Files
vpp-maglev/docs/maglevd.8
Pim van Pelt 744b1cb3d2 install-deps Makefile target; docs refresh; golangci-lint v2 clean
Makefile:
- New install-deps umbrella target split into three sub-targets:
  install-deps-apt        — Debian/Trixie-packaged build deps
                            (nodejs, npm, protobuf-compiler, git, make,
                            dpkg-dev, ca-certificates, curl, tar). Uses
                            sudo when not already root.
  install-deps-go         — ensures a Go toolchain >= GO_VERSION (go.mod
                            floor, default 1.25.0). Short-circuits when
                            the system Go is already recent enough;
                            otherwise downloads the upstream tarball
                            from go.dev/dl/ into /usr/local/go. Trixie
                            only ships 1.24 so this step is load-bearing.
  install-deps-go-tools   — go install protoc-gen-go, protoc-gen-go-grpc,
                            and golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint. Then
                            asserts the installed golangci-lint version
                            parses as >= GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION (default
                            1.64.0, the floor that supports Go 1.25
                            syntax) to catch stale binaries in $GOPATH
                            /bin before they silently run against Go
                            1.25 code.
- Parser bug fixed: golangci-lint v1.x prints "has version v1.64.8" but
  v2.x dropped the 'v' prefix and prints "has version 2.11.4". The
  original sed regex required the 'v' and returned an empty match on
  v2.x, making the assertion explode with "could not parse version
  output". Fixed by switching to extended regex (sed -En) with 'v?' so
  both forms parse cleanly.
- GO_VERSION and GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION exposed as Makefile variables
  so operators can override on the command line, e.g.
    make install-deps GO_VERSION=1.25.5 GOLANGCI_LINT_VERSION=2.0.0
- .PHONY extended with the four new target names.

Docs:
- README.md: capability note rewritten to cover CAP_NET_RAW (ICMP) and
  the new CAP_SYS_ADMIN requirement when healthchecker.netns is set,
  plus a paragraph explaining that the Debian systemd unit grants both
  automatically. Docker example gained a second variant that shows the
  additional --cap-add SYS_ADMIN and /var/run/netns bind mount for
  netns-scoped deployments. Also notes that maglevd-frontend ignores
  SIGHUP so controlling-terminal disconnects don't kill it.
- docs/user-guide.md: Capabilities section rewritten as a bulleted
  list covering both caps, with the EPERM error string and three
  different ways to grant them (systemd unit, setcap, systemd-run);
  'show vpp lb counters' command description updated to explain that
  per-backend packet counts are no longer shown (LB plugin's
  forwarding node bypasses ip{4,6}_lookup_inline, so /net/route/to at
  the backend's FIB entry never ticks for LB-forwarded traffic); new
  ~75-line "What the SPA shows" subsection covering the scope
  selector + maglev_scope cookie, the per-maglevd frontend cards, the
  health-cascade icon table (ok / bug-buckets / primary-drained /
  degraded / unknown), the lb buckets column semantics, the
  maglev_zippy_open cookie, the admin-mode lifecycle dialogs with
  their plain-English consequence text, and the debug panel.
- docs/config-guide.md: healthchecker.netns field gains a capability-
  requirement note spelling out setns(CLONE_NEWNET), the EPERM
  symptom string, and the /var/run/netns/ readability requirement.
- docs/healthchecks.md: new "Jitter" subsection explaining the +/-10%
  scaling on every computed interval, and a "Probe timing while a
  probe is in flight" subsection that explains why fast-interval alone
  doesn't give fast fault detection against hanging backends (the
  probe loop is synchronous, so each iteration is timeout +
  fast-interval; the advice is to lower timeout, not fast-interval).
- docs/maglevd.8: description paragraph corrected (dropped the
  per-backend stats claim and added a short note pointing at the LB
  plugin forwarding-path bypass); new CAPABILITIES section between
  SIGNALS and FILES covering both CAP_NET_RAW and CAP_SYS_ADMIN with
  the drop-in-override hint.
- docs/maglevd-frontend.8: new SIGNALS section documenting the
  explicit SIGHUP ignore (so a controlling-terminal disconnect doesn't
  kill the daemon); description extended with paragraphs on the two
  persistence cookies (maglev_scope, maglev_zippy_open) and on the
  health-cascade icon + lb buckets column.
- docs/maglevc.1: left untouched — intentionally minimal and delegates
  to docs/user-guide.md.

Lint (26 issues across 12 files, all errcheck / ineffassign / S1021):
- cmd/frontend/handlers.go: _, _ = fmt.Fprintf(...) for the SSE retry
  hint and resync control-event writes.
- cmd/maglevc/commands.go: bulk-prefix every fmt.Fprintf(w, ...) with
  _, _ =; also merged 'var watchEventsOptSlot *Node; ... = &Node{...}'
  into a single := declaration (staticcheck S1021) — the self-
  referencing pattern still works because the Children back-ref is
  assigned on the next statement, not inside the struct literal.
- cmd/maglevc/complete.go: _, _ = fmt.Fprintf(ql.rl.Stderr(), ...)
  for the banner and help writes; removed the ineffectual
  'partial = ""' assignment (nothing downstream reads partial after
  that branch, so setting it was dead code flagged by ineffassign).
- cmd/maglevc/shell.go: defer func() { _ = rl.Close() }() for the
  readline instance; _, _ = fmt.Fprintf(rl.Stderr(), ...) for error
  display in the REPL loop.
- cmd/maglevc/main.go: defer func() { _ = conn.Close() }() for the
  gRPC client connection.
- internal/grpcapi/server_test.go: _ = conn.Close() in the test
  teardown closure.
- internal/prober/http.go: _ = c.Close() in the TLS-handshake-failed
  path; defer func() { _ = conn.Close() }() and defer func() { _ =
  resp.Body.Close() }() for the two deferred cleanups.
- internal/prober/http_test.go: defer func() { _ = resp.Body.Close()
  }() plus three _, _ = fmt.Fprint(w, ...) in the httptest.Server
  handlers and _, _ = fmt.Sscanf(...) when parsing the test listener's
  port.
- internal/prober/icmp.go: defer func() { _ = pc.Close() }() for the
  ICMP packet conn.
- internal/prober/netns.go: defer func() { _ = origNs.Close() }(),
  defer func() { _ = netns.Set(origNs) }(), defer func() { _ =
  targetNs.Close() }() — also dropped a stray //nolint:errcheck that
  was no longer needed once the closure wrapping handled the discard.
- internal/prober/tcp.go: _ = conn.Close() in the L4-only path,
  _ = tlsConn.Close() in the failed and succeeded handshake branches,
  _ = tlsConn.SetDeadline(...) (also dropped a //nolint:errcheck
  previously covering it).

Iterative 'make lint' runs were needed because golangci-lint v2.x
caps same-linter reports per pass, so the first pass reported 21,
then 4, then 3, then 1, then 0. Final pass: 0 issues. make test is
green across every package, and make build produces all three
binaries cleanly.
2026-04-14 17:37:53 +02:00

181 lines
5.1 KiB
Groff

.TH MAGLEVD 8 "April 2026" "vpp\-maglev" "System Administration"
.SH NAME
maglevd \- Maglev health\-checker daemon and VPP load\-balancer controller
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B maglevd
[\fB\-config\fR \fIfile\fR]
[\fB\-grpc\-addr\fR \fIaddr\fR]
[\fB\-log\-level\fR \fIlevel\fR]
[\fB\-reflection\fR[=\fIbool\fR]]
[\fB\-version\fR]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B maglevd
has two responsibilities:
.IP \(bu 2
It monitors backends with active health checks (HTTP, TCP, ICMP) and
aggregates the results into a state machine per backend. Probe
intervals adapt automatically: a faster interval is used while a
backend is degraded, and a slower one once it has been continuously
down. Operators can also
.B pause/resume
or
.B disable/enable
a backend out of band.
.IP \(bu 2
It programs the VPP dataplane via the
.B lb
(load\-balancer) plugin. Each frontend in the config becomes a VPP
load\-balancer VIP; each healthy backend becomes an application server
under its frontend's VIPs. State transitions drive
application\-server weight updates over the VPP binary API so that
unhealthy backends stop receiving new flows. Drift between the
running config and VPP's view is reconciled periodically
.RB ( maglev.vpp.lb.sync-interval ,
default 30s), on
.B SIGHUP
reloads, and on operator request via
.BR maglevc .
.PP
The aggregated backend state, VPP dataplane state, and per\-VIP
stats\-segment counters are exposed via a gRPC API (and scraped
into Prometheus when the
.B /metrics
endpoint is enabled). Per\-backend packet counters are intentionally
not exposed: VPP's LB plugin forwards by writing
.B adj_index[VLIB_TX]
directly and bypassing
.BR ip4_lookup_inline " / " ip6_lookup_inline ,
which is the only path that increments
.BR /net/route/to ,
so the backend's FIB entry stats index never ticks for LB\-forwarded
traffic.
See
.BR maglevc (1)
for the interactive CLI client.
.PP
Configuration is loaded from a YAML file. A running daemon reloads
its configuration when it receives
.BR SIGHUP .
.SH OPTIONS
Each flag may also be supplied via an environment variable (shown in
parentheses); the flag takes precedence.
.TP
.BI \-config " file"
Path to the YAML configuration file.
.RI "(default: " /etc/vpp-maglev/maglev.yaml "; env: " MAGLEV_CONFIG )
.TP
.BI \-grpc\-addr " addr"
TCP address on which the gRPC server listens.
.RI "(default: " :9090 "; env: " MAGLEV_GRPC_ADDR )
.TP
.BI \-log\-level " level"
Structured\-log verbosity:
.BR debug ,
.BR info ,
.BR warn ,
or
.BR error .
.RI "(default: " info "; env: " MAGLEV_LOG_LEVEL )
.TP
.B \-reflection
Enable gRPC server reflection so that clients such as
.BR grpcurl (1)
can introspect the API without access to the
.I .proto
file.
Enabled by default; pass
.B \-reflection=false
to disable.
.TP
.B \-version
Print version, commit hash, and build date, then exit.
.SH SIGNALS
.TP
.B SIGHUP
Reload the configuration file without restarting. New backends are
added, removed backends are stopped, and unchanged backend workers
keep running. After the reload, the VPP dataplane is reconciled so
added/removed frontends and application servers are programmed
immediately.
.TP
.BR SIGTERM ", " SIGINT
Gracefully shut down: drain active gRPC streams, then exit. VPP
dataplane state is left in place so that existing VIPs continue to
forward traffic during a restart.
.SH CAPABILITIES
.TP
.B CAP_NET_RAW
Required when any health check uses
.BR "type: icmp" .
Raw sockets for ICMP echo. TCP and HTTP(S) checks use normal TCP
sockets and need no special capability.
.TP
.B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
Required when the
.B healthchecker.netns
field is set in the YAML configuration. The probe loop calls
.BR setns (2)
with
.B CLONE_NEWNET
to enter the target network namespace before each probe; the
kernel only permits that to processes holding
.B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
in the target namespace's user namespace. Without it, every probe
fails with
.B enter netns "<name>": operation not permitted
and every backend flips to
.B down
on its first probe. Omit the capability when the deployment doesn't
use namespace\-scoped health checks \(em the Debian systemd unit
ships with both
.B CAP_NET_RAW
and
.B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
in its
.B AmbientCapabilities
and
.B CapabilityBoundingSet
by default, and operators can drop
.B CAP_SYS_ADMIN
via a drop\-in override if they prefer the narrower surface.
.SH FILES
.TP
.I /etc/vpp-maglev/maglev.yaml
Default configuration file (YAML).
.TP
.I /etc/default/vpp-maglev
Environment file sourced by the systemd unit before starting
.BR maglevd .
.TP
.I /run/vpp/api.sock
VPP binary\-API socket
.BR maglevd
connects to when programming the
.B lb
plugin.
.TP
.I /run/vpp/stats.sock
VPP stats\-segment socket used to scrape per\-VIP and per\-backend
packet/byte counters.
.SH "FULL DOCUMENTATION"
This manpage documents only the invocation of
.BR maglevd .
For the configuration file reference (including the
.B maglev.vpp.lb
section controlling the VPP integration), the health\-check state
machine, and the full operational guide, see:
.PP
.RS
https://git.ipng.ch/ipng/vpp-maglev/docs/config-guide.md
.br
https://git.ipng.ch/ipng/vpp-maglev/docs/healthchecks.md
.br
https://git.ipng.ch/ipng/vpp-maglev/docs/user-guide.md
.RE
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR maglevc (1),
.BR maglevd\-frontend (8),
.BR vpp (8)
.SH AUTHOR
Pim van Pelt <pim@ipng.ch>