Controller Instance Start-up

Start Script: controller.sh, controller.cmd

The JS7 Controller includes a Start Script for managing the Controller instance:

The default location of the Start Script is:
- /opt/sos-berlin.com/js7/controller/<controller-id>/bin\controller.sh on Unix and
- C:\Program Files\sos-berlin.com\js7\controller\<controller-id>\bin\controller.cmd on Windows.

Usage

Running the Controller Start Script without arguments displays the usage clause:

Usage on Unix

Usage: controller.sh command [options]
  command:
    start           [options]
    start-container [options]
    start-docker    [options]
    stop            [options]
    abort           [options]
    restart         [options]
    status          [options]
    kill            [options]
    switch-over     [options]
    revert          [options] 
    cert            [cert-options]                    | see https://kb.sos-berlin.com/x/jLbAAw
  options:
    --id=<JS7 Controller Id>                          | default: controller
    --http-port=<[hostname or ip address:]number>     | default: 4444
    --https-port=<[hostname or ip address:]number>    | default:
    --data-directory=<location of data directory>     | default: /var/sos-berlin.com/js7/controller/var
    --config-directory=<location of config directory> | default: /var/sos-berlin.com/js7/controller/var/config
    --timeout=<timeout > 0, in seconds>               | only for stop; if timeout is reached then SIGKILL is sent
    --java-options=<java options>                     | default: -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8  -Xmx500m -Dlog4j2.contextSelector=org.apache.logging.log4j.core.async.AsyncLoggerContextSelector -Dlog4j2.asyncLoggerWaitStrategy=Block; see also https://kb.sos-berlin.com/x/aIC9
see also https://kb.sos-berlin.com/x/CKrAAw for more information.

Usage on Windows

Usage: controller.cmd command [options]
  command:
    start           [options]
    start-container [options]
    start-docker    [options]
    stop            [options]
    abort           [options]
    restart         [options]
    status          [options]
    kill            [options]
    switch-over     [options]
    revert          [options]
    cert            [cert-options]                    | see https://kb.sos-berlin.com/x/jLbAAw
  options:
    --id=<JS7 Controller ID>                          | default: controller
    --http-port=<[hostname or ip address:]number>     | default: 4444
    --https-port=<[hostname or ip address:]number>    | default:
    --data-directory=<location of data directory>     | default: C:\ProgramData\sos-berlin.com\js7\controller\controller
    --config-directory=<location of config directory> | default: C:\ProgramData\sos-berlin.com\js7\controller\controller\config
    --timeout=<timeout > 0, in seconds>               | only for stop; if timeout is reached then KILL is sent
    --java-options=<java options>                     | default: -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8  -Xmx500m -Dlog4j2.contextSelector=org.apache.logging.log4j.core.async.AsyncLoggerContextSelector -Dlog4j2.asyncLoggerWaitStrategy=Block; see also https://kb.sos-berlin.com/x/aIC9
see also https://kb.sos-berlin.com/x/CKrAAw for more information.

Command Line Options

--id=<JS7 Controller ID>
- Specifies a unique identifier for a Controller. Identifiers such as "controller-test", "controller-production" etc. can be used. Upper case and lower case characters are considered, the characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, underscore and hyphen are allowed. Spaces are not allowed in a Controller ID.
- If users intend to operate a Controller Cluster with two Controller instances for the active and for the standby cluster member, then the same Controller ID must be specified for both Controller instances as otherwise the instances will not be considered to be members of the same cluster.
--http-port=<[hostname or ip address:]number>
- Specifies the HTTP port which the Controller instance is listening to in order to receive requests from JOC Cockpit or a partnering Controller instance in a cluster.
  - controller.sh|.cmd command --http-port=####
  - where #### is the port number.
  - This option can be also used to indicate which network interface the JS7 Controller should listen to if a hostname or IP address is specified - for example with --http-port=myhost:4444.
- When this option is not used the port defaults to 4444 and the Controller listens to all available network interfaces.
- If a port is specified then the following order of precedence applies:
  - First precedence: command line option
  - Second precedence: environment variable JS7_CONTROLLER_HTTP_PORT (see below)
  - Third precedence: use of default value
--https-port=<[hostname or ip address:]number>
- Specifies the HTTPS port that the Controller is listening to in order to receive requests from JOC Cockpit or a pairing Controller instance in a cluster:
  - controller.sh|.cmd command --https-port=####
  - where #### is the port number.
  - This option can be used to indicate which network interface the Controller should listen to if a hostname or IP address is specified - for example with --https-port=myhost:4443.
  - When using the HTTPS protocol for connections from JOC Cockpit and from a pairing Controller instance the the HTTP protocol has to be allowed for local connections such as --http-port=localhost:4444. As the Controller Start Script uses a HTTP connection this protocol has to be in place to allow the Controller instance to be started, stopped etc. by its Start Script.
- If a port is specified then the following order of precedence applies:
  - First precedence: command line option
  - Second precedence: environment variable JS7_CONTROLLER_HTTPS_PORT (see below)
  - Third precedence: use of default value
--data-directory=<location of data directory>
- Specifies the location of the data directory that usually includes the config, logs and state directories.
- If a data directory is specified then the following order of precedence applies:
  - First precedence: command line option
  - Second precedence: environment variable JS7_CONTROLLER_DATA (see below)
  - Third precedence: use of default value JS7_CONTROLLER_HOME\var
--config-directory=<location of config directory>
- Specifies the location of the config directory for configuration data.
- If a configuration directory is specified then the following order of precedence applies:
  - First precedence: command line option
  - Second precedence: environment variable JS7_CONTROLLER_CONFIG_DIR (see below)
  - Third precedence: use of default value JS7_CONTROLLER_DATA/config
--timeout
- With the stop command this option waits for the indicated number of seconds and kills the Controller if the timeout is exceeded.
--revoke
- Specifies that a Controller Cluster should be revoked and that the current Controller instance should be reverted to a Standalone Controller.
- For details see JS7 - How to revert a Controller Cluster to a Standalone Controller
--java-options=<java options>
- This option can be used to apply Java options for the Controller, e.g. for memory settings.
- Without this option being used Java options default to -Xms500m.
- In order to specify a number of Java options quotes have to be used like this:
  - --java-options="-Xms100m -Xmx1g"
- When specifying Java options then the following order of precedence applies:
  - First precedence: command line option
  - Second precedence: environment variable JAVA_OPTIONS (see below)
  - Third precedence: use of default value

Instance Start Script: controller_instance.sh, controller_instance.cmd

The JS7 Controller includes a template file for an Instance Start Script which can be modified to specify start-up parameters.

The Instance Start Script sets a number of environment variables and then executes the Start Script.
Users can adjust start-up parameters from environment variables in the Instance Start Script as described below.

It is recommended that an individual Instance Start Script is created from the template file as this allows individual start-up parameters to be specified using environment variables.

Location

The default location of the Instance Start Script template file is:
- /opt/sos-berlin.com/js7/controller/<controller-id>/bin/controller_instance.sh-example on Unix and
- C:\Program Files\sos-berlin.com\js7\controller\<controller-id>\bin\controller_instance.cmd-example on Windows.
Users can create a copy of the template file and remove the -example extension from the file name. The renamed Instance Start Script controller_instance.sh (Unix) or controller_instance.cmd (Windows) will not be overwritten when updating the Controller later on.
- If the Controller installation is performed on Windows using the installer, either in headless mode or in graphical mode, then the installer automatically creates the script.
- If the Controller installation is performed by extracting a .tar.gz/.zip archive then the Instance Start Script has to be created from a copy of the template file.
- Once the Instance Start Script been copied users can modify start-up parameters from environment variables, as described below.

Usage

The Instance Start Script can be executed with the same arguments as the Start Script as described above.

Controller Environment Variables

Most environment variables in the Instance Start Script correspond to command line options in the Start Script (explained above). The following environment variables can be adjusted in the script:

JS7_CONTROLLER_ID
- The unique identifier of a Controller. Identifiers such as "controller-test", "controller-production" etc. can be used. Upper case and lower case characters are considered, the characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, underscore and hyphen are allowed. Spaces are not allowed in a Controller ID.
- If a Controller Cluster is operated with two Controller instances for the active and for the standby cluster member, then the same Controller ID must be specified for both Controller instances, as otherwise the instances will not be considered members of the same cluster. This identifier cannot be modified after initial start of a Controller. Changes to the Controller ID require dropping the Controller's journal, i.e. the contents of its JS7_CONFIG_DIR\state directory.
- Corresponding command line option: --id
JS7_CONTROLLER_USER
- The operating system user account that the Controller instance is started with. The Controller Start Script will switch to this account when being executed from a different account, for example if started by the root account.
- There is no corresponding command line option.
JS7_CONTROLLER_HTTP_PORT
- The HTTP port that the JS7 Controller is listening to.
- This setting optionally indicates which network interface the JS7 Controller should listen to if a host or IP address is specified such as JS7_CONTROLLER_HTTP_PORT=myHost:4444.
- If only a port number is specified then the JS7 Controller listens to all available network interfaces via HTTP.
- Without setting this environment variable the port defaults to 4444.
- Corresponding command line option: --http-port
JS7_CONTROLLER_HTTPS_PORT
- Sets the HTTPS port that the JS7 Controller is listening to.
- This setting indicates which network interface the JS7 Controller should listen to if a host or IP address is specified as for example with JS7_CONTROLLER_HTTPS_PORT=myHost:4443
- If a port number only is specified then the JS7 Controller listens to all available network interfaces via HTTPS.
- When using the HTTPS protocol for connections from JOC Cockpit and from a paired Controller instance then the HTTP protocol has to be allowed for local connections such as JS7_CONTROLLER_HTTP_PORT=localhost:4444. As the Controller Start Script makes use of an HTTP connection this protocol has to be in place to allow the Controller instance to be started, stopped etc. by its Start Script.
- The HTTPS protocol is not used if this environment variable is not set.
- Corresponding command line option: --https-port
JS7_CONTROLLER_DATA
- Points to the parent directory where the JS7 Controller finds its configuration data, log data and journals.
- Without setting this environment variable the default value is JS7_CONTROLLER_HOME\var.
- For Windows systems where the JS7 Controller is installed in the program directory this is indicated by the %ProgramFiles% system environment variable. It is recommended that the default setting is not used. Instead a different path should be specified via the JS7_CONTROLLER_DATA environment variable, such as a location in the system data directory that is indicated by the %ProgramData% environment variable, for example, JS7_CONTROLLER_DATA=C:\ProgramData\sos-berlin.com\js7\controller.
- Corresponding command line option: --data-directory
JS7_CONTROLLER_CONFIG_DIR
- Specifies the directory where configuration files are stored.
- When this environment variable is not specified, the default value of JS7_CONTROLLER_DATA/config will be used.
- Corresponding command line option: --config-directory
JS7_CONTROLLER_LOGS
- Specifies the directory where the JS7 Controller log files are created.
- This setting defaults to the JS7_CONTROLLER_DATA/logs directory.
- There is no corresponding command line option.
JS7_CONTROLLER_PID_FILE_DIR
- Sets the directory where the JS7 Controller PID file is created.
- This setting defaults to the directory which is specified with the JS7_CONTROLLER_LOGS environment variable or the log directory default value.
- There is no corresponding command line option.
JS7_CONTROLLER_PID_FILE_NAME
- Sets the file name to which the JS7 Controller stores its PID.
- The default value is controller.pid.
- There is no corresponding command line option.
- FEATURE AVAILABILITY STARTING FROM RELEASE 2.5.1
JAVA_HOME
- Points to the location of the JVM, either a JRE (Java Runtime Environment) or JDK (Java Development Kit).
- Without setting this environment variable Java will be used from the location specified by the system path.
- The JAVA_HOME environment variable does not necessarily point to the location of a JDK but to a JRE directory where the bin/java executable resides, for example if the location of the Java executable is /opt/java/jdk8u202-b08/jre/bin/java then JAVA_HOME=/opt/java/jdk8u202-b08/jre.
- There is no corresponding command line option.
JAVA_OPTIONS
- Specifies Java options, for example the Java memory settings for the Controller instance.
- When this environment variable is not set, the Java options will default to -Xms500m.
- Corresponding command line option: --java-options

Running the Controller Instance

SOS does not recommend running the JS7 Controller as the root account (for Unix) or as the Administrator account (for Windows) for a simple reason: there is no need to do so.
The Controller does not execute any jobs as this task is performed by Agents. Therefore any user account can be used to operate the Controller.

The examples below make use of a controller_instance.sh (Unix) or controller_instance.cmd (Windows) Instance Start Script which is created from the template file.

Starting the Controller Instance

controller_instance.sh|.cmd start [options]

When used for Container operation then the following command is used:

controller_instance.sh|.cmd start-container [options]

This command is used to start the JS7 Controller in a container:

The command will keep the start script running as PID 1 in order to receive later stop/kill signals (SIGTERM, SIGKILL) from the container management software.
The command start-docker is an alias for start-container.
SET-223 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Stopping the Controller Instance

controller_instance.sh|.cmd stop [options]

This command will safely terminate the Controller (recommended).

If a Controller Cluster is being operated then fail-over will not occur.
Using the --timeout command line option will terminate the Controller when the number of seconds specified for the timeout is exceeded.

controller_instance.sh|.cmd abort [options]

The Controller process is aborted immediately.

If a Controller Cluster is being operated then this command will cause a fail-over.

controller_instance.sh|.cmd kill [options]

The Controller process is killed.

This corresponds to sending a SIGKILL signal with a command such as kill -9 (Unix) or taskkill (Windows).

If a Controller Cluster is being operated then this command will cause a fail-over.

Restarting the Controller Instance

controller_instance.sh|.cmd restart [options]

The Controller process is stopped and started.

If a Controller Cluster is operated then this command will not cause a switch-over.

Checking the Controller Instance Status

controller_instance.sh|.cmd status [options]

If the Controller instance is up and running then this command will result in output such as:

id: controller
version: 2.0.0-alpha.20210706 (2021-07-06)
buildId: KvsbZFR9QfOT-GAJg33fLA
startedAt: 1625646518935
totalRunningTime: 632857.312
orderCount: 1973
system:
  hostname: KA0054
  cpuModel: Intel64 Family 6 Model 94 Stepping 3, GenuineIntel
  mxBeans:
    operatingSystem:
      availableProcessors: 4
      systemLoadAverage: -1
java:
  version: 1.8.0_171
  memory:
    maximum: 501743616
    total: 501743616
    free: 420687192
  systemProperties:
    java.vendor: Oracle Corporation
    os.arch: amd64
    java.runtime.name: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
    os.version: '10.0'
    os.name: Windows 10
    java.vm.name: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
    java.version: 1.8.0_171

If the Controller is not running then output is created like this:

ERROR: java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException: C:\ProgramData\sos-berlin.com\js7\controller\controller\state\session-token
...JS7 Controller(controller) not started!

Switching over to the Standby Controller Instance in a Cluster

controller_instance.sh|.cmd switch-over [options]

If a Controller Cluster is operated then this command will switch-over the active role in the Controller Cluster, more precisely the currently Active Controller Instance takes the standby role and the previous Standby Controller Instance takes the active role.

This command is applicable from the Active Controller Instance only.

Reverting a Controller Cluster to a Standalone Controller

controller_instance.sh|.cmd revert [options]

If a Controller Cluster is operated then this command can be executed after the Controller is stopped. The command will revert the Controller Cluster to a Standalone Controller instance.

For details see JS7 - How to revert a Controller Cluster to a Standalone Controller.

Performing Certificate Rollout

controller_instance.sh|.cmd cert [cert-options]

This command is used to generate an SSL certificate for client and server authentication.

For details and command line options see JS7 - Certificate Authority - Rollout Certificates for HTTPS Connections

Windows Service Interface

The following information applies to headless installation on Windows systems. For installation with a GUI and user dialog see JS7 - Controller - Installation Using the Windows Graphical Installer.

The Controller can be operated as a Windows Service. The Start Script of the Controller instance allows installation/removal of the Windows Service.

The examples below make use of an controller_instance.cmd Instance Start Script that is created from the template file.

Installing the Windows Service

controller_instance.cmd install-service [--http-port=<number>]

This command installs the Controller instance's Windows Service. After the installation, users find the Windows Service with the name SOS JS7 Controller -id=<Controller ID> in the Services Manager Console. The Windows Service uses the local system account.

During service installation, it tries to copy the executable file for the Windows Service to the .\service directory. This operation could fail with the error "Access denied" if the JS7 Controller has been extracted, for example, to C:\Program Files\. In this case, users can change the permissions of the .\service directory or open the command prompt with elevated administrator rights and execute the above command once more.

Starting the Windows Service

controller_instance.cmd start-service [--http-port=<number>]

This command starts the Windows Service with the name SOS JS7 Controller -id=<controller-id>.

The stop command performs more than a simple stop-service command: the stop command checks if the Controller instance was started by the command line interface or as a Windows Service and stops the Controller instance accordingly. Therefore there is no stop-service command.

Removing the Windows Service

controller_instance.cmd remove-service [--http-port=<number>]

This command removes the Windows Service. After executing this command users should no longer find the Windows Service with the name SOS JS7 Controller -id=<controller-id> in the Services Manager Console.

Configuring the Windows Service

The .\service\js7_controller_<controller-id>w.exe file is installed along with the Windows Service. This program can be executed to configure the Windows Service.

For example, go to the "Startup" tab
to modify start parameters

Debugging the Windows Service

The Controller instance log level can be increased using the Controller's Apache ProcRun Daemon Service Manager daemon/service.
On Windows systems this is installed in the Controller instance's service folder with a name such as js7_controller_<controller-id>w.exe where <controller-id> is the unique Controller ID.
Users can start the ProcRun Manager, select the Logging tab in the user interface and set the level to Debug.
The location of log files is explained above.
Users should consider reverting the log level back to its original value once they are finished with debugging.

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Controller Instance Start-up

Start Script: controller.sh, controller.cmd

Usage

Command Line Options

Instance Start Script: controller_instance.sh, controller_instance.cmd

Location

Usage

Controller Environment Variables

Running the Controller Instance

Starting the Controller Instance

Stopping the Controller Instance

Restarting the Controller Instance

Checking the Controller Instance Status

Switching over to the Standby Controller Instance in a Cluster

Reverting a Controller Cluster to a Standalone Controller

Performing Certificate Rollout

Windows Service Interface

Installing the Windows Service

Starting the Windows Service

Removing the Windows Service

Configuring the Windows Service

Debugging the Windows Service

Space shortcuts

Page tree

JS7 - Controller - Command Line Operation

Controller Instance Start-up

Start Script: controller.sh, controller.cmd

Usage

Command Line Options

Instance Start Script: controller_instance.sh, controller_instance.cmd

Location

Usage

Controller Environment Variables

Running the Controller Instance

Starting the Controller Instance

Stopping the Controller Instance

Restarting the Controller Instance

Checking the Controller Instance Status

Switching over to the Standby Controller Instance in a Cluster

Reverting a Controller Cluster to a Standalone Controller

Performing Certificate Rollout

Windows Service Interface

Installing the Windows Service

Starting the Windows Service

Removing the Windows Service

Configuring the Windows Service

Debugging the Windows Service