=pod
=head1 NAME
Helios::Configuration - Helios configuration parameter reference
=head1 DESCRIPTION
The Helios system defines a large number of configuration parameters. Some of
these affect the operation of the helios.pl daemon, others affect worker
processes, and some can affect both. Aside from these reserved parameter
names, the configuration parameters your Helios service uses are largely up to
you.
Helios configuration parameters that affect worker process launching and
management are usually in ALL CAPS. This helps set them apart from other
application-level parameters.
=head1 helios.pl PARAMETERS
=head2 Collective Database Configuration Parameters
These are the most important parameters in helios.ini. They must be declared
in the [global] section. Without them, helios.pl will be unable to connect to
the collective database and will fail to start.
=head3 dsn
dsn=dbi:Oracle:SHARDEV
The dsn parameter is the DBI datasource name of the Helios collective database.
=head3 user
user=scott
The user parameter is the user to use when connecting to the Helios
collective database.
=head3 password
password=tiger
The password parameter is the password to use when connecting to the Helios
collective database.
=head3 options
options=private_option=>'string',private_option2=>'another string'
The options parameter is used when special DBI options are needed when
connecting to the Helios collective database. Normally, this parameter should
not be necessary but is made available for users who may need to specify
special parameters in their database connections anyway.
=head2 Other [global] Parameters
=head3 pid_path
pid_path=/home/helios/run
Sets the path where helios.pl daemon will write its PID files. This should be
an absolute path to a directory writable by the Helios user (the user the
helios.pl daemon will run as). Each helios.pl service daemon will write a PID
file incorporating the name of the service class it has loaded into this
directory.
If this directory does not exist or is not writable by the Helios user, the
helios.pl daemon will fail to start.
DEFAULT: /var/run/helios
=head3 registration_interval
The number of seconds to wait before a helios.pl service daemon "checks in" to
the collective database. Periodically helios.pl will update a table in the
Helios collective database for monitoring purposes. This allows the
Helios::Panoptes admin console to provide the Collective Admin view, and
enables Panoptes and other utilities to see if a helios.pl service daemon has
crashed or has encountered some other type of error. The default 60 seconds
should be fine for most purposes, but can be increased to reduce database load
if necessary.
DEFAULT: 60
=head2 Service-specific Tuning Parameters for helios.pl
There are several parameters useful for tuning the helios.pl service daemon to
work better with your Helios service. Helios and the helios.pl daemon default
to behavior that should work well for processing jobs that last a short amount
of time (generally 30 seconds or less). If your jobs consistently last longer
than a minute, or can potentially put a strain on resources like a database or
a file server, you may wish to adjust the following parameters.
These parameters are not dynamic and should be set in the Helios conf file,
either in the [global] section or a section matching your service's name.
=head3 master_launch_interval
master_launch_interval=5
The master_launch_interval is the amount of time in seconds helios.pl waits
after launching workers before it attempts to launch workers again. Normally
the default of 1 second is fine, but if you need to slow how quickly new worker
processes are started, you can increase this number.
DEFAULT: 1
=head3 zero_launch_interval
zero_launch_interval=30
The zero_launch_interval is the amount of time in seconds helios.pl waits
to launch workers again after the MAX_WORKERS limit has been reached. Once
helios.pl launches the MAX_WORKERS number of workers, it will not launch more
even if there are available jobs in the queue. If a particular service's jobs
usually take longer than the default of 10 seconds, or you are using OVERDRIVE
mode so your worker processes persist until no more jobs available, increasing
zero_launch_interval may decrease needless database queries. For most cases,
the default of 10 seconds should be adequate.
DEFAULT: 10
=head3 zero_sleep_interval
zero_sleep_interval=20
The zero_sleep_interval is the amount of time between checks for available
jobs in the job queue when the job queue is empty. If the helios.pl daemon
determines there are no available jobs for a service, it sleeps
zero_sleep_interval seconds and then checks again. If there are available
jobs, it starts to launch workers; if there are still none, it sleeps another
zero_sleep_interval seconds and checks again. This can cause jobs to "sit" in
the queue for some seconds before workers are launched to service them. If
you do not have enough jobs consistently entering the job queue to keep workers
running in OVERDRIVE mode, decreasing this number will make helios.pl more
responsive by launching workers for your jobs sooner (at the expense of extra
repeated queries of the job queue in the database). If your jobs can wait in
the job queue for awhile and you do not have many entering the system,
increasing this number can reduce the number of needless queries to your
database.
DEFAULT: 10
=head1 WORKER PROCESS MANAGEMENT
The following configuration parameters affect the management of workers and
how they run services and process jobs. These are most typically set in the
collective database configuration table for each service, thus they are ALL
CAPS to separate them from your services' own configuration parameters. Unlike
the parameters in the previous section, these configuration parameters are
dynamic and can be changed via Helios::Panoptes, the helios_config_* shell
commands, or SQL commands to your collective database.
=head2 HOLD
HOLD=1
Puts a Helios service in Hold Mode. All worker processes shut down after
finishing the current job, and the helios.pl service daemon ignores avaliable
jobs in the job queue. Set HOLD to 0 or delete it from the configuration to
cause Helios to return to Normal Mode.
DEFAULT: 0
=head2 HALT
HALT=1
Causes a helios.pl service daemon and all its workers to shutdown. When HALT
is set for a service, worker processes exit after the current job is finished.
The helios.pl service daemon waits MAX_WORKER_TTL_WAIT_INTERVAL seconds for
workers to finish, and sends any remaining workers a SIGKILL signal to
eliminate any stragglers. The daemon then removes its registration entry from
the collective database and exits.
Warning: BE CAREFUL about setting a HALT for a service for all hosts
(hostname='*'). This will shutdown all instances of that Helios service in
the ENTIRE collective, and the only way to restart them is to log into the
host and start them manually. If you need to perform maintenance on hosts in
a production Helios collective, you most likely want to HOLD all instances of
a service and then HALT each instance individually as needed.
DEFAULT: none (the presence of HALT in the config causes a shutdown regardless
of its value)
=head2 MAX_WORKERS
MAX_WORKERS=10
Along with OVERDRIVE, MAX_WORKERS is the most powerful configuration
parameter in the Helios framework. Setting MAX_WORKERS allows a helios.pl
service daemon to launch multiple workers at a time to service jobs, up to the
MAX_WORKERS limit.
Normally, when the helios.pl service daemon sees available jobs in the job
queue, it starts to launch worker processes to service the jobs. Normally,
it launches workers gradually, one at a time, in order to prevent overtaxing
resources (and to allow the launched workers time to do actually run the
jobs). If there are the same or more jobs in the queue as the MAX_WORKERS
value, helios.pl will "blitz" (launch the maximum amount of workers) to attempt
to run the jobs in the queue as quickly as possible. This "blitzing" feature
is controlled by the WORKER_BLITZ_FACTOR parameter, so if you want want Helios
to blitz workers B<before> there are that many jobs available in the queue,
adjust WORKER_BLITZ_FACTOR downward to allow helios.pl to launch more worker
processes faster.
DEFAULT: 1
=head2 OVERDRIVE
OVERDRIVE=1
Setting OVERDRIVE causes a worker process to persist in memory continuing to
run jobs from the job queue until all available jobs for the loaded service
are exhausted. Coupled with MAX_WORKERS, allows you to maximize job
throughput by eliminating repeated process startup procedures and enabling
caching of database connections and other data structures.
Unless your service is designed to run long-running jobs lazily, you almost
certainly want to set OVERDRIVE to 1. It is set to 0 by default because
indiscriminately running untested, potentially unsafe services can cause
unexpected, even disasterous behavior. Make sure your service runs in Normal
Mode first, then test it in Overdrive Mode throughly before you deploy it.
DEFAULT: 0
=head2 WORKER_LAUNCH_PATTERN
WORKER_LAUNCH_PATTERN=dynamic
In order to service jobs, the helios.pl daemon launches worker processes that
instantiate your service class and pass the service object the job(s) to
perform. There are several process launching algorithms to choose from:
=over 4
=item linear
With the "linear" launch pattern, when jobs are available, helios.pl will
launch one worker at a time to service them, up to the MAX_WORKERS limit.
This allows the number of worker processes to build gradually. However, this
one-launch-at-a-time pattern will also cause jobs to sit in the queue longer
before they are serviced. This is the Helios 2.x default pattern.
=item dynamic
With the "dynamic" launch pattern, helios.pl will try to keep as many
workers running as there are jobs available, up to the MAX_WORKERS limit. For
example, if there are 10 jobs available but only 6 workers running, helios.pl
will launch 4 more workers. This pattern allows Helios to react relatively
quickly to new jobs and dynamically adjust the number of running workers as
needed.
=item optimistic
With the "optimistic" launch pattern, helios.pl will launch as many workers as
there are jobs available, up to the MAX_WORKERS limit. For example, if there
are 10 available jobs in the queue, helios.pl will launch 10 new workers. If
the number of workers to launch would cause the running workers to exceed the
MAX_WORKERS limit, the difference between the running workers and MAX_WORKERS
limit is launched. While this pattern allows Helios to react quickly to
new jobs in the queue, it can also launch more workers than really needed and
thus increase job contention between workers. Also, if your service uses a
shared resource such as an FTP or database server, launching so many incoming
connections at once can cause contention on the shared resource as well. Thus,
the 'optimistic' pattern is best used for services whose jobs 1) have a very
short runtime (< 2 sec), 2) and need to be run as soon as possible once they
enter the job queue, and 3) make minimal use of shared resources, or use a
shared resource that can handle being swamped quickly with new connections.
=back
Regardless of the current launch pattern, if the number of jobs available
in the job queue equals or exceeds the MAX_WORKERS limit, helios.pl will
"blitz" and launch enough workers to reach the MAX_WORKERS limit.
DEFAULT: linear (workers are launched one at a time when jobs are available)
=head2 PRIORITIZE_JOBS
PRIORITIZE_JOBS=low
Normally with the Helios::TS job queuing system, workers pull jobs from the
job queue at random to reduce job contention between workers. However, you
can set priorities for jobs by using the Helios::Job->setPriority() method
before a job is submitted, and then enabling PRIORITIZE_JOBS for the service
that will run those jobs. PRIORITIZE_JOBS has 3 possible values:
=over 4
=item low
If PRIORITIZE_JOBS is set to 'low', jobs with lower valued priorities will be
given precedence.
=item high
If PRIORITIZE_JOBS is set to 'high', jobs with higher valued priorities will be
given precedence.
=item undef
If PRIORITIZE_JOBS is not set, jobs' priority values will be ignored and jobs
will be pulled from the job queue at random.
=back
Generally, it is best to leave PRIORITIZE_JOBS turned off. There are
significant drawbacks and gotchas to using the feature:
=over 4
=item *
Even with job prioritization turned on, prioritization is only approximate.
To reduce job contention between workers, each worker selects up to 50
available jobs from the job queue and randomly picks one to pass to your
service to run. Even though all the selected jobs will be of the highest
(or lowest) priority, the job that is ultimately run will still be randomly
chosen from the selected group.
=item *
The priority field in the default collective database schema only accepts very
small integer values (0-9999). This can be changed by using SQL ALTER TABLE
commands to allow datatypes with larger values (BIGINT instead of SMALLINT,
for example), or use a different kind of datatype altogether (i.e. VARCHARs).
=back
DEFAULT: undef (jobs are pulled from the job queue at random)
=head2 LAZY_CONFIG_UPDATE
LAZY_CONFIG_UPDATE=1
Use LAZY_CONFIG_UPDATE to increase worker process performance by reducing the
number of configuration parameter refreshes a worker process performs in
Overdrive Mode. In Overdrive Mode, a worker process refreshes the service
configuration from the collective database just before it calls the service's
run() method. With LAZY_CONFIG_UPDATE set to 1, this configuration refresh is
performed only before every 10th job the worker process runs, reducing
database queries and thus increasing performance.
NOTE: The configuration refresh is where worker processes pick up HOLD and
HALT parameters, so using LAZY_CONFIG_UPDATE will cause worker processes to be
less responsive when holding jobs or halting the service. If your service's
configuration does not change often, you can activate LAZY_CONFIG_UPDATE and
see if your service experiences a noticable increase.
DEFAULT: 0
=head2 WORKER_MAX_TTL
WORKER_MAX_TTL=300
The maximum amount of time in seconds to allow a worker process for a service
to run. If a worker process continues to run past this threshold, the
helios.pl service daemon will assume it has become stuck in some way and will
send it a SIGKILL signal (9) to kill it (real world situations have shown
softer signals are unreliable in such situations). If you set this and find
worker processes not experiencing problems are being unnecessarily killed, you
may need to increase the WORKER_MAX_TTL_WAIT_INTERVAL (below).
DEFAULT: none; workers running in Normal Mode run until their job is complete;
workers in Overdrive Mode work until no more jobs are available in the job
queue.
=head2 WORKER_MAX_TTL_WAIT_INTERVAL
Number of seconds a helios.pl service daemon will wait for a worker that has
reached its WORKER_MAX_TTL to exit. If a worker process continues running
past WORKER_MAX_TTL + WORKER_MAX_TTL_WAIT_INTERVAL seconds, helios.pl will
assume the worker process has hung in some way and will send it a SIGKILL (9)
signal to kill it.
DEFAULT: 30
=head2 DOWNSHIFT_ON_NONZERO_RUN
DOWNSHIFT_ON_NONZERO_RUN=1
This to support certain legacy behaviors for Helios services developed before
Helios 2.40. You almost certainly do not need to set this.
DEFAULT: 0 (ignore the return value of the service's run() method)
=head1 LOGGING
=head2 loggers
loggers=HeliosX::Logger::Syslog,HeliosX::Logger::Log4perl
Specify a comma-separated list of external logging classes to use to log
information. Each of the modules listed should implement the Helios::Logger
interface class.
Each logger class likely will have its own configuration parameters; see the
logger's documentation for the appropriate configuration information.
The Helios internal logger (Helios::Logger::Internal) is automatically added
to this list, unless internal_logger (below) is turned off.
DEFAULT: None
=head2 internal_logger
internal_logger=off
Whether the Helios internal logger (Helios::Logger::Internal) should be used
to log information. The internal logger logs information to a table in the
Helios collective database, and is the log system used by the Helios::Panoptes
System Log view. If you want to only use an external logging system such as
HeliosX::Logger::Log4perl, you can turn off Helios logging completely by
setting internal_logger to 0 or 'off'.
DEFAULT: on
=head2 log_priority_threshold
log_priority_threshold=5
The log level above which the internal logger discards log messages.
Specifying a log_priority_threshold will cause log messages of a lower priority
(higher numeric value) to be discarded. For example, a log_priority_threshold
of 6 (LOG_INFO) will cause log messages with a priority of 7 (LOG_DEBUG) to be
discarded.
See the Helios::Logger::Internal documentation for more information on log
thresholds.
DEFAULT: undefined (all log messages are logged)
=head1 AUTHOR
Andrew Johnson, E<lt>lajandy at cpan dot orgE<gt>
=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2012-4 by Logical Helion, LLC.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.0 or,
at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.
=head1 WARRANTY
This software comes with no warranty of any kind.
=cut