Add Nodes to the Deployment

Note

Chef Automate 4.10.1 released on 6th September 2023 includes improvements to the deployment and installation experience of Automate HA. Please read the blog to learn more about key improvements. Refer to the pre-requisites page (On-Premises, AWS) and plan your usage with your customer success manager or account manager.

Chef Automate HA comes with five different types of deployment flows. This page tells you how to add more nodes to your deployment processes.

Warning

If the SELinux config is enabled, make sure to set it to Permissive (Usually in the case of RHEL, SELinux is enabled). If the config is enforced, the Automate node will throw error, and the verify flow will fail.
During deployment, the same will be handled internally

Note

The flags like opensearch-ips and postgresql-ips are only applicable for the Chef Managed Database cluster
If /hab volume is externally mounted, then trigger the add node/remove node command from the /hab directory.

Add more Nodes to the OnPremises Deployments

In this section, we will see how to add more nodes to the on-premises deployment for all the databases, i.e., Chef Managed, AWS Managed, and Customer Managed Database.

The commands require some arguments so that it can determine which types of nodes you want to add to your HA setup from your bastion host. It needs the IP addresses of the nodes you want to add as comma-separate values with no spaces in between.

For example,

To add nodes with IP 10.1.2.23 to automate, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --automate-ips 10.1.2.23
```
To add nodes with IP 10.1.2.23 and 10.0.1.42 to the chef-server, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --chef-server-ips 10.1.2.23,10.0.1.42
```
To add nodes with IP 10.1.2.23 and 10.0.1.42 to OpenSearch, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --opensearch-ips 10.1.2.23,10.0.1.42
```
To add nodes with IP 10.1.2.23, 10.0.1.54 and 10.0.1.42 to PostgreSQL, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --postgresql-ips 10.1.2.23,10.0.1.42,10.0.1.54
```

You can mix and match different services to add nodes across various services.

To add nodes with IP 10.1.2.23 to automate and nodes with IP 10.0.1.54 and 10.0.1.42 to PostgreSQL, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --automate-ips 10.1.2.23 --postgresql-ips 10.0.1.42,10.0.1.54
```
To add nodes with IP 10.1.2.23 to automate, nodes with IP 10.1.0.36 and 10.0.1.233 to chef-server, and nodes with IP 10.0.1.54 and 10.0.1.42 to PostgreSQL, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --automate-ips 10.1.2.23 --chef-server-ips 10.1.0.36,10.0.1.233  --postgresql-ips 10.0.1.42,10.0.1.54
```

You can remove unreachable nodes while adding nodes.

To remove unreachable nodes while adding new nodes, pass the flag –remove-unreachable-node or -r like the example below:

chef-automate node add --automate-ips 10.1.2.23 --remove-unreachable-node

chef-automate node add --automate-ips 10.1.2.23 -r

Note

For the Minimum node cluster, as the backend services (OpenSearch and PostgreSQL) are running in the same machine, to add a node make sure to add both services in the same command Eg: chef-automate node add --postgresql-ips 10.0.1.42 --opensearch-ips 10.0.1.42 Notice, both OpenSearch and PostgreSQL IPs are same
Similarly for frontend services (Automate and Chef Server), add both services in the same command with the same IPs Eg: chef-automate node add --automate-ips 10.0.1.52 --chef-server-ips 10.0.1.52

Once the command executes, it will add the supplied nodes to your automate setup. The changes might take a while.

Make sure to update your load-balancer configuration with the IP address of the new node. For reference, check the Load Balancer Configuration page

Note

The new node will be configured with the certificates already configured in your HA setup.
If you had applied unique certificates per node, then the certificates of one of the nodes have been applied by default on the new nodes.
If you want to change the certificates for the new nodes, you can manually run the chef-automate cert-rotate [options] command.
Certificate rotation should be done in maintenance window, as service will restart.

Warning

It’s essential to ensure that the IP address of the nodes you are trying to add has sufficient resources and is reachable from the bastion host.

Add more Nodes In AWS Deployment with Chef Managed Database

In this section, we will see how to add more nodes to the AWS deployment for the Chef managed database.

The commands require some arguments so that it can determine which types of nodes you want to add to your HA setup from your bastion host. When you run the command, it needs the count of the nodes you want to add as an argument. For example,

To add two nodes to automate, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --automate-count 2
```
To add three nodes to the chef-server, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --chef-server-count 3
```
To add one node to OpenSearch, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --opensearch-count 1
```
To add two nodes to PostgreSQL, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --postgresql-count 2
```

You can mix and match different services to add nodes across various services.

To add one node to automate and two nodes to PostgreSQL, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --automate-count 1 --postgresql-count 2
```
To add one node to automate, two nodes to chef-server, and two nodes to PostgreSQL, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --automate-count 1 --chef-server-count 2 --postgresql-count 2
```

Once the command executes, it will add the supplied nodes to your automated setup. The changes might take a while.

Note

The new node will be configured with the certificates that are already configured in your HA setup.
If you had applied unique certificates per node, then the certificates of one of the nodes have been applied by default on the new nodes.
If you want to change the certificates for the new nodes, you can manually run the chef-automate cert-rotate [options] command.
Removing unreachable nodes while adding nodes is not supported in AWS mode of deployment; you have to use remove node commands page to remove unreachable nodes first before adding new nodes
Certificate rotation should be done in maintenance window as service will restart.

Warning

Downgrading the number of instance_count for the backend nodes will result in data loss. We do not recommend downgrading the backend nodes.

Add more nodes In AWS Deployment with AWS Managed Database

This section will show how to add more nodes to the AWS deployment for the AWS managed database.

To add two nodes to automate, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --automate-count 2
```
To add three nodes to the chef-server, run the following command:
```
chef-automate node add --chef-server-count 3
```