Configuring Cisco CSS Controller

Before following the steps in this chapter, see Planning for Cisco CSS Controller. This chapter explains how to create a basic configuration for the Cisco CSS Controller component of Load Balancer.

Overview of configuration tasks

Before you begin any of the configuration methods in this chapter:

  1. Ensure that your Cisco CSS Switch and all server machines are properly configured.
  2. Configure Cisco CSS Controller, ensuring that Cisco CSS Switch's address and SNMP community name match the corresponding attributes on the Cisco CSS Switch. See ccocontrol consultant -- configure and control a consultant for information on configuring the consultant.

Table 8. Configuration tasks for the Cisco CSS Controller component
Task Description Related information
Set up the Cisco CSS Controller machine Finding out about the requirements Setting up the Controller for Cisco CSS Switches machine
Test your configuration Confirming that the configuration is working Testing your configuration

Methods of configuration

To create a basic configuration for the Cisco CSS Controller component of Load Balancer, there are three methods:

Command line

This method is the most direct means of configuring Cisco CSS Controller. The procedures in this manual assume use of the command line. The command parameter values must be entered in English characters. The only exceptions are host names (used, for example, in the consultant add command) and file names.

To start Cisco CSS Controller from the command line:

  1. Issue the ccoserver command from the command prompt. To stop the server, type: ccoserver stop
    Notes:
    1. For Windows systems, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Right-click IBM® Cisco CSS Controller and select Start. To stop the service, follow the same steps and select Stop.
    2. On Windows systems, you can start the ccoserver automatically during boot:
      1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
      2. Right-click IBM Cisco CSS Controller, then select Properties.
      3. Click the arrow for the Startup type field, then select Automatic.
      4. Click OK.
  2. Next, issue the Cisco CSS Controller control commands you want to set up your configuration. The procedures in this manual assume use of the command line. The command is ccocontrol. For more information about commands, see Command reference for Cisco CSS Controller.

You can enter an abbreviated version of the ccocontrol command parameters. You only need to enter the unique letters of the parameters. For example, to get help on the file save command, you can type ccocontrol he f instead of ccocontrol help file.

To start up the command line interface: issue ccocontrol to receive an ccocontrol command prompt.

To end the command line interface: issue exit or quit.

Note:
On Windows platforms, the Dispatcher component's dsserver starts automatically. If you are using only Cisco CSS Controller and not the Dispatcher component, you can stop dsserver from starting automatically as follows:
  1. Form Windows Services, right-click IBM Dispatcher.
  2. Select Properties.
  3. In the Startup type field, select Manual.
  4. Click OK, and close the Services window.

XML

The currently-defined configuration can be saved to an XML file. This enables the configuration to be loaded at a later time when you want to quickly recreate the configuration.

To run the content of an XML file (for example, myscript.xml), use either of the following commands:

The XML files are saved in the following directory:

GUI

For general instructions and an example of the graphical user interface (GUI), see Figure 38.

To start the GUI, follow these steps

  1. If ccoserver is not already running, start it now by running the following as root:

    ccoserver

    .
  2. Next, do one of the following:

To configure the Cisco CSS Controller component from the GUI:

  1. Right-click Cisco CSS Controller in the tree structure.
  2. Connect to a Host.
  3. Create one or more switch consultants containing the desired ownercontents and their associated metrics.
  4. Start the consultant.

You can use the GUI to do anything that you would do with the ccocontrol command. For example:

To run a command from the GUI:

  1. Right-click the Host node and select Send command...
  2. In the Command entry field, type the command that you want to run; for example, consultant report.
  3. Click Send.

The results and history of the commands that you run in the current session appear in the Result box.

To access Help click the question mark icon in the upper right corner of the Load Balancer window.

For more information about using the GUI, see Appendix A. GUI: General instructions.

Setting up the Controller for Cisco CSS Switches machine

Before setting up the Cisco CSS Controller machine, you must be the root user (on AIX, HP-UX, Linux , or Solaris systems) or the Administrator (on Windows systems).

Consultant must be able to connect to the Cisco CSS Switch as a Cisco CSS Switch administrator.

When configuring the consultant, you must configure the address and SNMP community name to match the corresponding attributes on the Cisco CSS Switch.

For help with commands used in this procedure, see Command reference for Cisco CSS Controller.

Step 1. Start the server function

If the ccoserver is not already running, type ccoserver as root to start it now.

Note:
For Windows systems, click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Right-click IBM Cisco Controller and select Start.

Step 2. Start the command line interface

Type ccocontrol to start the command line interface.

Step 3. Configure the consultant

You must configure the switch address and SNMP community name. These values must match the corresponding attributes on the Cisco CSS Switch.

To add a consultant, type:

consultant add switchConsultantID address switchIPAddress 
community communityName

Step 3. Configure an ownercontent

An ownercontent is a representation of a content rule for an owner, which is defined on the Cisco CSS Switch. The owner name and content rule name must match how it is defined on the switch.

To define an ownercontent, type:

ownercontent add switchConsultantID:ownercontentID ownername ownerName 
contentrule contentRuleName

Step 4. Verify that services are correctly defined

When the ownercontent is defined, the consultant completes the configuration by retrieving the services configured on the switch. Compare the configuration on the switch with the configuration for the consultant to ensure that the services match.

Step 5. Configure metrics

Metrics are the measurements used to determine the service weights and associated proportions (importance of one metric compared to another), and can be any combination of connection data metrics, application advisor metrics, and metric server metrics. The proportions must always total 100.

When the ownercontent is configured, the default metrics are defined as activeconn and connrate. If you want additional metrics, or if you want metrics that are altogether different from the defaults, type:

ownercontent metrics switchConsultantID:ownercontentID metric1 proportion1 
metric2 proportion2...metricN proportionN

Step 6. Start the consultant

To start the consultant, type:

consultant start switchConsultantID

This starts the metric collectors, and weight calculation begins.

Step 7. Start the Metric Server (optional)

If system metrics are defined in Step 5, the metric server must be started on the service machines. See Metric Server for information on using the metric server.

Step 8. Configure high availability (optional)

To configure high availability, type:

highavailability add address IPaddress partneraddress IPaddress port 80 
role primary

In a high availability environment, you can configure multiple switches. To ensure that weight information is always available when one switch takes over for another switch, the Cisco CSS Controller must be configured to provide weights for all switches and their backups.

See Advanced features for Cisco CSS Controller and Nortel Alteon Controller for detailed information on how to use and configure controller high availability.

Testing your configuration

Test to see if the configuration is working:

  1. Set the consultant loglevel to 4.
  2. Disconnect a server from the Cisco CSS Switch for one minute, or shut down the application server for one minute.
  3. Reconnect the server, or restart the application server.
  4. Set the consultant loglevel back to the desired level (1).
  5. View the consultant.log file located in the following directories, and look for setServerWeights setting service: