Broodlord.rst

Auto-scaling with Broodlord mode

Broodlord (taken from Starcraft, like :doc:`Zerg` mode) is a way for vassals to ask for more workers from the Emperor. Broodlord mode alone is not very useful. However, when combined with :doc:`Zerg`, :doc:`Idle` and :doc:`Emperor` it can be used to implement auto-scaling for your apps.

A simple example

We'll start apps with a single worker, adding resources on demand. Broodlord mode expects an additional stanza in your config file to be used for zergs.

[uwsgi]
socket = :3031
master = true
vassal-sos-backlog = 10
module = werkzeug.testapp:test_app
processes = 1
zerg-server = /tmp/broodlord.sock
disable-logging = true

[zerg]
zerg = /tmp/broodlord.sock
master = true
module = werkzeug.testapp:test_app
processes = 1
disable-logging = true
idle = 30
die-on-idle = true

The vassal-sos-backlog option (supported only on Linux and TCP sockets) will ask the Emperor for zergs when the listen queue is higher than the given value. By default the value is 10. More "vassal-sos-" options will be added in the future to allow for more specific detect-overload systems.

The [zerg] stanza is the config the Emperor will run when a vassal requires resources. The die-on-idle option will completely destroy the zerg when inactive for more than 30 seconds. This configuration shows how to combine the various uWSGI features to implement different means of scaling. To run the Emperor we need to specify how many zerg instances can be run:

uwsgi --emperor /etc/vassals --emperor-broodlord 40

This will allow you to run up to 40 additional zerg workers for your apps.