Database

The Redis database runs as a Podman rootfull container, bound to TCP port 6379.

• Database
  • Access
  • Roles
  • Schema
    • cluster/
      • cluster/smarthost
      • cluster/repository/
      • cluster/backup_repository/
      • cluster/backup/
      • cluster/user_domain/
      • cluster/counters_cache/
    • node/
    • module/
    • task/
    • user/
    • roles/
    • module/traefikX/
    • AGENT_ID/tasks

Redis is not used only as a database:

• it exchanges messages among agents and the API server
• it helps modules to discover information about the core and other modules
• it provides a signaling bus based on its PUB/SUB feature
• it stores (a copy of) the system and modules configuration
• it is an authentication backend for the management UI and the agents

Get the Redis service status:

systemctl status redis

If any change occurs in the Redis database, it is persisted on the disk within 5 seconds. The following command prints the database path:

podman volume inspect redis-data | jq -r .[].Mountpoint

Redis provides blocking pop operations on lists. The BRPOP command is used by agents to wait on a queue for incoming tasks. Task queues keys look like module/{module_id}/tasks.

Redis provides PUB/SUB operations on channels. Channels are used to implement the observer pattern, for instance in the following situations:

1. An agent wants to notify the UI about the progress of a running task. The channel name in this case looks like progress/module/{module_id}/task/{uuid}.

2. An agent wants to communicate to other agents that a particular event occurred (e.g. a TLS certificate was automatically renewed). The channel name in this case could be like module/{module_id}/event/{event_name}

Access

Access Redis with one of the following commands:

redis-cli PING

• The redis-cli command is faster when invoked by the root user, because it runs a command in the existing redis rootfull container. For non-root users a temporary container is created and destroyed.

• The redis-cli command attempts to connect with the higher available Redis privileges, by reading agent.env files.

A Python-based helper script, redis-exec is available and it better suits Bash action scripts as it does not start any container. This client is synchronous as it waits for the server response:

runagent redis-exec PING

Note that the runagent wrapper is needed because redis-exec is designed to run inside an “agent environment”.

An alternative, synchronous invocation relies on the nc command, provided by the nmap-ncat RPM (good for development environments):

nc 127.0.0.1 6379 <<EOF
PING
EOF

For completeness here is a pure Bash invocation that does not wait the server response:

cat >/dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/6379 <<EOF
PING
EOF

Roles

In a NS8 cluster the leader node runs Redis with master role. All write operations must be executed on the leader instance. Worker nodes run Redis with replica role, so they allow only read operations.

Changes are propagated from the leader instance to the worker instances. The following command on the leader node describes the replication status:

redis-cli ROLE

Example of the command output:

1) "master"
2) (integer) 57693
3) 1) 1) "10.5.4.2"
      2) "6379"
      3) "57693"

The same command in a worker node has a different output. Note that the deprecated term slave may still used by the Redis protocol to describe the replica role:

1) "slave"
2) "10.5.4.1"
3) (integer) 6379
4) "connected"
5) (integer) 57721

Refer to the Redis official documentation for the exact meaning of the command output.

The above command identifies the Redis leader instance by IP address and port number. To know the leader node ID number run this command instead

redis-cli HGET cluster/environment NODE_ID

To get back the IP address of an arbitrary node, given its node ID, e.g. 3:

redis-cli HGET node/3/vpn ip_address

Schema

Redis is a key/value database. Some key naming rules are enforced because access rights are based on key name patterns. Both admin UI users and agents have their own Redis credentials for authentication and authorization.

Some key rule examples:

• cluster/environment, node/{node_id}/environment The key type is HASH. It stores a copy of environment variables of respectively the cluster agent running on the leader node, and the agent environment of node_id.

• module/{module_id}/environment The key type is HASH. It stores a copy of environment variables of the module module_id.

• node/{node_id}/vpn The key type is HASH. It stores the cluster VPN configuration applied by the node agent node_id

• cluster/node_sequence The key value is an integer. As the name suggests it is used to generate a node ID, when a new node is added to the cluster.

Next sections describe the value stored for each database key. Key names follow this notation:

• / logical key namespace separator
• {var} (curly braces with name) placeholder for any string value
• ` ` (single space) hash field separator

A similar pattern is used also for channel names of events.

cluster/

Key prefix for the cluster agent key namespace. Keys with this prefix are publicly accessible. As many keys has this prefix, see also the next subsections for more information.

key	type	description
cluster/network	CIDR	WireGuard VPN network, default: 10.5.4.0/24
cluster/default_instance/{image}	STRING	a module ID for the given image ID
cluster/node_sequence	INTEGER	generate node IDs, default: 0
cluster/module_sequence/{image}	INTEGER	module sequence to generate instances of image ID, default: 0
cluster/module_node	HASH	The module-node association, used for roles assignment
cluster/module_domains	HASH	Store relation of modules with user domains. Hash key is MODULE_ID, hash value is a list of domains separated by spaces, e.g. mydom1.tld mydom2.tld mydom3.tld
cluster/authorizations/{agent_id}	SET	Authorization labels persistence, to enforce labels on future modules
cluster/roles/{role}	SET	glob patterns matching the actions that {role} can run. {role} is one of “owner”, “reader”…
cluster/environment	HASH	Cluster environment variables
cluster/environment NODE_ID	INTEGER	The node ID of the leader node
cluster/ui_name	STRING	UI label for the cluster
cluster/uuid	STRING	Generated UUID that identifies the cluster
cluster/override/modules	HASH	Maps (image name) => (image URL), overriding the standard image name/URL resolution function
cluster/subscription	HASH	Subscription attributes in key/value pairs
cluster/apply_updates	HASH	Scheduled updates attributes in key/value pairs

cluster/smarthost

This is not a key prefix, it is a key of type HASH by itself and contains setting storage for SMTP smarthost.

key	type	description
cluster/smarthost	HASH	Settings and credentials of a SMTP smarthost provider
cluster/smarthost port	INTEGER	Public TCP port of the smtp server
cluster/smarthost enabled	0|1	(0 disabled, 1 enabled) enable the smarthost provider
cluster/smarthost tls	0|1	(0 disabled, 1 enabled) enable STARTTLS
cluster/smarthost tls_verify	0|1	(0 disabled, 1 enabled) verify if the certificate is valid and if the hostname is associated to the certificate
cluster/smarthost username	STRING	username for smtp credentials
cluster/smarthost password	STRING	password for smtp credentials

cluster/repository/

Setting storage for Software repositories.

key	type	description
cluster/repository/{repo}	HASH	A software {repo}
cluster/repository/{repo} url	STRING	HTTPS URL of repository
cluster/repository/{repo} status	0|1	(0 disabled, 1 enabled)
cluster/repository/{repo} testing	0|1	(0 disabled, 1 enabled)
cluster/repository_cache/{repo}	HASH	Cache of remote repo metadata, with a TTL
cluster/repository_cache/{repo} data	STRING	It contains a JSON string from repodata.json
cluster/repository_cache/{repo} updates	STRING	Most recent modification date and time of remote repodata.json

cluster/backup_repository/

Each backup repository is identified with a UUID-based key of type HASH, under the key prefix cluster/backup_repository/.

key	type	description
cluster/backup_repository/{repo}	HASH	A backup repository UUID
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} url	STRING	Restic URL of repository, eg. b2:<bucket>, s3:s3.amazonaws.com/<bucket>
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} password	STRING	Restic encrypt password
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} name	STRING	Custom repository name
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} provider	STRING	Provider name, can be: backblaze, aws
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} b2_account_id	STRING	Backblaze B2 account ID, present only if provider is backblaze
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} b2_account_key	STRING	Backblaze B2 account KEY, present only if provider is backblaze
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} aws_access_key_id	STRING	AWS S3 access key, present only if provider is aws
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} aws_secret_access_key	STRING	AWS S3 secret key, present only if provider is aws
cluster/backup_repository/{repo} aws_access_key_id	STRING	AWS S3 region, present only if provider is aws

cluster/backup/

The attribute of a backup schedule are stored in an HASH key under the cluster/backup/ key prefix.

key	type	description
cluster/backup/{id}	HASH	A backup repository numeric ID
cluster/backup/{id} name	STRING	Backup name
cluster/backup/{id} enabled	0|1	(0 disabled, 1 enabled)
cluster/backup/{id} repository	STRING	UUID of backup_repository
cluster/backup/{id} retention	INTEGER	Number of snapshots to keep
cluster/backup/{id} schedule	STRING	Schedule time using onCalendar systemd syntax
cluster/backup/{id} schedule_hint	STRING	Schedule in JSON format for the UI

cluster/user_domain/

Settings storage for external user domains, LDAP databases not hosted by the cluster.

key	type	description
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/conf	HASH	An external LDAP domain
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/conf schema	STRING	It can be ad or rfc2307
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/conf bind_dn	STRING	LDAP bind DN
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/conf bind_password	STRING	LDAP bind password
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/conf base_dn	STRING	LDAP base DN
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/conf tls	STRING	Can be on or off
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/conf tls_verify	STRING	Can be on or off
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/providers	LIST	List of domain provider hosts
cluster/user_domain/ldap/{domain}/ui_names	HASH	UI labels for domain providers. The key is the provider name, eg ldap.ns.test:389 => mylabel

cluster/counters_cache/

Store the counters of users and groups for each user domain.

key	type	description
cluster/counters_cache/users/{domain}	INT	Cached number of users in the domain, updated by list APIs
cluster/counters_cache/groups/{domain}	INT	Cached number of groups in the domain, updated by list APIs

node/

Keys with this key prefix are publicly readable. Each node agent has write access to its keys under node/{id}/, where {id} is the integer identifier of the node (e.g. node/1/...).

key	type	description
node/{id}/vpn	HASH
node/{id}/vpn ip_address	STRING	IP address in cluster/network
node/{id}/vpn public_key	STRING	Public WireGuard VPN key
node/{id}/vpn destinations	STRING	List of IP addresses routed through the VPN
node/{id}/vpn endpoint	STRING	Public IP or host name of the VPN endpoint with :port suffix
node/{id}/flags	SET	Flags to mark a node. Supported flags: nomodules, the node can’t run any module
node/{id}/roles/{role}	SET	glob patterns matching the actions that {role} can run. {role} is one of “owner”, “reader”…
node/{id}/tcp_ports_sequence	INTEGER	Lower boundary for the next TCP_PORTS_RANGE allocation, default: 20000
node/{id}/udp_ports_sequence	INTEGER	Lower boundary for the next UDP_PORTS_RANGE allocation, default: 20000
node/{id}/default_instance/{image}	STRING	A module ID for the given image ID
node/{id}/environment	HASH	Node environment variables
node/{id}/ui_name	STRING	UI label for the node

module/

Keys with this key prefix are publicly readable. Each node agent has write access to its keys under module/{id}/, where {id} is the module instance identifier (e.g. module/openldap1/...).

key	type	description
module/{id}/environment	HASH
module/{id}/roles/{role}	SET	glob patterns matching the actions that {role} can run. {role} is one of “owner”, “reader”…
module/{id}/backups	SET	List of backup numeric IDs
module/{id}/flags	SET	Images flags copied from org.nethserver.flags image label
module/{id}/srv/{transport}/{service}	HASH	Service discovery information for other modules. See Service providers

task/

Keys with this prefix hold sensitive information about a task execution. The {agent_id} identifies the agent that can read/write the keys. For instance cluster, node/2, module/traefik1…

key	type	description
task/{agent_id}/context	STRING	JSON representation of a task
task/{agent_id}/error	STRING	stderr data generated by the action execution
task/{agent_id}/output	STRING	task output, JSON-encoded
task/{agent_id}/exit_code	INTEGER	action exit code

user/

key	type	description
user/{username}	HASH
user/{username} display_name	STRING	Name and surname
user/{username} email	STRING	Mail address

roles/

Each user (or agent) can assume at most one role when it interacts with another agent. This relation is stored in Redis in a key of type HASH. A key of the hash is the agent identifier and the corresponding value is the name of the role.

key	type	description
roles/{username}	HASH
roles/{username} {agent_id}	STRING	Name of the role - {agent_id} is for instance module/mail1, cluster…

module/traefikX/

Each node runs a Traefik module instance. TLS certificates are stored under its module key prefix.

key	type	description
module/traefik{X}/certificate/{name}	HASH
module/traefik{X}/certificate/{name} key	STRING	Base64 key of a x509 certificate
module/traefik{X}/certificate/{name} cert	STRING	Base64 x509 certificate

AGENT_ID/tasks

Each agent runs a wait loop to run tasks assigned to it. It waits on a task queue implemented with a Redis LIST key with the form {AGENT_ID}/tasks.

key	type	description
cluster/tasks	LIST	Task items are JSON encoded objects
node/{id}/tasks	LIST	Task items are JSON encoded objects
module/{id}/tasks	LIST	Task items are JSON encoded objects

An element of the task queue is a JSON-encoded string representing an object with the following basic attributes:

attribute	type	description
id	string	UUID generated by the API server
action	string	e.g. list-users, install, create-domain…
data	any	any JSON type (object, list…)

For instance

{
  "id": "66b73f7a-8998-4262-a784-36639fc4b2c1",
  "action": "list-actions",
  "data": ["cancel-task", "list-actions"]
}