With EGO, a single administrator manages a pool of connected resources.
The first step in using EGO is to install, configure, and start the EGO software on multiple hosts, to make the hosts function together as a single cluster of resources.
Once the cluster is constructed and running, an administrator defines consumers and users, adds resource distribution policies, and makes the cluster ready to serve clients.
An EGO cluster has one master host that controls the rest of the cluster. Clients that interact with the cluster interact with the master host first, then are allocated cluster resources that they can use directly. The software automatically distributes the cluster resources fairly among various competing resource consumers.
Management hosts belong to the ManagementHosts resource group. These hosts are not expected to execute workload units for users. Management hosts are expected to run services such as the web server and web services gateway. The master host and all master candidates must be management hosts.
A slot is the basic unit of resource allocation, analogous to a "virtual CPU".
Management hosts share configuration files, so a shared file system is needed among all management hosts.
A management host is configured when you run egoconfig mghost on the host. The tag mg is assigned to the management host, in order to differentiate it from a compute host.
Compute hosts are distributed to cluster consumers to execute workload units. By default, compute hosts belong to the ComputeHosts resource group.
The ComputeHosts group excludes hosts with the mg tag, which is assigned to management hosts when you run egoconfig mghost. If you create your own resource groups to replace ComputeHosts, make sure they also exclude hosts with the mg tag.
By default, the number of slots on a compute host is equal to the number of CPUs.
Plan properties of the cluster including name, administrator user account, ports, and directories. Prepare the necessary accounts and directories. Check that required ports are free.
The cluster administrator is the only person who can manage the entire cluster: start, stop, and manage all hosts. The Local Administrator of the host can start and stop services on one host.
By default, the Windows LocalSystem account is used to run EGO agents on the host. For failover purposes, the cluster administrator account is used on all management hosts, instead of LocalSystem
By default, all EGO containers and EGO system services such as the web server run as the cluster administrator.
The cluster administrator account also owns EGO files.
The same cluster administrator account with the same password must exist on every host in the cluster. It may be difficult to modify the account after installation, so we suggest creating a dedicated account with user name egoadmin. You must create the account before you start the installation. The account requires the following privileges on each host:
Whenever documentation refers to the egoadmin account, it means the cluster administrator account on the domain. Substitute the correct name if you use a different account as cluster administrator.
On every host, a set of connection ports must be free for use by EGO components.
EGO requires exclusive use of certain ports for communication. EGO uses the same five consecutive ports on every host in the cluster. The first of these is called the base port.
The default base connection port is 7869. EGO always uses five consecutive ports starting from the base port. By default, EGO uses ports 7869-7873.
The ports can be customized by customizing the base port. For example, if the base port is 6880, EGO uses ports 6880-6884.
EGO needs the same ports on every host, so you must specify the same base port on every host.
To change the base port after installation, shut down the cluster and use the egoconfig setbaseport command on each host in the cluster. Start the cluster to use the new connection ports.
On the web server, a set of ports must be free for use by EGO components.
On the host that runs the web service gateway, one port must be free for use by EGO components.
EGO requires exclusive use of a communication port on the web service gateway. By default, EGO uses port 9090.
Since the web service gateway might run on any management host in the cluster, the web service gateway port must be free on all management hosts.
This port can be customized by editing the web service gateway configuration file, wsg.conf in the configuration directory, to specify a custom value for wsg_port.
The installation directory is the directory where the EGO binaries are installed on a host.
The installation directory must be the same directory on every host.
The default installation directory is C:\EGO. To use a different directory, you must customize the installation.
The installer creates the installation directory if it does not already exist. If it does exist, make sure it is not already in use.
During master host failover, the system is unavailable for a few minutes while hosts are waiting to be contacted by the new master.
The master candidate list defines which hosts are master candidates. By default, the list includes just one host, the master host, and there is no failover. If you configure additional candidates to enable failover, the master host is first in the list. If the master host becomes unavailable, the next host becomes the master. If that host is also unavailable, the next host is considered to become the master, and so on down the list. A short list with two or three hosts is sufficient for practical purposes.
For failover to work properly, the master candidates must share a file system and the shared directory must always be available.
The shared directory contains important system files where they are accessible to all management hosts.
Do not confuse the shared directory with the configuration directory. The shared directory on the file server contains the configuration directory and other important files and directories.
If you want work in the system to continue in case of failover, the master candidates must share a file system and some important files must be available on the shared file system.
For example, if a file is on the master host and the master host fails, failover does not work because the next candidate cannot access the necessary file. If the file is on a different host, the new master host can update the file.
The shared directory contains all the files and directories that must be shared among management hosts.
The file server is the host where the shared directory is located. The file server host does not have to belong to the cluster.
By default, all files are located under the installation directory on the host.
When you configure the master as a management host, some files and directories are copied to the shared directory and modified. All hosts configured as management hosts will use files under the shared directory.
Create and share the shared directory before you run egoconfig mghost to configure a management host.
The configuration directory contains important configuration files.
Do not confuse the configuration directory with the shared directory. The shared directory contains the configuration directory and other important files and directories.
If you want work in the system to continue in case of failover, the master candidates must share a file system and some important files must be available on the shared file system.
For example, if the configuration directory is on the master host and the master host fails, failover does not work because the next candidate cannot access necessary files. If the configuration directory is on a different host, the new master can use the same files.
At first, configuration files are located under the installation directory on the master host.
When the master host is configured as a management host, the configuration directory is copied to the shared directory. All hosts configured as management hosts will use the configuration directory under the shared directory.