fix(distributed): make admin backend installs resilient and observable#9958
Merged
Conversation
…outs Adds BackendInstallTimeout and BackendUpgradeTimeout to DistributedConfig with 15m defaults, following the existing MCPToolTimeout / WorkerWaitTimeout pattern. These will replace the hardcoded literals in RemoteUnloaderAdapter so admin-driven backend installs across the cluster survive long OCI image pulls that previously timed out at 3m. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
Re-aligns the Validate() negative-duration map and the Default* const block so the new BackendInstall/UpgradeTimeout entries do not leave the surrounding columns mis-padded. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…TIMEOUT Parses the two new env vars on the run CLI and threads them through the existing AppOption builder so DistributedConfig picks them up. Invalid duration strings now fail loudly at startup rather than silently falling back to the default. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…loaderAdapter Removes the hardcoded 3m / 15m literals from RemoteUnloaderAdapter and threads in DistributedConfig.BackendInstallTimeoutOrDefault() and BackendUpgradeTimeoutOrDefault() at construction. Install now defaults to 15m (was 3m); cold OCI image pulls on Jetson Wi-Fi routinely blew past the old ceiling. Scripted messaging client captures the timeout so tests can assert the configured value actually reaches the NATS request. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
When the NATS request-reply for backend.install (or .upgrade) times out the worker is almost always still pulling the OCI image. Wrap the timeout in a typed sentinel so the manager above can distinguish "worker hung" from "worker still working" and leave the pending_backend_ops row in place for the reconciler to confirm via backend.list. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…lure When a worker times out replying to backend.install but the install is still running on the worker, enqueueAndDrainBackendOp now reports a running_on_worker status and pushes NextRetryAt out by the install timeout so the reconciler does not immediately re-fire another install while the worker is still pulling the image. The pending_backend_ops row stays in place for the next reconciler pass to confirm via backend.list. InstallBackend wraps the result in galleryop.ErrWorkerStillInstalling so callers can branch (galleryop renders yellow in-progress instead of red error). UpgradeBackend uses the same wrap. Adds RemoteUnloaderAdapter.InstallTimeout() so the manager can push NextRetryAt by the configured timeout without reaching into a private field, and NodeRegistry.RecordPendingBackendOpInFlight as the soft cousin of RecordPendingBackendOpFailure. Also includes incidental gofmt-driven struct-field alignment in registry.go on lines unrelated to the change (touched files are re-formatted to canonical form per project policy). Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
An in-flight timeout (worker still pulling the OCI image) is not a failed attempt, it's a delayed one. Incrementing Attempts let genuinely-progressing slow installs (e.g. 30 GB CUDA images on Wi-Fi) trip the reconciler's maxPendingBackendOpAttempts cap and dead-letter the queue row while the worker was still legitimately working. RecordPendingBackendOpInFlight now only updates LastError and NextRetryAt. Also documents "running_on_worker" in the NodeOpStatus.Status enum comment so Task 6 implementers see the full surface. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
When the distributed backend manager returns an error that wraps ErrWorkerStillInstalling, backendHandler now completes the op with a "still installing in background" message rather than marking it as a red failure. Admin UI sees a yellow in-progress state; reconciler confirms completion on its next pass. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
Wires Task 1-6 end-to-end so any seam mismatch surfaces in CI rather than during a real cluster install. NATS times out, the queue row stays alive with running_on_worker status, the worker eventually reports the backend installed via backend.list, the manager surfaces it via ListBackends. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…PGRADE_TIMEOUT Add the two new operator-tunable env vars to the Frontend Configuration table in the distributed-mode docs. Explains the 15m default, when to raise it (slow links pulling multi-GB OCI images), and the new "still installing in background" admin-UI state when the round-trip times out but the worker is still working. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
DistributedBackendManager.ListBackends now proactively clears pending_backend_ops install rows whose (nodeID, backend) is reported installed by backend.list. Operator UI updates immediately instead of waiting up to installTimeout (default 15m) for the next reconciler tick after NextRetryAt. Only install rows are cleared; upgrade and delete intents are not satisfied by presence in backend.list and continue to drain through their normal reconciler paths. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
New NATS subject nodes.<nodeID>.backend.install.<opID>.progress lets the worker publish transient progress events (file, current/total bytes, percentage, phase) while a long-running install pulls its OCI image. BackendInstallRequest gains an optional OpID field so the worker knows which subject to publish on. Transient pub/sub (not JetStream): the install reply remains ground truth for success/failure; dropped progress events are tolerable. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
Per project convention (no em-dashes anywhere). Comment substance is unchanged. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
When BackendInstallRequest.OpID is set, the worker's backend.install handler wires a debounced publisher (250ms window) into the gallery download callback. Each tick becomes a BackendInstallProgressEvent on nodes.<nodeID>.backend.install.<opID>.progress; the publisher always emits a final event on Flush so the UI sees the terminal percentage. Old masters that do not set OpID continue to run silent installs: no behavior change for them. Lock ordering: the publisher releases its mutex before calling messaging.Publish so a slow network never stalls the install loop. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
InstallBackend gains opID + onProgress parameters. When both are set, the adapter subscribes to nodes.<nodeID>.backend.install.<opID>.progress BEFORE publishing the install request, decodes each message into the caller's onProgress callback in a goroutine (so a slow callback never stalls the NATS reader thread), and unsubscribes after RequestJSON returns. When onProgress is nil OR opID is empty (the reconciler retry path), subscription is skipped entirely - silent installs cost nothing extra. Subscribe failure is logged at Warn and the install proceeds without progress streaming; the NATS round-trip still owns terminal status. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…Status DistributedBackendManager.InstallBackend now passes the gallery op ID and a progress bridge into the adapter call. Each BackendInstallProgressEvent from the worker becomes a galleryop.ProgressCallback tick - which the existing backendHandler already turns into OpStatus.UpdateStatus, so the admin UI/SSE polling sees per-byte progress for distributed installs without any UI-side change. UpgradeBackend is intentionally left silent for now: its wire request (BackendUpgradeRequest) does not carry OpID, and rolling-update fallback is the rarer path. Will be picked up in a follow-up if the worker upgrade path also gets a progress channel. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
A worker on pre-Phase-2 code never publishes progress events. The new master subscribes optimistically; this spec pins that a silent worker still produces a green install with no progressCb ticks. The install reply is the source of truth for terminal state; the progress stream is a best-effort UX enrichment. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
Note the new nodes.<nodeID>.backend.install.<opID>.progress subject and the silent-worker compatibility behavior so operators know to expect real-time progress and what happens on a mixed-version cluster. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…ackend Document near the goroutine dispatch why ordering at the consumer is best-effort, why it rarely matters in practice (worker debounce >> goroutine jitter), and what a future hardening pass would look like (Seq field + stale-by-seq drop). Stops the next reader from accidentally "fixing" the goroutine pool away. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…down Adds the data model the UI needs to render an expandable per-node breakdown of a fanned-out backend install. NodeProgress carries node identity (ID + name), per-node status (queued / running_on_worker / success / error / downloading), the current file + bytes + percentage from the Phase 2 progress stream, and any per-node error. OpStatus.Nodes is the slice the /api/operations handler will surface in a follow-up. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
GalleryService.UpdateNodeProgress(opID, nodeID, np) merges a NodeProgress into OpStatus.Nodes (keyed by NodeID, no duplicates) and mirrors the latest tick into the aggregate Progress / FileName / DownloadedFileSize / TotalFileSize fields so the legacy single-bar OperationsBar view keeps working unchanged alongside the new per-node breakdown. Concurrent-safe via the existing g.Mutex. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…-out DistributedBackendManager now accepts a nodeProgressSink and feeds it two streams: 1. enqueueAndDrainBackendOp emits a per-node terminal entry on each status it appends to BackendOpResult (queued, success, error, running_on_worker). The opID is threaded through the function so the sink gets the right gallery op identity. 2. The install apply closure fans each BackendInstallProgressEvent into the sink as a downloading entry, alongside the legacy progressCb path so the aggregate single-bar view stays correct. Production wiring passes the GalleryService (which implements UpdateNodeProgress via Task 2) as the sink. Single-node tests pass nil. DeleteBackend and UpgradeBackend pass an empty opID so the sink path no-ops for ops that aren't gallery-tracked the same way as Install. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
When an operation's OpStatus has Nodes entries (populated by the Phase 4 progress sink wiring), surface them as a "nodes" array on the /api/operations response, sorted by node_name for stable rendering. Backward compatible: legacy clients ignore the field; ops without any node entries (single-node mode, model installs) omit the array entirely thanks to the empty-slice guard. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
When an install op fans out to more than one worker, the operations bar now shows a "N nodes" chevron that expands into a per-node list. Each row carries the node's status (color-coded pill), the current file being downloaded, byte counts, percentage, and a thin per-node progress bar. Yellow "Worker busy" pill marks running_on_worker status with a tooltip explaining the NATS round-trip timed out but the worker is still installing in the background. Backward compatible: ops without a nodes field (legacy or single-node mode) render as before. State for expand/collapse is local to the component, keyed by jobID/id - reload starts collapsed. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
Adds a short subsection covering the expandable "N nodes" chevron in the OperationsBar admin UI, the meaning of each status pill, and how it relates to the /api/operations nodes array. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
Real-world bug surfaced by the Phase 4 multi-worker smoke test: the
nodes[] array in /api/operations flickered between a single node at a
time on a 2-worker install. Root cause: the Phase 2 progress bridge
also calls the legacy progressCb -> UpdateStatus(&OpStatus{...}) on
every tick. UpdateStatus then overwrote the entire status pointer,
wiping the Nodes slice that UpdateNodeProgress had just merged in.
Fix: in UpdateStatus, if the incoming op has an empty Nodes slice,
carry forward the previous status's Nodes before storing. Callers
that explicitly populate Nodes still win (their slice replaces the
prior one, no merge across the two code paths).
Two regression specs added pinning both directions of the contract.
Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
Trim the new install/upgrade timeout rows and the install-progress sections to focus on what the operator sees and tunes. Drops: - the NATS subject names and pub/sub mechanics - "round-trip" / reconciler / backend.list jargon - /api/operations polling cadence - "pre-2026-05-22" version references Reframes the breakdown text around the admin UI (Operations Bar, chevron, status pills, "Worker busy" tooltip). Implementation context lives in the agent notes and code comments. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
…ants The negative-duration check map was a wall of literal kebab-case strings that had to stay in sync with the kong-derived CLI flag names manually. Move them to a Flag* const block alongside the existing Default* block so a rename of either the Go field or the CLI naming convention forces a compile error rather than silent drift. Sole consumer today is Validate; the constants are exported so future operator-facing surfaces (e.g. error messages on other validation paths) can reference them by name instead of repeating the literals. Tests pin both the literal values (so a future "let's just rename this" doesn't accidentally regress the CLI flag) and the negative- duration error message for the new BackendInstall / BackendUpgrade fields. Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
Sweep for the same literal-string-as-identifier pattern called out on
the Validate flag names: the per-node install status enum
("queued" | "downloading" | "running_on_worker" | "success" | "error")
appeared as raw literals across managers_distributed.go (10+ sites,
including 3 separate `n.Status == "running_on_worker"` checks),
operation.go, and the test suite. Same shape for the Phase enum
("resolving" | "downloading" | "extracting" | "starting") in the
worker-side progress publisher.
Promote both to exported const blocks:
- galleryop.NodeStatus{Queued,Downloading,RunningOnWorker,Success,Error}
shared between galleryop.NodeProgress.Status (the wire field) and
nodes.NodeOpStatus.Status (the in-process per-node summary)
- messaging.Phase{Resolving,Downloading,Extracting,Starting}
shared between the worker publisher and any future consumer that
needs to switch on phase
Tests pin both the literal values (so a future "let's just rename" doesn't
silently change the JSON wire) and use the constants in setup (so the
producer side stays drift-protected). Wire-format assertions on the
/api/operations JSON output keep their literals deliberately, so the
constant value can never silently diverge from what the UI receives.
Out of scope for this PR (separate cleanup): the finetune and
quantization job-status enums have the same anti-pattern with 14+
literal sites each, but predate this PR's work.
Signed-off-by: Ettore Di Giacinto <mudler@localai.io>
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
2 participants
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Summary
Two related fixes for distributed-mode admin backend installs, motivated by a real cluster install of
vllm-developmentacross slow nodes (Jetson, dgx-spark, nvidia-thor) that surfacednats: timeouterrors with no visibility into worker state.Phase 1 - timeout + state-machine resilience (11 commits)
LOCALAI_NATS_BACKEND_INSTALL_TIMEOUT/LOCALAI_NATS_BACKEND_UPGRADE_TIMEOUTenv vars (default15m, previously hardcoded3mfor install — easily blown by multi-GB OCI image pulls on Wi-Fi).galleryop.ErrWorkerStillInstallingsentinel: when the NATS round-trip times out but the worker is still pulling the image in the background, the master no longer reports a hard failure. Per-node status becomesrunning_on_worker, the pending queue row stays alive (without bumpingAttemptsso it can't trip the dead-letter cap), andNextRetryAtis pushed by the install timeout.galleryop.backendHandlersurfaces this as a yellowProcessed: trueOpStatus with aworker still installing in backgroundmessage instead of a red error.DistributedBackendManager.ListBackendsproactively clears install rows whose intent is now satisfied bybackend.listconfirmation, so the operator UI updates immediately instead of waiting up to 15m for the next reconciler tick.Phase 2 - streaming progress over NATS (8 commits)
nodes.<nodeID>.backend.install.<opID>.progress. Worker publishes debounced (~250ms)BackendInstallProgressEventvalues; master subscribes for the duration of the install request and forwards each event intogalleryop.ProgressCallback→ existingOpStatus.UpdateStatus, so the admin UI / SSE polling gets per-byte progress for distributed installs the same way local-mode does — no UI changes needed.Test plan
core/services/{nodes,messaging,galleryop,worker,config}suites (testcontainers Postgres included). 208 specs total, all pass locally (~108s for nodes).cpu-vllm) on a slow link. Confirm:LOCALAI_NATS_BACKEND_INSTALL_TIMEOUT, the op surfaces as yellowworker still installing in backgroundinstead of red.ListBackendspoll observes the backend installed, the pending queue row clears and the UI flips to terminal success without waiting for the reconciler.LOCALAI_NATS_BACKEND_INSTALL_TIMEOUT=5send-to-end smoke (force the soft-failure path) - the op should reachProcessed: truewith the in-progress message within 5s and clear on the nextListBackends.Out of scope
cpu-vllmrequest that fails withno child with platform linux/arm64 in index. Independent fix, separate PR.Seq uint64field on the wire event would let the bridge drop stale-by-seq. Also, a late goroutine could briefly overwrite the terminal OpStatus with an older percentage - bounded and self-correcting.UpgradeBackendprogress streaming:BackendUpgradeRequesthas noOpIDfield; upgrade is the rarer admin path. Will be picked up alongside any future upgrade UX work.Notes
Co-Authored-Bytrailers.docs/content/features/distributed-mode.mdcovering both env vars and the new progress subject.Assisted-by: Claude:opus-4.7 [Claude Code]