[SAC] [support.osuosl.org #24234] OSGeo4 VM revamp Plan

[Justin Dugger via RT]

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On Fri Sep 19 14:27:56 2014, tech at wildintellect.com wrote:
> Justin & Team,
> 
> Based on our discussions at FOSS4G. Here's the plan to do some shuffling
> and updates on the OSGeo hardware.
> 
> Overview - move VMs off osgeo4 and redo the OS and Raid (Software Raid 5)
> 
> Step 1.
> Make sure Martin Spott knows how to use his new access of osgeo3 and
> osgeo4 OS.

We can do that; perhaps we'll make a child ticket with Spott regarding this.

> Step 2.
> Change the mail.osgeo.osuosl.org VM to drbd
> Sync it over to osgeo3, failover to osgeo
> Change back to non-drbd

It may take a while to gnt-instance modify -t drbd though.

> Step 3.
> Schedule downtime (Mid-october) to turn off and copy Adhoc, Projects and
> possibly QGIS to OSUOSL Ganeti cluster for a few days.
> We might want a fresh Debian 7 VM for a QGIS rebuild - still checking

This should be fine on a temporary basis while you rebuild your ganeti node in your prefered configuration.

> Step 4.
> Upgrade/Redo the osgeo4 OS. OSUOSL has a new standard right? We're fine
> with that as long as Martin gets access to troubleshoot.

We're standardizing on CentOS; your current VMs run Gentoo and it's likely your team would fare better after the switch. I doubt we'll be ready to manage ganeti nodes with Chef by then, so it's likely to remain cfengine managed.

> Step 5.
> Benchmark to make sure the disks are performing ok.

Bonnie++ is the standard OSS tool for this. I find Berku's Performance Whack-A-Mole tutorial[1] covers the topic well. Though it is pgsql oriented, the discussion about the lower layers remains relevant.

Is the benchmarking step something you were wanting OSL to perform? I suspect your team knows the hardware and applications better than us.

> Step 6. Move Mail, QGIS, Adhoc and Projects back.
> 
> Long term, we will continue to investigate new hardware, docker, and are
> open to suggestions on how to upgrade osgeo3 host OS with minimal
> interruption.
>
>
> Please get back to us with a schedule for who and when we might do each
> of these steps.

I'll get you that plan next week.

Justin

[1]: http://media.postgresql.org/pgcon2009/tutorials/performance.mov