database, etc.

8. Code Availability
GenaSYS:
git://git.evergreen-
ils.org/contrib/pines/genasys.git
Debian Packaging:
git://git.evergreen-ils.org/contrib/pines/eg-
debian.git
License: GNU GPL version 3
Copyright (C) Georgia Public Library Service

9. The Genesis of GenaSYS
Evergreen ILS Installation Process:

10. The Genesis of GenaSYS
Evergreen ILS Installation:
• requires manual changes of multiple
configuration files
• many repetitive steps
• high risk of typos/human error
• lots of time required (30 – 45 minutes for
experienced admins; 3 or more hours for new
admins)
• and that's just a single machine - what about
building clusters?

11. The Genesis of GenaSYS
Evergreen Server Clustering:
• Linux Virtual Server (LVS)
• brick heads/drones (OpenSRF, NFS, SSH keys)
• utility server (OpenSRF, NFS, cron jobs)
• SIP servers (OpenSRF, SIPServer.pm, cron jobs)
• logger servers (client setup, server setup)
• database servers (local configurations)
• reports server (NFS, OpenSRF)

12. Enter GenaSYS
• development began in early 2011
• goal was to implement a vanilla Evergreen-ILS
installation with a single script
• and without manually touching configuration
files
• script needed to be easily modifiable to
accommodate changes/updates/upgrades
• builds an Evergreen 2.1.1 cluster on Debian
6.0 “squeeze”

13. GenaSYS: Two Parts
1. Debian packaging of OpenSRF, Evergreen, and
unpackaged dependencies (libdbi,
spidermonkey, etc.)
2. Cluster configuration generation: GenaSYS

14. Debian Packaging
• Goal was to create easily installable software
packages to replicate the manual building
process.
• Debs are built from Evergreen source + any
customizations/changes for your setup
• Not currently working on any sort of official
Debian acceptance of packages

15. GenaSYS Cluster Configuration
• Bash script: easily readable, easily modifiable
• utilizes templates of configuration files with
markers for changed items
• gathers information from the user via command
line prompts to automatically populate the
OpenSRF and Evergreen configuration files
• creates gzipped tar archives of all files required
to build each server in the cluster, including
custom Debian packages
• Archives are re-usable for recreating the same
machine on new hardware

16. GenaSYS in Action

17. GenaSYS: Recap
GenaSYS Installation:
• Doesn’t require manual changes of configuration
files
• Automates repetitive steps
• Significantly decreases risk of typos/human error
• Reduces number of steps required to create a
cluster
• Creates packages that can be saved and used
again to rebuild each server

18. Questions?

19. GenaSYS Future Directions
• Project will remain active, primarily for GPLS
needs
• Feature requests/bug reports will be
accepted (method for this TBD)
• Plan for Ubuntu LTS support