Dispatching Candlepin Events With AMQP/Qpid

Below are a couple ways to configure Candlepin to dispatch events onto a Qpid message bus.

Standalone Qpid Server

Useful for developer or standalone deployments. The steps below will install qpid and configure candlepin to begin sending messages to it with SSL enabled.

  • Install qpid, generate ssl keys, and start the qpid server:

    $ server/bin/qpid/configure-qpid.sh
    
  • Ensure candlepin is configured to connect to Qpid.

Either generate candlepin.conf with Qpid enabled by passing -q to server/bin/deploy or in /etc/candlepin/candlepin.conf, manually set:

   candlepin.amqp.enable = true
   candlepin.amqp.connect=tcp://localhost:5671?ssl='true'&ssl_cert_alias='candlepin'
  • Restart tomcat:

    $ sudo service tomcat restart
    

Running Candlepin with Pulp

In Katello and Satellite deployments Candlepin is configured automatically to connect to the message bus set up by Pulp. This is normally handled automatically by the installer, but some notes on the steps involved for Candlepin are below:

  • Install Pulp https://pulp-user-guide.readthedocs.org/en/pulp-2.3/installation.html
  • Install the Qpid packages

    $ sudo yum install qpid-tools qpid-cpp-server-store
    
  • Add an events queue

    $ qpid-config add exchange topic event --durable
    

    If you are connecting to Qpid over SSL, the command will look something like

    $ qpid-config --ssl-certificate /path/to/client_cert --ssl-key /path/to/client_key -b amqps://localhost:5671 add exchange topic event --durable
    
  • Configure candlepin

    In /etc/candlepin/candlepin.conf add:

    candlepin.amqp.enable = true
    # Defaults to "tcp://localhost:5672?ssl='true'&ssl_cert_alias='amqp'"
    # Here I installed pulp on a machine: 192.168.1.187 with SSL
    candlepin.amqp.connect=tcp://192.168.1.187:5671?ssl='true'&ssl_cert_alias='amqp'
    

    The SSL cert alias must match whatever is in your /etc/candlepin/certs/amqp/candlepin.jks keystore. Use ‘portecle’ GUI tool to examine it. (default password is ‘password’ in developer deployments)

    If you are not using SSL then simply use tcp://IP_ADDR

  • Restart tomcat:

    $ sudo service tomcat6 restart
    
  • Use our client in server/bin/qpid_watch.py to monitor and/or drain events. Alternatively, you can use Qpid’s Python drain or Java drain.

Verify it’s working

Here’s the old method that worked without SSL:

With SSL, the most convenient way to monitor and/or drain events is to use our own client found in server/bin/qpid_watch.py:

$ cd server/
$ bin/qpid_watch.py -c bin/qpid/keys/qpid_ca.crt -k bin/qpid/keys/qpid_ca.key -s event --timeout -1 --show-message --drain

Alternatively, you could use the Java client example, which needs a full checkout of qpid:

  • Checkout code.

    $ git clone https://github.com/apache/qpid.git
    
  • Go into the source directory and build the java source.

    $ cd qpid/qpid/java
    $ ant build
    
  • Run the Java Drain client

    $ cd build/lib
    $ java -classpath `build-classpath-directory .` -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/etc/candlepin/certs/amqp/candlepin.truststore -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=/etc/candlepin/certs/amqp/candlepin.jks -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=password -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=password org.apache.qpid.example.Drain --broker=guest:guest@localhost:5671 --broker-option=ssl=true,ssl_cert_alias=amqp -f "event/"
    
  • Create an org and watch for incoming messages.

    $ cd server/client/ruby
    $ ./cpc create_owner orgA
    

Another option is to use qpid-printevents although it does not let you confine the output to a specific exchange.

$ qpid-printevents --ssl-certificate foo.cert --ssl-key foo.key amqps://localhost:5671

List of useful Qpid cli commands

If you have set up a standalone qpid server, the ssl certificate can be found in server/bin/qpid/keys/candlepin.crt, and the ssl key in server/bin/qpid/keys/candlepin.key.

  • Get message counts and general stats.

    $ sudo qpid-stat --ssl-certificate=path/to/cert --ssl-key path/to/key -b amqps://localhost:5671 -q allmsg
    
  • List the bindings (routes) for a queue.

    $ sudo qpid-config --ssl-certificate=path/to/cert --ssl-key path/to/key -b amqps://localhost:5671 queues allmsg -r
    
  • List the current exchanges.

    $ sudo qpid-config --ssl-certificate=path/to/cert --ssl-key path/to/key -b amqps://localhost:5671 exchanges
    
  • Delete An Exchange.

    $ sudo qpid-config --ssl-certificate=path/to/cert --ssl-key path/to/key -b amqps://localhost:5671 del exchange event
    
  • Create an excange.

    $ sudo qpid-config --ssl-certificate=path/to/cert --ssl-key path/to/key -b amqps://localhost:5671 add exchange topic event --durable
    
  • Create a binding for the exchange.

    $ sudo qpid-config --ssl-certificate=path/to/cert --ssl-key path/to/key -b amqps://localhost:5671 bind event allmsg '#'
    

Configure SSL

If you are running Pulp/Qpid on the same machine as your Candlepin server, you can use the configure-qpid.sh script to create a signed client certificate.

If Pulp/Qpid is on a separate machine, you will need to sign the client certificate on that machine. Copy the resulting certificate back to the client.

Last modified on 1 March 2024