Running OpenSim in Grid mode

Running OpenSim in grid mode is considerably more complicated. Grid services need to be set up and the region simulator configuration needs to be changed to use these instead of the built-in standalone mode ones.

Configuring the grid services

NOTE: As of July 2009, the grid servers are in the process of being redesigned. Some services are now run in a common 'ROBUST' (Basic Universal Server Technology) server shell while others are still run as separate legacy servers. More Details on ROBUST are Here -->ROBUST <--  including Conversion From UGAIM To UGRM (0.6.6 -> 0.6.7) and UGRM to URM (0.6.7 -> 0.6.8)

As of OpenSim 0.6.8, R.O.B.U.S.T. has connectors for the asset (A), grid (G) and inventory (I) functionality. The legacy servers are still required for user (U) and messaging (M) functionality. The steps below will get you up and running. We'll assume that your current directory is bin/ within the OpenSim distribution.

1. Configure the user server
• Start OpenSim.Grid.UserServer.exe
• You will be asked a number of configuration questions. If the grid servers are all on one machine, most defaults are safe to use. The configuration is stored in the UserServer_Config.xml file which can be changed afterwards if necessary.
• The user server will then load and display it's prompt:

User#

2. Configure R.O.B.U.S.T.
• Copy OpenSim.Server.ini.example to OpenSim.Server.ini. Don't forget to change ConnectionString for your database settings. (on version 0.6.6 copy OpenSim.Services.ini.example to OpenSim.Services.ini - then use OpenSim.Services instead OpenSim.Server)

Linux

bin$ cp OpenSim.Server.ini.example OpenSim.Server.ini

Windows

C:\OpenSim\bin> copy OpenSim.Server.ini.example OpenSim.Server.ini

• Start OpenSim.Server.exe
• The server will start up it's asset, inventory and grid components and display the R.O.B.U.S.T prompt:

R.O.B.U.S.T.#

• For more information on the R.O.B.U.S.T. configuration file and more information if you are migrating from an earlier release of OpenSim, refer to R.O.B.U.S.T.
3. Configure the messaging server
• Start OpenSim.Grid.MessagingServer.exe
• Answer the configuration questions. Again, if all servers are run on the same machine, it's safe to press enter for all questions. The configuration is stored in MessagingServer_Config.xml.
• The server will start and present you with it's prompt:

Messaging#

For information on running the legacy servers, particularly if you're using an older version of before 0.6.7 that doesn't contain the ROBUST framework, see LegacyServers

Summary of commands for running grid service executables

Windows

cd bin
OpenSim.Grid.UserServer.exe
OpenSim.Server.exe
OpenSim.Grid.MessagingServer.exe

Linux / Mac OS X

cd bin
mono OpenSim.Grid.UserServer.exe
mono OpenSim.Server.exe
mono OpenSim.Grid.MessagingServer.exe

Configuring regions

When first run, a new OpenSim installation will ask you a series of questions to set up one region. If you want to change these settings or set up multiple regions, please see Configuring_Regions

Configuring and Starting the region simulator

1. Find the [Architecture] section, comment out the line that says

Include-Standalone    = "config-include/Standalone.ini"

and uncomment the line saying

Include-Grid         = "config-include/Grid.ini

2. save OpenSim.ini, and go into the config-include directory.
3. copy the following files

GridCommon.ini.example to GridCommon.ini
CenomeCache.ini.example to CenomeCache.ini
FlotsamCache.ini.example to FlotsamCache.ini

4. Open all these files (Grid.ini, GridCommon.ini, CenomeCache.ini and FlotsamCache.ini) and edit to suit your needs
5. You should now be ready to start up your sim. The mode that OpenSim.exe starts in is normally controlled by a setting in your OpenSim.ini. It defaults to standalone mode if that setting is not specified or the file is not found. If you wish, you can force opensim to start in gridmode on the command line as follows:

OpenSim.exe -gridmode=true

or if using the ODE physics plugin under 64 bit Windows

OpenSim.32BitLaunch.exe

or:

mono OpenSim.exe -gridmode=true

if you're using Mono under Linux or Mac OSX.

With any luck, everything will come up without fatal errors.

If you have problems using the OpenDynamicsEngine on *nix, try setting your stack reserve level higher than the default with the following command; ulimit -s 262144 Or, run the opensim-ode.sh to start up OpenSimulator.

6. Go to the UserServer console, and type 'create user' to create a new avatar. It will prompt you for the name and password, and the X and Y of the sim that should be his home location. Use 1000 and 1000, or wherever you told your sim to live when you brought it up in standalone mode. At the console of any of these servers, you should be able to type 'help' to get a list of commands.
7. You should now be able to connect to your new grid with your secondlife client. You need to tell your client to point at the UserServer rather than directly at the sim, though:

secondlife -loginuri http://127.0.0.1:8002/

8002 is the default port for the UserServer, and that IP address should be changed to the server you are running the UserServer on, if they are not all on the same box. Happy OpenSimming!
Note: if you are using Windows Vista, remember to start servers as Admin. If not it will prompt you an error in console like "Error - Access denied"

Attaching your sim to someone else's grid

To set up the region server (i.e., OpenSim.exe) to connect to an external grid, you should edit the OpenSim.ini file in the bin directory. In that file, there is a [Network] section with URLs for the grid, user, and asset servers, as well as send and receive keys (for a basic level of security). The addresses and send/receive keys will vary depending on the grid you are connecting to, and the grid operator should tell you what values to use.

The other file you may have to change is in your bin/Regions directory. This is where your individual region config files are. If you only have one region, it will by default be called Regions.ini in OpenSim 0.6.7 and later and regions.xml in OpenSim 0.6.6 and earlier.

This can be edited with any text editor. The grid owner may tell you what X and Y location you can place your sim at (you can't have multiple sims at the same location on the grid). If so, the fields you will need to change in this file are sim_location_x and sim_location_y. And the external_host_name should be set to the hostname or IP address of your simulation server (i.e., the machine that is running OpenSim.exe). A list of public grids that you can attach your sim to is at OpenSim: Grids

Further notes

Running OpenSim 0.6.7 and onwards in 64 bit Windows

As of OpenSim 0.6.7, the default physics engine for OpenSim was changed to the ODE engine. This is because ODE is by far the most advanced physics engine plugin currently in OpenSim. Unfortunately, it has the drawback in that it's library is not compilable under 64bit in Windows. Therefore, 64 bit Windows users may need to run

OpenSim.32BitLaunch.exe

instead of

OpenSim.exe

To launch their region simulator.

An alternative is to use the basicphysics engine instead or one of the other alternative physics engines bundled with OpenSim, though all these are far less functional than the ODE plugin.

Note About Mono

If you're using mono, you should increase the value of the mono environment variable MONO_THREADS_PER_CPU from its default of 5 to some number that works for your sim. The exact number depends on many factors including: the number of CPUs in your machine, what else you use that machine for, how many regions you have in your sim, how many of them are adjacent, how many scripts you have, and how many avatars you expect to serve at the same time. As a reference, Wright Plaza in OSGrid, which is running as a single region on a sim and routinely hosts meetings with 20 avatars, uses the value 125.

If this number is too low, the operation of your sim will start to break in all sorts of different ways. A common symptom is the freezing of all activity upon login of a new avatar. Other symptoms are a lot more subtle.

For example: $ export MONO_THREADS_PER_CPU=125

Legacy Configuration Information

These are some pages containing some legacy configuration information of unknown accuracy.

OpenSim 0.6.6 legacy configuration information

Additional Configuration Tasks (for advanced users)

OpenSim.exe command line options

OpenSim.exe has command line options which allow you to perform actions such as reading configuratio nfiles from a different directory. See OpenSim.exe Command Line Options for more details.

Script engine

OpenSim supports multiple script engines. See ScriptEngines for details. If you don't know what this means then the default script engine will be fine.

Permissions Configuration

OpenSim has a quite elaborate set of permissions. See OpenSim:Permissions(Server) for details. By default, permissions are not active on region simulators.

Logging

By default, OpenSim logs information to a file called OpenSim.log in the bin directory. See Logging for details on how to further configure this if required.

Configuration of region modules

• IRCBridgeModule
• Freeswitch_Module
• Offline Messaging

Configuration of Metaverse Exchange Protocol (MXP)

• Metaverse Exchange Protocol

Configuration of Web Server and Pages

OpenSim contains a web server that can serve up a variety of pages. Some which come from external files and some are generated internally.

• External Files
• Internally Generated