Configuring the Deployment Manager

Once the Deployment Manager (DM) has been installed, it needs to be configured.
The DM comes with a default configuration that needs to be updated. Even if the configuration is wrong, the DM will keep on running (in a degraded mode).

By default, the messaging is set to idle.
You need to change it to use a real messaging, such as HTTP or RabbitMQ.

The configuration is persisted by the OSGi container.
It is restored upon restart.

Configuration parameters can be changed at runtime, without rebooting.

This configuration is made of two parts:

There are 2 ways of updating the DM’s configuration.
Configuring the messaging is discussed on this page.


Runtime Parameters

The DM has parameters that can be changed without restarting it.
There are 3 ways of updating them.

Config Admin

If you installed the DM as bundles, you can use Config Admin to update the DM’s parameters.
These pages give information about this mechanism.

The ID of the managed services for the agent match the PIDs given before.

Karaf’s Administration Console

If you installed the Karaf distribution for the DM, then there is web console which is preinstalled.
Open your web browser and go to http://localhost:8181/system/console/configMgr (assuming you run the DM locally). Default credentials are karaf/karaf.

In the table, search for net.roboconf.dm.configuration and click it.
A dialog will show up where you will be able to update the configuration. Once done, click Save and the new configuration will be pushed into the DM. It will then setup a new messaging client and reload applications from the configuration directory.

If the configuration is invalid, no error will be shown in the console.
And the DM will keep on running. To make sure there is no error, you will have to check the logs under data/logs.

File Install

If you installed the DM in a Karaf distribution, you can also update the configuration by editing a file.
This file is called (and located) /etc/net.roboconf.dm.configuration.cfg.
A sample is given below.

# The type of messaging we use: RabbitMQ.
messaging-type = rabbitmq

# The domain.
domain = default

If the configuration is invalid, no error will be shown.
And the DM will keep on running. To make sure there is no error, you will have to check the logs under data/logs.


DM Parameters

The following table summers up all the DM parameters.

Property Description Notice Mandatory
messaging-type The kind of messaging used to interact with agents. Agents should use the same messaging type. - yes
domain The domain. See Roboconf domains for more information. Agents should use the same. - yes


Installing Additional Bundles

Installing Target Handlers

By default, no target handler is installed.
A target handler is in charge of creating and terminating machines in a given infrastructure. Hence, there is a target handler for Amazon Web Services, one for Openstack, etc. Since not all the users will use all the supported targets, it is better for everyone to only install and enable the desired targets.

# Start Karaf in interactive mode
cd bin
./karaf

# Install the bundles you want (here in version 0.9)
bundle:install --start mvn:net.roboconf/roboconf-target-iaas-openstack/0.9

You can also use a specific Karaf command (roboconf:target) that will install predefined target handlers into the DM.
Example:

# You can type in the 'tab' character after the command name.
# The command indeed provides auto-completion.
roboconf:target docker

Installing DM Listeners or Templating Handlers

To install another DM extension, just proceed like you would deploy any other bundle.
You can either drop it in Karaf’s deploy directory, or use Karaf commands to deploy a new bundle.

Maven Snapshots Resolution

If you install bundles from Maven repositories, and that they are in development versions (snapshot), you may have to configure the snapshots resolution. By default, Karaf will always pick up snapshot bundles in the local repository. If no local artifact was found, it will download it from a remote repository, provided it is referenced in the Maven settings.

When a local artifact exists, it will always be picked up, no matter if more recent snapshots exist remotely. To force Karaf to pick up the most recent snapshot, edit the etc/org.ops4j.pax.url.mvn.cfg file and add the following property.

org.ops4j.pax.url.mvn.globalUpdatePolicy = always

Please, refer to this issue and to PAX-URL’s wiki for more information about this property.