Configuring Proxies for the Greenplum Interconnect

You can configure a Greenplum system to use proxies for interconnect communication to reduce the use of connections and ports during query processing.

The Greenplum interconnect (the networking layer) refers to the inter-process communication between segments and the network infrastructure on which this communication relies. For information about the Greenplum architecture and interconnect, see About the Greenplum Architecture.

In general, when running a query, a QD (query dispatcher) on the Greenplum master creates connections to one or more QE (query executor) processes on segments, and a QE can create connections to other QEs. For a description of Greenplum query processing and parallel query processing, see About Greenplum Query Processing.

By default, connections between the QD on the master and QEs on segment instances and between QEs on different segment instances require a separate network port. You can configure a Greenplum system to use proxies when Greenplum communicates between the QD and QEs and between QEs on different segment instances. The interconnect proxies require only one network connection for Greenplum internal communication between two segment instances, so it consumes fewer connections and ports than TCP mode, and has better performance than UDPIFC mode in a high-latency network.

To enable interconnect proxies for the Greenplum system, set these system configuration parameters.

List the proxy ports with the parameter gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses. You must specify a proxy port for the master, standby master, and all segment instances.
Set the parameter gp_interconnect_type to proxy.

Note: When expanding a Greenplum Database system, you must disable interconnect proxies before adding new hosts and segment instances to the system, and you must update the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter with the newly-added segment instances before you re-enable interconnect proxies.

Example

This example sets up a Greenplum system to use proxies for the Greenplum interconnect when running queries. The example sets the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter and tests the proxies before setting the gp_interconnect_type parameter for the Greenplum system.

Setting the Interconnect Proxy Addresses
Testing the Interconnect Proxies
Setting Interconnect Proxies for the System

Setting the Interconnect Proxy Addresses

Set the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter to specify the proxy ports for the master and segment instances. The syntax for the value has the following format and you must specify the parameter value as a single-quoted string.

<db_id>:<cont_id>:<seg_address>:<port>[, ... ]

For the master, standby master, and segment instance, the first three fields, db_id, cont_id, and seg_address can be found in the gp_segment_configuration catalog table. The fourth field, port, is the proxy port for the Greenplum master or a segment instance.

db_id is the dbid column in the catalog table.
cont_id is the content column in the catalog table.
seg_address is the IP address or hostname corresponding to the address column in the catalog table.
port is the TCP/IP port for the segment instance proxy that you specify.

Important: If a segment instance hostname is bound to a different IP address at runtime, you must execute gpstop -U to re-load the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses value.

This is an example PL/Python function that displays or sets the segment instance proxy port values for the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter. To create and run the function, you must enable PL/Python in the database with the CREATE EXTENSION plpythonu command.

--
-- A PL/Python function to setup the interconnect proxy addresses.
-- Requires the Python modules os and socket.
--
-- Usage:
--   select my_setup_ic_proxy(-1000, '');              -- display IC proxy values for segments
--   select my_setup_ic_proxy(-1000, 'update proxy');  -- update the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter
--
-- The first argument, "delta", is used to calculate the proxy port with this formula:
--
--   proxy_port = postmaster_port + delta
--
-- The second argument, "action", is used to update the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter.
-- The parameter is not updated unless "action" is 'update proxy'.
-- Note that running  "gpstop -u" is required for the update to take effect. 
-- A Greenplum system restart will also work.
--
create or replace function my_setup_ic_proxy(delta int, action text)
returns table(dbid smallint, content smallint, address text, port int) as $$
    import os
    import socket

    results = []
    value = ''

    segs = plpy.execute('''SELECT dbid, content, port, address
                              FROM gp_segment_configuration
                            ORDER BY 1''')
    for seg in segs:
        dbid = seg['dbid']
        content = seg['content']
        port = seg['port']
        address = seg['address']

        # decide the proxy port
        port = port + delta

        # append to the result list
        results.append((dbid, content, address, port))

        # build the value for the GUC
        if value:
            value += ','
        value += '{}:{}:{}:{}'.format(dbid, content, address, port)

    if action.lower() == 'update proxy':
        os.system('''gpconfig --skipvalidation -c gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses -v "'{}'"'''.format(value))
        plpy.notice('''the settings are applied, please reload with 'gpstop -u' to take effect.''')
    else:
        plpy.notice('''if the settings are correct, re-run with 'update proxy' to apply.''')
    return results
$$ language plpythonu execute on master;

Note: When you run the function, you should connect to the database using the Greenplum interconnect type UDPIFC or TCP. This example uses psql to connect to the database mytest with the interconnect type UDPIFC.

PGOPTIONS="-c gp_interconnect_type=udpifc" psql -d mytest

Running this command lists the segment instance values for the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter.

select my_setup_ic_proxy(-1000, '');

This command runs the function to set the parameter.

select my_setup_ic_proxy(-1000, 'update proxy');

As an alternative, you can run the gpconfig utility to set the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter. To set the value as a string, the value is a single-quoted string that is enclosed in double quotes. The example Greenplum system consists of a master and a single segment instance.

gpconfig --skipvalidation -c gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses -v "'1:-1:192.168.180.50:35432,2:0:192.168.180.54:35000'"

After setting the gp_interconnect_proxy_addresses parameter, reload the postgresql.conf file with the gpstop -u command. This command does not stop and restart the Greenplum system.

Testing the Interconnect Proxies

To test the proxy ports configured for the system, you can set the PGOPTIONS environment variable when you start a psql session in a command shell. This command sets the environment variable to enable interconnect proxies, starts psql, and logs into the database mytest.

PGOPTIONS="-c gp_interconnect_type=proxy" psql -d mytest

You can run queries in the shell to test the system. For example, you can run a query that accesses all the primary segment instances. This query displays the segment IDs and number of rows on the segment instance from the table sales.

# SELECT gp_segment_id, COUNT(*) FROM sales GROUP BY gp_segment_id ;

Setting Interconnect Proxies for the System

After you have tested the interconnect proxies for the system, set the server configuration parameter for the system with the gpconfig utility.

gpconfig -c  gp_interconnect_type -v proxy

Reload the postgresql.conf file with the gpstop -u command. This command does not stop and restart the Greenplum system.