HA Cluster Configuration

A TigerGraph system with High Availability (HA) is a cluster of server machines which uses replication to provide continuous service when one or more servers are not available or when some service components fail. TigerGraph HA service provides loading balancing when all components are operational, as well as automatic failover in the event of a service disruption. One TigerGraph server consists of several components (e.g., GSE, GPE, RESTPP). The default HA configuration has a replication factor of 2, meaning that a fully-functioning system maintains two copies of the data, stored on separate machines. In advanced HA setup, users can set a higher replication factor.

System Requirements

An HA cluster needs at least 3 server machines . Machines can be physical or virtual. This is true even the system only has one graph partition.
For a distributed system with N partitions (where N > 1), the system must have at least 2N machines.
The same version of the TigerGraph software package is installed on each machine.

Limitations

HA configuration should be done immediately after system installation and before deploying the system for database use.
To convert a non-HA system to an HA system, the current version of TigerGraph requires that all the data and metadata be cleared, and all TigerGraph services be stopped. This limitation will be removed in a future release.

Workflow

Starting from version 2.1, configuring a HA cluster is integrated into platform installation, please check the document TigerGraph Platform Installation Guide for detail.

(A) Install TigerGraph

Follow the instructions in the document TigerGraph Platform Installation Guide to install the TigerGraph system in your cluster.

In the instructions below, all the commands need to be run as the tigergraph OS user, on the machine designated "m1" during the cluster installation.

(B) Stop the TigerGraph Service

Be sure you are logged in as the tigergraph OS user on machine "m1". Before setting up HA or changing HA configuration, the current TigerGraph system must be fully stopped. If the system has any graph data, clear out the data (e.g., with "gsql DROP ALL").

Stopping all TigerGraph services

gadmin stop ts3 -fy
gadmin stop all -fy
gadmin stop admin -fy

(C) Enable HA

After the cluster installation, create an HA configuration using the following command:

gadmin --enable ha

This command will automatically generate a configuration for a distributed (partitioned) database with an HA system replication factor of 2. Some individual components may have a higher replication factor .

Sample output:

Successful HA configuration

tigergraph@m1$ gadmin --enable ha
[FAB    ][m3,m2] mkdir -p ~/.gium
[FAB    ][m3,m2] scp -r -P 22 ~/.gium ~/
[FAB    ][m3,m2] mkdir -p ~/.gsql
[FAB    ][m3,m2] scp -r -P 22 ~/.gsql ~/
[FAB    ][m3,m2] mkdir -p ~/.venv
[FAB    ][m3,m2] scp -r -P 22 ~/.venv ~/
[FAB    ][m3,m2] cd ~/.gium; ./add_to_path.sh
[RUN    ] /home/tigergraph/.gsql/gpe_auto_start_add2cron.sh
[FAB    ][m3,m2] mkdir -p /home/tigergraph/.gsql/
[FAB    ][m3,m2] scp -r -P 22 /home/tigergraph/.gsql/all_log_cleanup /home/tigergraph/.gsql/
[FAB    ][m3,m2] mkdir -p /home/tigergraph/.gsql/
[FAB    ][m3,m2] scp -r -P 22 /home/tigergraph/.gsql/all_log_cleanup_add2cron.sh /home/tigergraph/.gsql/
[FAB    ][m1,m3,m2] /home/tigergraph/.gsql/all_log_cleanup_add2cron.sh
[FAB    ][m1,m3,m2] rm -rf /home/tigergraph/tigergraph_coredump
[FAB    ][m1,m3,m2] mkdir -p /home/tigergraph/tigergraph/logs/coredump
[FAB    ][m1,m3,m2] ln -s /home/tigergraph/tigergraph/logs/coredump /home/tigergraph/tigergraph_coredump

If the HA configuration fails, e.g, if the cluster doesn’t satisfy the HA requirements, then the command will stop running with a warning.

HA configuration failure

tigergraph@m1$ gadmin --enable ha
Detect config change. Please run 'gadmin config-apply' to apply.
ERROR:root: To enable HA configuration, you need at least 3 machines.
Enable HA configuration failed.

(D) [Optional] Configure Advanced HA

In this optional additional step, advanced users can run several "gadmin --set" commands to control the replication factor and manually specify the host machine for each TigerGraph component. The table below shows the recommended settings for each component. See the later example section for different configuration cases.

Component

Configuration Key

Suggested Number of Hosts

Suggested Number of Replicas

ZooKeeper

zk.servers

3 or 5

Dictionary Server

dictserver.servers

3 or 5

Kafka

kafka.servers

same as GPE

kafka.num.replicas

2 or 3

GSE

gse.servers

every host

gse.replicas

GPE

gpe.servers

every host

gpe.replicas

REST

restpp.servers

every host

Example: There is a 3-machine cluster m1, m2 and m3. Kafka, GPE, GSE and RESTPP are all on m1 and m2, with replication factor 2. This is a non-distributed graph HA setup.

Example: 3-machine non-distributed HA cluster

gadmin --set zk.servers m1,m2,m3
gadmin --set dictserver.servers m1,m2,m3
gadmin --set dictserver.base_ports 17797,17797,17797
gadmin --set kafka.servers m1,m2
gadmin --set kafka.num.replicas 2
gadmin --set gse.replicas 2
gadmin --set gpe.replicas 2
gadmin --set gse.servers m1,m2
gadmin --set gpe.servers m1,m2
gadmin --set restpp.servers m1,m2

(E) Install Package

Once the HA configuration is done, proceed to install the package from the first machine (named “m1” in the cluster installation configuration).

gadmin pkg-install reset -fy

Examples

The table below shows how to setup for the common setups. Note if convert the system from another configuration, must stop the old TigerGraph system first.

System Goal

Cluster Configuration (number of servers in cluster is X)

How to A,B,C, etc. refer to the Steps in the section above.

Non-distributed graph with HA

Each server machine holds the complete graph.

For both initial installation and reconfiguration, (A) → B → C → D → E. While in D, set all replicas to X , e.g, gpe.replicas = X gse.replicas = X restpp.replicas = X ...
Note: (A) means A is needed only in initial installation

Distributed graph without HA

Graph is partitioned among all the cluster servers.

Note: no HA is equivalent to replication factor 1
For initial installation, skip B, C, D and E.
For reconfiguration, B → C → D → E. While in D, set all replicas to 1, e.g., gpe.replicas = 1 gse.replicas = 1 restpp.replicas = 1
...

Distributed graph with HA

Graph is partitioned with replica factor N. Number of partitions Y equals X/N.

For both initial installation and reconfiguration, (A) → B → C → D → E. While in D, set all replicas to N , e.g., gpe.replicas = N gse.replicas = N ...
Note: (A) means A is needed only in initial installation

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