MCP

MCP, short for Master Control Program, is a complete multi-server management framework for Armagetron Advanced. For more information see the forum post here.

What is this?

MCP is a complete package that will manage multiple server daemons, provide an easy to use web interface, and provide a python based scripting library for Armagetron Advanced. It was created out of a frustration with poorly written and unintuitive Armagetron server managers none of which provided a nice web interface. Most seemed to be quickly hacked up projects just to get something working and used bad or insecure techniques. This project solves these problems in a simple Python daemon that serves a RESTful HTTP API and a set of web pages that use it for control. This project is designed for a unix-like system and should run well on Linux, Mac OS, and FreeBSD but should also work on Windows in a unix-like environment (Cygwin) though it probably won't have server creation functionality.

Features

Daemon Manager

• Restarting a server if it crashes
• Saving rotated logs and error logs of the server and error logs of the script
• Killing unresponsive server/script
• Full support for scripting
• Clearing error log on startup
• Server port management

Web Interface

• Start/Stop/Restart/Reload buttons
• Command box to send commands directly to the server
• Realtime server status and server log
• Full support for non-ascii characters
• Editing settings_custom.cfg
• Editing script.py (with a documented scripting library)
• Script error log
• Full syntax highlighting for the settings and script
• Multiple people can administer the same server at once
• Full user and server creation from an administration panel

Installing

Setup

            Edit `config.py` to match your directory structure and preferences. Below is a list of the preferences and what they mean.

• prefix directory is mandatory and should be the directory set aside for Armagetron servers.
• creation indicates whether or not servers can be created.
• container indicates whether servers and scripts should run inside of a container
• sources directory is optional and contains the source code to the server software from which the servers are created.
• tmp directory is optional and contains the located where servers will be built before being merged.
• config directory is optional and contains the default set of configuration copied to every server when created.
• scripting directory is also optional and contains scripting libraries that can be chosen by the user.
• database is the directory under which database files will go.
• maxlogsize is maximum size a server log will get (in KB) before it is rotated into the logs directory.
• portrange is the range of ports from which servers will automatically be configured if their port is not set.
• log is the path of the manager log.
• cmdlog is the path of the external command log.
• httpdlog is the path of the HTTP daemon log.
• accesslog is the path of the HTTP access log.
• addr is the address and port for which the server will accept requests
• tlskey is the HTTPS key
• tlscert is the HTTPS certificate

To create the user the daemon will run under, run the useradd command and give it permission to necessary directories:

# useradd -m -d /var/lib/mcp mcp
# mkdir -p /var/db/mcp
# chown mcp:mcp /var/db/mcp
# mkdir -p /var/log/mcp
# chown mcp:mcp /var/log/mcp

After the configuration is complete, run the setup script:

# ./setup.py install

The first time you run the daemon, it will prompt you for an admin username and password. Run the mcp command as the mcp user and fill in the prompts.

# sudo -u mcp mcp

            Start the daemon using the init system specified in the setup script. If no init system was specified, start the daemon by running `mcp` as the mcp user.

Downloading sources

Before you can create your first server, you must download a copy of the Armagetron Advanced source code. To do this, first open a web browser to http://localhost:8000/ or the address specified in config.py and login as the administrator user. Click Admin in the upper right and then click the Sources tab in the administration interface. Click the Add Source button and fill out the form with the appropriate information. The source name is the name by which this source will be referred. For example, you can call one sty+ct if you download ct's patched version. The bzr address is the location of the bzr repository for the source code. For example, for 0.2.8-sty+ct, the source is located at lp:~armagetronad-ct/armagetronad/0.2.8-armagetronad-sty+ct. Use the table below for a list of common versions and their bzr addresses.

Version	Bzr Address
0.2.8	lp:armagetronad/0.2.8
0.4	lp:armagetronad/0.4
0.2.8 sty+ct	lp:~armagetronad-ct/armagetronad/0.2.8-armagetronad-sty+ct
0.2.9 sty+ct+ap	lp:~armagetronad-ap/armagetronad/0.2.9-armagetronad-sty+ct+ap

After the information is filled in and submitted, the source can then be used in the server creation form in a drop-down list. The source code will take some time to download, generally up to 30 seconds.

Creating a server

            Once you have added a source, you can create your first server. To do this, first open a web browser to `http://localhost:8000/` or the address specified in `config.py` and login as the administrator user. Click `Admin` in the upper right and then click the `Servers` tab in the administration interface. Click the `Create Server` button and fill out the form with information about the server. The name of the server is the name by which it will be referred when assigning it to users. The source is the version that should be used to create the server. After the information is filled out, click `Create` and the manager will then begin server creation. This process can take up to 10 minutes depending on the processing power and load of the server computer.

Creating a user

To create a user, first open a web browser to http://localhost:8000/ or the address specified in config.py and login as the administrator user. Click Admin in the upper right and then make sure you are on the Users tab in the administration interface. Click the Create User button and fill out the form with the user's information. The admin checkbox enables administrative rights to the user allowing them access to the administration interface. From the multi-select field, choose the user's servers, holding down control to select more than one. After the information is filled out, click Create and the user will be able to login and manage their servers.

Server creation dependencies

To create servers, you must be on a unix-like system with a modern C++ compiler. Each server is compiled when it is created with a set of flags to keep them in their own prefixes and in a sane directory structure. This allows multiple servers to be kept on one system at the same time and allows easy access and configuration of the servers over FTP or SSH. Below are the necessary packages that must be installed to download sources and create servers.

Debian/Ubuntu

• build-essential

• automake

• bison

            - libxml2-dev
  

• libprotobuf-dev

• libboost-thread-dev (optional, 0.4 only)

• libzthread-dev (optional, 0.2.8 only)

• bzr

• virtualenv (optional, for scripting only)

Red Hat/Fedora

• gcc
• gcc-c++
• make
• automake
• bison
• libxml2-devel
• protobuf-devel
• boost-devel (optional, 0.4 only)
• libZThread-devel (optional, 0.2.8 only)
• bzr
• python34-virtualenv (optional, for scripting only)

Arch

• base-devel
• libxml2
• protobuf
• boost (optional, 0.4 only)
• zthread (optional, 0.2.8 only)
• bzr
• python-virtualenv (optional, for scripting only)

Gentoo

• dev-libs/libxml2
• dev-libs/protobuf
• dev-libs/boost[threads] (optional, 0.4 only)
• dev-libs/zthread (optional, 0.2.8 only)
• dev-vcs/bzr
• dev-python/virtualenv (optional, for scripting only)

Upgrading

To upgrade the software, follow the same steps for setup under the installation section.

Questions

Is there a demo?

There is a live demo at https://mcp.fooster.io/. It shows off the web interface and the simplicity of the armagetron.py scripting library. The sample script shows how to reset the server settings when everyone leaves the server. Login with user: demo and password: demo.

What if I want to use my own scripting library?

Place it in a directory configured by the scripting option. You can also (optionally) create your own doc.html so that the documentation is available in the web interface.

I want to use this on Windows but it isn't working!

Well that isn't a question and I'm afraid I can't help you there. I don't mess with Windows often and don't have time to fiddle with an unsupported operating system for a single person. This could work on Windows if you had custom compiled servers (a lot of work to get the right flags) but honestly, it would take less time to install Ubuntu then install this software.

I found a bug! I found a bug!

            Again, that isn't a question, but could you please report it on [GitHub](https://github.com/fkmclane/MCP/issues)?

Troubleshooting

I can't create servers!

Make sure you have the dependencies and try again.

The web interface is very buggy!

Please open an issue on GitHub.

The scripting library crashes!

Make sure it is running with Python 3. If it is, please report the crash and error log on GitHub.

None of it works!

Make sure you installed the package with Python 3 and started the daemon properly. If you did, please report the crash and MCP log on GitHub.