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Version: Develop

a9s Parachute v2

a9s Parachute v2 uses Data Service specific actions to stop data ingestion as a measure to avoid exposing the a9s Data Services to a full disk.

a9s Parachute v2 uses monit to watch the ephemeral and persistent disk usage of an a9s Data Service instance. When the disk usage threshold hits a configured limit, it executes a lock script to lock the a9s Data Service Instance. During pre-start of the a9s Parachute v2 process, an unlock script is executed to revert the actions that have been taken to prevent further data ingestion.

a9s Parachute v2

Currently, only a9s MariaDB supports a9s Parachute v2.

Configuration

The a9s Parachute v2 can be configured via the following BOSH properties:

PropertyDefault ValueDescription
pluginsA list of plugins that can be used by a9s Parachute. For each plugin the following settings must be set: name, plugins_path, username, password
ephemeral.usage_limit80Limit in percent for the ephemeral disk usage. 0 deactivates the check.
ephemeral.fault_tolerance.times5The number of test failures for the ephemeral disk before an error event is triggered.
ephemeral.fault_tolerance.cycles10The amount of cycles in which test failures are counted for the ephemeral disk.
persistent.usage_limit80Limit in percent for the persistent disk usage. 0 deactivates the check.
persistent.fault_tolerance.times5The number of test failures for the persistent disk before an error event is triggered.
persistent.fault_tolerance.cycles10The amount of cycles in which test failures are counted for the ephemeral disk.

Observability

There are multiple option to monitor a9s Parachute. Below, you can find a list of the different options:

Unlock a Service Instance Manually

To manually unlock a Service Instance, the following steps are necessary:

  1. SSH into one node of the affected Service Instance via bosh -d <deployment_name> ssh <instance_name>/<index>
  2. Become root via sudo -i
  3. Remove the a9 Parachute lock file via rm -f /var/vcap/sys/run/a9s-parachute/a9s-parachute-activated
  4. Unlock the Service Instance via /var/vcap/jobs/a9s-parachute/bin/unlock
caution

Keep in mind that the a9s Parachute doesn't clear up disk space, so you have to free up the affected disk manually.

a9s Data Service Specifics

a9s Parachute takes actions to stop data ingestion specific to each Data Service. Below, you can find a brief overview of these actions.

a9s MariaDB

When the disk usage threshold hits a configured limit, a lock script is executed and sets the whole database server to read-only mode. This is done via the command SET GLOBAL read_only = ON;. Additionally, a9s Parachute creates its lock file /var/vcap/sys/run/a9s-parachute/a9s-parachute-activated to indicate that a9s Parachute was activated.

When the a9s Parachute process starts, the lock file is deleted and the read-only mode of the database server is reverted via the command SET GLOBAL read_only = OFF;.

Resource Considerations

For more information, see a9s Parachute Resources Considerations.