How to configure Stingray AutoScaling at Amazon EC2

[duduklein]

Stingray has 2 methods to configure auto scaling of nodes in a pool.

The 1st one is entirely controlled by Stingray and the 2nd one is controlled by an external system and Stingray checks for the nodes' statuses to register/unregister nodes in the specified pool.

I tried to use the 1st method and the API was returning an error because my AWS account does not have a default VPC. This can be solved, but I still did not see any option to set which subnets the auto scaling will use nor the security group. The only parameters available are "ImageId" and "InstanceType". Can I specify additional parameters (such as VPC, subnets, security group, etc)?

The 2nd method, as far as I understood, I'm supposed to create an auto scaling group using AWS auto-scaling feature and tell Stingray to use the instances in that auto-scaling group in the pool. The problem is that I can't enter the auto-scaling group ID (or name) anywhere. So how can I inform Stingray which nodes to include/exclude from the pool?

Thanks in advance

[markbod · Accepted solution]

Hi Eduardo,

Your assertions about option 1 are correct. The only options you have when deploying a node using STM Auto-Scaler in Amazon are the imageid and the instance type. You can not set any other options with the built-in module.  There is an open feature request for enhancing this module, so if you send me a private message with your account information I can add you as an interested party.

With regards to the second option. If autoscale!external is set to yes, then STM takes no part in provisioning nodes or modifying the pool configuration. It essentially just allows you to create an empty pool. You need to manage the scaling of the nodes outside of STM, and have a workflow that updates the pool configuration when changes are made. The REST and SOAP APIs are the most obvious ways to update the pool configuration, but you could also write a script for the zcli if you wish.

Cheers,

Mark