TiBS and lcfg-tibs

This page should be read in conjunction with ServicesUnitTibs.

Aspects of the TiBS configuration are now controlled via LCFG, using the lcfg-tibs component. Version 1 of lcfg-tibs controls all of the TiBS config files which were formerly edited by hand. Every possible setting from each of these config files can (and should) now be set by a tibs resource. Since there were a lot of settings, there are a great many tibs resources. Each one is documented in "man lcfg-tibs".

What the component does

The files that lcfg-tibs controls are

• /usr/tibs/state/tibs.conf
• /etc/tibs.conf (symlink)
• /usr/tibs/state/caches.txt
• /usr/tibs/state/subnets.txt
• /usr/tibs/state/classes.txt
• /usr/tibs/state/afs/cells.txt
• /usr/tibs/state/classes/afs_class/groups.txt
• /usr/tibs/state/afs/inf.ed.ac.uk/afsgroups.txt
• /usr/tibs/state/afs/inf.ed.ac.uk/omit.afs_group
• /usr/tibs/state/classes/afs_class/ThisFull.txt
• /usr/tibs/state/classes/afs_class/ThisDaily.txt
• /usr/tibs/state/classes/afs_class/labels.txt

on a TiBS server and /usr/tibs/client/tibs.ini on a TiBS client.

You should not edit these files in place - instead change them by changing the values of the relevant resources. The resources are all documented in "man lcfg-tibs".

When the component starts on the server it also starts TiBS.

If you want a DICE machine configured as a TiBS client, give it dice/options/tibs-client.h, then do om updaterpms run then om tibs configure. The component doesn't do the initial authorisation step automatically yet; do that by hand as detailed in the TiBS manual.

What the component does not do

The component does not yet stop TiBS when the component itself stops (or at any other time). A bug is getting in the way of this working properly so it's been disabled for now. For the time being when you want to stop TiBS do it the old fashioned way with the stoptibs command.

The component does not configure the non-AFS backups on the TiBS server. It is hoped that a future version will do this. For now you will still have to do this with the hostadd and hostdel commands.

The component doesn't handle the initial authorisation that's done when TiBS is first installed on a new host. This has to be done by hand as detailed in the TiBS manual.

Where the config lives

The LCFG aspects of the TiBS config live in three main files:

• dice/options/tibs-server.h
• dice/options/tibs-client.h
• dice/options/tibs.h

You should include either tibs-server.h or tibs-client.h depending on the desired function of the machine in question. tibs.h is included by the other two; don't include it yourself. (It won't let you.)

Anyway, those three files are where the TiBS LCFG configuration lives.

There are also live versions of each of these headers, included at the end of the dice/options versions. You can use them in an emergency to quickly override anything you don't like in the dice/options headers.

Configuration Delays

You may find a delay between changing a tibs resource and the TiBS config file changing to reflect that resource change. This is deliberate. When the component runs its configure method it checks to see if TiBS is doing anything, and if it is then the configure method is not run. As a backup (ho ho) a cron job calls the tibs configure method each day at 4pm: it is hoped that this will generally deal with any configuration changes delayed from earlier in the day.

The local scripts for TiBS

The local TiBS scripts are all now in an RPM. It's called tibs-scripts. Here are the contents:

[alexandria+]cc: rpm -ql tibs-scripts
/usr/tibs/bin
/usr/tibs/bin/checkpoint_tibs.sh
/usr/tibs/bin/checkstate
/usr/tibs/bin/fix_corrupt.sh
/usr/tibs/bin/infauto
/usr/tibs/bin/infretry
/usr/tibs/bin/lastbackup
/usr/tibs/bin/scan_tapes.sh
/usr/tibs/bin/scheduler.sh
/usr/tibs/sbin
/usr/tibs/sbin/count_blanks.sh
/usr/tibs/sbin/find-tapes.sh
/usr/tibs/sbin/rebuild_pending.sh
/usr/tibs/sbin/test_count_blanks.sh
/usr/tibs/sbin/test_drives.sh

Any changes to any of those scripts should be done by changing the RPM, not by hacking the file in place.

Any problems?

If you spot anything more than usually odd about TiBS from now on, please let me know.

-- ChrisCooke - 17 Nov 2009