Managed Servers

The Managed Servers tab allows for servers to be created, installed, managed, and monitored from within ProVision.

Managed Servers is handled via two main areas of the GUI: the Managed Servers Tab and in Admin →  Admin Settings - Managed Servers sub-tab.  Managed servers actions are also available via APIv2 and the command line.

Overview

ProVision's Managed Servers tab allows for DNS (Knot-based) and DHCP(Kea-based) VMs to be created, managed and monitored from within ProVision, either from the GUI or command line.

Managed Server Features include:

• VM creation, management, and monitoring from within ProVision
• Minimal requirements - Managed Servers only requires Python3 and Docker as dependencies
• OS options include CentOS and Ubuntu
• Supports both remote and manual setups
• Supports both root and non-root installations (for the latter, some root steps may be required)
• Installation and upgrade may be performed either via internet connection or locally:
  • Remote internet install/upgrade connects to 6connect's servers to get new versions
  • Local installs/upgrades will require users to upload the new version locally into their ProVision instance
  • No kernel updates or other system updates are required for local updates - only the Docker container will be updated.
• Pre-defined Pre-and-Post Commands

Monitoring Features include:

• DNS Monitoring includes hit count for given period for each host/resource, total hit count, and last access time
• System monitoring Includes CPU load, Disk usage, connection information, swap memory, and virtual memory monitoring.
• Monitoring is available via GUI or API.
• Both "Push" and "Pull" options for statistics data are available
• Heartbeat service independent of Docker to provide monitoring data

Permissions

Managed Servers uses a "6c servers" user group, under which automatic or manual "server users" are created. The "6c servers" user group gives permissions to all 6c server resources.

The "server users" are necessary to allow access and permissions for the managed server(s). When new server is created with an empty user (instead of a user-provided existing user) a random new user is automatically created under that group. Only that server user has permission to update the associated managed server.

Administration

The "Managed Servers" sub-tab under Admin Settings includes modules for global setup of Monitoring Settings, Update Settings, Monitoring Services, and RabbitMQ settings.

After making any settings updates, be sure to click "Save Changes" under the updated module.

For additional details, see Managed Servers Settings.

Managed Servers API

APIv2 endpoints are available for Managed Servers and Managed Server Monitoring.

To view these endpoints from your instance, go to the API Tab → APIv2 Swagger Documentation, then click the Swagger links for the family categories "PVServers" and "Monitoring". For information on using the API, see APIv2. 

Working with Managed Servers

For information on creating a new managed server, working with the managed server list, and viewing monitoring, see the following sections:

Additional Information

For Admin-level managed server setting information, see:

• Managed Servers Settings