Are there downsides to running client-only installations of Plastic?

[Mikael Kalms]

Hi,

I'm setting up a Jenkins build system. Both Linux and Windows agents are involved. I run all this within Docker containers.

For Linux, I install the `plasticscm-client-core` package (so only a client - no server). It _seems_ to work well for checkout & incremental updates - except for one odd thing: In order to do `cm workspace create`, the client.conf/WorkspaceServer setting needs to point to a valid server [for example, pointing to a cloud org works well]. If I don't do this, then workspace creation succeeds, but the `cm workspace create` command itself errors ("Connection refused", nonzero exit code). Subsequent Jenkins commands (`cm update` etc) work just fine though.

I don't know whether `cm` is intended to operate fine in such a "client-only" configuration (no local server). Is that the case? If so, you may want to investigate why the WorkspaceServer setting is important to `cm` when creating a workspace.

 

(Side note: for Windows containers, I am currently running the whole cloud edition installer, and configure a local server etc within the container there. I hope to move to a client-only configuration there as well, sometime in the future.)

Mikael

[Rafael]

Hi Mikael,

What linux distribution are you using?

Can you share with me the cm workspace create command you are using?

Do you specify the repository@server in the command like the following?

cm workspace create quakewk quake_path --repository=quake@localhost:6060

Regards,

Rafael

[Mikael Kalms]

I have seen this problem both on Ubuntu 20.04 (when run in WSL2), and on Debian Buster (when run within a Docker container).

I have been using cm version 10.0.16.5816 throughout all testing.

 

Here is the install script that the Docker container used: https://github.com/falldamagestudio/UE-Jenkins-Images/blob/aa13570e86edb7f31258f35c545b5475144cd457/ue-jenkins-agents/linux/ue-jenkins-ssh-agent/Dockerfile#L20-L25

And here is the (templated) client.conf used: https://github.com/falldamagestudio/UE-Jenkins-BuildSystem/blob/895eb9b2dfbb36772e17328a0cbf50c6e98abcd2/application/plastic/client.conf.template

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When I reproduce this locally in Ubuntu 20.04, I notice that, with <WorkspaceServer>local</WorkspaceServer> in client.conf, a 'create workspace' command like this fails:

$ cm workspace create test1234 test1234 --repository=UE-Jenkins-Game@ue_jenkins_buildsystem@cloud
Error: Connection refused

... but, with <WorkspaceServer>ue_jenkins_buildsystem@cloud</WorkspaceServer> in client.conf, it works just fine:

$ cm workspace create test1234 test1234 --repository=UE-Jenkins-Game@ue_jenkins_buildsystem@cloud
Workspace test1234 has been correctly created

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From the above, I think that the repro steps are:

1) Install plasticscm-client-core only, not any of the full client+server packages

2) Create a client.conf that does not point WorkspaceServer to any existing server, and cryptedservers.conf + *.key in case you intend to talk to a server with content encryption on

3) try to create a workspace for a remote repository. This will fail with 'connection refused'

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The same thing can be simulated on a Windows machine with a full install. Just stop the "Plastic SCM Server" service. Then try to create a workspace:

PS C:\x> cm workspace create test1234 test1234 --repository=UE-Jenkins-Game@ue_jenkins_buildsystem@cloud
Error: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 127.0.0.1:8084

... but, the workspace folder appears on disk, and it's perfectly possible to enter the folder and perform a 'cm update' to fetch the repo contents.

[Mikael Kalms]

Side note: it might be possible to simulate this just by stopping the local Plastic server in a regular installation, ensuring that WorkspaceServer in client.conf points to the local server, and then attempt a 'cm workspace create' like above.

[Rafael]

Hi Mikael,

Sorry for the late response.

I can reproduce the behaviour you previously described.

The error that appears do not compromise the functionality of the command, right?

Is this message blocking you in some way? I will comment this with the dev Team, it should be a quick fix.

Regards,

Rafael.

PlasticSCM Support Team

[Mikael Kalms]

This does not block us. It used to make clean builds in Jenkins fail, until we found that adjusting client.conf appropriately made the error go away.