Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-07-01 Thread Raghav
Sorry for late on this, its due to actual Production swap implementation.
Though I tested as suggested, I didnt get time to post my reply.
After doing vigorous testing by taking into consideration Steve  Jan
points, we succeded it without any problem.

This analysis is flawed. The two event numbers are from different origins
 and therefore, don't compare to each other. The combination of
 ev_origin,ev_seqno can never be higher on any node, than it is on the
 origin itself.


Yes, my analysis has flaw. Its no where related to SEQ.No...which I
analyzed and every node seq.no number is independed by itself.

To simulate this problem, Steve and I were pointing out, do the following:
 1. Create your setup as before.
 2. Stop the streaming replication (simulating the network communication
 problem)
 3. Update a row on the master and wait for the SYNC to replicate.
 4. Stop the slon processes. DO NOT let the streaming replica catch up with
 the now DEAD master. Assume the master and all its data, including WAL,
 have become unavailable.
 5. Promote DR-master and do the two store path commands.
 6. Start slon processes.
 7. Update another row on the new master.
 8. Compare table content on master and slave.
 You can detect the problem before step 5 by comparing the ev_seqno with
 ev_origin=old-master on the DR-master and slave. Whichever is higher should
 be promoted to master. In the unlikely case that it is the Slony slave, you
 will have to rebuild the DR-master from scratch, though.


Yep, I could able to detect before Step 5.

In short of our actual production swap, we stopped application(NO DML's)
and Slony. Checked DR-master(which is warm standby) is complete sync with
Master(primary). Promoted DR-master, did changes to store_path on both the
ends. Started slon on both the nodes. Sync catch-up well. We have taken
complete care of NOT happening any Step 2 or 3 though .. :)

Thanks once again.

--Raghav
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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-25 Thread Raghav


 Using streaming replication for the DR Master could present a problem.
 Since it is in the same data center the following may seem unlikely. But
 what can happen is that the DR Master is further behind in replication than
 the Slony Slave at the moment, disaster strikes and the Master becomes
 unavailable. We never know ahead what will cause the Master to go down and
 how fast it will be.


What if the death is affecting the network interface of Master first. At
 first it is just losing a few packets and some of them are packets from the
 WAL sender to the DR Master. It will take several seconds for the TCP/IP
 protocol to detect that and retransmit. Time enough for several more
 transactions to commit and Slony to replicate them. And before the DR
 Master can catch up, the motherboard finally fails with a puff of smoke.

 What will happen with your below steps in this situation is that the Slave
 has some changes, that the DR Master doesn't have. The DR Master (now
 Master) will generate new SYNC events and the first (few) will have the
 same event number as ones, that the Slave had replicated from the old
 Master. They will be ignored by the Slave. So at the end the DR Master will
 be missing some changes made to the old Master and the Slave will be
 missing other changes that had been made against the DR Master.


Great Analysis Jan... I thought all of those what you mentioned. All you
mentioned are very true.
But, Thumb rule of all the thoughts is that, Master should be on top in
Events numbering, Slave events should be always lower. For example if
Master current events are in sequence of say '500023', then slave
should be  500023. If your Slave events tops the Master Event Seq
number, then all your efforts go waste, even after promoting DR-Master as
master.

I sticked to this rule only as Steve mentioned. I tried to maintain my
DR-Master (Streaming Replication) to be topper in Events and did not allow
Slave to cross master event number.

Simple test case would be, create master/slave/dr_master on one port with
the rule I mentioned above.

1. Setup replication with two databases master/slave with one table
replication and maintain SYNC.
2. Now Stop Slon on master  slave.
3. Here, assume we are promoting DR-master as Master. So,create new
database as dr-master with template=master on same port, bcoz, its going to
be the same as Master with Events when you stopped Slony in Step 2.

4. Now change the sl_path with store path() function on DR-Master  Slave.
Since, now DR-master would be the provider.

dr_master=# select _myrep.storepath(1,2,'host=127.0.0.1 dbname=dr_master
user=postgres port=5432',10);
 storepath

 500021
(1 row)

On Slave

slave1=# select _myrep.storepath(1,2,'host=127.0.0.1 dbname=dr_master
user=postgres port=5432',10);
 storepath

 500012
(1 row)

See above, my Dr-Master events number is greater than slave.

5. Now start slon process for dr-master/slave and you should see syncs.

-bash-4.1$ psql -d dr_master -c select max(ev_seqno) from _myrep.sl_event;
max

 500025
(1 row)

-bash-4.1$ psql -d slave1 -c select max(ev_seqno) from _myrep.sl_event;
max

 500023
(1 row)

Here onwards any DML's work smoothly.

--Raghav
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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-25 Thread Jan Wieck
On 6/25/2012 3:36 AM, Raghav wrote:

 Using streaming replication for the DR Master could present a
 problem. Since it is in the same data center the following may seem
 unlikely. But what can happen is that the DR Master is further
 behind in replication than the Slony Slave at the moment, disaster
 strikes and the Master becomes unavailable. We never know ahead what
 will cause the Master to go down and how fast it will be.

 What if the death is affecting the network interface of Master
 first. At first it is just losing a few packets and some of them are
 packets from the WAL sender to the DR Master. It will take several
 seconds for the TCP/IP protocol to detect that and retransmit. Time
 enough for several more transactions to commit and Slony to
 replicate them. And before the DR Master can catch up, the
 motherboard finally fails with a puff of smoke.

 What will happen with your below steps in this situation is that the
 Slave has some changes, that the DR Master doesn't have. The DR
 Master (now Master) will generate new SYNC events and the first
 (few) will have the same event number as ones, that the Slave had
 replicated from the old Master. They will be ignored by the Slave.
 So at the end the DR Master will be missing some changes made to the
 old Master and the Slave will be missing other changes that had been
 made against the DR Master.


 Great Analysis Jan... I thought all of those what you mentioned. All you
 mentioned are very true.
 But, Thumb rule of all the thoughts is that, Master should be on top in
 Events numbering, Slave events should be always lower. For example if
 Master current events are in sequence of say '500023', then slave
 should be  500023. If your Slave events tops the Master Event Seq
 number, then all your efforts go waste, even after promoting DR-Master
 as master.

 I sticked to this rule only as Steve mentioned. I tried to maintain my
 DR-Master (Streaming Replication) to be topper in Events and did not
 allow Slave to cross master event number.

 Simple test case would be, create master/slave/dr_master on one port
 with the rule I mentioned above.

 1. Setup replication with two databases master/slave with one table
 replication and maintain SYNC.
 2. Now Stop Slon on master  slave.
 3. Here, assume we are promoting DR-master as Master. So,create new
 database as dr-master with template=master on same port, bcoz, its going
 to be the same as Master with Events when you stopped Slony in Step 2.

 4. Now change the sl_path with store path() function on DR-Master 
 Slave. Since, now DR-master would be the provider.

 dr_master=# select _myrep.storepath(1,2,'host=127.0.0.1 dbname=dr_master
 user=postgres port=5432',10);
   storepath
 
   500021
 (1 row)

 On Slave

 slave1=# select _myrep.storepath(1,2,'host=127.0.0.1 dbname=dr_master
 user=postgres port=5432',10);
   storepath
 
   500012
 (1 row)

 See above, my Dr-Master events number is greater than slave.

This analysis is flawed. The two event numbers are from different 
origins and therefore, don't compare to each other. The combination of 
ev_origin,ev_seqno can never be higher on any node, than it is on the 
origin itself.

Your disaster recovery plan assumes, that streaming replication will 
ALLWAYS be faster than Slony replication. But that is only true for 
synchronous streaming replication. If you use asynchronous streaming 
replication, then one tiny network glitch and your DR-master will be 
several seconds behind while the Slony replica may be not. If the master 
blows up in that moment, your plan fails.

To simulate this problem, Steve and I were pointing out, do the following:

1. Create your setup as before.
2. Stop the streaming replication (simulating the network communication 
problem)
3. Update a row on the master and wait for the SYNC to replicate.
4. Stop the slon processes. DO NOT let the streaming replica catch up 
with the now DEAD master. Assume the master and all its data, including 
WAL, have become unavailable.
5. Promote DR-master and do the two store path commands.
6. Start slon processes.
7. Update another row on the new master.
8. Compare table content on master and slave.

You can detect the problem before step 5 by comparing the ev_seqno with 
ev_origin=old-master on the DR-master and slave. Whichever is higher 
should be promoted to master. In the unlikely case that it is the Slony 
slave, you will have to rebuild the DR-master from scratch, though.


Jan

-- 
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liberty nor security. -- Benjamin Franklin


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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-25 Thread Raghav

 This analysis is flawed. The two event numbers are from different origins
 and therefore, don't compare to each other. The combination of
 ev_origin,ev_seqno can never be higher on any node, than it is on the
 origin itself.

 Thanks Jan. For correcting me, let me recheck thoroughly from my side why
I concluded on the seqno.


 Your disaster recovery plan assumes, that streaming replication will
 ALLWAYS be faster than Slony replication. But that is only true for
 synchronous streaming replication. If you use asynchronous streaming
 replication, then one tiny network glitch and your DR-master will be
 several seconds behind while the Slony replica may be not. If the master
 blows up in that moment, your plan fails.

 Yes, very much true and completely agreed. Aim is to not to have any lag
between Master  DR-Master.
As you said, in any case if Master  DR-Master are not in Sync due to
network or any lag then my whole plan collapses. So, I made my goal clear
here, that I need to STOP slony between Master  Slave long before
promoting DR-master as Master, to make sure nothing is left on Master to
update on DR-master.


 To simulate this problem, Steve and I were pointing out, do the following:

 1. Create your setup as before.
 2. Stop the streaming replication (simulating the network communication
 problem)
 3. Update a row on the master and wait for the SYNC to replicate.
 4. Stop the slon processes. DO NOT let the streaming replica catch up with
 the now DEAD master. Assume the master and all its data, including WAL,
 have become unavailable.
 5. Promote DR-master and do the two store path commands.
 6. Start slon processes.
 7. Update another row on the new master.
 8. Compare table content on master and slave.

 You can detect the problem before step 5 by comparing the ev_seqno with
 ev_origin=old-master on the DR-master and slave. Whichever is higher should
 be promoted to master. In the unlikely case that it is the Slony slave, you
 will have to rebuild the DR-master from scratch, though.


Exactly, these are the steps I followed and succeded, as pointed I never
simulated Step 2,3 in my testing, because If MASTER and newly promoted
DR-Master are not same in any case then the success is nowhere near by
surroundings :) .

I will surely retake the test with the steps mentioned on my two VM's and
update my finding.

Once again, Thank you very much to you  Steve for helping me in this
scenario.

--
Regards
Raghav
Blog: htt://raghavt.blogspot.com/
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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-25 Thread Raghav
Also, one more point on step 3, there cannot be any DML's until this
operation is done successfully, because, in step 2 you are stopping SR and
doing DML's on Step 3, which is clearly know fact that your DR-master dont
have any effect made in Step 3.

--Raghav
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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-24 Thread Jan Wieck
On 6/21/2012 11:27 PM, Raghav wrote:

 Q: What I want to achieve ?
 A:  Swap the Masters. Means, now slave should receive events from
 DR-Master once it get promoted to Master as shown below


 Have you read 'Controlled Switchover'
 http://www.slony.info/__documentation/2.1/failover.__html
 http://www.slony.info/documentation/2.1/failover.html

 I think the MOVE SET command is what you want.

 You setup 'DR Master' as a subscriber to your sets just like 'slave'
 was.  You then MOVE SET to make 'DR Master' the new origin.  'slave'
 will receive updates from 'DR Master' instead of 'Master' , assuming
 you have a complete path network in place.

 Thank you Steve. Make sense to me.

 Sorry to say, my question was how to avoid resubscribing DR-Master to
 slave and then promoting it to master. Since, complete information of
 master is available on dr-master.

 Due to my curiosity level :)  I tested again with different approach.
 Since, DR Master is Streaming replication READ-ONLY server it will have
 same _slonyschema of all what's there on Master, just the connection
 string changes needed. So, I thought changing the connection string
 should fix.

Using streaming replication for the DR Master could present a problem. 
Since it is in the same data center the following may seem unlikely. But 
what can happen is that the DR Master is further behind in replication 
than the Slony Slave at the moment, disaster strikes and the Master 
becomes unavailable. We never know ahead what will cause the Master to 
go down and how fast it will be.

What if the death is affecting the network interface of Master first. At 
first it is just losing a few packets and some of them are packets from 
the WAL sender to the DR Master. It will take several seconds for the 
TCP/IP protocol to detect that and retransmit. Time enough for several 
more transactions to commit and Slony to replicate them. And before the 
DR Master can catch up, the motherboard finally fails with a puff of smoke.

What will happen with your below steps in this situation is that the 
Slave has some changes, that the DR Master doesn't have. The DR Master 
(now Master) will generate new SYNC events and the first (few) will have 
the same event number as ones, that the Slave had replicated from the 
old Master. They will be ignored by the Slave. So at the end the DR 
Master will be missing some changes made to the old Master and the Slave 
will be missing other changes that had been made against the DR Master.


Jan


 I read this part of documentation and implemented below steps not for
 once, couple of times, this time it never failed.
 http://slony.info/documentation/2.1/stmtstorepath.html

 1. Stop slon on Master/Slave
 2. change store paths with function on DR-master.
 aquent_cdb=# select _myrep.storepath(1,2,'host=*dr-master.com
 http://dr-master.com* dbname=master user=postgres port=5432',10);
 ///Note: previsouly it was from master.com http://master.com
   storepath
 
   500017
 (1 row)
 4. Repeat the step 3 on slave to change the provider info.
 5. Start slon on DR-Master/slave.

 Above steps, went fine and all write operations on dr-master(newly
 promoted as master) started publishing on slave.
 Correct me if this approach is doable.

 --Raghav


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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-22 Thread Steve Singer
On 12-06-21 11:27 PM, Raghav wrote:

 Thank you Steve. Make sense to me.

 Sorry to say, my question was how to avoid resubscribing DR-Master to
 slave and then promoting it to master. Since, complete information of
 master is available on dr-master.

 Due to my curiosity level :)  I tested again with different approach.
 Since, DR Master is Streaming replication READ-ONLY server it will have
 same _slonyschema of all what's there on Master, just the connection
 string changes needed. So, I thought changing the connection string
 should fix.

You can use the built-in streaming replication for what you describe but 
if you want unplanned failover it should be the SYNCHRONOUS replication.

asynchronous replication will work fine for a controlled switchover 
(stop the slons, let your 'DR Master' get caught up with streaming 
replication' then bring it up as a read-write node and restart the slons).

However if you have an unplanned failure of your 'master' node the 
'slave' node might be further ahead via slony than your 'dr master' node 
via async streaming replication.  If this happens and you promote the 
'DR master' then you might have a very bad day.





 I read this part of documentation and implemented below steps not for
 once, couple of times, this time it never failed.
 http://slony.info/documentation/2.1/stmtstorepath.html

 1. Stop slon on Master/Slave
 2. change store paths with function on DR-master.
 aquent_cdb=# select _myrep.storepath(1,2,'host=*dr-master.com
 http://dr-master.com* dbname=master user=postgres port=5432',10);
 ///Note: previsouly it was from master.com http://master.com
   storepath
 
   500017
 (1 row)
 4. Repeat the step 3 on slave to change the provider info.
 5. Start slon on DR-Master/slave.

 Above steps, went fine and all write operations on dr-master(newly
 promoted as master) started publishing on slave.
 Correct me if this approach is doable.

 --Raghav

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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-22 Thread Raghav


 You can use the built-in streaming replication for what you describe but
 if you want unplanned failover it should be the SYNCHRONOUS replication.

 asynchronous replication will work fine for a controlled switchover (stop
 the slons, let your 'DR Master' get caught up with streaming replication'
 then bring it up as a read-write node and restart the slons).

 However if you have an unplanned failure of your 'master' node the 'slave'
 node might be further ahead via slony than your 'dr master' node via async
 streaming replication.  If this happens and you promote the 'DR master'
 then you might have a very bad day.



Got it. Thanks Steve for all  your help.
I could able to fix this by storepath() function and as you said, I have
taken care that 'slave' node never pass master events ahead.

--Raghav
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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-21 Thread Steve Singer
On 12-06-20 12:28 PM, Raghav wrote:
 Hi Steve,

 Below is the scenario I want to achieve.


Warm-Standby
 Master   DR-Master
  |
  |Replication built on  Slony 2.1.
  |
 V
 Slave

 Given is actually setup of production, master/slave replication with log
 archive shipping using slony 2.1. And, Master with DR setup on same data
 center as DR-Master with Warm Standby configuration running fine with
 minimal lag.

 Q: What I want to achieve ?
 A:  Swap the Masters. Means, now slave should receive events from
 DR-Master once it get promoted to Master as shown below

Have you read 'Controlled Switchover' 
http://www.slony.info/documentation/2.1/failover.html

I think the MOVE SET command is what you want.

You setup 'DR Master' as a subscriber to your sets just like 'slave' 
was.  You then MOVE SET to make 'DR Master' the new origin.  'slave' 
will receive updates from 'DR Master' instead of 'Master' , assuming you 
have a complete path network in place.




 Master   DR Master

  ||
 X   |Replication built on  Slony 2.1.

  ||

 V|

 Slave --|


 I believed, the DR-Master will have the same _slonyschema except the
 primary hostname. So, I have changed on both DR-Master  Slave of
 sl_path of primary hostname as fix.
 Assuming that, I have tested on my local box with below steps.

 1. Stop slony between master,slave.
 2. Take the _slonyschema dump of Master (In case any problem).
 3. Promote the DR-Master.
 4. update the _slonyschem.sl_path of column pa_conninfo with primary
 hostname on DR-Master  Slave.
 5. Start slony daemons on DR-Master  Slave.

 Above steps won't work all the time, I did many times, very few times I
 could able to send events from DR-master to Slave with proper numbering
 of .SQL files.(log archives).
 I would request to recommend the correct procedure for swapping providers.

 --
 Regards
 Raghav
 Blog: htt://raghavt.blogspot.com/ http://raghavt.blogspot.com/



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Re: [Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-21 Thread Raghav


 Q: What I want to achieve ?
 A:  Swap the Masters. Means, now slave should receive events from
 DR-Master once it get promoted to Master as shown below


 Have you read 'Controlled Switchover' http://www.slony.info/**
 documentation/2.1/failover.**htmlhttp://www.slony.info/documentation/2.1/failover.html

 I think the MOVE SET command is what you want.

 You setup 'DR Master' as a subscriber to your sets just like 'slave' was.
  You then MOVE SET to make 'DR Master' the new origin.  'slave' will
 receive updates from 'DR Master' instead of 'Master' , assuming you have a
 complete path network in place.

 Thank you Steve. Make sense to me.

Sorry to say, my question was how to avoid resubscribing DR-Master to slave
and then promoting it to master. Since, complete information of master is
available on dr-master.

Due to my curiosity level :)  I tested again with different approach.
Since, DR Master is Streaming replication READ-ONLY server it will have
same _slonyschema of all what's there on Master, just the connection string
changes needed. So, I thought changing the connection string should fix.

I read this part of documentation and implemented below steps not for once,
couple of times, this time it never failed.
http://slony.info/documentation/2.1/stmtstorepath.html

1. Stop slon on Master/Slave
2. change store paths with function on DR-master.
aquent_cdb=# select
_myrep.storepath(1,2,'host=*dr-master.com*dbname=master user=postgres
port=5432',10);   ///Note: previsouly it was
from master.com
 storepath

 500017
(1 row)
4. Repeat the step 3 on slave to change the provider info.
5. Start slon on DR-Master/slave.

Above steps, went fine and all write operations on dr-master(newly promoted
as master) started publishing on slave.
Correct me if this approach is doable.

--Raghav
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[Slony1-general] Swapping Providers

2012-06-20 Thread Raghav
Hi Steve,

Below is the scenario I want to achieve.


  Warm-Standby
Master   DR-Master
|
|Replication built on  Slony 2.1.
|
   V
Slave

Given is actually setup of production, master/slave replication with log
archive shipping using slony 2.1. And, Master with DR setup on same data
center as DR-Master with Warm Standby configuration running fine with
minimal lag.

Q: What I want to achieve ?
A:  Swap the Masters. Means, now slave should receive events from DR-Master
once it get promoted to Master as shown below

Master   DR Master

||
   X   |Replication built on  Slony 2.1.

||

   V|

Slave --|


I believed, the DR-Master will have the same _slonyschema except the
primary hostname. So, I have changed on both DR-Master  Slave of sl_path
of primary hostname as fix.
Assuming that, I have tested on my local box with below steps.

1. Stop slony between master,slave.
2. Take the _slonyschema dump of Master (In case any problem).
3. Promote the DR-Master.
4. update the _slonyschem.sl_path of column pa_conninfo with primary
hostname on DR-Master  Slave.
5. Start slony daemons on DR-Master  Slave.

Above steps won't work all the time, I did many times, very few times I
could able to send events from DR-master to Slave with proper numbering of
.SQL files.(log archives).
I would request to recommend the correct procedure for swapping providers.

-- 
Regards
Raghav
Blog: htt://raghavt.blogspot.com/
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