cc-backend/init

How to run cc-backend as a systemd service.

The files in this directory assume that you install ClusterCockpit to /opt/monitoring/cc-backend. Of course you can choose any other location, but make sure you replace all paths starting with /opt/monitoring/cc-backend in the clustercockpit.service file!

The config.json may contain the optional fields user and group. If specified, the application will call setuid and setgid after reading the config file and binding to a TCP port (so it can take a privileged port), but before it starts accepting any connections. This is good for security, but also means that the var/ directory must be readable and writeable by this user. The .env and config.json files may contain secrets and should not be readable by this user. If these files are changed, the server must be restarted.

# 1. Clone this repository somewhere in your home
git clone git@github.com:ClusterCockpit/cc-backend.git <DSTDIR>

# 2. (Optional) Install dependencies and build. In general it is recommended to use the provided release binaries.
cd <DSTDIR>
make
sudo mkdir -p /opt/monitoring/cc-backend/
cp ./cc-backend /opt/monitoring/cc-backend/

# 3. Modify the `./config.json` and env-template.txt file from the configs directory to your liking and put it in the target directory
cp ./configs/config.json /opt/monitoring/config.json
cp ./configs/env-template.txt /opt/monitoring/.env
vim /opt/monitoring/config.json # do your thing...
vim /opt/monitoring/.env # do your thing...

# 4. (Optional) Customization: Add your versions of the login view, legal texts, and logo image.
# You may use the templates in `./web/templates` as blueprint. Every overwrite separate.
cp login.tmpl /opt/monitoring/cc-backend/var/
cp imprint.tmpl /opt/monitoring/cc-backend/var/
cp privacy.tmpl /opt/monitoring/cc-backend/var/
# Ensure your logo, and any images you use in your login template has a suitable size.
cp -R img /opt/monitoring/cc-backend/img

# 5. Copy the systemd service unit file. You may adopt it to your needs.
sudo cp ./init/clustercockpit.service /etc/systemd/system/clustercockpit.service

# 6. Enable and start the server
sudo systemctl enable clustercockpit.service # optional (if done, (re-)starts automatically)
sudo systemctl start clustercockpit.service

# Check whats going on:
sudo systemctl status clustercockpit.service
sudo journalctl -u clustercockpit.service

Recommended workflow for deployment

It is recommended to install all ClusterCockpit components in a common directory, e.g. /opt/monitoring, var/monitoring or var/clustercockpit. In the following we use /opt/monitoring.

Two systemd services run on the central monitoring server:

• clustercockpit : binary cc-backend in /opt/monitoring/cc-backend.
• cc-metric-store : Binary cc-metric-store in /opt/monitoring/cc-metric-store.

ClusterCockpit is deployed as a single binary that embeds all static assets. We recommend keeping all cc-backend binary versions in a folder archive and linking the currently active one from the cc-backend root. This allows for easy roll-back in case something doesn't work.

Workflow to deploy new version

This example assumes the DB and job archive versions did not change.

• Stop systemd service: $ sudo systemctl stop clustercockpit.service
• Backup the sqlite DB file and Job archive directory tree!
• Copy cc-backend binary to /opt/monitoring/cc-backend/archive (Tip: Use a date tag like YYYYMMDD-cc-backend)
• Link from cc-backend root to current version
• Start systemd service: $ sudo systemctl start clustercockpit.service
• Check if everything is ok: $ sudo systemctl status clustercockpit.service
• Check log for issues: $ sudo journalctl -u clustercockpit.service
• Check the ClusterCockpit web frontend and your Slurm adapters if anything is broken!