git-annex/doc/todo/git-annex_proxies.mdwn

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This is a summary todo covering several subprojects, which would extend
git-annex to be able to use proxies which sit in front of a cluster of
repositories.
1. [[design/passthrough_proxy]]
2. [[design/p2p_protocol_over_http]]
3. [[design/balanced_preferred_content]]
4. [[todo/track_free_space_in_repos_via_git-annex_branch]]
5. [[todo/proving_preferred_content_behavior]]
## table of contents
[[!toc ]]
## planned schedule
Joey has received funding to work on this.
Planned schedule of work:
* June: git-annex proxies and clusters
* July: p2p protocol over http
* August, part 1: git-annex proxy support for exporttree
* August, part 2: balanced preferred content
* October: proving behavior of balanced preferred content with proxies
* September: streaming through proxy to special remotes (especially S3)
[[!tag projects/openneuro]]
## work notes
* Currently working in [[todo/proving_preferred_content_behavior]]
* sim: Can a cluster using size balanced preferred content be simulated?
May need the sim to get the concept of a cluster gateway, since the
gateway is what picks amoung the nodes on the basis of size. On the other
hand, it may suffice to connect the client repo directly to each node of
the cluster, and let that repo pick which nodes to send to.
The difference between having a cluster gateway and direct connections to
the nodes is when there are multiple clients. The cluster gateway updates
its location logs to reflect changes in the nodes that get proxies via
it. So it will pick a node that is not full when using size balanced
preferred content. If two clients are accessing a node directly without a
cluster gateway, that doesn't happen.
So, for a cluster accessed via a single client, direct connections to the
nodes are ok for the sim. But for multiple clients, the sim would need to
support clusters.
Would it suffice, if a repo is a node in a cluster, for every change to
its location log to be immediately propagated to every other repo in the
sim that has a connection to it? That simulates the centralized view that
the cluster gateway has, without the complication of actually simulating
a cluster gateway.
That would not allows simulating a cluster node that is
also accessed directly via another repository. But cluster nodes
generally should not be accessed except via the gateway. Still, to allow
simulating that, it would be possible to have a new type of connection,
which is via a gateway. Use eg "-g->" for it. Then to simulate a cluster,
which foo is accessing via a gateway:
connect node1 <-g- foo -g-> node2
connect node1 <-g- bar -g-> node2
What that would do is, for every change in foo's location log for node1
or node2, immediately propagate it to bar's location log.
Or an alternative syntax:
cluster g node1 node2
connect g-node1 <- foo -> g-node2
connect g-node1 <- bar -> g-node2
The only thing that does not allow simulating is 2 cluster gateways
that each proxy for some of the same nodes. In that situation, there
are two views of the contents of the nodes, which is similar to two
clients having direct connections to the nodes, but not the same when
there are more than 2 clients connected to the 2 gateways. Simulating
that would require a first-class gateway simulation with its own location
log and node selection.
* sim: Add support for metadata, so preferred content that matches on it
will work
* The sim cannot be safely interrupted, or two processes be run
concurrently. Both unlike other git-annex commands. Either document these
limitations, or add locking and make it detect when it was interrupted
and re-run the sim from the start to resume.
## items deferred until later for balanced preferred content and maxsize tracking
* The assistant is using NoLiveUpdate, but it should be posssible to plumb
a LiveUpdate through it from preferred content checking to location log
updating.
* `git-annex info` in the limitedcalc path in cachedAllRepoData
double-counts redundant information from the journal due to using
overLocationLogs. In the other path it does not (any more; it used to),
and this should be fixed for consistency and correctness.
* getLiveRepoSizes has a filterM getRecentChange over the live updates.
This could be optimised to a single sql join. There are usually not many
live updates, but sometimes there will be a great many recent changes,
so it might be worth doing this optimisation. Persistent is not capable
of this, would need dependency added on esquelito.
## completed items for August's work on balanced preferred content
* Balanced preferred content basic implementation, including --rebalance
option.
* Implemented [[track_free_space_in_repos_via_git-annex_branch]]
* Implemented tracking of live changes to repository sizes.
* `git-annex maxsize`
* annex.fullybalancedthreshhold
## completed items for August's work on git-annex proxy support for exporttre
* Special remotes configured with exporttree=yes annexobjects=yes
can store objects in .git/annex/objects, as well as an exported tree.
* Support proxying to special remotes configured with
exporttree=yes annexobjects=yes.
* post-retrieve: When proxying is enabled for an exporttree=yes
special remote and the configured remote.name.annex-tracking-branch
is received, the tree is exported to the special remote.
* When getting from a P2P HTTP remote, prompt for credentials when
required, instead of failing.
* Prevent `updateproxy` and `updatecluster` from adding
an exporttree=yes special remote that does not have
annexobjects=yes, to avoid foot shooting.
* Implement `git-annex export treeish --to=foo --from=bar`, which
gets from bar as needed to send to foo. Make post-retrieve use
`--to=r --from=r` to handle the multiple files case.
## items deferred until later for p2p protocol over http
* `git-annex p2phttp` should support serving several repositories at the same
time (not as proxied remotes), so that eg, every git-annex repository
on a server can be served on the same port.
* Support proxying to git remotes that use annex+http urls. This needs a
translation from P2P protocol to servant-client to P2P protocol.
* Should be possible to use a git-remote-annex annex::$uuid url as
remote.foo.url with remote.foo.annexUrl using annex+http, and so
not need a separate web server to serve the git repository. Doesn't work
currently because git-remote-annex urls only support special remotes.
It would need a new form of git-remote-annex url, eg:
annex::$uuid?annex+http://example.com/git-annex/
* `git-annex p2phttp` could support systemd socket activation. This would
allow making a systemd unit that listens on port 80.
## completed items for July's work on p2p protocol over http
* HTTP P2P protocol design [[design/p2p_protocol_over_http]].
* addressed [[doc/todo/P2P_locking_connection_drop_safety]]
* implemented server and client for HTTP P2P protocol
* added git-annex p2phttp command to serve HTTP P2P protocol
* Make git-annex p2phttp support https.
* Allow using annex+http urls in remote.name.annexUrl
* Make http server support proxying.
* Make http server support serving a cluster.
## items deferred until later for [[design/passthrough_proxy]]
* Check annex.diskreserve when proxying for special remotes
to avoid the proxy's disk filling up with the temporary object file
cached there.
* Resuming an interrupted download from proxied special remote makes the proxy
re-download the whole content. It could instead keep some of the
object files around when the client does not send SUCCESS. This would
use more disk, but without streaming, proxying a special remote already
needs some disk. And it could minimize to eg, the last 2 or so.
The design doc has some more thoughts about this.
* Streaming download from proxied special remotes. See design.
(Planned for September)
* When an upload to a cluster is distributed to multiple special remotes,
a temporary file is written for each one, which may even happen in
parallel. This is a lot of extra work and may use excess disk space.
It should be possible to only write a single temp file.
(With streaming this won't be an issue.)
* Indirect uploads when proxying for special remote
(to be considered). See design.
* Getting a key from a cluster currently picks from amoung
the lowest cost remotes at random. This could be smarter,
eg prefer to avoid using remotes that are doing other transfers at the
same time.
* The cost of a proxied node that is accessed via an intermediate gateway
is currently the same as a node accessed via the cluster gateway.
To fix this, there needs to be some way to tell how many hops through
gateways it takes to get to a node. Currently the only way is to
guess based on number of dashes in the node name, which is not satisfying.
Even counting hops is not very satisfying, one cluster gateway could
be much more expensive to traverse than another one.
If seriously tackling this, it might be worth making enough information
available to use spanning tree protocol for routing inside clusters.
* Optimise proxy speed. See design for ideas.
* Speed: A proxy to a local git repository spawns git-annex-shell
to communicate with it. It would be more efficient to operate
directly on the Remote. Especially when transferring content to/from it.
But: When a cluster has several nodes that are local git repositories,
and is sending data to all of them, this would need an alternate
interface than `storeKey`, which supports streaming, of chunks
of a ByteString.
* Use `sendfile()` to avoid data copying overhead when
`receiveBytes` is being fed right into `sendBytes`.
Library to use:
<https://hackage.haskell.org/package/hsyscall-0.4/docs/System-Syscall.html>
* Support using a proxy when its url is a P2P address.
(Eg tor-annex remotes.)
## completed items for June's work on [[design/passthrough_proxy]]:
* UUID discovery via git-annex branch. Add a log file listing UUIDs
accessible via proxy UUIDs. It also will contain the names
of the remotes that the proxy is a proxy for,
from the perspective of the proxy. (done)
* Add `git-annex updateproxy` command (done)
* Remote instantiation for proxies. (done)
* Implement git-annex-shell proxying to git remotes. (done)
* Proxy should update location tracking information for proxied remotes,
so it is available to other users who sync with it. (done)
* Implement `git-annex initcluster` and `git-annex updatecluster` commands (done)
* Implement cluster UUID insertation on location log load, and removal
on location log store. (done)
* Omit cluster UUIDs when constructing drop proofs, since lockcontent will
always fail on a cluster. (done)
* Don't count cluster UUID as a copy in numcopies checking etc. (done)
* Tab complete proxied remotes and clusters in eg --from option. (done)
* Getting a key from a cluster should proxy from one of the nodes that has
it. (done)
* Implement upload with fanout to multiple cluster nodes and reporting back
additional UUIDs over P2P protocol. (done)
* Implement cluster drops, trying to remove from all nodes, and returning
which UUIDs it was dropped from. (done)
* `git-annex testremote` works against proxied remote and cluster. (done)
* Avoid `git-annex sync --content` etc from operating on cluster nodes by
default since syncing with a cluster implicitly syncs with its nodes. (done)
* On upload to cluster, send to nodes where its preferred content, and not
to other nodes. (done)
* Support annex.jobs for clusters. (done)
* Add `git-annex extendcluster` command and extend `git-annex updatecluster`
to support clusters with multiple gateways. (done)
* Support proxying for a remote that is proxied by another gateway of
a cluster. (done)
* Support distributed clusters: Make a proxy for a cluster repeat
protocol messages on to any remotes that have the same UUID as
the cluster. Needs extension to P2P protocol to avoid cycles.
(done)
* Proxied cluster nodes should have slightly higher cost than the cluster
gateway. (done)
* Basic support for proxying special remotes. (But not exporttree=yes ones
yet.) (done)
* Tab complete remotes in all relevant commands (done)
* Display cluster and proxy information in git-annex info (done)