Orleans Remote Deployment

Table of Contents

Overview: 1

Prerequisites. 2

Deployment Steps. 2

Orleans Deployment Manifest 3

Orleans Silo Configuration. 4

Gateway Load Shedding. 5

Orleans Powershell Scripts. 6

Deploying Orleans using Powershell Script 6

Confirming Orleans Status. 7

Monitoring Orleans. 7

Gathering Orleans Log Files. 8

Removing Orleans. 8

Overview:

Orleans based services are xcopy deployable. All you need to do to deploy an Orleans based service to a set of machines is copy the following set of file to the target machines and start the OrleansHost.exe host process:

· Content of [SDK-Root]\Binaries\OrleansServer folder
· OrleansConfiguration.xml file with configuration for the deployment to replace the default placeholder from [SDK-Root]\Binaries\OrleansServer
· Binaries with grain interfaces and grain implementation classes of the service along with any external dependencies to Application\<service name> subdirectory of the folder on the target with binaries from [SDK-Root]\Binaries\OrleansServer

This simple task may be accomplished in many different ways and with different tools, such as Autopilot. The SDK includes a set of PowerShell scripts that provide a way to deploy an Orleans based service to a cluster of machines and remote start the hosting processes on them. There are also scripts for un-deploying a service, monitoring its performance, start and stop it, and collect logs. These are the scripts we found useful for ourselves while building and testing Orleans.

Prerequisites

The following table lists the prerequisites for deploying and running Orleans on a remote machine:

Prerequisite	Details
.Net Framework 4.0	Orleans runs under the .Net Framework 4.0, which can be installed from this link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992&displaylang=en
Powershell 2.0 with WinRM	Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 should have these installed by default. For other versions of windows, select the appropriate download from this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968929 To confirm you are running the required version of PowerShell, start a PowerShell window and type Get-Host – the resulting output needs to say “Version: 2.0”
WinRM Configuration	Both the source and target machines must be configured for remote operations: Open a PowerShell window as an Administrator and run the command below on the target machine (enter ‘y’ at the prompts): winrm quickconfig
Increase PowerShell job memory	Set the memory limit on remotely invoked jobs to 4Gb: Set-Item wsman:localhost\Shell\MaxMemoryPerShellMB 4096 To change it on a remote machine, use the following steps: · Connect-WSMan -ComputerName <string> · Set-Item wsman:<computerName>\Shell\MaxMemoryPerShellMB · Disconnect-WSMan –ComputerName <string>
PowerShell Execution Policy set to run remote scripts	Open a PowerShell window as an Administrator and run the command below on the target machine(enter ‘y’ at the prompt): Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned This will set the machine to require signing for remote scripts only.

Deployment Steps

Note that the user running the scripts
must be a member of the Administrators Group on the remote machines.

The basic steps are as follows:

1.
Setup a deployment manifest
(Deployment.xml).

2.
Adjust the Orleans
Configuration (OrleansConfiguration.xml) to suit the environment.

3.
Run the PowerShell deployment
scripts to deploy Orleans into your remote environment.

Orleans Deployment Manifest

The Orleans Deployment scripts use a
manifest (XML) file to specify details of the deployment, including source and
destination locations and local or remote machines to be deployed to.

By making small changes to an existing
deployment manifest xml file (typically by listing the different host
machines), the same PowerShell scripts can deploy and run that Orleans system
on a set of remote machines with equal ease as deploying and running that
system on the local machine.

The default file name for the manifest
is Deployment.xml, and if you just modify this file, it will not be necessary
to specify a different name. There are
times, such as during testing, it may be advantageous to maintain multiple
deployment files that specify a different set of silos. These other files may be specified explicitly
to the deployment tools as specified in the respective sections below.

A Deployment manifest contains many
different items, which collectively allow deployment of the Orleans runtime and
applications onto a variety of local and remote configurations:

·
Source location for the Orleans system runtime

o Located in the “Path” attribute of the <Deployment><Packages><Package>
element where the “Type” attribute is set to “System”.

o Typically: [ORLEANS-SDK]\Binaries\OrleansServer.

o
Example: <Package Name="Orleans Runtime"
Type="System" Path="." />

·
Source location for any
additional Orleans applications / grains
to be included in this Orleans system

o
Also located in the
<Deployment><Packages><Package> nodes.

o
The “Type” attribute must be set to “Application”.

o
Use the “Filter” attribute to
constrain the files deployed

o
<Package
Name="Chirper" Type="Application"
Path="..\Binaries\Applications\Chirper" />

·
Source location for the server configuration file to be used by
the Orleans host process

o
Located in the “Path” attribute
<Deployment><RuntimeConfiguration> element.

o
The file name must be OrleansConfiguration.xml – if necessary,
just change the path.

o
Example: <RuntimeConfiguration
Path=".\OrleansConfiguration.xml" />

·
Target location to install the Orleans
server-side binaries on each machine.

Typically: C:\Orleans (for test or production nodes) or [ORLEANS-SDK]\LocalSilo (for the local development silo).

o
Located in the <Deployment><TargetLocation>
element.

o
Must be an absolute path (i.e. no “..”
locations).

o
Example: <TargetLocation
Path="C:\Orleans" />

·
The set of silos (host machines and optional silo names) this Orleans system
should to be deployed to.

o Located in the <Deployment><Nodes><Node> elements.

o Typically: Primary on localhost, or multiple machines with one silo each.

o The “HostName” attribute specifies the machine name.

o The “NodeName” attribute specifies the name of the silo. Generally, this is arbitrary, with the
exception that if multiple silos will run
on any one machine, then silo names must be unique.

o   Example:

<Nodes>

    <Node
HostName="MACHINE1" NodeName="Primary" />

    <Node
HostName="MACHINE2" NodeName="Node2" />

    <Node
HostName="MACHINE3" NodeName="Node3" />

<Nodes />

·
Deployment Group ID – this is a GUID
which distinguishes one Orleans runtime system from another, even if both
Orleans systems are running on the same machines.

o
Located in the
<Deployment> element.

o
Example:

<Deployment

   Name="Deployment1"

  DeploymentGroup="F219832A-1EE1-45DA-B35D-0BB3060C9FDA"

  xmlns="urn:xcg-deployment">

Orleans Silo Configuration

Refer to the configuration guide - Orleans-Configuration.docx
- for information on how to configure silos.

Orleans Powershell Scripts

The following sections detail the
PowerShell scripts provided with Orleans to aid with deployment and monitoring.
(Use the /? option to get the latest usage info directly from the scripts.)

Script Name	Parameters	Description
DeployOrleansSilos.ps1	[$deploymentConfigFile]	Copies the Orleans files to machines specified in the deploymentConfigFile (default is Deployment.xml).
UndeployOrleansSilos.ps1	[$deploymentConfigFile]	Stops and removes Orleans from the deployment servers deploymentConfigFile (default is Deployment.xml).
MonitorOrleansSilos.ps1	[$deploymentConfigFile] [$networkInstance] [$samplesToLog] [$headerInterval] [$repeatHeaderInFile	Monitors CPU, Memory, Network Send, and Network Receive performance counters, and logs the data to files both as an aggregate of all data, and in separate files for each server. See usage text for details about the parameters.
ShowOrleansSilos.ps1	[$deploymentConfigFile]	Does a quick survey of the deployment silos and reports if Orleans is running on them.
GatherOrleansSiloLogs.ps1	[$deploymentConfigFile] [$outputPath]	Retrieve all log files from deployment silos and stores them in the specified output folder.
UtilityFunctions.ps1	none	Provides ancillary functionality to the other scripts.

Deploying Orleans using Powershell
Script

Start a separate
PowerShell command window as an administrator.

Execute the DeployOrleansSilos.ps1script, providing the location of the deployment configuration file
(deployment.xml is the default and will be used if you don’t supply a value).

Examples: .\DeployOrleansSilos.ps1

.\DeployOrleansSilos.ps1
C:\Orleans\MyDeploy.xml

The deployment
will execute the following steps:

1.
Stop any running instances of Orleans that are running on the
deployment machines.

2.
Copy the Orleans files and any application files that are listed in
the deployment manifest.

3.
When the copy is completed, start the silos. This will pause after starting the first silo
so that it is available for the other silos to register with.

4.
Pause to allow the start-up to complete.

5.
Report the progress of the deployment.

When the deployment is complete, Orleans
is ready for clients to connect to it.

Confirming Orleans Status

To determine if Orleans is running on
the servers in the deployment manifest, run the ShowOrleansSilos.ps1 script.

If you have used a deployment manifest
file named something other than the default, specify it on the command line.

Examples:
.\ShowOrleansSilos.ps1

.\ShowOrleansSilos.ps1
C:\Orleans\MyDeploy.xml

Monitoring Orleans

Once Orleans is
deployed, you can start an optional script that will monitor the Orleans
deployment using standard performance counters.
Run a dedicated PowerShell command prompt as an administrator, and
execute the .\MonitorOrleans.ps1
script to start monitor performance counters for an Orleans Deployment.

The following
parameters configure the monitoring to suit individual circumstances:

Parameter	Description	Default
DeploymentConfigFile	The deployment manifest used to install Orleans.	Deployment.xml
NetworkInstance	The name of the network for the network performance counters.	corp
SamplesToLog	The number of samples to record in the current run. Use Ctrl-C to stop the script sooner.	480 which taken in one minute intervals should continue for eight hours
HeaderInterval	The number of samples to write before repeating the header.	10
RepeatHeaderInFile	If this switch is present, the header will be repeated in the log file at the interval specified by the previous parameter.	Only include the header at the top of the file.

The script will
store the data in the following types listed below. The files will be written to a folder called PerformanceData
under the directory where the monitoring script is run from.

File Type	Description	FileNameBase
Machine Specific	Contains only the data for a single machine. If there are four machines in the deployment, then there will be four of these files.	“PerfData-“ + the machine name and the Date/Time stamp.
Combined	Contains all of the data for all machines consolidated into a single file.	“ConsolidatedPerfData-“ + the Date/Time stamp.

Gathering Orleans Log Files

To retrieve all log files from
deployment silos and store them in the specified output folder, run the GatherOrleansSiloLogs.ps1 script.

If you have used a deployment manifest
file named something other than the default, specify it on the command line.
You may also specify an output folder where the collected log files will be
stored otherwise a .\logs subdirectory will
be used by default.

Examples:
.\GatherOrleansSiloLogs.ps1

        .\GatherOrleansSiloLogs.ps1
C:\Orleans\MyDeploy.xml

        .\GatherOrleansSiloLogs.ps1
C:\Orleans\MyDeploy.xml C:\MyLogs

Removing Orleans

When it is time to remove an Orleans
deployment, use the UndeployOrleansSilos.ps1 script.