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Enable Return Proxy

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Nodes in a cluster need to communicate with the Azure CycleCloud server to report status, as well as making API requests for auto-scaling and distributed synchronization. Nodes communicate with HTTPS to CycleCloud on its private 9443 port.

If network topology or firewalls prevent communication between the Azure CycleCloud server and cluster nodes, a node in the cluster can be designated as a return proxy with the listening port on Azure CycleCloud server forwarded through an SSH tunnel. The cluster nodes will then reach the CycleCloud server via port 37140 on the proxy. A typical deployment has the cluster head node designated as the return proxy, but any persistent node can play that same role.

CycleCloud 7 includes an AMQP broker for getting messages from nodes in a cluster, instead of HTTPS. The AMQP broker listens locally on port 5672. If a return proxy is used, port 37141 on the proxy node is forwarded to 5672.

The settings for enabling or disabling the return proxy can be found in the Advanced Settings section of the create cluster dialog.

Return Proxy Setting

Return Proxy Setting

  • Azure CycleCloud currently only supports Linux VMs as a return proxy.
  • If the CycleCloud VM and the return proxy node resides in different VMs, the return proxy node will require a public IP address unless the two VNETs are peered.

Custom Return Proxy Node

To demarcate a node as the return proxy, add the following attributes to the node definition:

[[node proxy]]
IsReturnProxy = true  # access to CycleServer is proxied through this node
KeyPairLocation = ~/.ssh/custom-keypair.pem
  • IsReturnProxy specifies that the node is the proxy. Only one node should be the designated proxy or the cluster will fail to start
  • KeyPairLocation determines the SSH private key used to start the SSH tunnel. This SSH connection is initiated with the cyclecloud user by default

The return proxy is assumed to be running within the same Azure VNET as the nodes of the cluster, and by default the private network address of the proxy is used for the nodes to communicate with it. However it is possible to specify that the public IP address of the proxy node be used for inter-node communication instead. To do so include the attribute ReturnProxyAddress = public when defining the proxy node.

Please note that proxy node in this cluster template only proxies communication from nodes to CycleCloud. It does not proxy communication to the larger Internet.