Consul

The default consul installation in XiVO uses the configuration file in /etc/consul/xivo/*.json. All files in this directory are installed with the package and should not be modified by the administrator. To use a different configuration, the adminstrator can add it’s own configuration file at another location and set the new configuration directory in the /etc/default/consul file.

The default installation generates a master token that can be retrieved in /var/lib/consul/master_token. This master token will not be used if a new configuration is supplied.

Variables

The following variables can be overridden in the /etc/default/consul file.

CONFIG_DIR=/etc/consul/xivo         # The configuration directory
USER=consul                         # The user used to run the consul process
GROUP=consul                        # The group used to run the consul process
PIDDIR=/var/run/consul              # The directory where the pidfile will be written
PIDFILE=/var/run/consul/consul.pid  # The name of the pidfile (PIDDIR must match)
WAIT_FOR_LEADER=yes                 # Should `/etc/init.d/consul start` wait for a leader?
RUNCONSUL=yes                       # Should `/etc/init.d/consul start` start consul?

Agent mode

It is possible to run consul on another host and have the local consul node run as an agent only.

To get this kind of setup up and running, you will need to follow the following steps.

Downloading Consul

For a 32 bits system

wget --no-check-certificate https://releases.hashicorp.com/consul/0.5.2/consul_0.5.2_linux_386.zip

For a 64 bits system

wget --no-check-certificate https://releases.hashicorp.com/consul/0.5.2/consul_0.5.2_linux_amd64.zip

Installing Consul on a new host

unzip consul_0.5.2_linux_386.zip

Or

unzip consul_0.5.2_linux_amid64.zip

mv consul /usr/bin/consul
mkdir -p /etc/consul/xivo
mkdir -p /var/lib/consul
adduser --system --group --quiet \
                 --shell /bin/sh \
                 --home /var/lib/consul \
                 --no-create-home --disabled-login \
                 --gecos "Consul discovery service" \
                 consul

Copying the consul configuration from the XiVO to a new host

Backup your consul server and copy data.

On the new consul host, modify /etc/consul/xivo/config.json to include to following lines.

"bind_addr": "0.0.0.0",
"client_addr": "0.0.0.0",
"advertise_addr": "<consul-host>"

# on the xivo
xivo-backup-consul-kv -o /tmp/consul-kv.json
# on the consul host
scp root@<xivo-host>:/etc/init.d/consul /etc/init.d
scp -r root@<xivo-host>:/etc/consul /etc
scp -r root@<xivo-host>:/usr/share/xivo-certs /usr/share
consul agent --data-dir /var/lib/consul --config-dir /etc/consul/xivo/
# on the xivo
xivo-restore-consul-kv -H <consul-host> --verify false -i /tmp/consul-kv.json

Note

To start consul with init.d script, you may need to change owner and group (consul:consul) for all files inside /etc/consul, /usr/share/xivo-certs and /var/lib/consul

Adding the agent configuration

Create the file /etc/consul/agent/config.json with the following content

{
    "acl_datacenter": "<node_name>",
    "datacenter": "xivo",
    "server": false,
    "bind_addr": "0.0.0.0",
    "advertise_addr": "<xivo_address>",
    "client_addr": "127.0.0.1",
    "bootstrap": false,
    "rejoin_after_leave": true,
    "data_dir": "/var/lib/consul",
    "enable_syslog": true,
    "disable_update_check": true,
    "log_level": "INFO",
    "ports": {
        "dns": -1,
        "http": -1,
        "https": 8500
    },
    "retry_join": [
        "<remote_host>"
    ],
    "cert_file": "/usr/share/xivo-certs/server.crt",
    "key_file": "/usr/share/xivo-certs/server.key"
}

• node_name: Arbitrary name to give this node, xivo-paris for example.
• remote_host: IP address of your new consul. Be sure the host is accessible from your XiVO and check the firewall. See the documentation here.
• xivo_address: IP address of your xivo.

This file should be owned by consul user.

chown -R consul:consul /etc/consul/agent

Enabling the agent configuration

Add or modify /etc/default/consul to include the following line

CONFIG_DIR="/etc/consul/agent"

Restart your consul server.

service consul restart

Updating the consul section of xivo-ctid

Add a file in /etc/xivo-ctid/conf.d/remote_consul.yml with the following content

rest_api:
  http:
    listen: 0.0.0.0

service_discovery:
  advertise_address: <xivo-ctid-host>
  check_url: http://<xivo-ctid-host>:9495/0.1/infos

• xivo-ctid-host: Hostname to reach xivo-ctid