Scalarizr Installation¶

Scalarizr is Scalr’s management agent. It is optionally installed on every Scalr-managed Server, and used for orchestration and monitoring.

Scalarizr Functionality¶

The Scalarizr agent is optional, but without the agent the Scalr experience is limited, please see the following comparison chart:

Capability	Agentless	Agent Installed
Launch, Terminate, Suspend, Resume	Yes	Yes
Security Group management	Yes	Yes
Tagging	Yes	Yes
Autoscaling (minimum servers)	Yes	Yes
Autoscaling (metric based)	No	Yes
Orchestration (script execution)	No	Yes
Monitoring	No	Yes
Storage Volume Mounting	No	Yes
Software Firewall/ iptables management	No	Yes

Supported Server/Instance Operating Systems¶

Scalarizr is supported on the following operating systems and versions.

Operating System	Supported Versions
Ubuntu	14.04 - 18.04 LTS
Debian	6.x - 8.x
RHEL / CentOS	5.x - 7.x
OEL	5.x - 7.x
Redhat	5.x - 7.x
Windows Server	2008 R2, 2012(all), 2016, 2019
Suse	11.3, 11.4, and 12.x
Amazon Linux	2, 2013.03, 2014.03, 2014.09, 2015.03, 2015.09, 2016.03, 2016.09

Scalarizr Network Requirements¶

Scalarizr needs to be able to communicate bi-directionally with the Scalr server. This table shows the ports that need to be open to enable this and also shows additional ports required to be open when Scalr is deployed on multiple hosts.

Port	Protocol	Direction	Usage
80	TCP	Cloud Instance > Scalr Proxy Server	Scalarizr Agent
443	TCP	Scalr Worker Server > Cloud API	Cloud API Calls
443	TCP	Scalr Worker Server > Scalr Proxy Server	Agent Update
443	TCP	Cloud Instance > Scalr Proxy Server	Scalarizr Agent
3306	TCP	Scalr proxy Server > DB Instances	MySQL
5671	TCP	Cloud Instance > Scalr Proxy Server	Scalarizr Agent (rabbitmq)
6275	TCP	Between Scalr Server Nodes (excluding DB)	RabbitMQ
6276	TCP	Between Scalr Server Nodes (excluding DB)	RabbitMQ
6291	TCP	Between Scalr Server Nodes (excluding DB)	InfluxDB
8008	TCP	Scalr Worker Server > Cloud Instance	Scalarizr Agent (update service)
8010	TCP	Scalr Worker Server > Cloud Instance	Scalarizr Agent (API)
8013	TCP	Scalr Worker Server > Cloud Instance	Scalarizr Agent (control)
11211	TCP	Scalr Proxy Server > Scalr Proxy Server	Memcached Synchronisation
15671	TCP	Between Scalr Server Nodes (excluding DB)	RabbitMQ

Installing Scalarizr¶

How to Install Scalarizr on Linux Images¶

Open a shell and execute:

PLATFORM=ec2 && curl -L https://<YOUR_SCALR_URL>/public/linux/latest/$PLATFORM/install_scalarizr.sh | sudo bash

Set the PLATFORM variable to the cloud platform that you are using.

Value	Cloud Platform
PLATFORM=ec2	Amazon EC2
PLATFORM=gce	Google Compute Engine
PLATFORM=azure	Microsoft Azure
PLATFORM=openstack	For any OpenStack based platform
PLATFORM=cloudstack	CloudStack
PLATFORM=rackspace	Rackspace Legacy Cloud
PLATFORM=vmware	VMware

How to Install Scalarizr on Windows Images¶

Open the administrator powershell and execute:

iex ((New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://<YOUR_SCALR_URL>/public/windows/latest/install_scalarizr.ps1'))

Note

Scalarizr should not be set to automatically start on Windows servers. The Scalarizr update client will automatically start Scalarizr once it has completed the update.

Scalarizr Logs¶

The following are the Scalarizr log locations:

Log Location	Description
/var/log/scalarizr.log (linux) or C:\optscalarizr\var\log\scalarizr.log (windows)	The general log that shows Scalarizr events.
/var/log/scalarizr_debug.log (linux) or C:\opt\scalarizr\var\log\scalarizr_debug.log (windows)	The debug version of the scalarizr.log
/var/log/scalarizr_update.log (linux) or C:\opt\scalarizr\var\log\scalarizr_update.log (windows)	The log that shows the initial Scalarizr update when a server is launched as well as polling for updates to Scalarizr.
/var/log/scalrizr/scripting/* (linux) or C:\opt\scalarizr\var\log\scripting\* (windows)	The location where Scalr orchestration output is saved.

How to Create Your Own Scalarizr Repo¶

Setting up a Scalr integrated custom repository is very easy. This capability allows for simple management of your custom repo, the available packages, and your custom release branches right from the Scalr server CLI! Below are a few key points to note about the “repos” service:

This service acts as a separate component from other services on the Scalr server. If desired, it can be put on a dedicated server just like other Scalr components.
The integrated repo service binds to port 6273 by default. The Scalr proxy component will forward requests to it if the URI starts with /repos/
The root dir of the repo is /opt/scalr-server/var/lib/repos, but this may be changed in config.

Enabling integrated repository tool

In order to configure the repos service on a multi server Scalr deployment, simply pick one of the app/proxy servers to also act as a repo-server.

Add the following to scalr-server-local.rb on ONE app server:

repos[:enable] = true

Add the following to scalr-server.rb on ALL servers. Be sure to change <ip-of-repo-server> to your selected app server IP:

proxy[:repos_upstreams] = ['<ip-of-repo-server>:6273']

repos[:bind_host] = '<ip-of-repo-server>'

repos[:bind_port] = 6273

Run scalr-server-ctl reconfigure to ensure the changes are applied.

Managing Scalr Integrated Repo Service¶

Once you have added the above to your scalr-server.rb and reconfigured, you will be able to access the service via the command line with “scalr-server-manage agent-repo”. If there are issues with your configuration, they will be noted when you run this command. If config is correct, the following options will be displayed:

root@ip-111-111-111-111:~# scalr-server-manage agent-repo
Reading Scalr configuration...
scalr-server-manage agent-repo status                            - Shows available remote and local repos
scalr-server-manage agent-repo pull %version%                    - Downloads specified remote repo
scalr-server-manage agent-repo delete %version%                  - Delete specified local version
scalr-server-manage agent-repo link %local_name% %local_version% - Links specified local repo name to existing local version
scalr-server-manage agent-repo unlink %local_name%               - Unlinks specified local repo

Check the status of the service with agent-repo status:

root@ip-111-111-111-111:~# scalr-server-manage agent-repo status
Reading Scalr configuration...
Fetching data from remote server...
Remote versions [linked repo]:
2.11
4.4
5.9
6.8
7.9
8.5
9.9
10.1
11.9
12.7
1.9
2.9
3.9
4.1
5.9
6.6
7.9
8.3
9.9
10.2
11.9
12.2
1.9
2.2
3.9
4.0 [stable]
5.5 [latest]

Local versions [linked repo]:

No local versions were found. Use 'scalr-server-manage agent-repo pull %version%' to download.

No local repos were found. Use 'scalr-server-manage agent-repo link %name% %version%' to create.

Download and Set Up a Custom Repo¶

As the previous command noted, we do not yet have any packages downloaded. We will do so now. The package for download may be referenced either by version number or by branch name:

root@ip-111-111-111-111:~# scalr-server-manage agent-repo pull latest
Reading Scalr configuration...
Pulling 5.5.5 RPM packages... [ DONE ]
Pulling 5.5.5 DEB packages... [ DONE ]
Pulling 5.5.5 WIN packages... [ DONE ]

Now that we have a local package, we need to create a link between this package and the branch name we want to create and offer to our users. After successful link, we will be provided with the scalr-server.rb configuration required to enable the new repo:

root@ip-111-111-111-111:~# scalr-server-manage agent-repo link TestRepo 5.5.5
Reading Scalr configuration...
Repo 'TestRepo' is now linked to version 5.5.5

Example scalr-server.rb config snippet to enable your repo:

app[:configuration] = {
"scalr" => {
  "scalarizr_update" => {
    "mode" => "solo",
    "default_repo" => "testrepo",
    "repos" => {
      "testrepo" => {
        "rpm_repo_url" => "http://111.111.111.111/repos/rpm/testrepo/rhel/$releasever/$basearch",
        "deb_repo_url" => "http://111.111.111.111/repos/apt-plain/testrepo /",
        "win_repo_url" => "http://111.111.111.111/repos/win/testrepo"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Be sure to merge the suggested configuration in to your scalr-server.rb and reconfigure.

Running agent-repo status once more will show the status of our newly configured custom repo service:

root@ip-111-111-111-111:~# scalr-server-manage agent-repo status
Reading Scalr configuration...
Fetching data from remote server...
Remote versions [linked repo]:
2.11
4.4
5.9
6.8
7.9
8.5
9.9
10.1
11.9
12.7
1.9
2.9
3.9
4.1
5.9
6.6
7.9
8.3
9.9
10.2
11.9
12.2
1.9
2.2
3.9
4.0 [stable]
5.5 [latest] [beta]

Local versions [linked repo]:
5.5 [TestRepo]

Removing Custom Repo Branches and Packages¶

If we want to remove one of our custom repos we must first unlink the custom branch from the package:

root@ip-111-111-111-111:~# scalr-server-manage agent-repo unlink TestRepo
Reading Scalr configuration...
Repo 'TestRepo' has been removed

We can then delete the repo files which will remove the files from the server:

root@ip-111-111-111-111:~# scalr-server-manage agent-repo delete 5.5.5
Reading Scalr configuration...
Version 5.5.5 has been deleted