[squeak-dev] Re: [Vm-dev] [DEV] Systemd socket activation patch for the VM

David T. Lewis lewis at mail.msen.com
Tue Jul 8 16:14:30 UTC 2014


Thank you for posting this!

Dave

>  Hi folks
>
> As promised a long time ago my colleague Nik Lutz has finalized the patch
> for the VM that enables socket activation with Systemd. I will quickly go
> over what the patch is supposed to achieve, how we plan to use socket
> activation and what (minimal) changes are necessary.
>
>
> Systemd Socket Activation:
> Systemd opens a (network-) socket and waits for connections. When the
> first client connects the assotiated service (VM) is started. Systemd
> indicates via environment variable (LISTEN_FDS) that it opened a network
> socket.
>
> Detailed documentation on socket activation with Systemd can be found
> here: http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activation.html
>
>
> Our scenario for socket activation:
> At Cmsbox we have hundereds of images running on a server, all of which
> listen on a dedicated network port for incoming connections. The server is
> powerful enough to run all these processes concurrently, especially since
> not every image receives requests all the time.
> With socket activation we could further lower the server load and free up
> resources for images with a high request rate. Images that don’t receive
> any requests for a specified amount of time can be suspended automatically
> and reactivated when a request comes in.
>
>
>
> The VM Patch:
> The attached patch tries hard to be minimal. It defines a new socket type
> (ProvidedTCPSocketType) which you will also find in the image
> (Socket>>newSystemd). ProvidedTCPSocketType is special in that it can
> refer to an existing TCPSocket and does not necessarily entail the
> creation of a new socket.
>
>
> The changes in the image:
> - Socket>>newSystemd tries to open a new Systemd socket.
> - TCPListener>>haveSystemdAssignedPort tests if the LISTEN_FDS environment
> variable has been set by Systemd for the current process.
> - TCPListener>>primEnvironmentAtSymbol is a utility method that we need to
> check for the environment variable (IMPORTANT: copied from OSProcess; uses
> the OSProcess plugin)
> - TCPListener>>pvtNewListener: has been modified to include the check for
> the Systemd port. If the socket has been assigned by Systemd, use a
> Systemd socket, a TCP socket otherwise
>
> Quick Howto:
> - Adapt path to vm and image in pharo at .service
> - Take a Seaside image and FileIn systemd.cs (tested with
> http://seaside.st/distributions/Seaside-2.8.4.zip)
> - Save as 9999.image
> - Copy pharo at .service and pharo at .socket to /etc/systemd/system
> - As root run:
>  systemctl daemon-reload
>  systemctl start pharo at 9999.socket
> - Open http://localhost:9999/seaside/config
>
> [- systemctl stop pharo at 9999.socket]
>
> -> Upon connection pharo at 9999.socket starts: pharo at 9999.service (which
> would start .../9999.image)
>
> You can see this in action in the following screencast:
> http://youtu.be/MVPLZNKg5j8
>
>
> We hope that this patch (or some version of it) will find its way into the
> VM. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Max (on behalf of Nik and the rest of Netstyle.ch)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>




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