Cluster Configuration Files and Troubleshooting

This topic explains how to troubleshoot issues with VMware Tanzu GemFire cluster configuration files.

When you use the cluster configuration service in Tanzu GemFire, you can examine the generated configuration. The gfsh export cluster-configuration command outputs configured properties, the configuration on a per-group basis or for the entire cluster, and the list of deployed JAR files.

If the output is written to either a ZIP file or an XML file, you can import this configuration to a new cluster. See Exporting and Importing Cluster Configurations.

When you deploy a JAR file, the JAR file is added to a created directory called cluster_config within the locator’s directory of files. Within cluster_config will be another directory named for the member group that has the configuration. For configurations that apply to all members of a cluster, the directory is named either cluster or the name specified when starting up the locator with the --cluster-config-dir option.

Troubleshooting Tips

When you start a locator using gfsh, you should see the following message:
```
Cluster configuration service is up and running.
```
If you do not see this message, there may be a problem with the cluster configuration service. Use the status cluster-config-service command to check the status of the cluster configuration.
- If the command returns RUNNING, the cluster configuration is running normally.
- If the command returns WAITING, run the status locator command. The output of this command returns the cause of the WAITING status.
When using a cache.xml file for configuration, there is a specific order to the application of the configuration in these files. Tanzu GemFire applies the cluster-wide configuration files first. Group-level configurations follow. Last will be the configuration in a member’s own configuration files (cache.xml and gemfire.properties files).
If a server start fails with the following exception: ClusterConfigurationNotAvailableException, the cluster configuration service may not be in the RUNNING state. Because the server requests the cluster configuration from the locator, which is not available, the start server command fails.
You can determine what configurations a server received from a locator by examining the server’s log file. See Logging.
If a start server command specifies a cache.xml file that conflicts with the existing cluster configuration, the server startup may fail.

If a gfsh command fails because the cluster configuration cannot be saved, the following message displays:

Failed to persist the configuration changes due to this command, 
Revert the command to maintain consistency. Please use "status cluster-config-service" 
to determine whether Cluster configuration service is RUNNING."

There are some types of configurations that cannot be made using gfsh. See gfsh Limitations.