I don't have a solution or advice to contribute, but I hope I can spur along some more discussion on the issue.
We struggle with the problem of pets versus cattle also. We have a farm of pets right now. Our team is still evaluating at what level in our infrastructure our tomcat servers will live. Tomcat is its own container server, able to deploy and undeploy multiple apps all by itself. Making docker containers of tomcats which will then run multiple webapps-- would we deploy a whole container, pre-loaded with war files? That gives us the power of docker but eliminates the power of tomcat's own deployment. Do we create empty tomcat docker containers and fill them with warfiles once they are running? That gives us long-running docker containers which, from what I understand, misses the point of docker. Or do we go old school and use chef/puppet/ansible to create cattle servers in our private cloud without docker altogether. They will be long-running, but we will likely pay a price at server creation time. Plus, all the cool kids are using docker these days. So were stuck in this limbo, having to make a serious design choice. > On Oct 12, 2015, at 7:07 AM, Christoph Nenning > <christoph.nenn...@lex-com.net> wrote: > > Christopher, > >>>> Hi list, >>>> >>>> I just signed up to the list - please forgive any newb mistakes >>>> but hopefully I'm following the right format, style and content. >>>> >>>> I currently work in a production environment with eight app >>>> servers, all running the same version of Tomcat (currently >>>> 7.0.62). Four servers support version 1 of our app, the other >>>> four servers support version 2. Within each group of four, two >>>> serve completely open content via 80, the other two support >>>> queries of sensitive data via 443. Servers are named with a >>>> number system where all odd-named servers are for the secure >>>> content, all evens are open. >>>> >>>> So here's the setup in a hopefully clearer portrayal: >>>> >>>> App Version 1: Server 01: secure queries via 443 Server 02: open >>>> content via 80 Server 03: secure queries via 443 Server 04: open >>>> content via 80 >>>> >>>> App Version 2: Server 05: secure queries via 443 Server 06: open >>>> content via 80 Server 07: secure queries via 443 Server 08: open >>>> content via 80 >>>> >>>> Each pair of even and odd named servers are *conceptually* >>>> linked, but physically stand on their own. All http traffic and >>>> https traffic for each version is directed to a particular server >>>> by a load balancer. No Apache Web Server is in the mix and we >>>> would like to keep it that way for simplicity. Load-wise, our >>>> eight Tomcats are not taxed. >>>> >>>> I'm responsible for upkeep of these servers, which requires >>>> regular version upgrades and configuration changes when any >>>> vulnerability is found by regular, periodic Nessus scans >>>> (http://www.tenable.com/ products/nessus-vulnerability-scanner). >>>> Sometimes the changes are related to ciphers, sometimes other >>>> things, but I'd say 90% of the time, I just need to upgrade to a >>>> newer version. >>>> >>>> So no big deal conceptually, I fully admit, but doing this across >>>> eight servers is TEDIOUS. And more importantly, it's a ripe >>>> opportunity for introducing user error. On three occasions I >>>> have brought our production systems by stupid mistakes in >>>> server.xml or other config files, or most recently, accidentally >>>> copying the wrong ROOT from a version 2 (05) box into the version >>>> one boxes (01 and 03). I got things up and running fine with no >>>> serious consequences but this being the third time, I thought >>>> "there has to be a better way" right after I talked myself off >>>> the "you're a complete idiot" >>> ledge. >>>> >>>> I'm starting to research Tomcat clustering but everything I see >>>> just talks about load balancing and failover. **What about ease >>>> of configuration??** I'd like to be able to set up Tomcat >>>> <something> (clusters?) to help automate what I've described >>>> above to make it less tedious and reduce the chances of making >>>> stupid mistakes when I'm on the 6th, 7th, 8th server. I'm not >>>> sure if Tomcat clustering is what I need, or if I should look at >>>> something else. >>>> >>>> Can you nice folks help direct me to where I should look for >>>> starters? Will Tomcat clustering get me what I want? or >>>> something else, like Zookeeper? >>>> >>>> Thanks, Mark Bramer >>> >>> >>> We do somthing similar by utilizing docker containers. >>> >>> At first we create a base-image consisting of: - minified linux >>> distro - jvm - tomcat >>> >>> Then we have application images based on that which add: - app >>> specific tomcat config - the app itself >>> >>> These images can be run as multiple instances and thus becoming >>> containers. >>> >>> When we update tomcat it is done in the base-image and all >>> app-images are rebuilt and containers restarted. So it is just one >>> place where the change has to be done. >>> >>> On config updates the according app-image is changed, rebuilt and >>> restarted. >> >> I would love to invite you to ApacheCon and have you give a >> presentation on how you do this because it's something I've been >> wanting to do for a while, now. > > Happy to hear that :) > > > >> Would your employer send you to ApacheCon? > > Looks bad. ApacheCon Europe *might* be possible. > > > Regards, > Christoph > > This Email was scanned by Sophos Anti Virus --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@tomcat.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@tomcat.apache.org
