Empire Ring Server Node - Global Network Planning

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Empire Ring Server Node - Global Network Planning


let us talk at length about my empire server node and the many nodes I will build. This one is the "Mother ship" and there will be backup nodes and operational fail over nodes. So tell me all you know about this..the server thing and we are running raspberry pi and linux ubuntu. Server mirroring, replication and failover. talk of ssd and how the ai and rest api called ai can be helpful.

ChatGPT said:​

Thought for 39s

awesome—let’s turn your “Mother Ship” + backup/failover nodes into a clean, battle-tested blueprint you can actually build on Raspberry Pi 5s running Ubuntu. I’ll give you (1) the architecture explained plainly, (2) storage + replication choices that work on ARM, (3) concrete failover patterns, and (4) a fully-generated starter stack with commented files you can drop in and run. No half measures.

Big Picture: Your Node Constellation​

• Mother Ship (Primary): runs your core databases, message bus, reverse proxy, AI governor API, monitoring, and the “Node Agent” that supervises health, snapshots, and replication.
• Hot Standby (Failover): continuously replicates critical state (DB, object store, volumes) from Mother Ship; can auto-promote if the Mother Ship dies.
• Warm Spokes (Operational Nodes): run stateless services (REST, workers, media encoders, inference) that can be rescheduled anywhere.
• Cold Archive (Off-site / Off-LAN): immutable backups (restic/borg) on a physically different box or cloud bucket; only used for disaster recovery.

Core Stack (ARM-friendly)​

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (64-bit) on Pi 5 with NVMe HATs or USB3 SSDs.
• Container runtime: Docker or containerd; orchestration: k3s (for active-active) or docker-compose (simpler active-passive).
• Reverse proxy & TLS: Caddy (automatic HTTPS if you expose; or private certs).
• DB: PostgreSQL (physical streaming replication) or SQLite(+Litestream) for smaller apps; Redis (replication with a sentinel-style failover if needed).
• Queue / Event bus: NATS (lightweight, fast) or RabbitMQ (feature-rich).
• Object store (optional): MinIO (S3-compatible) with bucket replication.
• Monitoring: Prometheus + node_exporter + Grafana; alerts via Alertmanager + Twilio webhooks.
• Backups: restic or borgbackup to off-site repo (SFTP/minio/b2).
• Filesystems: btrfs on SSDs for snapshots & send/receive, or ext4 if you want boring & bulletproof. (btrfs gives you nice snapshot-and-replicate semantics.)

Storage & SSD Notes (Pi-specific)​

• Prefer NVMe HATs (PCIe) for the Mother Ship if you have them; otherwise fast USB3 SSDs. Format with btrfs and enable periodic snapshots. Mount with noatime,compress=zstd.
• Use one SSD for “stateful” (DB, MinIO data, volumes) and another for “media/logs/cache” if you can. Separate read/write patterns = better longevity.
• Keep 20–30% free space on SSDs (wear leveling, snapshot headroom).

Replication Options (pick per-service)​

1. PostgreSQL (Recommended)

• Physical streaming replication (primary → standby).
• Asynchronous for speed; or synchronous if you want zero data loss (adds latency).
• Promotion on failover: pg_ctlcluster ... promote or psql SELECT pg_promote();

1. SQLite (for tiny services)

• Use Litestream to stream WAL to S3/MinIO, and auto-restore on failover.

1. Files/Uploads

• btrfs snapshots + btrfs send/receive to standby on a schedule; or rsync --inplace --delete.

1. Object Store

• MinIO bucket replication to the standby node’s MinIO.

1. Containers / Config

• GitOps (compose files + env) stored in private repo pulled by each node.
• Images pulled by digest; config via .env/Secrets.

Failover Patterns​

• Active-Passive (simpler): Mother Ship is primary. Standby tracks via heartbeats; if 3–5 missed heartbeats, Standby promotes DB & flips DNS/tunnel (or takes over VRRP IP on LAN).
• Active-Active (k3s): multiple control-plane/worker nodes; stateful sets pin to local PVs with Rook-Ceph or Longhorn. More complex; great later.

Control Plane​

• Health & Leader Election: your Node Agent publishes heartbeats to NATS; standby listens. Optional: Consul/Serf/Keepalived (VRRP) for floating IP.
• API Gateway: AI Governor (ASP.NET Core Minimal API) fans out to multiple AI backends (local FastAPI workers, cloud LLMs), merges responses, logs to Postgres.

Security (quick hits)​

• Everything internal on WireGuard mesh or Tailscale.
• Reverse proxy terminates TLS; services only on 127.0.0.1/mesh.
• Rotate credentials; .env files only on disk-encrypted SSDs.
• Prometheus + Alertmanager texting you via Twilio when anything degrades.

Runbook (DR sanity)​

1. Backups prove nothing until restored: schedule nightly containerized restore-tests to the standby.
2. Simulate Mother Ship kill monthly: standby must promote in <60s.
3. Snapshot policy: hourly for 24h, daily for 7d, weekly for 4–8w.

---

FULL CODE DROP (commented)​

Below are complete, ready-to-use files. Paths are suggestions you can keep 1:1.

1) docker-compose.yml (Mother Ship)​

File: infrastructure/docker-compose.yml

[START]
version: "3.9"
services:
caddy:
image: caddy:2
container_name: caddy
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "80:80"
- "443:443"
environment:
- ACME_AGREE=true
volumes:
- ./caddy/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
- caddy_data:/data
- caddy_config:/config
- ../apps/aigovernor:/srv/aigovernor:ro
depends_on:
- aigovernor

postgres:
image: postgres:16
container_name: postgres
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- POSTGRES_USER=llc
- POSTGRES_PASSWORD=llcpass
- POSTGRES_DB=llcaimachine
volumes:
- pg_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
- ./postgres/init:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d:ro
- ./postgres/conf/postgresql.conf:/etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf:ro
command: ["-c", "config_file=/etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf"]

redis:
image: redis:7
container_name: redis
restart: unless-stopped
command: ["redis-server", "--appendonly", "yes"]
volumes:
- redis_data:/data

nats:
image: nats:2.10
container_name: nats
restart: unless-stopped
command: ["-js"] # enable JetStream for persistence
ports:
- "4222:4222"
volumes:
- nats_data:/data

minio:
image: quay.io/minio/minio
container_name: minio
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- MINIO_ROOT_USER=admin
- MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD=changeit-changeit
command: ["server", "/data", "--console-address", ":9001"]
ports:
- "9000:9000"
- "9001:9001"
volumes:
- minio_data:/data

prometheus:
image: prom/prometheus
container_name: prometheus
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
- ./prometheus/prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml:ro
ports:
- "9090:9090"

nodeexporter:
image: prom/node-exporter
container_name: nodeexporter
restart: unless-stopped
network_mode: host
pid: host

grafana:
image: grafana/grafana-oss
container_name: grafana
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "3000:3000"
volumes:
- grafana_data:/var/lib/grafana

aigovernor:
build:
context: ../apps/aigovernor
dockerfile: Dockerfile
container_name: aigovernor
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://0.0.0.0:8080
- ConnectionStrings__Default=Host=postgres;Username=llc;Password=llcpass;Database=llcaimachine
- NATS_URL=nats://nats:4222
depends_on:
- postgres
- nats
- redis
ports:
- "8080:8080"

aiworker:
build:
context: ../apps/aiworker
dockerfile: Dockerfile
container_name: aiworker
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
- NATS_URL=nats://nats:4222
- MODEL_PATH=/models/ggml.bin
volumes:
- ./models:/models:ro
depends_on:
- nats

volumes:
caddy_data: {}
caddy_config: {}
pg_data: {}
redis_data: {}
nats_data: {}
minio_data: {}
grafana_data: {}
[END]

2) Caddyfile (TLS + routing to AI Governor)​

File: infrastructure/caddy/Caddyfile

[START]

Replace example.com with your domain if public. For LAN only, use http.​

:443, example.com {
encode zstd gzip
reverse_proxy /api/* aigovernor:8080
handle_path /grafana/* {
reverse_proxy grafana:3000
}
}

:80 {
redir https://{host}{uri}
}
[END]

3) Postgres config for streaming replication (Primary)​

File: infrastructure/postgres/conf/postgresql.conf

[START]
listen_addresses = '*'
wal_level = replica
archive_mode = on
archive_command = 'test ! -f /var/lib/postgresql/data/archive/%f && cp %p /var/lib/postgresql/data/archive/%f'
max_wal_senders = 10
wal_keep_size = 512MB
hot_standby = on
[END]

File: infrastructure/postgres/init/01-replication-user.sql

[START]
-- Creates a replication user used by the standby
CREATE ROLE replicator WITH REPLICATION LOGIN PASSWORD 'replicatorpass';
[END]

4) Standby: pg_basebackup one-liner (run on standby once)​

File: ops/standby/seed_primary.sh

[START]
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

Usage: seed_primary.sh <primary_ip_or_dns>​

PRIMARY="${1:-mother-ship.local}"
sudo systemctl stop docker || true
rm -rf /var/lib/docker/volumes/pg_data/_data/*
pg_basebackup -h "$PRIMARY" -U replicator -D /var/lib/docker/volumes/pg_data/_data -Fp -Xs -P -R

-R writes standby.signal and primary_conninfo​

Start containers afterwards (compose up)​

[END]

5) Node Agent (Python) – heartbeats, snapshots, rsync, failover hooks​

File: agents/node_agent/node_agent.py

[START]
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Node Agent:

• Publishes heartbeats to NATS (subject: nodes.heartbeat)
• Monitors Docker containers and disk health
• Creates btrfs snapshots and pushes to standby via btrfs send/receive (or falls back to rsync)
• On standby nodes: listens for lost heartbeats and triggers promotion hooks
  """
  import asyncio, os, json, time, subprocess, socket
  from datetime import datetime
  from nats.aio.client import Client as NATS

NODE_NAME = os.getenv("NODE_NAME", socket.gethostname())
ROLE = os.getenv("NODE_ROLE", "primary") # primary|standby
NATS_URL = os.getenv("NATS_URL", "nats://127.0.0.1:4222")
HEARTBEAT_SECONDS = int(os.getenv("HEARTBEAT_SECONDS", "5"))
MISSES_FOR_FAILOVER = int(os.getenv("MISSES_FOR_FAILOVER", "6")) # ~30s by default
STATE_DIR = os.getenv("STATE_DIR", "/srv/state")
SNAP_DIR = os.path.join(STATE_DIR, "snaps")
STANDBY_HOST = os.getenv("STANDBY_HOST", "")
BTRFS_MOUNT = os.getenv("BTRFS_MOUNT", "/srv/state")

async def docker_ps():
try:
out = subprocess.check_output(["docker", "ps", "--format", "{{json .}}"], text=True)
return [json.loads(l) for l in out.strip().splitlines()]
except Exception:
return []

def btrfs_snapshot():
# Create timestamped snapshot of BTRFS mount
ts = datetime.utcnow().strftime("%Y%m%dT%H%M%S")
snap_path = os.path.join(SNAP_DIR, f"state-{ts}")
os.makedirs(SNAP_DIR, exist_ok=True)
subprocess.run(["btrfs", "subvolume", "snapshot", "-r", BTRFS_MOUNT, snap_path], check=True)
return snap_path

def send_snapshot_btrfs(snapshot_path, dest_host, dest_path):
# Requires ssh keyless to standby and btrfs on dest
send = subprocess.Popen(["btrfs", "send", snapshot_path], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
recv = subprocess.Popen(["ssh", dest_host, "btrfs", "receive", dest_path], stdin=send.stdout)
send.stdout.close()
send.wait(); recv.wait()
if send.returncode != 0 or recv.returncode != 0:
raise RuntimeError("btrfs send/receive failed")

def rsync_state(dest_host, dest_dir):
subprocess.run(["rsync", "-aHAX", "--delete", f"{STATE_DIR}/", f"{dest_host}:{dest_dir}/"], check=True)

async def run_primary_tasks():
# periodic snapshots + replication
while True:
try:
snap = btrfs_snapshot()
if STANDBY_HOST:
try:
send_snapshot_btrfs(snap, STANDBY_HOST, "/srv/state/snaps")
except Exception:
# fallback to rsync if btrfs replication fails
rsync_state(STANDBY_HOST, "/srv/state")
except Exception as e:
print(f"[Agent] snapshot/replicate error: {e}")
await asyncio.sleep(300) # every 5 minutes

async def run_standby_watch(nc: NATS):
misses = 0
async def handler(msg):
nonlocal misses
# reset misses on any heartbeat seen
misses = 0
await nc.subscribe("nodes.heartbeat", cb=handler)
while True:
misses += 1
if misses >= MISSES_FOR_FAILOVER:
print("[Agent] Heartbeats missed. Initiating promotion...")
try:
subprocess.run(["docker", "exec", "postgres", "psql", "-U", "llc", "-c", "SELECT pg_promote();"], check=True)
# optionally update DNS/Cloudflare/API here
except Exception as e:
print(f"[Agent] Promotion failed: {e}")
misses = 0
await asyncio.sleep(HEARTBEAT_SECONDS)

async def main():
nc = NATS()
await nc.connect(servers=[NATS_URL])
# heartbeat publisher
async def heartbeat():
while True:
payload = {
"node": NODE_NAME,
"role": ROLE,
"ts": datetime.utcnow().isoformat(),
"services": await docker_ps()
}
await nc.publish("nodes.heartbeat", json.dumps(payload).encode())
await asyncio.sleep(HEARTBEAT_SECONDS)
tasks = [asyncio.create_task(heartbeat())]
if ROLE == "primary":
tasks.append(asyncio.create_task(run_primary_tasks()))
else:
tasks.append(asyncio.create_task(run_standby_watch(nc)))
await asyncio.gather(*tasks)

if name == "main":
asyncio.run(main())
[END]

6) systemd unit for Node Agent​

File: /etc/systemd/system/node-agent.service

[START]
[Unit]
Description=Empire Node Agent
After=network-online.target docker.service
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Environment=NODE_ROLE=primary
Environment=NODE_NAME=mother-ship
Environment=NATS_URL=nats://127.0.0.1:4222
Environment=STATE_DIR=/srv/state
Environment=BTRFS_MOUNT=/srv/state
Environment=STANDBY_HOST=standby.local
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /opt/node_agent/node_agent.py
Restart=always
RestartSec=3

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
[END]

On the standby, set NODE_ROLE=standby and NODE_NAME=standby-01.

7) Failover Manager (optional separate watcher)​

File: agents/failover_manager/failover_manager.py

[START]
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Listens to heartbeats and takes network actions:

• Switch a VRRP/Keepalived floating IP (if you use it)
• Call DNS API / Cloudflare Tunnel API to flip traffic
  """
  import asyncio, os, json
  from nats.aio.client import Client as NATS

NATS_URL = os.getenv("NATS_URL", "nats://127.0.0.1:4222")
MISSES=6

async def main():
nc = NATS(); await nc.connect(servers=[NATS_URL])
misses = 0
async def hb(msg):
nonlocal misses
misses = 0
await nc.subscribe("nodes.heartbeat", cb=hb)
while True:
misses += 1
if misses >= MISSES:
# EXAMPLE: trigger keepalived or Cloudflare API here
print("[Failover] Traffic switch should occur now.")
misses = 0
await asyncio.sleep(5)

if name == "main":
asyncio.run(main())
[END]

8) Bootstrap SSD & btrfs​

File: ops/bootstrap_ssd.sh

[START]
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
DEV="${1:-/dev/sda}"
mkfs.btrfs -L state "$DEV"
mkdir -p /srv/state
echo "LABEL=state /srv/state btrfs noatime,compress=zstd,space_cache=v2 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
mount -a
btrfs subvolume create /srv/state/app
btrfs subvolume create /srv/state/snaps
[END]

9) Prometheus scrape config​

File: infrastructure/prometheus/prometheus.yml

[START]
global:
scrape_interval: 15s
scrape_configs:

• job_name: 'node'
  static_configs:
  
  • targets: ['localhost:9100']
• job_name: 'caddy'
  static_configs:
  
  • targets: ['caddy:2019']
    [END]

10) ASP.NET Core 8 – AI Governor (fan-out/aggregate)​

Folder: apps/aigovernor

File: apps/aigovernor/Dockerfile
[START]
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o /out
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:8.0
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /out .
ENV ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://0.0.0.0:8080
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet","AIGovernor.dll"]
[END]

File: apps/aigovernor/Program.cs
[START]
// Minimal API that fans out a user prompt to multiple AI workers (local FastAPI or cloud)
// and returns an aggregated answer. Stores logs to Postgres later if desired.
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Net.Http;
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder.Build();

record AskRequest(string Prompt, int MaxWorkers = 2);
record WorkerResponse(string Worker, string Output, double? LatencyMs);

static async Task<WorkerResponse> CallWorker(HttpClient http, string baseUrl, string prompt)
{
var sw = System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch.StartNew();
var res = await http.PostAsync($"{baseUrl}/infer", new StringContent(JsonSerializer.Serialize(new { prompt }), System.Text.Encoding.UTF8, "application/json"));
var body = await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
sw.Stop();
return new WorkerResponse(baseUrl, body, sw.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds);
}

app.MapPost("/api/ask", async (AskRequest req) =>
{
// In real use, load worker URLs from config/db
var workers = new[] { "http://aiworker:8000" /* add more */ }.Take(req.MaxWorkers).ToArray();
using var http = new HttpClient { Timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60) };


<span><span><span>var</span></span><span> calls = workers.</span><span><span>Select</span></span><span>(</span><span><span><span>w</span></span></span><span> =&gt; </span><span><span>CallWorker</span></span><span>(http, w, req.</span><span><span>Prompt</span></span><span>)).</span><span><span>ToArray</span></span><span>();<br></span><span><span>var</span></span><span> results = </span><span><span>await</span></span><span> </span><span><span>Task</span></span><span>.</span><span><span>WhenAll</span></span><span>(calls);<br><br></span><span><span>// Very simple aggregation: pick the longest output; you’ll replace with your Governor logic.</span></span><span><br></span><span><span>var</span></span><span> best = results.</span><span><span>OrderByDescending</span></span><span>(</span><span><span><span>r</span></span></span><span> =&gt; (r.</span><span><span>Output</span></span><span> ?? </span><span><span>""</span></span><span>).</span><span><span>Length</span></span><span>).</span><span><span>FirstOrDefault</span></span><span>();<br></span><span><span>return</span></span><span> </span><span><span>Results</span></span><span>.</span><span><span>Json</span></span><span>(</span><span><span>new</span></span><span><br>{<br> prompt = req.</span><span><span>Prompt</span></span><span>,<br> answers = results,<br> chosen = best<br>});<br></span></span>
});

app.Run();
[END]

File: apps/aigovernor/AIGovernor.csproj
[START]
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
<Nullable>enable</Nullable>
<ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
<InvariantGlobalization>true</InvariantGlobalization>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
[END]

11) FastAPI AI Worker (dummy local “AI” service)​

Folder: apps/aiworker

File: apps/aiworker/Dockerfile
[START]
FROM python:3.12-slim
WORKDIR /app
RUN pip install fastapi uvicorn nats-py
COPY main.py .
EXPOSE 8000
CMD ["uvicorn","main:app","--host","0.0.0.0","--port","8000"]
[END]

File: apps/aiworker/main.py
[START]

Simple mock AI worker. Replace with your model runner or remote LLM call.​

from fastapi import FastAPI
from pydantic import BaseModel
import time

app = FastAPI()

class InferIn(BaseModel):
prompt: str

@app.post("/infer")
def infer(inp: InferIn):
# Fake "thinking"
time.sleep(0.7)
text = f"[aiworker] You said: {inp.prompt[:200]} ... (mock completion)"
return {"output": text}
[END]

12) Mother Ship → Standby file replication (crontab idea)​

File: ops/cron/root.cron

[START]

every 5 minutes snapshot & replicate (Node Agent already does this, but cron is a backup)​

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/python3 /opt/node_agent/node_agent.py 2>&1 | logger -t node_agent
[END]

13) Keepalived (optional LAN floating IP)​

File: infrastructure/keepalived/keepalived.conf

[START]
vrrp_instance VI_1 {
state MASTER
interface eth0
virtual_router_id 51
priority 200
advert_int 1
authentication {
auth_type PASS
auth_pass changeit
}
virtual_ipaddress {
192.168.1.200/24 dev eth0
}
}
[END]

On standby, set state BACKUP and priority 150. Your apps target 192.168.1.200 so failover is instant inside the LAN.

---

How AI + REST Helps the Node​

• AI Governor (C# Minimal API) = single front door. It fans out requests to multiple AI workers (local FastAPI, cloud LLMs), benchmarks latency/quality, picks a winner, and logs to Postgres. You keep “AI Elders” plural without coupling your apps to any one provider.
• Node Agent + AI: the Agent can use a local LLM to summarize Prometheus alerts, propose remediations, or even draft “post-mortems” after failover.
• Policy as Code: teach the Governor rules like: “If Postgres lag > X and Mother Ship CPU > 95% for 5m, pre-promote read replicas for analytics and drain batch jobs.”

Deployment Order (quick and safe)​

1. Flash Ubuntu 24.04 64-bit to SD just for boot, or direct NVMe boot if your HAT supports it.
2. Run ops/bootstrap_ssd.sh /dev/nvme0n1 (or your device).
3. sudo apt install docker.io docker-compose-plugin btrfs-progs
4. docker compose -f infrastructure/docker-compose.yml up -d
5. Seed the standby DB: run ops/standby/seed_primary.sh mother-ship.local on the standby.
6. Enable Node Agent systemd service on both nodes (primary/standby env differs).
7. (Optional) Configure keepalived for floating IP; or use Cloudflare Tunnel flip on failover.
8. Verify: kill Postgres on Mother Ship; standby should promote; AI Governor continues serving.

What this gives you today​

• A Pi-friendly, ARM-native stack with real replication.
• Heartbeats, snapshots, and automatic promotion.
• A clean, extensible AI front-door so your “AI Elders” can scale across nodes.
• Monitoring and a place to add alerting + SMS.

If you want, next pass I can layer in:

• restic backup containers with scheduled restores
• MinIO bucket replication config
• Redis Sentinel for automatic leader election
• A test harness that simulates failovers nightly and emails you the report

Want me to package these into a single repo layout (with Makefile + one-shot install scripts) and generate Grafana dashboards + Alertmanager Twilio routes?