Apache Geode CHANGELOG

Cluster Configuration Files and Troubleshooting

When you use the cluster configuration service in Geode, you can examine the generated configuration files in the cluster_config directory on the locator. gfsh saves configuration files at the cluster-level and at the individual group-level.

The following directories and configuration files are available on the locator running the cluster configuration service:

Cluster-level configuration
For configurations that apply to all members of a cluster, the locator creates a cluster subdirectory within the cluster_config directory (or in the cluster configuration directory when starting up the locator with the --cluster-config-dir=value parameter) specified. All servers receive this configuration when they are started using gfsh. This directory contains:

cluster.xml – A Geode cache.xml file containing configuration common to all members
cluster.properties – a Geode gemfire.properties file containing properties common to all members
Jar files that are intended for deployment to all members

Group-level configuration
When you specify the --groups parameter in a gfsh command, (for example, start server or create region) the locator writes the configurations for each group in a subdirectory with the same name as the group. When you start a server that specifies one or more group names, the server receives both the cluster-level configurations and the configurations from all groups specified. This subdirectory contains:

<group-name>.xml – A Geode cache.xml file containing configurations common to all members of the group
<group-name>.properties – A Geode gemfire.properties file containing properties common to all members of the group
Jar files that are intended for deployment to all members of the group

You can export a zip file that contains all artifacts of a cluster configuration. The zip file contains all of the files in the cluster_config (or otherwise specified) subdirectory of a locator. You can import this configuration to a new cluster. See Exporting and Importing Cluster Configurations.

Troubleshooting Tips

When you start a locator using gfsh, you should see the following message:
```
Cluster configuration service is up and running.
```
If you do not see this message, there may be a problem with the cluster configuration service. Use the status cluster-config-service command to check the status of the cluster configuration.
- If the command returns RUNNING, the cluster configuration is running normally.
- If the command returns WAITING, run the status locator command. The output of this command returns the cause of the WAITING status.
When using a cache.xml file for configuration, there is a specific order to the application of the configuration in these files. Geode applies the cluster-wide configuration files first. Group-level configurations follow. Last will be the configuration in a member’s own configuration files (cache.xml and gemfire.properties files).
If a server start fails with the following exception: ClusterConfigurationNotAvailableException, the cluster configuration service may not be in the RUNNING state. Because the server requests the cluster configuration from the locator, which is not available, the start server command fails.
You can determine what configurations a server received from a locator by examining the server’s log file. See Logging.
If a start server command specifies a cache.xml file that conflicts with the existing cluster configuration, the server startup may fail.

If a gfsh command fails because the cluster configuration cannot be saved, the following message displays:

Failed to persist the configuration changes due to this command, 
Revert the command to maintain consistency. Please use "status cluster-config-service" 
to determine whether Cluster configuration service is RUNNING."

There are some types of configurations that cannot be made using gfsh. See gfsh Limitations.