LFNW 2014: Modeling and Monitoring Hundreds of Thousands of Servers

Presented at LinuxFest NorthWest on 26 April 2014. An overview of the Assimilation Project - which helps you manage risk, improve your IT visibility, awareness, agility and operational reflexes through highly scalable discovery-driven IT automation software which maintains a detailed configuration management database (CMDB). This database drives automation for monitoring, security and auditing tasks.

Transcript

1. L F N W 2 0 1 4 Modeling and Monitoring Hundreds of Thousands of Servers using The Assimilation Project #AssimProj @OSSAlanR http://assimproj.org/ Alan Robertson <alanr@unix.sh> Assimilation Systems Limited http://assimilationsystems.com © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited
2. LFNW 26 April 2014 2/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Highly Scalable Discovery-Driven Automation Continuous Discovery integrated with extreme-scale Monitoring • Continuous extensible discovery – systems, switches, services, dependencies – zero network footprint discovery process • Extensible exception monitoring – more than 100K systems • All data goes into central graph CMDB
3. LFNW 26 April 2014 3/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Assimilation Project History • Inspired by 2 million core computer (cyclops64) • Concerns for extreme scale • Topology aware monitoring • Topology discovery w/out security issues =►Discovery of everything!
4. LFNW 26 April 2014 4/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited
5. LFNW 26 April 2014 5/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited An 8-dimensional overview • Problems Addressed • Unique Capabilities • Distribution of Work • Architectural Components • Discovery Graph Schema • Extensible Discovery API • Current Status • Project Needs
6. LFNW 26 April 2014 6/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited First Dimension: Problems Addressed 1. Risk Management at extreme scale 2. Maintaining detailed discovery database 3. Discovering systems you've forgotten 4. Discovering vulnerable and licensed software you're running – and where 5. Monitoring services, systems & switches 6. Finding services you aren't monitoring
7. LFNW 26 April 2014 7/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Risk Management/Mitigation • Intrusions • Vulnerable Software • Licensed Software • Audit Risk • Outages • System management
8. LFNW 26 April 2014 8/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Why Discovery? (DevOps) • Documentation: incomplete, incorrect • Dependencies: unknown • Planning: Needs accurate data • Best Practices: Verification needs data • ITIL CMDB (Configuration Management Data Base) Our Discovery: continuous, low-profile
9. LFNW 26 April 2014 9/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Second Dimension: Unique Powerful Features 1. Continuous Discovery 2. Discovery: Zero network footprint 3. Centralized graph database 4. We know everything that changes 5. Discover and update dependency information 6. Discovery and monitoring tightly integrated – discovery drives automation
10. LFNW 26 April 2014 10/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited (even more) Features... 7. Discovery and monitoring easily extensible 8. Naturally scalable to > 100K systems 9. Minimal network load 10.Server failures distinguishable from switch failures 11.Multi-tenant support
11. LFNW 26 April 2014 11/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited This all sounds unreasonable... • Huge scalability without complexity? • Discovery without pings or port scans? Really?
12. LFNW 26 April 2014 12/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Third Dimension: Fully distributed work Two philosophical underpinnings 1. Monitoring and Discovery are fully distributed 2. Reliable “no news is good news” Only responses to changes are centralized
13. LFNW 26 April 2014 13/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Simple Scalability I can explain how we scale so your grandmother would understand...
14. LFNW 26 April 2014 14/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Simple Scalability I can explain how we scale so your grandmother would understand... istockphoto ©bowdenimages
15. LFNW 26 April 2014 15/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Massive Scalability – or “I see dead servers in O(1) time” • Adding systems does not increase the monitoring work on any system • Each server monitors 2 (or 4) neighbors • Each server monitors and discovers its own services • Ring repair and alerting is O(n) – but a very small amount of work Current Implementation
16. LFNW 26 April 2014 16/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Minimizing Network Footprint (planned) • Support diagnosing switch issues • Minimize network traffic • Ideal for multi-site arrangements
17. LFNW 26 April 2014 17/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Fourth Dimension: Architectural Components Three Architectural Components 1. Collective Management Authority • One CMA per installation 2. Nanoprobes (agents) • One per system 3. Data Storage • Central Neo4j graph database (CMDB)
18. LFNW 26 April 2014 18/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Basic CMA Functions (python) Nanoprobe management • Configure & direct • Hear alerts & discovery • Update rings: join/leave Update database Issue alerts -- provide event notification
19. LFNW 26 April 2014 19/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Nanoprobe Functions ('C') Announce self to CMA • Default: use reserved multicast address Do what CMA says • receive configuration information – CMA addresses, ports, defaults • send/expect heartbeats • perform discovery actions • perform monitoring actions No persistent state across reboots
20. LFNW 26 April 2014 20/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Service Monitoring based on HA Technologies • Well-proven architecture: – “no news is good news” AKA management by exception • Implements Open Cluster Framework standard (LSB and others) • Each system monitors own services • Can also start, stop, migrate services
21. LFNW 26 April 2014 21/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Monitoring Pros and Cons Pros Simple & Scalable Uniform work distribution No single point of failure Distinguishes switch vs host failure Easy on LAN, WAN Multi-tenant approach Cons Active agents Potential slowness at power-on
22. LFNW 26 April 2014 22/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Why a graph database? (Neo4j) • Humans describe systems as graphs • Dependency & Discovery information: graph • Speed of graph traversals depends on size of subgraph, not total graph size • Root cause queries  graph traversals – notoriously slow in relational databases • Visualization is Natural • Schema-less design: good for constantly changing heterogeneous environment • Graph Model === Object Model
23. LFNW 26 April 2014 23/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited A multi-dimensional demo • Demonstrate basic capabilities – Discovery – Discovery-driven monitoring configuration – Discovery-driven 'tripwire-like' checksums – Monitoring – failures / successes – Host down notification • No configuration was supplied – everything comes from discovery http://assimilationsystems.com/90_second_demo/
24. LFNW 26 April 2014 24/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Fifth Dimension: Discovery API Scripts perform discovery – output JSON Three Sample Discovery Snippets • OS information • Service discovery • Client discovery
25. LFNW 26 April 2014 25/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited How does discovery work? Nanoprobe scripts perform discovery • Each discovers one kind of information • Can take arguments from environment • Output JSON CMA stores Discovery Information • JSON stored in Neo4j database • CMA discovery plugins => graph nodes and relationships
26. LFNW 26 April 2014 26/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited A Few Canned Queries allipports get all port/ip/service/hosts allswitchports get switch connections crashed get crashed servers shutdown get gracefully shutdown servers downservices get nonworking services findip get system owning IP findmac get system owning MAC unknownips get unknown IP addresses unmonitored get unmonitored services
27. LFNW 26 April 2014 27/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited OS discovery JSON Snippet { "nodename": "alanr-1225B", "operating-system": "GNU/Linux", "machine": "x86_64", "processor": "x86_64", "hardware-platform": "x86_64", "kernel-name": "Linux", "kernel-release": "3.8.0-31-generic", "kernel-version": "#46-Ubuntu SMP ...", "Distributor ID": "Ubuntu", "Description": "Ubuntu 13.04", "Release": "13.04", "Codename": "raring" }
28. LFNW 26 April 2014 28/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited "sshd": { "exe": "/usr/sbin/sshd", "cmdline": [ "/usr/sbin/sshd", "-D" ], "uid": "root", "gid": "root", "cwd": "/", "listenaddrs": { "0.0.0.0:22": { "proto": "tcp", "addr": "0.0.0.0", "port": 22 }, sshd Service JSON Snippet (from netstat and /proc)
29. LFNW 26 April 2014 29/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited "ssh": { "exe": "/usr/sbin/ssh", "cmdline": [ "ssh", "servidor" ], "uid": "alanr", "gid": "alanr", "cwd": "/home/alanr/monitor/src", "clientaddrs": { "10.10.10.5:22": { "proto": "tcp", "addr": "10.10.10.5", "port": 22 }, ssh Client JSON Snippet (from netstat and /proc)
30. LFNW 26 April 2014 30/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Sixth Dimension: Graph Schema Two Schema subgraphs • Client / server dependency • Switch interconnect
31. LFNW 26 April 2014 31/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited ssh -> sshd dependency graph
32. LFNW 26 April 2014 32/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Switch Discovery Data from LLDP (or CDP)
33. LFNW 26 April 2014 33/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Seventh Dimension: Current Status • Fourth release due April 30 2014 • Great unit tests • Several discovery methods written • Extensible Automated Discovery Triggers • Discovery => Automatic Monitoring (WOOT!) • Discovery => Network-Facing Checksums • Command Line Queries • Licenses: Commercial or GPLv3
34. LFNW 26 April 2014 34/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Eighth Dimension: Get Involved! We need you! • Early adopters • Testers, Continuous Integration • Designers • Developers (C,Python, Shell, PowerShell, JavaScript) • Porters (esp Windows) • Promoters, Publicists, Packagers, etc.
35. LFNW 26 April 2014 35/38 L F N W 2 0 1 4 © 2014 Assimilation Systems Limited Resistance Is Futile! These slides bit.ly/AssimLFNW14 Mailing List bit.ly/AssimML #AssimProj @OSSAlanR #assimilation on freenode IRC Project Web Site assimproj.org Company Web Site assimilationsystems.com