Selective task execution v23.45.0

Using task selectors

You can tell TPA to run only a subset of the tasks that constitute a full deployment using the --excluded_tasks, --included_tasks, and --opt_in_tasks options to tpaexec deploy. Each of these arguments is a string treated as a comma-separated list of selectors. Equivalently, you can set the excluded_tasks, included_tasks, and opt_in_tasks variables in config.yml, either for the whole cluster or for the separate instances. In config.yml, you can use either a comma-separated string or a yaml list.

excluded_tasks

Names tasks that should not run. Any task listed here is unconditionally skipped, even if it would otherwise be enabled by the other lists. Empty by default; TPA runs every task that applies to the cluster.

included_tasks

When non-empty, restricts the deploy to only the named tasks: any task not in included_tasks is implicitly excluded. Useful when you want to re-run only a specific subset — for example, included_tasks: [repmgr] to re-run only the repmgr setup tasks. When empty (the default), every task that applies runs.

opt_in_tasks

Names tasks that should run only when explicitly opted in to. Some selectors (listed below as "run only when opted in to") are off-by-default and require an entry here to run. Unlike included_tasks, adding a name to opt_in_tasks does not engage whitelist semantics — it enables that one task without saying anything about any other task.

Interactions

excluded_tasks always wins: a task named there does not run, no matter what the other lists say. For example, on an AWS cluster sysctl_net is opted in to by default; to disable it again use excluded_tasks: [sysctl_net].

included_tasks and opt_in_tasks are independent. A non-empty included_tasks only constrains the set of tasks that would normally run; it does not by itself enable opt-in tasks. Conversely, listing a task in opt_in_tasks enables that one task whether or not included_tasks is set.

Some selectors may be used in either of the include/exclude lists, some only in the excluded_tasks list, and some only when opted in to, as detailed below. A separate set of selectors is available for tpaexec test.

Examples

To deploy without running barman-related tasks:

tpaexec deploy <clustername> --excluded_tasks=barman

To deploy running only repmgr-related tasks:

tpaexec deploy <clustername> --included_tasks=repmgr

To deploy without trying to set hostnames on the instances:

tpaexec deploy <clustername> --excluded_tasks=hostname

To prevent bootstrap and ssh tasks from ever running, put the following into config.yml:

cluster_vars:
    excluded_tasks:
    - bootstrap
    - ssh

Supported selectors for tpaexec deploy

The following selectors are supported for either inclusion or exclusion:

• barman

  Tasks related to Barman.

• bdr

  Tasks related to setting up BDR, including when it is as used within a PGD cluster. If this selector is excluded, TPA will still install and configure the extension as specified in config.yml, but won't create the node groups or try to join the nodes.

• create_pgd_proxy_system_user

  Tasks which creates the system user for pgd_proxy

• create_postgres_system_user

  Tasks which creates the system user for postgres

• efm

  Tasks related to EFM.

• etcd

  Tasks related to etcd.

• first-backup

  Tasks which ensure the minimum number of barman backups exist.

• haproxy

  Tasks related to haproxy.

• harp

  Tasks related to harp.

• patroni

  Tasks related to patroni.

• pem-agent

  Tasks related to the PEM agent.

• pem-server

  Tasks related to the PEM server.

• pem-webserver

  Tasks related to configuring the web server on a PEM server.

• pg-backup-api

  Tasks related to Barman's Postgres backup API.

• pgbouncer

  Tasks related to PgBouncer.

• pgd-proxy

  Tasks related to PGD Proxy.

• pglogical

  Tasks related to pglogical.

• pkg

  Tasks which install packages using the system package manager.

• post-deploy

  The post-deploy hook, if one is defined.

• postgres

  Tasks related to postgres.

• replica

  Tasks which are run and instances acting as postgres replicas.

• repmgr

  Tasks related to repmgr.

• restart

  Tasks which restart services

• sys

  Tasks related to system setup before any tasks specific to postgres or related software.

• zabbix-agent

  Tasks related to the zabbix agent.

The following selectors are supported only for exclusion:

• artifacts

  Tasks related to artifacts.

• barman-clean

  Tasks which clean up the Barman build directory if Barman is being built from source.

• barman-pre-config

  The barman-pre-config hook, if one is defined.

• bdr-pre-node-creation

  The bdr-pre-node-creation hook, if one is defined.

• bdr-post-group-creation

  The bdr-post-group-creation hook, if one is defined.

• bdr-pre-group-join

  The bdr-pre-group-join hook, if one is defined.

• bootstrap

  Tasks which ensure that python and other minimal dependencies are present before the rest of the deploy runs. Exclude this only if you are sure you have manually installed the relevant requirements.

• build-clean

  Tasks which clean up build directories for any software that is being built from source.

• build-configure

  Tasks which configure any software that is being built from source.

• cloudinit

  Tasks which are run only on hosts managed by cloud-init.

• commit-scopes

  Tasks related to configuration of BDR commit scopes.

• config

  Tasks which create config files.

• efm-pre-config

  The efm-pre-config hook, if one is defined.

• efm-post-config

  The efm-post-config hook, if one is defined.

• fs

  Tasks related to setting up additional volumes on instances.

• hostkeys

  Tasks which set up ssh host keys.

• hostname

  Tasks which set the hostname.

• hosts

  Tasks which add entries to /etc/hosts

• initdb

  Tasks which run initdb.

• local-repo

  Tasks which set up local package repositories.

• locale

  Tasks which install locale support.

• openvpn

  Tasks which set up OpenVPN.

• pg-backup-api-clean

  Tasks which clean up the build directory if the Postgres backup API is being built from source.

• pgbouncer-config

  Tasks which create configuration files for pgbouncer.

• pgpass

  Tasks which create the .pgpass file.

• post-repo

  The post-repo hook, if one is defined.

• postgres-clean

  Tasks which clean up the build directory if postgres is being built from source.

• postgres-config

  The postgres-config hook, if one is defined.

• postgres-config-final

  The postgres-config-final hook, if one is defined.

• pre-deploy

  The pre-deploy hook, if one is defined.

• pre-initdb

  The pre-initdb hook, if one is defined.

• replication-sets

  Tasks related to witness-only replication sets on a BDR3 cluster.

• repmgr-clean

  Tasks which clean up the build directory if repmgr is being built from source.

• repmgr-configure

  Tasks which configure repmgr if it is being built from source.

• repo

  Tasks which set up package repositories.

• rsyslog

  Tasks related to rsyslog.

• service

  Tasks related to system services, including configuration and restarting.

• src

  Tasks which build and install packages from source.

• ssh

  Tasks related to setting up ssh between instances.

• ssh-cluster-key-config

  Tasks which add the cluster SSH public key to the ansible_user's (default: root) authorized_keys file. This can be excluded on platforms where authorized_keys is managed externally or is read-only.

• sysctl

  Tasks which set and reload sysctl settings.

• sysstat

  Tasks releated to the sysstat service.

• tpa

  Tasks related to TPA's own files installed on instances.

• user

  Tasks related to setting up system users.

• watchdog

  Tasks related to the kernel watchdog on a patroni cluster.

The following selectors run only when opted in to via opt_in_tasks:

• sysctl_net

  The TPA-managed network and connection-tuning sysctls (net.core.rmem_max, net.core.wmem_max, net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog, net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range). tpaexec configure --platform aws opts the cluster in to this selector by default; on other platforms it is opt-in. See Setting sysctl values.

Supported selectors for tpaexec test

The following selectors apply only for execution of tpaexec test:

• camo

  Tasks related to testing CAMO in a BDR or PGD cluster.

• ddl

  Tasks related to testing DDL in a BDR or PGD cluster.

• fail

  Tasks which abort tests if a problem is detected. Exclude this selector to run tests regardless of failures.

• pgbench

  Tasks which run pgbench.

• sys

  Tasks which run system-level tests.

• barman, bdr, haproxy, pg-backup-api, pgbouncer, pgd-proxy, postgres, repmgr,

  Tasks which test the various software components.