Reloading configuration on a running system

mongooseimctl subcommands for configuration reloading are:

mongooseimctl reload_local

mongooseimctl reload_cluster

mongooseimctl reload_cluster_dryrun

reload_local is unsafe as it reloads the configuration only on the local node. This might introduce inconsistencies between different nodes in the cluster. It's available as a safety mechanism for the rare case of a cluster-global reload failing.

reload_cluster applies the configuration on all nodes in the cluster. The prerequisite is that the same version of a config file must be available on all nodes. All nodes in a cluster must have the same config loaded into memory as well. There is a small exception from this rule, see "Node-specific options" below on this page.

reload_cluster_dryrun calculates and prints config changes, but does not apply them. Useful for debugging.

Non-reloadable options

Some options require restarting the server in order to be reloaded. The following options' changes will be ignored when using mongooseimctl tool: * domain_certfile * s2s_ * all_metrics_are_global * odbc_

Node-specific options

Usually all nodes in cluster share the same configuration.

But sometimes we want different configs for each node in a cluster.

By default in such cases reload_cluster would detect a configuration inconsistency and would not allow configuration updates.

To tell reload_cluster to ignore such options, extra information should be provided in ejabberd.cfg.

It's called node_specific_options.

They are defined on top level of the configuration file using node_specific_options tuple. This tuple should be the same for all configs in a cluster.

node_specific_options contains a list of match patterns. If you are familiar with ETS tables or Mnesia tuple matching - it's the same thing. Match patterns are documented in Erlang/OTP docs.

The pattern mechanism is also documented in Learn you some Erlang book.

Basically, it allows you to put '_' to match every possible host.

[h,'_',module_opt,mod_muc_log, outdir] would match [h,<<"localhost">>,module_opt,mod_muc_log, outdir] and [h,<<"any.other.host">>,module_opt,mod_muc_log, outdir].

Example showing where to put node_specific_options.

{hosts, ["localhost"]}.
{node_specific_options, [
    [h,'_',module_opt,mod_muc_log, outdir]
 ]}.
{modules, [....]}.

The node_specific_options patterns are matched against flat configuration options. To print your config in a flat form, use the command with a running node mongooseimctl print_flat_config.

Example:

_build/mim1/rel/mongooseim/bin/mongooseimctl print_flat_config
Flat options:
{[l,listen],'FLAT'}.
{[l,listener,{5280,{0,0,0,0},tcp},ejabberd_cowboy],'FLAT'}.
{[l,listener_opt,{5280,{0,0,0,0},tcp},ejabberd_cowboy,num_acceptors],10}.
{[l,listener_opt,{5280,{0,0,0,0},tcp},ejabberd_cowboy,transport_options],
 [{max_connections,1024}]}.
...
{[h,<<"anonymous.localhost">>,auth_method],anonymous}.
{[h,<<"localhost.bis">>,modules],'FLAT'}.
{[h,<<"localhost.bis">>,module,mod_carboncopy],'FLAT'}.
{[h,<<"localhost.bis">>,module,mod_stream_management],'FLAT'}.
{[h,<<"localhost.bis">>,module,mod_muc_commands],'FLAT'}.
{[h,<<"localhost.bis">>,module,mod_amp],'FLAT'}.
{[h,<<"localhost.bis">>,module,mod_offline],'FLAT'}.
{[h,<<"localhost.bis">>,module_opt,mod_offline,access_max_user_messages],
 max_user_offline_messages}.
...

More information about flat options format

Node-specific options for Global Distribution

Node-specific options mechanism was designed to allow mod_global_distrib to be configured with different parameters for each node.

Real life configuration example:

{node_specific_options, [
    [h,'_',module_opt,mod_global_distrib,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_opt,mod_global_distrib,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib,connections,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib,connections,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib,redis,server],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_bounce,connections,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_bounce,connections,advertised_endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_bounce,connections,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_bounce,connections,endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_disco,connections,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_disco,connections,advertised_endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_hosts_refresher,connections,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_hosts_refresher,connections,advertised_endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_hosts_refresher,connections,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_hosts_refresher,connections,endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_hosts_refresher,redis,server],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_mapping,connections,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_mapping,connections,advertised_endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_mapping,connections,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_mapping,connections,endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_mapping,redis,server],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,advertised_endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,connections,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,connections,advertised_endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,connections,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,connections,endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_receiver,redis,server],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,advertised_endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,connections,advertised_endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,connections,advertised_endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,connections,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,connections,endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,endpoints],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,endpoints,'_'],
    [h,'_',module_subopt,mod_global_distrib_sender,redis,server]
]}.

'_' means that any value can be there.

Usually, all modules are configured using just one level of option nesting. module_subopt means that we are interested in a nested option.

node_specific_options can be used with any module, not just mod_global_distrib (but usually you want all options to be the same on all nodes!).

Any flat option can be used in node_specific_options.

Node-specific modules

We don't compare options of node-specific modules for configuration consistency check. We also don't check, if all nodes run these modules (it's fine to run them only on some nodes in a cluster).

{node_specific_options, [
    [h,'_',module,mod_global_distrib]
]}.