Enabling load balancing¶

To enable Plixer Replicator integration in the default configuration, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Admin > Plixer > Plixer Replicator (or Admin > Settings > Plixer Replicator in the Classic UI) and tick the Enable checkbox.

  2. Fill in the form with the following details for the Plixer Replicator deployment:

    • admin account password

    • Port used for inbound flows

    • Hostname

    • Name for the seed Profile

    • Port used to send flows to Plixer Scrutinizer

  3. Verify that the information is correct and click Save to save the settings.

  4. Start an SSH session with main Plixer Scrutinizer server as the plixer user and run the following command:

    scrut_util --autoreplicate

  5. Edit the file /home/plixer/scrutinizer/files/autoreplicate.conf as described here.

  6. Log into Plixer Replicator web interface and add all Exporters whose flows should be load balanced to the seed Profile.

  7. Re-run the scrut_util --autoreplicate command.

    Note

    Running scrut_util_autoreplicate the first time will create the load balancing configuration file, and re-running it will initiate Exporter flow processing.

    Hint

    To forward all incoming Exporter flows to the Plixer Scrutinizer distributed cluster, add a Policy for 0.0.0.0/0 to the seed Profile.

Once auto-replication has started, an Alarm containing the configuration details will be generated under the Plixer Scrutinizer Alarm Monitor.

Editing the auto-replication configuration file

The autoreplicate.conf file created in the /home/plixer/scrutinizer/files directory can be edited to control how Plixer Replicator autoreplicates Exporter flows across a distributed Plixer Scrutinizer cluster.

Before making changes to the file, take note of the following additional details:

  • The collector_capacities section of the file should contain an entry for each Plixer Scrutinizer server/Collector in the cluster and must be updated each time a new Collector is added. This will allow the system to automatically create and manage a Policy for each Collector.

Important

The collector_capacities variable also controls the maximum number of Exporters allowed. When that limit is exceeded, Exporters will automatically be removed.

  • The exporters variable sets the maximum number of Exporters allowed to send flows to a single Collector.

  • The flow_rate variable controls the maximum number of flows/s a Collector is allowed to receive.

  • The seed_profile refers to the Plixer Replicator Profile that should contain all Exporters sending flows to the distributed Plixer Scrutinizer cluster. Adding an Exporter to this Profile will include its flows in Plixer Replicator’s auto-replication/load balancing operations.