Elastic Compute Service:Stability tools practice

Configure kdump

kdump is a Linux kernel feature that generates a core dump file for analysis and troubleshooting when the kernel crashes. You can use the Cloud Assistant ecs_dump_config plugin to quickly enable, disable, or query the kdump feature.

1. Go to the ECS console - Instances.

2. In the upper-left corner of the page, select the resource group and region of the target instance.

3. Select the target instance, click Connect, and then log on to the Linux instance using Workbench.

4. Configure kdump.

   • Enable kdump

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs_dump_config --params --enable

   • Disable kdump

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs_dump_config --params --disable

   • Query kdump status

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs_dump_config --params --status

Configure an auxiliary ENI with one click

After you add an auxiliary Elastic Network Interface (ENI) to an ECS instance, you must configure its network parameters. For CentOS systems, you can use the Cloud Assistant multi-nic-util plugin to simplify the process by configuring the network with a single command.

1. Log on to the Linux instance using Workbench.

2. Run the following command to configure the auxiliary ENI.

   sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=multi-nic-util

Configure IPv6

You can use the Cloud Assistant ecs-utils-ipv6 plugin to configure the IPv6 network for an ECS instance that has an IPv6 address, or remove the IPv6 configuration from an instance that does not. The plugin lets you automatically configure, manually configure, enable, or disable IPv6.

1. Log on to the Linux instance using Workbench.

2. Configure IPv6.

   • Enable IPv6

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs-utils-ipv6 --params --enable

   • Disable IPv6

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs-utils-ipv6 --params --disable

   • Automatically configure IPv6

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs-utils-ipv6

   • Manually configure IPv6

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs-utils-ipv6 --params --static,<dev>,<ip6s>,<prefix_len>,<gw6>

     <dev>: The name of the target network interface, such as eth0.

     <ip6s>: The IPv6 address to configure.

     <prefix_len>: The prefix length of the IPv6 address, such as 64.

     <gw6>: The IPv6 gateway address.

Configure multi-queue for a network interface card

The multi-queue feature for network interface cards (NICs) improves network performance by distributing network interrupts across multiple CPUs. You can use the Cloud Assistant ecs_tools_multiqueue plugin to set the number of queues for all NICs to the maximum supported value with a single command.

1. Log on to the Linux instance using Workbench.

2. Run the following command to set the number of queues for all NICs to the maximum supported value.

   sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs_tools_multiqueue

Manage Intel Hyper-Threading (HT)

Some scenarios require you to disable the Intel Hyper-Threading (HT) feature on ECS Bare Metal instances. You can use the Cloud Assistant ecs_disable_intel_hyper-threading plugin to disable this feature.

This plugin applies only to ECS Bare Metal instance types. If you run this plugin on other instance types, an error message is returned indicating that the instance type is not supported.

1. Log on to the Linux instance using Workbench.

2. Run the following command to disable Intel Hyper-Threading.

   sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=ecs_disable_intel_hyper-threading

Quickly configure an NVMe driver

You can use the Cloud Assistant ecs_nvme_config plugin to quickly configure the NVMe driver. This plugin is supported on various operating systems, such as Alibaba Cloud Linux, CentOS, and Ubuntu.

1. Log on to the Linux instance using Workbench.

2. Check whether the plugin is available.

   If the Cloud Assistant Agent is not installed, you must install it. If ecs_nvme_config is in the plugin list, proceed to the next step.

   acs-plugin-manager --list

3. Check the status of the NVMe module.

   sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin ecs_nvme_config --params --check

   • If the following output is returned, the configuration is successful:

     [SUCCESS]  Summary: Your image can run on an NVMe instance.

   • If an error message is returned, run the configuration command:

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin ecs_nvme_config --params --fix

4. Restart the instance.

   sudo reboot

5. Check the configuration status again.

   sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin ecs_nvme_config --params --check

   After a successful configuration, the output is as follows:

   [OK]  1. The initrd/initramfs already contains the NVMe module.
   
   [OK]  2. The fstab file looks fine and does not contain any device names.
   
   [OK]  3. The NVMe parameters are already included.
   
   [SUCCESS]  Summary: Your image can run on an NVMe instance.

Manage security patches

To keep your ECS instances secure, regularly scan for and install missing system security patches. You can use the Cloud Assistant patch_manager plugin to scan for and install these patches.

1. Log on to the Linux instance using Workbench.

2. Manage security patches.

   • Scan for security patches

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=patch_manager --params --operation,scan

   • Install security patches. The system automatically restarts the ECS instance if needed.

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=patch_manager --params --operation,install,--reboot,ifneed

   • Install security patches without restarting the ECS instance

     sudo acs-plugin-manager --exec --plugin=patch_manager --params --operation,install,--reboot,no