Usage reporting

This feature can only be enabled by the Chameleon associate sites.

The usage reporting is used to monitor the daily bare metal node usage of an associate site. The tool will read data from the backups of the OpenStack databases, process the data, and store the usage data into a database named chameleon_usage (co-located with the OpenStack databases). The tool will also upload the usage data to a centralized location at TACC, so that the Chameleon Team can monitor the node usage from all Chameleon sites.

MariaDB backup

The usage reporting reads data from the OpenStack database backups. Currently, two backup types are supported - kolla-ansible MariaDB backup and mysqldump. If the MariaDB is deployed by kolla-ansible (default in CHI-in-a-Box), kolla-ansible MariaDB backup is enabled by default. The backups will be stored in a docker volume named mariadb_backup. Please also check that mariadb_backup_database_password is set in the passwords.yml. If you are using the external MariaDB, your OpenStack database will be backed up using the mysqldump and the default backup location is /var/db/backup. To set a different backup location, overwrite backup_location in the site defaults.yml.

The MariaDB backup configuration is included in the post-deploy. You can also manually configure the MariaDB backup by running the backups playbook.

cc-ansible reconfigure --tags mariadb # if mariadb is deployed by kolla-ansible
cc-ansible --playbook playbooks/backups.yml

For kolla-ansible MariaDB backup, you should see a mariadb_backup_<basename of site_config_dir> systemd timer on the deployment node.

systemctl list-timers 'mariadb_backup_*'

For both backup types, you should see a mariadb_backup systemd timer on the control node.

systemctl list-timers 'mariadb_backup'

By default, the backup rotation is 29 days, but you can turn this number by overwriting mariadb_backup_file_age in the site defaults.yml.

Configuration

The MariaDB backup is required for the usage reporting. The usage reporting is by default installed onto the control node in the site configuration Ansible inventory.

The usage reporting is disabled by default. To enable, set enable_usage_reporting: yes in the site defaults.yml. Two passwords are required in the passwords.yml - chameleon_usage_mysql_password and chameleon_usage_site_password. The chameleon_usage_site_password is an authentication password from the Chameleon Team: once contact and resource registration are complete, you will get this password from the Chameleon Team.

The usage reporting configuration is included in the post-deploy. You can also manually configure by running the chameleon_usage playbook.

cc-ansible --playbook playbooks/chameleon_usage.yml

You can check the scheduled task via the systemd timers.

systemctl list-timers 'usage_node'

Troubleshooting

The usage reporting logs are captured by the systemd journal.

journalctl -u usage_node

Grafana and KPI report

We currently have a Grafana dashboard and a weekly KPI report email set up for the node usage of all Chameleon sites. Please let us know if you are interested in getting access to the dashboard and email.