perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Aaron Brown <>]

Hey Roderick,

Ah, that would do it. I’ve committed a fix that will spit out a warning if no 
meshes are defined (so you can still easily clear out old tests). The next 
version of the RPM shouldn’t cause these problems.

Cheers,
Aaron

On Jul 30, 2014, at 5:07 AM, Roderick Mooi 
<>
 wrote:

> Hey Aaron,
> 
> On configuring the 3.4. mesh config I noticed that most lines in
> "agent_configuration.conf" are commented out.
> Figuring out which ones to uncomment led me to the source of the
> original problem:
> 
> Although I had commented out the "configuration_url" line and changed
> it to point to my json file, I missed the #<mesh> and #</mesh>
> surrounding it. Removing the #'s from these caused the tests to be
> added. So the mesh config still works fine in 3.3.2 :)
> 
> PS one of my colleagues independently made exactly the same mistake.
> Perhaps the default should be to have at least the
> <mesh>
>    configuration_url             xxx
> </mesh>
> lines uncommented? (or a warning from generate_configuration re no
> tests found or something similar?)
> 
> George, hope this helps you as well?
> 
> Thanks very much for the help!
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Roderick
> 
> 
>>>> On 2014-07-29 at 16:16, Aaron Brown 
>>>> <>
>>>>  wrote:
>> Hey Roderick,
>> 
>> You should be able to install the 3.4 MeshConfig RPMs from 
>> 
> http://software.internet2.edu/branches/release-3.4/rpms/el6/x86_64/RPMS.main/
> 
>> . You’ll need to add the following line to the agent_configuration
> config 
>> file:
>> 
>> use_regular_testing      0
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Aaron
>> 
>> On Jul 29, 2014, at 9:51 AM, Roderick Mooi 
>> <>
>>  wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi Aaron
>>> 
>>> These are production hosts so if it's possible to use the 3.4 mesh
> config 
>> with 3.3.2 toolkit that will be fine. Where do I get it from?
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> 
>>> Roderick 
>>> 
>>>>>> On 2014-07-29 at 15:41, Aaron Brown 
>>>>>> <>
>>>>>>  wrote:
>>>> Hey Roderick,
>>>> 
>>>> That is bizarre. I tried it locally with the 3.4 series of Mesh
> Config, and 
>>>> it generated the owmesh.conf just fine for the test1.conf. Would
> you be able 
>> 
>>>> to update to the 3.4 Mesh Configuration, or would that cause
> problems on 
>> your 
>>>> side?
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Aaron
>>>> 
>>>> On Jul 25, 2014, at 5:33 AM, Roderick Mooi 
>>>> <>
> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Hi Aaron et al
>>>>> 
>>>>> We are having problems using MeshConfig despite using it
> successfully in the 
>> 
>>>> past.
>>>>> This is on production hosts with the latest perfSONAR PS (3.3.2)
> installed 
>>>> and up to date. We removed all manual tests from these hosts.
>>>>> 
>>>>> We installed MeshConfig and JSONBuilder versions:
>>>>> perl-perfSONAR_PS-MeshConfig-Shared-3.3.2-3.pSPS.noarch
>>>>> perl-perfSONAR_PS-MeshConfig-Agent-3.3.2-3.pSPS.noarch
>>>>> perl-perfSONAR_PS-MeshConfig-JSONBuilder-3.3.2-3.pSPS.noarch
>>>>> 
>>>>> Setup our mesh .conf file, ran build_json and configured 
>>>> agent_configuration.conf to point to it.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Running generate_configuration gave no errors but also no tests.
>>>>> 
>>>>> To aid troubleshooting we tried a very simple config with only 2
> hosts and 
>>>> bwctl test - still didn't work - no tests appeared on either host
> (we ran 
>>>> generate_configuration on both). I also saw that the owmesh.conf
> files 
>> aren't 
>>>> updated. A scan of the perfSONAR logs didn't show anything that
> appeared to 
>>>> be related.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I attach the following:
>>>>> 1. test1.conf - the simplified configuration we tried when the
> full one 
>>>> wasn't working
>>>>> 2. test2.conf - replaced only essentials from example.conf - e.g.
> swapping 
>>>> your servers with ours to see if that helps - same result
>>>>> 3. output from generate_configuration --verbose
>>>>> 4. owmesh.conf after running generate_configuration on test1.conf
> = 
>>>> owmesh1.conf
>>>>> 5. owmesh.conf after running generate_configuration on test2.conf
> = 
>>>> owmesh2.conf
>>>>> 
>>>>> Can you please help us track down the problem?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks very much,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Roderick
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> On 2014-06-11 at 19:02, Jeremy Palmer
> <>
>  wrote:
>>>>>> I actually just converted all our toolkit hosts to a 'mesh' this
> week. Here 
>>>>>> are 
>>>>>> a few of the things that I noted from my work.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> - I do have an example.conf in my
> /opt/perfsonar_ps/mesh_config/doc/ 
>>>>>> directory. 
>>>>>> I'm guessing it was installed when I installed the below JSON
> builder 
>>>>>> package.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> - Install JSON Builder (not installed by default):
>>>>>> yum install perl-perfSONAR_PS-MeshConfig-JSONBuilder
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> - None of my mesh tests would work bi-directioinally until I
> added the 
>>>>>> following 
>>>>>> line under the owamp test_spec section of my mesh config. I did
> not see any 
>>>>>> documentation on this and its not in the example config. I just
> happened to 
>>>>>> find 
>>>>>> it somewhere in a google search.
>>>>>> force_bidirectional 1
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I did remove all manually-created tests on my toolkit hosts prior
> to setting 
>>>>>> up 
>>>>>> the mesh. I don't think this is required tho since the mesh
> creates its own 
>>>>>> scheduled tests on each host.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I also had an issue where none of my mesh tests would populate
> any graph 
>>>>>> data in 
>>>>>> the webUI. I ended up re-initializing my owamp databases using
> the following 
>>>>>> command. This seemed to fix the issue.
>>>>>> /opt/perfsonar_ps/perfsonarbuoy_ma/bin/owdb.pl -i root
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> One last thing I found odd: in the example.conf config, the
> owamp_test is 
>>>>>> set 
>>>>>> for 100 packets-per-second (0.01) even though the comment says
> "Send 10 
>>>>>> packets 
>>>>>> every second". I changed my setting back to 10pps (0.1) since
> 100pps will 
>>>>>> use up 
>>>>>> a lot more bandwidth if you are doing lots of tests.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Jeremy Palmer
>>>>>> Senior Network Engineer
>>>>>> ViaWest, Inc.
>>>>>> Office: 720.891.1045
>>>>>> Fax: 303-874-5236
>>>>>> http://www.viawest.com 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 6/11/2014 10:21 AM, Kathy Benninger wrote:
>>>>>>> I want to move the XSEDE perfSONARs from manually configured
> testing to mesh
>>>>>>> config based testing and have come up with a few
> questions/issues while
>>>>>>> following the instructions at
>>>>>>> 
> https://code.google.com/p/perfsonar-ps/wiki/MeshConfigurationInstallation
> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> /opt/perfsonar_ps/mesh_config/doc/
>>>>>>> as installed doesn't seem to include example.conf , but I was
> able to grab 
>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> file via the online link.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I can't find build_json
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Do I need to disable, delete, or otherwise clean out existing
> manual testing 
>> 
>>>> 
>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> its associated databases before trying to start the mesh config
> invoked
>>>>>>> testing?  The mesh config tests will be duplicating what was
> previously manu
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Is there a way to store results both on the individual MP/MA
> hosts and a 
>>>>>> central
>>>>>>> server (e.g., 2 write lines in the config)?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>>>> Kathy
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
> <generate_configuration.out><owmesh1.conf><owmesh2.conf><test1.conf><test2.conf>
>>>> 
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