• Jetpack command line utility
  • Configuration scripts to make an instance a cluster member
  • Chef client 11
  • Various other utilities which interface with CycleCloud

All Jetpack files are installed inside a singular directory tree.

OS Path
Windows C:\cycle\jetpack
Linux /opt/cycle/jetpack

In addition to creating this directory, the Jetpack installer:

  • Creates system init startup scripts which configure an instance as a cluster member
  • Creates udev rules on Linux
  • Creates the ‘cyclecloud’ user with administrative sudo privileges
  • Installs the HealthCheck service
  • Sets the environment variable CYCLECLOUD_HOME

Please note that the Jetpack installer for Windows disables the firewall, which is officially discouraged by Microsoft. We recommend you reenable it but leave open the ports detailed in the section on firewalls.

Important directories within your Jetpack installation:

Directory Description
bin Useful binaries and scripts.
config User defined and cluster defined configuration files and scripts.
logs Logs generated by joining a cluster and converging the instance, of particular interest is the chef-client.log which contains the results from converging Chef recipes.
system Internal files. We don’t recommend directly using or accessing any files in this directory as they will change significantly from release to release.

Firewalls and Jetpack

CycleCloud requires that the following ports be open on your instance for incoming connections:

  • TCP port 22 – SSH (Secure Shell) for Linux only
  • TCP port 3389 – RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) for Windows only

Blocking outgoing connections is not recommended. These connection settings fulfil only the most basic requirements to be part of a CycleCloud cluster. Any applications you install may have additional requirements.

The HealthCheck Service

The HealthCheck service executes user-defined scripts to determine an instance’s current viability as a cluster member. Scripts may be written in Python or be Bash (Linux) or batch (Windows) scripts. If the script exits with a code of 254, the instance will be terminated. Other non-zero return codes are treated as unknown and are logged to CycleCloud. Checks are stored in /opt/cycle/jetpack/config/healthcheck.d on Linux and in C:\cycle\jetpack\config\healthcheck.d on Windows.

To delay a HealthCheck related termination, use the jetpack keepalive command.

Jetpack Command Line Tool

The Jetpack command-line tool, located at /opt/cycle/jetpack/bin/jetpack or C:\cycle\jetpack\bin\jetpack, provides a useful set of subcommands for manipulating the current instance and interacting with CycleCloud.

Jetpack Subcommands
Command Description
jetpack config Retrieve a configuration value.
jetpack converge Execute a Chef converge.
jetpack keepalive Delay system termination by the HealthCheck Service.
jetpack log Log a message to CycleCloud cluster UI.
jetpack send Send an arbitrary AMQP message to the CycleCloud server.

jetpack config

This command can be used to fetch information passed to an instance through the original cluster template. This exposes all the system properties made available via Ohai, a subset of an instance’s own cloud provider metadata, and information about the parent CycleCloud cluster.

jetpack converge

This command downloads any Chef cookbooks or cluster-init scripts defined in the cluster template, then executes a Chef converge and subsequently executes cluster-init.

jetpack keepalive

This command interacts with the HealthCheck service to delay the termination of instance due to a failing HealthCheck. Termination can be delayed for a fixed period or indefinitely. By default, termination is delayed for one hour.

To delay system termination by one hour:

$ jetpack keepalive

To disable the HealthCheck service entirely, i.e. delay termination indefinitely:

$ jetpack keepalive forever

To delay system termination by two days:

$ jetpack keepalive 2d

jetpack log

This command sends a log message back to CycleCloud. The message will appear in cycle_server.log, the main event log, and the Cluster UI page.

Each message has two properties level and priority. The level property indicates the type of message. Valid levels are ‘info’, ‘warn’, and ‘error’. The level does not indicate importance of a given message. For example, some errors are trivial and some informational messages critical. Priority indicates the importance of the message. Valid priority values are ‘low’, ‘medium’, and ‘high’. Only messages with a priority of medium or higher are displayed on the Cluster UI page. This is so that the UI page is not inundated with low priority messages.

To send an informational log message that will appear on the Cluster UI page:

$ jetpack log 'system is now ready'

To send a low priority log message that you do not want to appear on the Cluster UI page:

$ jetpack log 'system is now ready' --priority low

By default, messages with a level of error have a high priority. To send an error message:

$ jetpack log 'the machine cannot process jobs' --level error

To send a trivial error message:

$ jetpack log 'the machine cannot process jobs' --level error --priority low

jetpack send

This is an advanced command that you can use to send an arbitrary AMQP message to CycleCloud. It is most useful if you have created a CycleCloud plugin that can process that information.

You can send arbitrary strings or files with specified AMQP routing keys.

Previous: Common Cookbooks Reference
Next: HealthCheck