[[TracNav]]

This page explains some of the basic Quattor commands needed to configure a client node. Command examples generally assume that you are logged on to the node as root (or have equivalent access using sudo).

= Fetching profiles =
Quattor configuration information is stored in configuration profiles, which are XML files retrieved from a server (normally over HTTP/S). Profiles are usually fetched at regular intervals from the server. If you want to manually pull down a profile on a node, use the following command:
{{{
 [root@client-node root]# ccm-fetch
}}}

If this command returns almost immediately, then the profile is up to date. If it takes a little longer, then a new profile is being fetched. To force the profile to be retrieved from the server, use the -f flag to '''ccm-fetch'''.

= Configuring a node =
Quattor configuration is performed by '''components''' which are named ncm-<component-name>. Examples are ncm-accounts which configures the user accounts on the system. Components are configured like this:
{{{
 ncm-ncd --co accounts
}}}
This will also configure any components defined as pre- or post-dependencies. For example, the package manager spma is normally defined as a pre-dependency.

== Configuring all components ==
To configure all components defined in the profile, use the `-all` flag to ncm-ncd:
{{{
 ncm-ncd --co -all
}}}

== Configuring a single component ==
To prevent pre- and post-dependencies from being configured:
{{{
  ncm-ncd --co accounts --nodeps --autodeps no
}}}

= Query configuration =
To find out what the currently-active profile contains, use the ncm-query command. You can either query by component name, or by path in the tree. Here's an example of querying the configuration of a component:
{{{
 [root@client-node root]# ncm-query --co ccm
 
 [INFO] Subtree: /software/components/ccm
 
 +-ccm
   $ active : (boolean) 'true'
   $ cache_root : (string) '/var/lib/ccm'
   $ configFile : (string) '/etc/ccm.conf'
   $ debug : (long) '0'
   +-dependencies
     +-pre
       $ 0 : (string) 'spma'
   $ dispatch : (boolean) 'true'
   $ force : (long) '0'
   $ get_timeout : (long) '30'
   $ lock_retries : (long) '3'
   $ lock_wait : (long) '30'
   $ profile : (string) 'http://gridinstall02.testgrid/profiles/mpiws/profile_lcg-rb.xml'
   $ retrieve_retries : (long) '3'
   $ retrieve_wait : (long) '30'
   $ world_readable : (long) '1'
}}}
And here's an example of querying a specific path:
{{{
 [root@client-node root]# ncm-query --dump /hardware/harddisks/hda
 
 [INFO] Subtree: /hardware/harddisks/hda
 
 +-hda
   $ capacity : (long) '40960'
   $ interface : (string) 'ide'
   $ model : (string) 'Generic IDE disk'
}}}

= Package management =

The native quattor package manager is called spma. spma reads a list
of packages from the XML profile, generates a file containing the
desired package list for the node, and then calls the native packager
(usually rpm) to bring the node state up to date.

spma is normally invoked via its controlling component:
{{{
 [root@client-node root]# ncm-ncd --co spma
 
 [INFO] NCM-NCD version 1.2.14 started by root at: Tue Feb 5 08:19:37 2008
 [INFO] executing configure on components....
 [INFO] running component: spma
 [OK] updated SPMA target configuration file in /var/lib/spma-target.cf
 running the SPMA: /usr/bin/spma --quiet
 [OK] /usr/bin/spma --quiet finished succesfully (please check spma.log)
 [INFO] configure on component spma executed, 0 errors, 0 warnings
}}}
This will (re)generate the package list (`/var/lib/spma-target.cf`) from
the profile and run spma. If this procedure fails, you can see why by
inspecting spma's log file at `/var/log/spma.log`. SPMA runs may fail
due to dependency problems as it is very difficult to check
dependencies at the time the node templates are compiled. (You may
want to look at the [https://trac.lal.in2p3.fr/LCGQWG/wiki/Development/Templates/ClientSideDepsCheck checkdeps tool])