### Navigation

- index
- next |
- previous |
- elasticluster 1.0 documentation »

# Configuration of elasticluster

All the information about how to access a cloud provider and how to setup a cluster is stored in a configuration file. The default configuration file is stored in your home directory: `~/.elasticluster/config` but you can specify a different location from the command line with the -c option.

When elasticluster is run for the first time, if no configuration file is found it will copy a template configuration file in `~/.elasticluster/config`. Such template is fully commented and self documented.

## Syntax of the configuration file

The file is parsed by ConfigParser module and has a syntax similar to Microsoft Windows INI files.

It consists of sections led by a `[sectiontype/name]` header and followed by lines in the form:

    key=value

Section names are in the form `[type/name]` wher type must be one of:

`cloud`
  define a cloud provider
`login`
  define a way to access a virtual machine
`setup`
  define a way to setup the cluster
`cluster`
  define the composition of a cluster. It contains references to the other sections.
`cluster/<clustername>`
  override configuration for specific group of nodes within a cluster

You must define at least one for each section types in order to have a valid configuration file.

### Cloud Section

A `cloud` section named `<name>` starts with:

    [cloud/<name>]

The cloud section defines all properties needed to connect to a specific cloud provider.

You can define as many cloud sections you want, assuming you have access to different cloud providers and want to deploy different clusters in different clouds. The mapping between cluster and cloud provider is done in the cluster section (see later).

#### Valid configuration keys

`provider`

> the driver to use to connect to the cloud provider. So far, the only accepted value is boto.

`ec2_url`

> the url of the EC2 endpoint. For Amazon is probably something like:

>     https://ec2.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

> replace `us-east-1` with the zone you want to use while for OpenStack you can get it from the web interface

`ec2_access_key`

> the access key (also known as access id) your cloud provider gave you to access its cloud resources.

`ec2_secret_key`

> the secret key (also known as secret id) your cloud provider gave you to access its cloud resources.

`ec2_region`

> the availability zone you want to use.

#### Examples

For instance, to connect to the Hobbes private cloud of the University of Zurich you can use the following:

    [cloud/hobbes]
    provider=ec2_boto
    ec2_url=http://hobbes.gc3.uzh.ch:8773/services/Cloud
    ec2_access_key=****REPLACE WITH YOUR ACCESS ID****
    ec2_secret_key=****REPLACE WITH YOUR SECRET KEY****
    ec2_region=nova

For Amazon instead (region us-east-1) you can use:

    [cloud/amazon-us-east-1]
    provider=ec2_boto
    ec2_url=https://ec2.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
    ec2_access_key=****REPLACE WITH YOUR ACCESS ID****
    ec2_secret_key=****REPLACE WITH YOUR SECRET KEY****
    ec2_region=us-east-1

##### OpenStack users

From the horizon web interface you can download a file containing your EC2 credentials by logging in in your provider web interface and clicking on:

“settings“
  => “EC2 Credentials“
    => “Download EC2 Credentials“

The `ec2rc.sh` file will contain some values. Update the configuration file:

ec2_url using the value of the variable EC2_URL ec2_access_key using the value of the variable EC2_ACCESS_KEY ec2_secret_key using the value of the variable EC2_SECRET_KEY

### Login Section

A `login` section named `<name>` starts with:

    [login/<name>]

This section contains information on how to access the instances started on the cloud, including the user and the SSH keys to use.

Some of the values depend on the image you specified in the cluster section. Values defined here also can affect the setup section and the way the system is setup.

#### Mandatory configuration keys

`image_user`

> the remote user you must use to connect to the virtual machine

`image_sudo`

> Can be True or False. True means that on the remote machine you can execute commands as root by running the sudo program.

`image_user_sudo`

> the login name of the administrator. Use root unless you know what you are doing...

`user_key_name`

> name of the keypair to use on the cloud provider. If the keypair does not exist it will be created by elasticluster.

`user_key_private`

> file containing a valid RSA or DSA private key to be used to connect to the remote machine. Please note that this must match the `user_key_public` file (RSA and DSA keys go in pairs). Also note that Amazon does not accept DSA keys but only RSA ones.

`user_key_public`

> file containing the RSA/DSA public key corresponding to the `user_key_private` private key. See `user_key_private` for more details.

#### Examples

For a typical Ubuntu machine, both on Amazon and most OpenStack providers, these values should be fine:

    [login/ubuntu]
    image_user=ubuntu
    image_user_sudo=root
    image_sudo=True
    user_key_name=elasticluster
    user_key_private=~/.ssh/id_rsa
    user_key_public=~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

while for Hobbes appliances you will need to use the gc3-user instead:

    [login/gc3-user]
    image_user=gc3-user
    image_user_sudo=root
    image_sudo=True
    user_key_name=elasticluster
    user_key_private=~/.ssh/id_rsa
    user_key_public=~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

### Setup Section

A `setup` section named `<name>` starts with:

    [setup/<name>]

This section contain information on how to setup a cluster. After the cluster is started, elasticluster will run a `setup provider` in order to configure it.

#### Mandatory configuration keys

`provider`

> the type of setup provider. So far, only ansible is supported.

#### Ansible-specific mandatory configuration keys

The following configuration keys are only valid if provider is ansible. They also are all mandatory.

`playbook_path`

> Path to the playbook to use when configuring the system. The default value printed here points to the playbook distributed with elasticluster.

`<class>_groups`

> Comma separated list of ansible groups the specific <class> will belong to. For each <class>_nodes in a [cluster/] section there should be a <class>_groups option to configure that specific class of nodes with the ansible groups specified.

> If you are setting up a standard HPC cluster you probably want to have only two main groups: frontend_groups and compute_groups.

> To configure a slurm cluster, for instance, you have the following available groups:

> `slurm_master`
>   configure this machine as slurm masternode
> `slurm_clients`
>   compute nodes of a slurm cluster
> `ganglia_master`
>   configure as ganglia web frontend. On the master, you probably want to define ganglia monitor as well
> `ganglia_monitor`
>   configure as ganglia monitor.

> You can combine more groups together, but of course not all combinations make sense. A common setup is, for instance:

>     frontend_groups=slurm_master,ganglia_master,ganglia_monitor
>     compute_groups=slurm_clients,ganglia_monitor

> This will configure the frontend node as slurm master and ganglia frontend, and the compute nodes as clients for both slurm and ganglia frontend.

> A full list of the available groups is available at the Available playbooks for elasticluster page.

`<class>_var_<varname>`

> an entry of this type will define a variable called `<varname>` for the specific `<class>` and add it to the ansible inventory file.

#### Examples

Some (working) examples:

    [setup/ansible-slurm]
    provider=ansible
    frontend_groups=slurm_master
    compute_groups=slurm_clients

    [setup/ansible-gridengine]
    provider=ansible
    frontend_groups=gridengine_master
    compute_groups=gridengine_clients

    [setup/ansible-pbs]
    provider=ansible
    frontend_groups=pbs_master,maui_master
    compute_groups=pbs_clients

    [setup/ansible_matlab]
    # Please note that this setup assumes you already have matlab
    # installed on the image that is being used.
    provider=ansible
    frontend_groups=mdce_master,mdce_worker,ganglia_monitor,ganglia_master
    worker_groups=mdce_worker,ganglia_monitor

### Cluster Section

A `cluster` section named `<name>` starts with:

    [cluster/<name>]

The cluster section defines a template for a cluster. This section has references to each one of the other sections and define the image to use, the default number of compute nodes and the security group.

#### Mandatory configuration keys

`cloud`

> the name of a valid cloud section. For instance hobbes or amazon-us-east-1

`login`

> the name of a valid login section. For instance ubuntu or gc3-user

`setup_provider`

> the name of a valid setup section. For instance, ansible-slurm or ansible-pbs

`image_id`

> image id in ami format. If you are using OpenStack, you need to run euca-describe-images to get a valid ami-* id.

`flavor`

> the image type to use. Different cloud providers call it differently, could be instance type, instance size or flavor.

`security_group`

> Security group to use when starting the instance.

`<class>_nodes`

> the number of nodes of type `<class>`. These configuration options will define the composition of your cluster. A very common configuration will include only two group of nodes:

> `frontend_nodes`
>   the queue manager and frontend of the cluster. You probably want only one.
> `compute_nodes`
>   the worker nodes of the cluster.

> Each `<class>_nodes` group is configured using the corresponding `<class>_groups` configuration option in the `[setup/...]` section.

`ssh_to`

> ssh and sftp nodes will connect to only one node. This is the first of the group specified in this configuration option, or the first node of the first group in alphabetical order. For instance, if you don’t set any value for ssh_to and you defined two groups: frontend_nodes and compute_nodes, the ssh and sftp command will connect to compute001 which is the first compute_nodes node. If you specify frontend, instead, it will connect to frontend001 (or the first node of the frontend group).

#### Optional configuration keys

`image_userdata`

> shell script to be executed (as root) when the machine starts. This is usually not needed because the ansible provider works on vanilla images, but if you are using other setup providers you may need to execute some command to bootstrap it.

#### Examples

Some (working) examples:

    [cluster/slurm]
    cloud=hobbes
    login=gc3-user
    setup_provider=ansible-slurm
    security_group=default
    # Ubuntu image
    image_id=ami-00000048
    flavor=m1.small
    frontend_nodes=1
    compute_nodes=2
    frontend_class=frontend

    [cluster/torque]
    cloud=hobbes
    frontend_nodes=1
    compute_nodes=2
    frontend_class=frontend
    security_group=default
    # CentOS image
    image_id=ami-0000004f
    flavor=m1.small
    login=gc3-user
    setup_provider=ansible-pbs

    [cluster/aws-slurm]
    cloud=amazon-us-east-1
    login=ubuntu
    setup_provider=ansible-slurm
    security_group=default
    # ubuntu image
    image_id=ami-90a21cf9
    flavor=m1.small
    frontend=1
    compute=2

    [cluster/matlab]
    cloud=hobbes
    setup_provider=ansible_matlab
    security_group=default
    image_id=ami-00000099
    flavor=m1.medium
    frontend_nodes=1
    worker_nodes=10
    image_userdata=
    ssh_to=frontend

### Cluster node section

A cluster node for the node type `<nodetype>` of the cluster `<name>` starts with:

    [cluster/<name>/<nodetype>]

This section allows you to override some configuration values for specific group of nodes. Assume you have a standard slurm cluster with a frontend which is used as manager node and nfs server for the home directories, and a set of compute nodes.

You may want to use different flavors for the frontend and the compute nodes, since for the first you need more space and you don’t need many cores or much memory, while the compute nodes may requires more memory and more cores but are not eager about disk space.

This is achieved defining, for instance, a bigdisk flavor (the name is just fictional) for the frontend and 8cpu32g for the compute nodes. Your configuration will thus look like:

    [cluster/slurm]
    ...
    flavor=8cpu32g
    frontend_nodes=1
    compute_nodes=10

    [cluster/slurm/frontend]
    flavor=bigdisk

### Navigation

- index
- next |
- previous |
- elasticluster 1.0 documentation »