Distributed Cluster with External Database and Messaging Queue

Installing and Configuring External DB And External RabbitMQ Within Distributed Cluster

When installing the Cloudify cluster, the user can use externally PostgreSQL database and RabbitMQ. This page is a guide for installing such services.

Externally Hosted PostgreSQL Database Prerequisites

• Make sure the PostgreSQL instance is publicly available and reachable from the local Cloudify Management service cluster nodes.
• Retrieve the PostgreSQL instance CA certificate and save it locally for future use in the Cloudify Management service cluster nodes configuration.
• Keep your PostgreSQL database username and password for the later configuration of the Cloudify Management service cluster nodes.
• Have Prometheus, node_exporter and postgres_exporter metrics available via Prometheus API at https://{private_ip}:8009/monitoring/api; Cloudify Manager will be using a CA certificate mentioned above to verify the TLS connection and credentials defined in the Manager’s configuration under a path prometheus.credentials.{username,password}.
• Make sure the following ports are open in firewall/security group your database connected to:

• Cloudify uses 9.5.3 PostgreSQL version, make sure your database use the same version.

Azure DBaaS for PostgreSQL

Cloudify supports Microsoft’s Azure Database for PostgreSQL as an external database option replacing Cloudify’s PostgreSQL deployment.

Azure Database for PostgreSQL is a fully managed Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) offering that can handle mission-critical workloads with predictable performance, security, high availability, and dynamic scalability. It is available in two deployment options, as a single server and as a Hyperscale (Citus) cluster (preview).

Setting up Azure database for PostgreSQL as the Cloudify database

The DBaaS of Azure supports a clustered instance and a single instance available for resizing on demand.
As opposed to other DBaaS vendors, Azure doesn’t give access to the postgres user with SuperUser privileges, so while working with Azure DBaaS is fully supported, the configuration is a bit different than regular PostgreSQL installations.

Using Azure DBaaS (either the single instance or the clustered instance), requires specific setup changes to the Cloudify Manager configuration.
Azure connection string for the users must be in the form of <username>@<dbhostname>, so for a DB user named cloudify and a db hostname named azurepg, the user that needs to be configured should be: cloudify@azurepg.
So, for example, if we created an Azure DBaaS for PostgreSQL instance with the following information:
- Server name: azurepg.postgres.database.azure.com
- Admin username: testuser@azurepg

So the following settings in /etc/cloudify/config.yaml need to be configured as follows:

postgresql_client:
  host: 'azurepg.postgres.database.azure.com'
  server_db_name: 'postgres'
  server_username: 'testuser@azurepg'
  server_password: 'testuserpassword'
  cloudify_db_name: 'cloudify_db'
  cloudify_username: 'cloudify@azurepg'
  cloudify_password: 'cloudify'
  ssl_enabled: true
  ssl_client_verification: false
postgresql_server:
  ca_path: '/path/to/azure/dbaas/ca/certificate'

server_username will be used by Cloudify to make the initial connection to the DB and create all the resources Cloudify needs to operate, which include, among other resources, the cloudify_username
cloudify_username will be used by Cloudify after the installation for day-to-day operations

Note that both server_username and cloudify_username have the postfix @azurepg added to them, as it is required by Azure DBaaS for Postgres

AWS DBaaS for PostgreSQL(RDS)

Cloudify supports AWS RDS Database for PostgreSQL as an external database option replacing Cloudify’s PostgreSQL deployment.

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the AWS Cloud. It provides cost-efficient, resizable capacity for an industry-standard relational database and manages common database administration tasks.

Setting up AWS database for PostgreSQL as the Cloudify database

The DBaaS of AWS supports a clustered instance(Multi-AZ) and a single instance available for resizing on demand.

Using RDS (either the single instance or the clustered instance), requires specific setup changes to the Cloudify Manager configuration.
For example, if we created RDS for PostgreSQL instance with the following information:
- Endpoint: mydb.ckvwovtjmf3o.eu-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com
- Admin username: testuser - Initial database name: postgres

So the following settings in /etc/cloudify/config.yaml need to be configured as follows:

postgresql_client:
  host: 'mydb.ckvwovtjmf3o.eu-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com'
  server_db_name: 'postgres'
  server_username: 'testuser'
  server_password: 'testuserpassword'
  cloudify_db_name: 'cloudify_db'
  cloudify_username: 'cloudify'
  cloudify_password: 'cloudify'
  ssl_enabled: true
  ssl_client_verification: false
postgresql_server:
  ca_path: '/path/to/rds/dbaas/ca/certificate'

RabbitMQ Cluster

The RabbitMQ service is a cluster comprised of any amount of nodes, whereas Cloudify best-practice is three nodes.

Note Please refer to the RabbitMQ networking guide - Ports to verify the open ports needed for a RabbitMQ cluster installation.

Externally Hosted RabbitMQ Installation

• Make sure the management plugin and prometheus plugin are installed on the RabbitMQ instances.
• Retrieve the RabbitMQ instance CA certificate and save it locally for future use in the Cloudify Management service cluster nodes configuration.
  
• Keep your RabbitMQ username and password for the later configuration of the Cloudify Management service cluster nodes.
• Have Prometheus, node_exporter and rabbitmq metrics available via Prometheus API at https://{private_ip}:8009/monitoring/api; Cloudify Manager will be using a CA certificate mentioned above to verify the TLS connection and credentials defined in the Manager’s configuration under a path prometheus.credentials.{username,password}.
• Note Reverse DNS lookup must be available in your network for the RabbitMQ nodes, please refer to RabbitMQ networking guide - DNS for further explanation.
  

Cloudify Management Service configuration with external services

• In case of an externally hosted PostgreSQL database and externally hosted RabbitMQ i.e. “bring your own”,configure the following settings in /etc/cloudify/config.yaml:

  • Notice Some of the keys in the ‘postgresql_client’ section are relevant only for a few cloud services. Make sure you read the comments provided and follow them.

    manager:
    security:
    ssl_enabled: true
    admin_password: '<strong admin password for Cloudify>'
    
    cloudify_license_path: '<path to Cloudify license file>'
    
    rabbitmq:
    username: '<username configured for queue management on rabbit>'
    password: '<strong password configured for queue management on rabbit>'
    
    # The CA path that was retrieved from the RabbitMQ instance
    ca_path: '<path to ca certificate>'
    
    # In case the connection to the RabbitMQ instance uses one IP address,
    # please specify it as the first cluster node and leave the rest blank
    cluster_members:
    <short host name of rabbit server 1>:
        node_id: <the node`s id> # The node_id can be retrieved by running `cfy_manager node get_id` on the relevant node
        networks:
            default: <private ip of rabbit server 1>
            <other network name>: <address for this node on `other network`>
    <short host name of rabbit server 2>:
        node_id: <the node`s id>
        networks:
            default: <private ip of rabbit server 2>
            <other network name>: <address for this node on `other network`>
    <short host name of rabbit server 3>:
        node_id: <the node`s id>
        networks:
            default: <private ip of rabbit server 3>
            <other network name>: <address for this node on `other network`>
    
    postgresql_server:
    # The CA certificate that was retrieved from the PostgreSQL instance
    ca_path: '<path to ca certificate of external db>'
    # If you are using external db with single entry point, cluster section should be empty.
    cluster:
    nodes: {}
    
    postgresql_client:
    # Host name (or IP address) of the external database.
    host: localhost
    
    # Server user name (server_username), password (server_password),
    # and DB (server_db_name) to use when connecting to the database for Cloudify
    # DB initialization and population.
    #
    # If your database is an Azure DBaaS instance, you must set 'server_username'
    # so it includes the database name as a suffix. For example, if your database
    # name is "mycfydb" and your username is "test", then "server_username"
    # should be "mycfydb@test".
    #
    # THE PASSWORD WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE FILE AFTER THE INSTALLATION FINISHES.
    server_db_name: postgres
    server_username: postgres
    server_password: '<the postgresql database user password>'
    
    # Cloudify DB name, user name and password to be created.
    #
    # The following apply if your database is an Azure DBaaS instance:
    #
    #   * "cloudify_username" must include the database name as a suffix. For example,
    #     if your desired database username is "cloudify" and your database name is
    #     "test", then "cloudify_username" should be "cloudify@test".
    #
    #  * "cloudify_username" must be different from "server_username".
    cloudify_db_name: cloudify_db
    cloudify_username: cloudify
    cloudify_password: cloudify
    
    ssl_enabled: true
    
    # If true, client SSL certificates will need to be supplied for database connections
    ssl_client_verification: false
    
    # In case you use a load-balancer, you would need to specify its private IP
    # in order for the different agents to connect to it.
    networks:
    load-balancer: <load-balancer private IP address>
    
    # For monitoring service(status reporter)
    prometheus:
    blackbox_exporter:
    ca_cert_path: <ca path for blackbox exporter>
    credentials:
    username: <monitoring username>
    password: <strong password for monitoring user>
    
    cert_path: <certificate for prometheus, cert_path of this host can be used>
    key_path: <key for promethus, key_path this host can be used>
    ca_path: <ca for promethus, ca_path this host can be used>'
    
    ssl_inputs:
    internal_cert_path: '<path to this host certificate generated in the first step>'
    internal_key_path: '<path to this host key generated in the first step>'
    external_cert_path: '<can be same as internal_cert_path(for CLI)>'
    external_key_path: '<can be same as internal_key_path(for CLI)>'
    ca_cert_path: '<path to this host ca certificate>'
    external_ca_cert_path: '<path to external ca certificate for this server, can be the same one as ca_cert_path>'
    postgresql_client_cert_path: '<path to cert for this server>'
    postgresql_client_key_path: '<path to key for this server>'
    
    services_to_install:
    - manager_service
    - monitoring_service

Execute on each node sequentially (i.e. do not start installing next manager unless the previous has been successfully installed):

cfy_manager install [--private-ip <PRIVATE_IP>] [--public-ip <PUBLIC_IP>] [-v]