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Load Balancing GridFTP

GridFTP is designed for high throughput data transfers and in many cases can handle all of the transfers for a site. However, in some cases it may be useful to run multiple GridFTP servers to distribute the load. For such sites, we recommend using a load balancer to distribute requests and present the appearance of a single high-throughput GridFTP server.

One general-purpose technology for implementing a load balancer on Linux is Linux Virtual Server (LVS). To use it with GridFTP, a single load balancer listens on a virtual IP address, monitors the health of the set of real GridFTP servers, and forwards requests to available ones. Optionally, there can be one or more inactive, backup load balancers that can activate and take over the virtual IP address in case the primary load balancer fails, resulting in a system that is more resilient to failure. LVS is implemented by the IP Virtual Server kernel module, which can be managed by userspace services on the load balancers such as keepalived.

This guide explains how to install, configure, run, test, and troubleshoot the keepalived service on a load balancing host for a set of GridFTP servers.

Before Starting

Before starting the installation process, consider the following requirements:

  • There must be a shared file system for file propagation across GridFTP servers
  • You must have reserved a virtual IP address and associated virtual hostname

As with all OSG software installations, there are some one-time (per host) steps to prepare in advance:

Designing Your Load-Balanced GridFTP System

Before beginning the installation process, you will need to plan the overall architecture of your load-balanced GridFTP system: the number of GridFTP servers, the type of shared file system to run on the GridFTP servers, whether or not backup load balancers are required, and hardware requirements.

GridFTP servers

The number of GridFTP servers that you should run is determined first and foremost by the expected GridFTP transfer load at your site and the speed of the links available to each server. For example, if you expect a 20Gbps peak transfer load and have 10Gb links with 80–90% efficiency, you would need a minimum of 4 GridFTP servers: 3 to satisfy your desired throughput + 1 for failover or growth.

Shared file system

The number of GridFTP servers can also be determined by your hardware needs and by your choice of shared file system. If you choose a POSIX-based shared file system, plan for machines with more cores, or more GridFTP hosts to distribute the CPU load. If you are running GridFTP with Hadoop, plan for machines with more memory, or more GridFTP hosts to distribute the memory load.

Note

If you determine that you need only a single GridFTP host, you do not need load balancing. Instead, follow the standalone-GridFTP installation guide.

Load balancer(s)

In the recommended direct routing mode, load balancers simply rewrite initial packets from a given request so the hardware requirements are minimal. When choosing load balancer hosts, aim for stability. If your chosen host is unstable or if you do not want to introduce downtime for operating system or hardware updates, at least one additional load balancer will be needed as a backup.

Preparing the GridFTP Servers

Before adding your GridFTP hosts to the load-balanced system, each host requires the following:

  • GridFTP software
  • Special host certificates
  • Load-balancing configuration

Acquiring host certificate(s)

When authenticating with a GridFTP server, clients verify that the server's host certificate matches the hostname of the server. In the case of a load-balanced GridFTP system, clients contact the GridFTP server through the virtual hostname, so the GridFTP server will have to present a certificate containing the virtual hostname as well as the GridFTP server's hostname. Use the OSG host certificate reference for more information on how to request these types of certificates. Additionally, a special procedure is available to acquire Let's Encrypt certificates with the load balanced gridftp.

If your GridFTP servers are also running XRootD, you will need unique certificates for each GridFTP server. Otherwise, you can request a single certificate that can be shared among the GridFTP servers.

Without XRootD

The single shared certificate must have the hostname associated with the load-balanced GridFTP system as its common name and each GridFTP servers hostname listed as subject alternative names.

  1. Request and generate the shared certificate:

    [email protected] $ osg-cert-request --hostname <VIRTUAL-HOSTNAME> \
            --country <COUNTRY> \
            --state <STATE> \
            --locality <LOCALITY> \
            --organization <ORGANIZATION>
            --altname <GRIDFTP-SERVER-#1-HOSTNAME> \
            --altname <GRIDFTP-SERVER-#2-HOSTNAME>

  2. Take the resulting CSR and get it signed by the appropriate authority. Most institutions can use InCommon as outlined here.

  3. Create a directory to contain the shared certificate:

    [email protected] # mkdir /etc/grid-security/gridftp

  4. Place the shared certificate-key pair in the newly created directory:

    [email protected] # mv <PATH-TO-SERVICE-CERT> /etc/grid-security/gridftp/gridftp-hostcert.pem
[email protected] # mv <PATH-TO-SERVICE-KEY> /etc/grid-security/gridftp/gridftp-hostkey.pem

  5. Edit /etc/sysconfig/globus-gridftp-server to identify the shared certificate-key pair:

    export X509_USER_CERT=/etc/grid-security/gridftp/gridftp-hostcert.pem
export X509_USER_KEY=/etc/grid-security/gridftp/gridftp-hostkey.pem

With XRootD

XRootD requires that the certificate's common name refers specifically to the host it resides on. To ensure each GridFTP server can authenticate using the virtual hostname, add it as the subject alternative name for each certificate.

  1. Create a list of GridFTP server hostnames in load-balanced-hosts.txt:

    <GRIDFTP-SERVER-#1-HOSTNAME> <VIRTUAL-HOSTNAME>
<GRIDFTP-SERVER-#2-HOSTNAME> <VIRTUAL-HOSTNAME>
[...]

  2. Submit a batch request for the per-GridFTP server certificates:

    [email protected] $ osg-gridadmin-cert-request -f load-balanced-hosts.txt

  3. Copy the resulting certificates and keys to their corresponding GridFTP servers in /etc/grid-security/hostcert.pem and /etc/grid-security/hostkey.pem, respectively.

With Let's Encrypt

The certificate provided to the clients needs to have the virtual host address of the load balancer, as well as the hostname of each of the worker nodes. Additionally, LetsEncrypt contacts the requested domains to verify ownership. Therefore, each domain requested must be available to respond to HTTP requests at the same time. The easiest method for this is to use a shared directory for Let's Encrypt's certbot to install the secrets.

The procedure to acquire Let's Encrypt certificates for multiple hosts is as follows:

  1. Create or use a shared directory that each of the data transfer nodes can read, for example a simple NFS share. The steps in creating a NFS shared directory is outside the scope of this guide. In this guide, the shared directory will be referred as /mnt/nfsshare .

  2. Install httpd on each of the data transfer nodes:

    [email protected] $ yum install httpd

    Create a webroot directory within the shared directory on one of the nodes:

    [email protected] $ mkdir /mnt/nfsshare/webroot

  3. Configure httpd to export the same webroot on each of the data transfer nodes:

    <VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "/mnt/nfsshare/webroot"
    <Directory "/mnt/nfsshare/webroot">
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

  4. Configure keepalived to virtualize port 80 to at least one of your data transfer nodes. Add to your configuration:

    virtual_server <VIRTUAL-IP-ADDRESS> 80 {
    delay_loop 10
    lb_algo wlc
    lb_kind DR
    protocol tcp

    real_server <GRIDFTP-SERVER-#1-IP ADDRESS> {
        TCP_CHECK {
            connect_timeout 3
            connect_port 80
        }
    }
}

  5. Run certbot with the webroot options on only 1 of the data nodes. The first domain in the command line should be the virtual hostname:

    [email protected] $ certbot certonly -w /mnt/nfsshare/webroot -d <VIRTUAL_HOSTNAME> -d <DATANODE_1> -d <DATANODE_N>...

For XRootD certificates, the real hostname of the XRootD node is required to be the first hostname in the certbot command. You may run the certbot command several times on the same host, replacing the VIRTUAL_HOSTNAME with the real hostname of the XRootD servers, and placing the VIRTUAL_HOSTNAME in in the list of other domains in the certificate.

Installing GridFTP

Whether you are starting from scratch or adding more GridFTP servers to your load-balanced GridFTP system, follow the documentation for installing a standalone GridFTP server for each of your intended GridFTP servers (skip section 2.2, requesting a certificate). For hosts with GridFTP already installed, skip this section.

Configuring your GridFTP servers

Each GridFTP server requires changes to its IP configuration and potentially its arptables:

Adding your virtual IP address

Use the virtual IP address of your load balancer(s) as the secondary IPs of each of your GridFTP servers.

  1. Add the virtual IP using the ip tool:

    [email protected] # ip addr add <VIRTUAL-IP-ADDRESS>/<SUBNET-MASK> dev <NETWORK-INTERFACE>

  2. To persist the virtual IP changes across reboots, edit /etc/rc.d/rc.local, and add the same command as used above.

  3. Make sure that /etc/rc.d/rc.local is executable:
    [email protected] # chmod u+x /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Disabling ARP

If your GridFTP servers and load balancer(s) are on the same network segment, you will have to disable ARP on the GridFTP servers to avoid ARP race conditions. Otherwise, skip to the section on preparing keepalived.

  1. Select the appropriate RPM:

    If your operating system version is... Then use the following package(s)...
    Enterprise Linux 6 arptables_jf
    Enterprise Linux 7 arptables

  2. Install the arptables software:

    [email protected] # yum install <PACKAGE>

  3. Disable ARP:

    [email protected] # arptables -F 
[email protected] # arptables -A IN -d <VIRTUAL-IP-ADDRESS> -j DROP 
[email protected] # arptables -A OUT -s <VIRTUAL-IP-ADDRESS> -j mangle --mangle-ip-s <GRIDFTP-REAL-IP-ADDRESS>

  4. Save ARP tables to survive reboots:

    [email protected] # arptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/arptables

Preparing Keepalived Load Balancer(s)

Installing Keepalived

Whether you run a single load balancer, or have one active load balancer and some inactive backups, each load balancer host must have the keepalived software installed, configured, and running.

Note

Do not install keepalived on the GridFTP servers themselves.

The keepalived package is available from standard operating system repositories. Install it on each load balancer host using the following commands:

  1. Clean yum cache:

    [email protected] # yum clean all --enablerepo=*

  2. Update software:

    [email protected] # yum update

    This command will update all packages

  3. Install the keepalived package:

    [email protected] # yum install keepalived

Required configuration

On the primary load balancer, edit /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf:

global_defs {
   router_id <STRING-LABEL-FOR-YOUR-LOAD-BALANCED-SYSTEM>
}

vrrp_instance VI_gridftp {
    state MASTER
    interface <NETWORK-INTERFACE>
    virtual_router_id <INTEGER-BETWEEN-0-AND-255>
    priority 100
    virtual_ipaddress {
        <VIRTUAL-IP-ADDRESS>/<SUBNET-MASK> dev <NETWORK-INTERFACE>
    }
}

virtual_server <VIRTUAL-IP-ADDRESS> 2811 {
    delay_loop 10
    lb_algo wlc
    lb_kind DR
    protocol tcp

    real_server <GRIDFTP-SERVER-#1-IP ADDRESS> {
        TCP_CHECK {
            connect_timeout 3
            connect_port 2811
        }
    }
    real_server <GRIDFTP-SERVER-#2-IP-ADDRESS> {
        TCP_CHECK {
            connect_timeout 3
            connect_port 2811
        }
    }
    [...]
}

Note

Use the same VIRTUAL-IP-ADDRESS throughout the configuration of your load-balanced GridFTP system.

Note

In the virtual_server section, write one real_server subsection for each GridFTP server behind the load balancer.

Optional configuration

The following configuration steps are optional and will likely not be required for setting up a small cluster of GridFTP hosts. If you do not need any of the following special configurations, skip to the section on using keepalived.

Adding backup load balancers

If you need to add backup load balancers, copy /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf from your primary load balancer and change the state and priority attributes under your vrrp_instance VI_gridftp section:

Note

Priority specifies the order of preferred load balancer fallback, where larger values corresponds to a higher preference.

vrrp_instance VI_gridftp {
    state BACKUP
    interface <NETWORK-INTERFACE>
    virtual_router_id <SAME-ID-AS-MASTER-LOAD-BALANCER>
    priority <PRIORITY-INTEGER>
    virtual_ipaddress {
        <VIRTUAL-IP-ADDRESS>/<SUBNET-MASK> dev <NETWORK-INTERFACE>
    }
}

Enabling e-mail notifications

To receive e-mails when the state of your load-balanced system changes, update the global_defs section of /etc/keepalived/keepalived.conf for each of your load balancer nodes:

notification_email {
<NOTIFY-EMAIL-ADDRESS-#1>
<NOTIFY-EMAIL-ADDRESS-#2>
[...]
}
notification_email_from <FROM-EMAIL-ADDRESS>
smtp_server <SMTP-SERVER-IP-ADDRESS>
smtp_connect_timeout 60
router_id <MACHINE-IDENTIFYING-STRING>

Using Your Load Balanced GridFTP System

Using GridFTP

On the GridFTP servers, arptables is the only additional service required for running a load-balanced GridFTP system. The name of the arptables service depends on the version of your host OS:

  1. Select the appropriate RPM:

    If your operating system version is... Then use the following package(s)...
    Enterprise Linux 6 arptables_jf
    Enterprise Linux 7 arptables

  2. Manage the service with the following commands:

    To ... On EL 6, run the command... On EL 7, run the command...
    Start a service service SERVICE-NAME start systemctl start SERVICE-NAME
    Stop a service service SERVICE-NAME stop systemctl stop SERVICE-NAME
    Enable a service to start during boot chkconfig SERVICE-NAME on systemctl enable SERVICE-NAME
    Disable a service from starting during boot chkconfig SERVICE-NAME off systemctl disable SERVICE-NAME

For information on how to use your individual GridFTP servers, please refer to the Managing GridFTP section of the GridFTP installation guide.

Using Keepalived

On the load balancer nodes, keepalived is the only additional service required for running a load-balanced GridFTP system. As a reminder, here are common service commands (all run as root):

To... On EL 6, run the command... On EL 7, run the command...
Start a service service keepalived start systemctl start keepalived
Stop a service service keepalived stop systemctl stop keepalived
Enable a service to start during boot chkconfig keepalived on systemctl enable keepalived
Disable a service from starting during boot chkconfig keepalived off systemctl disable keepalived

Getting Help

To get assistance with keepalived in front of OSG Software services, please use the this page.