H.2. pg_cluster#
H.2. pg_cluster
This section describes how to deploy pg_cluster
using ansible
based automation tools. The
following text will present examples of commands to be entered in
the terminal to prepare an SSH session, check if the ansible
settings are correct and start the playbook. The
admin_user
account will be used as an example
user. When launching commands in the Customer’s loop, this user must
be changed to an account that has passwordless SSH access to all
servers (virtual machines) specified in the
my_inventory
file, as well as access to
privileged mode (root). As a result of the playbook operation, a
cluster Tantor Certified managed via
patroni will be deployed on the servers specified in the
my_inventory
file.
H.2.2. Architecture
Figure H.1. Architecture

H.2.3. Requirements
Playbook requires the following component’s version to be installed:
Ansible >= 2.9.10
Python3 (with pip module) >= 3.10.0
psycopg2 >= 2.5.1 (it’s recommended to install via pip)
packaging >= 24 (it’s recommended to install via pip)
H.2.4. Usage (based on OS Astra Linux 1.7)
Create an
admin_user
user (executed on each node from theinventory
file):sudo adduser admin_user
Grant the
admin_user
user possibility to enter to privileged mode (root) without entering a password (executed on each node from the inventory file).cat >> /etc/sudoers <<EOF admin_user ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL EOF
Check the availability of certified repositories in the system.
Mount the transferred ISO image in the
/mnt/iso
directory (executed on each node from the inventory file and on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched).Connect the repository from the mounted ISO to the system (executed on each node from the inventory file and on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched).
echo 'deb [trusted=yes] file:///mnt/iso/repo 1.8_x86-64 main' | && \ sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tantorlabs.list
Install ansible (executed on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched).
sudo apt install ansible-tantor-all
Copy the test case files from the mounted ISO imageto the
/opt/pg_cluster
directory (executed on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched):sudo cp -r /mnt/iso/pg_cluster /opt cd /opt/pg_cluster/ sudo chmod +w /opt/pg_cluster/inventory/my_inventory sudo chmod +w /opt/pg_cluster/inventory/group_vars/keepalived.yml
Fill in the
inventory
configuration file/opt/pg_cluster/inventory/my_inventory
containing a list of hosts and their IP addresses (executed on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched).In the
inventory/group_vars/keepalived.yml
file, change the value of thecluster_vip_1
variable to the IP that will be used by keepalived for the allocated virtual address — a single entry point to a DBMS cluster (executed on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched):sed -i \ 's/cluster_vip_1: "xxx\.xxx\.xxx\.xxx"/cluster_vip_1: "<cluster IP address>"/' \ /opt/pg_cluster/inventory/group_vars/keepalived.yml
Generate SSH keys and upload to cluster nodes from the
inventory
configuration file (executed on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched):ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 ssh-copy-id admin_user@<IP address of the first node> ssh-copy-id admin_user@<IP address of the second node> ssh-copy-id admin_user@<IP address of the third node>
Test SSH connection on behalf of
admin_user
(executed on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched):ssh admin_user@<IP address of the first node> ssh admin_user@<IP address of the second node> ssh admin_user@<IP address of the third node>
Make sure that all servers are available for SSH connection with the required user:
/opt/tantor/usr/bin/ansible all -i inventory/my_inventory \ -m ansible.builtin.setup -a "filter=ansible_hostname" -u admin_user
The result of the command above will be a response from each of the available servers in the following format:
<hostname_from_inventory_file> | SUCCESS => { "ansible_facts": { "ansible_hostname": "<device_hostname>", "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/<host_python_version>" }, "changed": false }
This output for each server described in
my_inventory
file means successful connection to it via SSH. If as a result of the response from any server the message differed from the above template - check whether it is possible to connect to it via a key from the user name passed using the-u
flag. If it is necessary to connect only with password entry (without using keys) - it is necessary to add-kK
flags to the command launch and enter the password for SSH connection (-k
flag) and for user to switch to privileged mode (root) (-K
flag).Pay attention to the value of the
ansible_hostname
variable in the command output. If the value islocalhost
orlocalhost.localdomain
, check the/etc/hosts
file of the machines with incorrect output. Ensure that the real device hostname is set before localhost on the line containing127.0.0.1
.Launch the ansible-playbook to install the TantorDB database (executed on the node from which ansible-playbook will be launched):
/opt/tantor/usr/bin/ansible-playbook -i inventory/my_inventory \ -u admin_user -e "postgresql_vendor=tantordb edition=certified major_version=15" pg-cluster.yaml
H.2.5. Launch Features
The playbook allows the possibility of separating the
pg_data
, pg_wal
and
pg_log
directories. If it is necessary to place
WAL logs in a separate folder, it is required to make changes to
the inventory/groupvars/patroni.yml
file:
remove the comment for the
patroni_pg_wal_dir
variable and specify the directory for placing WAL logs in it;for the
patroni_bootstrap_initdb
variable add thewaldir
parameter and check that it refers to thepatroni_pg_wal_dir
variable;for the selected replica creation method (by default
patroni_pg_basebackup
) addwaldir
parameter withbulk_wal_dir
value;
In case it is necessary to place LOGs: remove the comment for the
variable patroni_pg_pg_log_dir
and in it
specify the directory for placing LOG logs;
H.2.6. Playbook launch
One of the playbook tasks is executed on the same node from which
ansible is launched (control server). In case the user under which
ansible is run does not have passwordless access to root mode on
this server, it is necessary to add the -K
flag
to the start command and enter the password.
By default, the playbook does not attempt to connect to Tantor repositories and requires the following packages to be available within the system:
etcd-tantor-all
python3-tantor-all
patroni-tantor-all
pg_configurator-tantor-all
haproxy-tantor-all
keepalived-tantor-all
pgbouncer-tantor-all
wal-g-tantor-all
tantor DBMS
Pay attention to last point from the list above. Tantor package
should match environment that is used during playbook launch. For
example if you want to install
tantor-certified-server-15
DBMS using command
ansible-playbook -i inventory/my_inventory -u admin_user -e "postgresql_vendor=tantordb edition=certified major_version=15" pg-cluster.yaml -K
make sure that package tantor-certified-server-15
is
available in your local repository.
H.2.7. Usage examples
Below you can find some common commands for working with the
software products included in the pg_cluster
solution. Note that the commands and their result may differ
depending on the software versions used.
H.2.7.1. Work with etcd:
# on NODE_1 e_host=( /opt/tantor/usr/bin/etcdctl --endpoints=https://<HOST_1_IP>:2379,https://<HOST_2_IP>:2379,https://<HOST_N_IP>:2379 --cacert=/opt/tantor/etc/patroni/ca.pem --cert=/opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.pem --key=/opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>-key.pem ) # list etcd members ETCDCTL_API=3 "${e_host[@]}" member list --debug # check version ETCDCTL_API=3 "${e_host[@]}" version # get key value ("main" is "patroni_scope") ETCDCTL_API=3 "${e_host[@]}" get /service/main/config # cleanup patroni cluster configuration ETCDCTL_API=3 "${e_host[@]}" del /service/main --prefix
H.2.7.2. Manual create user:
# create user su - postgres -c "psql -A -t -d postgres -c \"CREATE ROLE replicator WITH REPLICATION LOGIN PASSWORD 'repuserpasswd'\"" # check user su - postgres -c "psql -A -t -d postgres -c \"select * from pg_roles where rolname = 'replicator'\""
H.2.7.3. Manage Patroni Cluster
Patroni includes a command called patronictl
which can be used to control the cluster. Let`s check the status
of the cluster:
root@node1:~# patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml list + Cluster: main (7351350415269982209) --+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ | Member | Host | Role | State | TL | Lag in MB | +---------+-----------------+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ | node1 | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | Leader | running | 1 | | | node2 | yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy | Replica | streaming | 1 | 0 | | node3 | zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz | Replica | streaming | 1 | 0 | +---------+-----------------+---------+-----------+----+-----------+
patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml edit-config
should be used only to manage global cluster configuration. It
should not contain any node-specific settings like
connect_address
, listen
,
data_dir
and so on.
Update DCS pg_hba
settings:
cat > pg_hba.conf << EOL host replication replicator 0.0.0.0/0 md5 local all all trust host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust host all all localhost trust EOL cat pg_hba.conf | jq -R -s 'split("\n") | .[0:-1] | {"postgresql": {"pg_hba": .}}' | \ patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml edit-config --apply - --force main patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml show-config
Change postgresql.conf
settings:
cat > postgresql.conf << EOL "postgresql": { "parameters": { "max_connections" : 101 } } EOL cat postgresql.conf | patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml edit-config --apply - --force main patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml list patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml restart main
Make switchover
:
root@node1:~# patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml switchover Current cluster topology + Cluster: main (7351350415269982209) --+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ | Member| Host | Role | State | TL | Lag in MB | +-------+-----------------+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ | node1 | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | Leader | running | 1 | | | node2 | yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy | Replica | streaming | 1 | 0 | | node3 | zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz | Replica | streaming | 1 | 0 | +-------+-----------------+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ Primary [node1]: Candidate ['node2', 'node3'] []: node2 When should the switchover take place (e.g. 2024-04-02T13:51 ) [now]: Are you sure you want to switchover cluster main, demoting current leader node1? [y/N]: y 2024-04-02 12:51:28.04774 Successfully switched over to "node2" + Cluster: main (7351350415269982209) --+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ | Member| Host | Role | State | TL | Lag in MB | +-------+-----------------+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ | node1 | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | Leader | streaming | 2 | | | node2 | yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy | Replica | running | 2 | 0 | | node3 | zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz | Replica | streaming | 2 | 0 | +-------+-----------------+---------+-----------+----+-----------+
Switch to Asynchronous mode (default mode):
cat > postgresql.conf << EOL "postgresql": { "parameters": { "synchronous_commit" : "local" } } "synchronous_mode": false "synchronous_mode_strict": false EOL cat postgresql.conf | patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml edit-config --apply - --force main
Switch to Synchronous mode:
cat > postgresql.conf << EOL "postgresql": { "parameters": { "synchronous_commit" : "remote_apply" } } "synchronous_mode": true "synchronous_mode_strict": true EOL cat postgresql.conf | patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml edit-config --apply - --force main
Figure H.2. synchronous_commit

Reinit failed node, in case if output of
patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml list
provides the information about failed state of the node:
patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml list >> root@node1:~# patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml list + Cluster: main (7351350415269982209) --+------------+-----------+----+-----------+ | Member | Host | Role | State | TL | Lag in MB | +---------+-----------------+---------+--------------+----+-----------+ | node1 | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | Leader | running | 1 | | | node2 | yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy | Replica | streaming | 1 | 0 | | node3 | zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz | Replica | start failed | 1 | 0 | +---------+-----------------+---------+--------------+----+-----------+
Failed node can be reconfigured to join the cluster using:
patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml reinit node3 >> root@node1:~# patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml list + Cluster: main (7351350415269982209) --+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ | Member | Host | Role | State | TL | Lag in MB | +---------+-----------------+---------+-----------+----+-----------+ | node1 | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | Leader | running | 1 | | | node2 | yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy | Replica | streaming | 1 | 0 | | node3 | zzz.zzz.zzz.zzz | Replica | streaming | 1 | 0 | +---------+-----------------+---------+-----------+----+-----------+
H.2.8. Cluster test
After successful cluster deployment:
# on deployment node run test, the test will take about 5 minutes # please use the latest possible version of python3 # please run commands from the pg_cluster folder python3 tools/pg_cluster_backend/pg_cluster_backend.py --operations=10000
To emulate deadlocks, needs to change parameter
test.accounts = 100 -> 10
in
tools/pg_cluster_backend/conf/pg_cluster_backend.conf
.
Simultaneously with the test, you should perform actions with the cluster:
# on NODE_1 patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml list patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml restart main shutdown -r now # on NODE_2 patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE2_HOSTNAME>.yml list patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE2_HOSTNAME>.yml restart main shutdown -r now # on NODE_3 patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE3_HOSTNAME>.yml list patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE3_HOSTNAME>.yml restart main shutdown -r now # on NODE_1 patronictl -c /opt/tantor/etc/patroni/<NODE1_HOSTNAME>.yml switchover # on primary node su - postgres -c "psql -A -t -d test_db -c \" select pg_terminate_backend(pid) from pg_stat_activity where application_name = 'pg_cluster_backend'\"" # on NODE_1 systemctl stop patroni # on NODE_2 systemctl stop patroni # on NODE_1 systemctl start patroni # on NODE_2 systemctl start patroni # restart all nodes in random order
After completing these steps, the test backend should continue work.
Check how many transaction losses on switchover with asynchronous replication:
SELECT sum(balance)::numeric - -- result balance ((select count(1) from public.accounts) * 100 + 10000) -- where "--operations=10000" FROM public.accounts -- positive value means lost transactions -- negative value means successfully committed transactions in which the backend received an exception