[hobbit] display howto

[Henrik Stoerner]

On Wed, Apr 05, 2006 at 04:09:54PM -0400, Lee J. Imber wrote:
> 
> I have a rack of servers on the east coast with a hobbit server and a  
> second rack of servers on the west coast with it's own hobbit server.
> Each hobbit server only reports on the servers in its rack. The two  
> hobbit server do not know the other exists.
> 
> What I would like to do is make the east coast hobbit server be the  
> "master" server.
> Is there a way that I can have the west coast hobbit server send it's  
> display to the east coast hobbit server.

Insert a bbproxy between the clients and the hobbit server on your
west coast installation, then configure bbproxy to forward incoming
messages to both servers.

Right now:
* West coast hobbitd listens on 1.2.3.4 port 1984
* West coast client sends message to IP 1.2.3.4 port 1984 (hobbitd)

With bbproxy:
* West coast hobbitd listens on 127.0.0.1 port 1984
* West cost bbproxy listend on 1.2.3.4 port 1984
* West coast client sends message to IP 1.2.3.4 port 1984 (bbproxy)
* bbproxy forwards incoming messages to 127.0.0.1 port 1984, and
  to east coast hobbitd on 5.6.7.8 port 1984.

Note that you do not need any changes to the clients.

Changes needed:
* Add a --listen=127.0.0.1 to hobbitd in your west coast
  hobbitlaunch.cfg
* Enable bbproxy in your west coast hobbitlaunch.cfg. Use the option
  "--bbdisplay=127.0.0.1,5.6.7.8" to tell it to forward requests to
  both servers.
* Change the BBSERVERIP setting in your hobbitserver.cfg to point
  at the 127.0.0.1 address. This setting is used e.g. by the web CGI's
  that talk to the "real" hobbit server, so it is best to point this
  at the real server IP, not the proxy.
* If you run network tests from the same server, then you probably
  need to change the CMD setting in hobbitlaunch.cfg also. Instead
  of calling bbtest-net directly, put it into a shell script wrapper
  and set BBDISP explicitly to the 5.6.7.8 address before running
  bbtest-net. Otherwise, it will pick up the BBSERVERIP setting and
  send the network test results to 127.0.0.1 - so they won't go 
  through the proxy, and hence you won't see them on the east coast
  server.
* Restart Hobbit


Henrik