Framework documentation

Netrix provides the basic building blocks to enable central monitoring and control of replicas in a distributed system. With this central control, the framework aims to implement testing and visualization of the system. Netrix is modular to allow all class of distributed systems and protocol to be plugged in and is extensible in the form of control that can be exercised. Refer []

Configuration

A global configuration object provides the details needed for Netrix to run. Configuration consists of,

Config {
    NumReplicas     int
    APIServerAddr   string
    LogConfig {
        Path    string
        Format  string
        Level   string
    }
}

LogConfig

• Path is used to log to a file. If unspecified, Netrix logs to stdout.
• Format: Valid values are json. If left empty, Netrix logs in text format
• Level: Valid values are panic,fatal,error,warn,warning,info,debug,trace signifying the log level

Context

RootContext object serves the backbone of the framework. To run any components, one needs to pass a RootContext instance. The context contains the necessary queues and stores that components can make use of.

• ctx.ReplicaStore: thread safe key value store of Replica information
• ctx.MessageStore: thread safe message pool indexed by the message ID
• ctx.EventQueue: thread safe event queue that components can subscribe to.
• ctx.Config: reference to the configuration object
• ctx.Logger: A generic logger that components use to instantiate component specific logger objects

APIServer uses the RootContext object to push information about messages, events and replicas.

Components

The main components of Netrix are as follows

APIServer

APIServer instantiates a HTTP server at the configured APIServerAddr and implements the API spec. APIServer requires a MessageParser as an input parameter. MessageParser object is specific to the protocol being tested and allows a developer to plug in the deserializing and serializing of messages received on the /message endpoint.

APIServer also hosts a dashboard that can be used to provide a user interface for interactivity. DashboardRouter interface allows the mode used to provide UI specific APIs that can be used to control the components and measure metrics

Dispatcher

Dispatcher is used to send messages and directives to the replica. Instantiated with a context object, the Dispatcher communicates with the replicas in the Replica API spec.