This plugin allows deploying a cluster of multiple Gerrit masters on the same data-center sharing the same ReviewDb and Git repositories.
Requirements for the Gerrit masters are:
This plugin is released under the same Apache 2.0 license and copyright holders as of the Gerrit Code Review project.
Refer to the build instructions in the plugin documentation.
Assuming that the Gerrit masters in the clusters are gerrit-01.mycompany.com and gerrit-02.mycompany.com, listening on the HTTP port 8080, with a shared volume mounted under /shared, see below the minimal configuration steps.
Install one Gerrit master on the first node (e.g. gerrit-01.mycompany.com) using an external ReviewDb on a DB server and the repositories location under the shared volume (e.g. /shared/git). Init the site in order to create the DB Schema and the initial repositories.
Copy all the files of the first Gerrit master onto the second node (e.g. gerrit-02.mycompany.com) so that it points to the same ReviewDb and the same repositories location.
Install the high-availability plugin into the $GERRIT_SITE/plugins directory of both the Gerrit servers.
On gerrit-01.mycompany.com, create the $GERRIT_SITE/etc/high-availability.config with the following settings:
[main] sharedDirectory = /shared [peerInfo] strategy = static [peerInfo "static"] url = http://gerrit-02.mycompany.com:8080
On gerrit-02.mycompany.com, create the $GERRIT_SITE/etc/high-availability.config with the following settings:
[main] sharedDirectory = /shared [peerInfo] strategy = static [peerInfo "static"] url = http://gerrit-01.mycompany.com:8080
For more details on the configuration settings, please refer to the high-availability configuration documentation.
It is possible to distribute the incoming traffic to both Gerrit nodes using any software that can perform load-balancing of the incoming connections.
The load-balancing of the HTTP traffic is at L7 (Application) while the SSH traffic is balanced at L4 (Transport) level.
It is the simplest and safest configuration, where only one Gerrit master at a time serves the incoming requests. In case of failure of the primary master, the traffic is forwarded to the backup.
Assuming a load-balancing implemented using HAProxy associated with the domain name gerrit.mycompany.com, exposing Gerrit cluster nodes on ports, 80 (HTTP) and 29418 (SSH), see below the minimal configuration steps
Add to the haproxy.cfg the frontend configurations associated with the HTTP and SSH services:
frontend gerrit_http
bind *:80
mode http
default_backend gerrit_http_nodes
frontend gerrit_ssh
bind *:29418
mode tcp
default_backend gerrit_ssh_nodes
Add to the haproxy.cfg the backend configurations pointing to the Gerrit cluster nodes:
backend gerrit_http_nodes
mode http
balance source
option forwardfor
default-server inter 10s fall 3 rise 2
option httpchk GET /config/server/version HTTP/1.0
http-check expect status 200
server gerrit_http_01 gerrit-01.mycompany.com:8080 check inter 10s
server gerrit_http_02 gerrit-01.mycompany.com:8080 check inter 10s backup
ackend ssh
mode tcp
option httpchk GET /config/server/version HTTP/1.0
http-check expect status 200
balance source
timeout connect 10s
timeout server 5m
server gerrit_ssh_01 gerrit-01.mycompany.com:29418 check port 8080 inter 10s fall 3 rise 2
server gerrit-ssh_02 gerrit-02.mycompany.com:29418 check port 8080 inter 10s fall 3 rise 2 backup
This is an evolution of the previous active-passive configuration, where only one Gerrit master at a time serves the HTTP write operations (PUT,POST,DELETE) while the remaining HTTP traffic is sent to both. In case of failure of one of the nodes, all the traffic is forwarded to the other node.
With regards to the SSH traffic, it cannot be safely sent to both nodes because it is associated with a stateful session that can host multiple commands of different nature.
Assuming an active-passive configuration using HAProxy, see below the changes needed to implement an active-active scenario.
Add to the haproxy.cfg the extra acl settings into the gerrit_http frontend configurations associated with the HTTP and SSH services:
frontend gerrit_http
bind *:80
mode http
acl http_writes method PUT POST DELETE PATCH
use_backend gerrit_http_nodes if http_writes
default_backend gerrit_http_nodes_balanced
Add to the haproxy.cfg a new backend for serving all read-only HTTP operations from both nodes:
backend gerrit_http_nodes_balanced
mode http
balance source
option forwardfor
default-server inter 10s fall 3 rise 2
option httpchk GET /config/server/version HTTP/1.0
http-check expect status 200
server gerrit_http_01 gerrit-01.mycompany.com:8080 check inter 10s
server gerrit_http_02 gerrit-01.mycompany.com:8080 check inter 10s
Both Gerrit masters are now part of the same cluster, accessible through the HAProxy load-balancer. Set the gerrit.canoncalWebUrl on both Gerrit masters to the domain name of HAProxy so that any location or URL generated by Gerrit would direct the traffic to the balancer and not to the instance that served the incoming call.
Example:
[gerrit] canonicalWebUrl = http://gerrit.mycompany.com
Secondly, adjust the HTTP listen configuration adding the proxy- prefix, to inform Gerrit that the traffic is getting filtered through a reverse proxy.
Example:
[httpd] listenUrl = proxy-http://*:8080/
Last adjustment is associated with the session cookies, because they would need to be bound to the domain rather than the individual node.
Example:
[auth] cookiedomain = .mycompany.com