Writing a Plugin

photon-mgmtd is designed with a robust plugin-based architecture in mind. You can easily add and remove modules to photon-mgmtd. The plugins are separate modules with well-defined interfaces that make implementing application features easier. You can create custom versions of an application with minimal source code modifications.

You can perform the following steps to write a plugin:

1. Choose a namespace under plugins directory (systemd, system, proc) where you want to put your module.
2. Write the sub router. For example, plugins/systemd/
3. Write your module: module.go and module_router.go
4. Write RegisterRouterModule
5. Register RegisterRouterModule with the parent router. For example, for login registered with RegisterRouterSystem under system namespace, write login.RegisterRouterLogin.

You can use the pmctl tool to view and configure system, network, and service status. The following example illustrates how to view the status:

Service status:

❯ pmctl service status nginx.service
                  Name: nginx.service 
           Description: The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server 
               MainPid: 45732 
             LoadState: loaded 
           ActiveState: active 
              SubState: running 
         UnitFileState: disabled 
  StateChangeTimeStamp: Sun Oct 31 12:02:02 IST 2021 
  ActiveEnterTimestamp: Sun Oct 31 12:02:02 IST 2021 
 InactiveExitTimestamp: Sun Oct 31 12:02:02 IST 2021 
   ActiveExitTimestamp: 0 
 InactiveExitTimestamp: Sun Oct 31 12:02:02 IST 2021 
                Active: active (running) since Sun Oct 31 12:02:02 IST 2021

System status:

❯ pmctl status  system
              System Name: Zeus
                   Kernel: Linux (5.14.0-0.rc7.54.fc36.x86_64) #1 SMP Mon Aug 23 13:55:32 UTC 2021
                  Chassis: vm
           Hardware Model: VMware Virtual Platform
          Hardware Vendor: VMware, Inc.
             Product UUID: 979e4d56b63718b18534e112e64cb18
         Operating System: VMware Photon OS/Linux
Operating System Home URL: https://vmware.github.io/photon/
          Systemd Version: v247.10-3.ph4
             Architecture: x86-64
           Virtualization: vmware
            Network State: routable (carrier)
     Network Online State: online
                      DNS: 172.16.130.2
                  Address: 172.16.130.132/24 on link ens33
                           172.16.130.131/24 on link ens33
                           fe80::3279:c56d:55f9:aed7/64 on link ens33
                           172.16.130.138/24 on link ens37
                  Gateway: 172.16.130.2 on link ens37
                           172.16.130.2 on link ens33
                   Uptime: Running Since (2 days, 3 hours, 8 minutes) Booted (Wed Dec 22 15:57:24 IST 2021) Users (9) Proc (284)
                   Memory: Total (13564788736) Used (13564788736) Free (589791232) Available (9723891712)

Network status:

❯ pmctl status network -i ens33
             Name: ens33
Alternative Names: enp2s1
            Index: 2
        Link File: /usr/lib/systemd/network/99-default.link
     Network File: /etc/systemd/network/10-ens33.network
             Type: ether
            State: routable (configured)
           Driver: e1000
           Vendor: Intel Corporation
            Model: 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (PRO/1000 MT Single Port Adapter)
             Path: pci-0000:02:01.0
    Carrier State: carrier
     Online State: online
IPv4Address State: routable
IPv6Address State: degraded
       HW Address: 00:0c:29:5f:d1:39
              MTU: 1500
        OperState: up
            Flags: up|broadcast|multicast
        Addresses: 172.16.130.132/24 172.16.130.131/24 fe80::3279:c56d:55f9:aed7/64
          Gateway: 172.16.130.2
              DNS: 172.16.130.2