Initializing the cluster

About initialization of a GitHub Enterprise Server cluster

To deploy a GitHub Enterprise Server cluster in your environment, you must install GitHub Enterprise Server, upload a cluster-enabled license, configure the first node, and initialize the node with a configuration file.

Installing GitHub Enterprise Server

To start setting up the cluster, install the GitHub Enterprise Server appliance on each node's virtual machine (VM), then configure an IP address.

1. On each cluster node, provision and install GitHub Enterprise Server. For more information, see Setting up a GitHub Enterprise Server instance.
2. Using the administrative shell or DHCP, only configure the IP address of each node. Don't configure any other settings.

Configuring the first node

On the node that will function as your primary MySQL node, install your GitHub Enterprise Server license.

1. Connect to the node that will be designated as MySQL primary in cluster.conf. For more information, see Initializing the cluster.
2. In your web browser, visit https://<ip address>:8443/setup/.
3. At the prompt, upload your license file and set a management console password. For more information, see "Managing your license for GitHub Enterprise."
4. In the Management Console, configure and save your desired settings.
5. The instance will restart automatically.

Initializing the cluster

To initialize the cluster, you need a cluster configuration file (cluster.conf). For more information, see Initializing the cluster.

1. From the first node that was configured, run ghe-cluster-config-init. This will initialize the cluster if there are nodes in the cluster configuration file that are not configured.
2. Run ghe-cluster-config-apply. This will validate the cluster.conf file, apply the configuration to each node file and bring up the configured services on each node.

To check the status of a running cluster use the ghe-cluster-status command.

About the cluster configuration file

The cluster configuration file (cluster.conf) defines the nodes in the cluster, and what services they run. For more information, see About cluster nodes.

This example cluster.conf defines a cluster with 11 nodes.

• Two nodes called ghes-front-end-node-\* run services responsible for responding to client requests.
• Three nodes called ghes-database-node-\* run services responsible for storage, retrieval, and replication of database data.
• Three nodes called ghes-search-node-\* run services responsible for search functionality.
• Three nodes called ghes-storage-node-\* run services responsible for storage, retrieval, and replication of data.

You must choose a valid and unique hostname and IPv4 address for each node. To ensure that nodes are locally resolvable to each other, GitHub Enterprise Server will add a record for each node's hostname to /etc/hosts on every node.

• For more information about valid hostnames for GitHub Enterprise Server, see Configuring the hostname for your instance.
• Each IPv4 address must be an address on a private network. See RFC 1918 on the IETF website.

Specify the first cluster node you configured as the MySQL primary via mysql-server and mysql-master.

[cluster]
  mysql-master = ghes-database-node-1
  redis-master = ghes-database-node-1
  primary-datacenter = primary
[cluster "ghes-front-end-node-1"]
  hostname = ghes-front-end-node-1
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.2
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::2
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  web-server = true
  job-server = true
  memcache-server = true
[cluster "ghes-front-end-node-2"]
  hostname = ghes-front-end-node-2
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.3
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::3
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  web-server = true
  job-server = true
  memcache-server = true
[cluster "ghes-database-node-1"]
  hostname = ghes-database-node-1
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.4
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::4
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  consul-server = true
  mysql-server = true
  redis-server = true
[cluster "ghes-database-node-2"]
  hostname = ghes-database-node-2
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.5
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::5
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  consul-server = true
  mysql-server = true
  redis-server = true
[cluster "ghes-database-node-3"]
  hostname = ghes-database-node-3
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.6
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::6
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  consul-server = true
  mysql-server = true
  redis-server = true
[cluster "ghes-search-node-1"]
  hostname = ghes-search-node-1
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.7
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::7
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  elasticsearch-server = true
[cluster "ghes-search-node-2"]
  hostname = ghes-search-node-2
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.8
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::8
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  elasticsearch-server = true
[cluster "ghes-search-node-3"]
  hostname = ghes-search-node-3
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.9
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::9
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  elasticsearch-server = true
[cluster "ghes-storage-node-1"]
  hostname = ghes-storage-node-1
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.10
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::10
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  git-server = true
  pages-server = true
  storage-server = true
  metrics-server = true
[cluster "ghes-storage-node-2"]
  hostname = ghes-storage-node-2
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.11
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::11
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  git-server = true
  pages-server = true
  storage-server = true
  metrics-server = true
[cluster "ghes-storage-node-3"]
  hostname = ghes-storage-node-3
  ipv4 = 192.168.0.12
  # ipv6 = fd12:3456:789a:1::12
  consul-datacenter = primary
  datacenter = primary
  git-server = true
  pages-server = true
  storage-server = true
  metrics-server = true

Create the file /data/user/common/cluster.conf on the configured first node. For example, using vim:

ghe-data-node-1:~$ sudo vim /data/user/common/cluster.conf