etch-users — General discussion and questions about using etch

[etch-users] best way to remove hosts

[Kenneth W. <hap...@gm...>]

Is there a recommended way to remove hosts?

When I PXE boot a host I'm running etch immediately in the post install.
After I assign a role to the host it's host name and ip address change. So I
end up with these stale entries in etch from the first run.

Is there a better way for me to handle this, or should I just delete those
entries? How are others handling this? Thanks!

-- 
Kenneth Williams

[etch-users] RFC regarding etch history logs

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Etch maintains history logs using RCS in /var/etch/history.  RCS is  
the only non-Ruby/gem etch dependency, which makes etch that much  
harder for users to deploy.  Also, RCS is not terribly user-friendly.   
Inspecting the history logs is painful.  I'm considering replacing the  
RCS mechanism with regular diffs stored in files.  Where /var/etch/ 
history/etc/passwd.HISTORY is currently a file I imagine turning that  
into a directory, containing a 'current' file with the contents as of  
the last etch update, and one diff per file for each previous change,  
perhaps named 00000000, 00000001, etc.  This would allow for easy  
inspection of the history log with standard Unix tools.

Any thoughts on this?  Would you rather I store each history event as  
a full copy of the file?  It would use more disk space and you'd have  
to do your own diffs to see changes, but would allow for easier  
rollbacks to any arbitrary revision.

Thanks,

Jason

Re: [etch-users] Etch-3.8

[Chakri G. <cha...@an...>]

Jason,
  I got the issue resolved by switching myself to 3.13. Still working on how to make it useful.

Thank you
Chakri
On Nov 21, 2009, at 4:28 PM, Jason Heiss wrote:

This discussion ended up continuing off-list.  For the sake of the archives the problem was an older version of etch that didn't properly set up the Ruby search path so that the client could be run directly from the distribution directory structure.  That was fixed starting with etch 3.9.

Jason

On Nov 18, 2009, at 2:30 PM, Chakri Girda wrote:


On 11/18/09, Chakri Girda <cha...@an...<mailto:cha...@an...>> wrote:
Hi ,
  I am getting the following error when trying to use the etch client.
Can I get some help.


  [root@apst]# ./etch --generate-all --interactive --server
http://localhost:8090<http://localhost:8090/>
./etchclient.rb:28:in `require': no such file to load -- etch (LoadError)
from ./etchclient.rb:28
from ./etch:10:in `require'
from ./etch:10


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Thank you
Chakri

Chakravarthy (Chakri)  Girda
Announce Media
www.announcemedia.com<http://www.announcemedia.com>
314-664-2010 x 165

Re: [etch-users] Etch-3.8

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

This discussion ended up continuing off-list.  For the sake of the  
archives the problem was an older version of etch that didn't properly  
set up the Ruby search path so that the client could be run directly  
from the distribution directory structure.  That was fixed starting  
with etch 3.9.

Jason

On Nov 18, 2009, at 2:30 PM, Chakri Girda wrote:

>>
>> On 11/18/09, Chakri Girda <cha...@an...> wrote:
>>> Hi ,
>>>   I am getting the following error when trying to use the etch  
>>> client.
>>> Can I get some help.
>>>
>>>
>>>   [root@apst]# ./etch --generate-all --interactive --server
>>> http://localhost:8090
>>> ./etchclient.rb:28:in `require': no such file to load -- etch  
>>> (LoadError)
>>> from ./etchclient.rb:28
>>> from ./etch:10:in `require'
>>> from ./etch:10
>>>

Re: [etch-users] Etch-3.8

[Chakri G. <cha...@an...>]

gem install fileutils
ERROR:  could not find gem fileutils locally or in a repository


On Nov 18, 2009, at 3:38 PM, Kenneth Williams wrote:

I think you need the fileutils gem.

On 11/18/09, Chakri Girda <cha...@an...<mailto:cha...@an...>> wrote:
Hi ,
  I am getting the following error when trying to use the etch client.
Can I get some help.


  [root@apst]# ./etch --generate-all --interactive --server
http://localhost:8090
./etchclient.rb:28:in `require': no such file to load -- etch (LoadError)
from ./etchclient.rb:28
from ./etch:10:in `require'
from ./etch:10


[root@apst]# gem list --local

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

actionmailer (2.3.4)
actionpack (2.3.4)
activerecord (2.3.4)
activeresource (2.3.4)
activesupport (2.3.4)
facter (1.5.6)
json (1.2.0)
libxml-ruby (1.1.3)
mislav-will_paginate (2.3.11)
rack (1.0.0)
rails (2.3.4)
rake (0.8.7)
sqlite3-ruby (1.2.4)
unicorn (0.93.3)

Thank you
Chakri

Chakravarthy (Chakri)  Girda
Announce Media
www.announcemedia.com<http://www.announcemedia.com>
314-664-2010 x 165



--
Sent from my mobile device

Kenneth Williams <www.krw.info<http://www.krw.info>>
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is
in session. - Mark Twain

Thank you
Chakri

Chakravarthy (Chakri)  Girda
Announce Media
www.announcemedia.com<http://www.announcemedia.com>
314-664-2010 x 165

Re: [etch-users] Etch-3.8

[Kenneth W. <hap...@gm...>]

I think you need the fileutils gem.

On 11/18/09, Chakri Girda <cha...@an...> wrote:
> Hi ,
>    I am getting the following error when trying to use the etch client.
> Can I get some help.
>
>
>    [root@apst]# ./etch --generate-all --interactive --server
> http://localhost:8090
> ./etchclient.rb:28:in `require': no such file to load -- etch (LoadError)
> from ./etchclient.rb:28
> from ./etch:10:in `require'
> from ./etch:10
>
>
> [root@apst]# gem list --local
>
> *** LOCAL GEMS ***
>
> actionmailer (2.3.4)
> actionpack (2.3.4)
> activerecord (2.3.4)
> activeresource (2.3.4)
> activesupport (2.3.4)
> facter (1.5.6)
> json (1.2.0)
> libxml-ruby (1.1.3)
> mislav-will_paginate (2.3.11)
> rack (1.0.0)
> rails (2.3.4)
> rake (0.8.7)
> sqlite3-ruby (1.2.4)
> unicorn (0.93.3)
>
> Thank you
> Chakri
>
> Chakravarthy (Chakri)  Girda
> Announce Media
> www.announcemedia.com<http://www.announcemedia.com>
> 314-664-2010 x 165
>
>

-- 
Sent from my mobile device

Kenneth Williams <www.krw.info>
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is
in session. - Mark Twain

[etch-users] Etch-3.8

[Chakri G. <cha...@an...>]

Hi ,
   I am getting the following error when trying to use the etch client.   Can I get some help.


   [root@apst]# ./etch --generate-all --interactive --server http://localhost:8090
./etchclient.rb:28:in `require': no such file to load -- etch (LoadError)
from ./etchclient.rb:28
from ./etch:10:in `require'
from ./etch:10


[root@apst]# gem list --local

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

actionmailer (2.3.4)
actionpack (2.3.4)
activerecord (2.3.4)
activeresource (2.3.4)
activesupport (2.3.4)
facter (1.5.6)
json (1.2.0)
libxml-ruby (1.1.3)
mislav-will_paginate (2.3.11)
rack (1.0.0)
rails (2.3.4)
rake (0.8.7)
sqlite3-ruby (1.2.4)
unicorn (0.93.3)

Thank you
Chakri

Chakravarthy (Chakri)  Girda
Announce Media
www.announcemedia.com<http://www.announcemedia.com>
314-664-2010 x 165

Re: [etch-users] Etch 3.12 released

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

On Nov 14, 2009, at 11:01 AM, Jason Heiss wrote:

> Forgot to mention there is also a gem rake target, so "rake gem" will get you a ruby gem that you can install.  I'll work on getting that into the official gems repo as well.

Well that was fast.  Etch is now in the official gem repository, so "gem install etch" should just work.

Jason

Re: [etch-users] Etch 3.12 released

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Forgot to mention there is also a gem rake target, so "rake gem" will get you a ruby gem that you can install.  I'll work on getting that into the official gems repo as well.

And a generic "rake install" that will just install etch directly.  That one will need to be run with sudo of course.

Jason

On Nov 14, 2009, at 10:56 AM, Jason Heiss wrote:

> Minor release along the lines of making it easier to get etch installed.
> 
> The Makefile in the client directory for building client packages (rpm, deb, etc.) has been deprecated in favor of a Rakefile (rake is a make-like utility written in Ruby, rakefiles are Ruby code).  This makes it easier to support various packaging formats.  If you have rake installed (gem install rake if not) then whatever you did with make before is easily done with rake now.  E.g. make redhat is now rake redhat.  Run rake -T to get a list of available tasks.
> 
> And I've used that flexibility to make a port for MacPorts.  Running 'rake macport' produces a Portfile suitable for MacPorts.  It has been submitted for inclusion in the official MacPorts tree.  Hopefully soon installing etch on a Mac will be as simple as "port install etch".  I'll send out an email when I get feedback on the MacPorts submission.
> 
> Jason
> 

[etch-users] Etch 3.12 released

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Minor release along the lines of making it easier to get etch installed.

The Makefile in the client directory for building client packages (rpm, deb, etc.) has been deprecated in favor of a Rakefile (rake is a make-like utility written in Ruby, rakefiles are Ruby code).  This makes it easier to support various packaging formats.  If you have rake installed (gem install rake if not) then whatever you did with make before is easily done with rake now.  E.g. make redhat is now rake redhat.  Run rake -T to get a list of available tasks.

And I've used that flexibility to make a port for MacPorts.  Running 'rake macport' produces a Portfile suitable for MacPorts.  It has been submitted for inclusion in the official MacPorts tree.  Hopefully soon installing etch on a Mac will be as simple as "port install etch".  I'll send out an email when I get feedback on the MacPorts submission.

Jason

[etch-users] libxml-ruby gem

[Jason H. <JH...@ap...>]

BTW, we've been noticing a lot of issues with the libxml-ruby gem.  It  
looks like rolling back to version 1.1.2 (latest is 1.1.3) reduces or  
eliminates those issues.  There seem to be a number of open bug  
reports against 1.1.3 on Rubyforge for issues similar to what I was  
seeing.  So if you see errors and are running with 1.1.3 try rolling  
back to 1.1.2 and let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Jason

[etch-users] Etch 3.10 released

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

No new features in this release, just a few bug fixes:

- The commands.dtd DTD was too strict, causing etch to reject valid  
commands.xml files in some circumstances

- In some cases files or commands with dependencies on files, with  
some of the files requested on the command line (rather than -- 
generate-all) would trigger a loop between the client and server where  
the server never quite gave the client instructions that resulted in a  
request that the server could complete in one shot.  This would  
eventually hit the client's 10 loop limit and exit with the files not  
updated.  This bug was partially introduced in the 3.8 release and  
made worse in the 3.9 release.

- Not exactly a bug, but the client was spitting out a message about  
updating temporary placeholder files each time in encountered a need  
for one, rather than creating the placeholder once and keeping quiet  
unless the placeholder needed updating.  This was laziness/caution on  
my part about introducing the code to check if a placeholder needed to  
be updated, the client just deleted and recreated it each run.   
However, the messages get annoying quickly, and in many cases clients  
will have some files that never progress beyond the placeholder stage  
on that particular client, so you got the messages forever.  Went  
ahead and wrote the code to check if the existing placeholder was  
correct and use it as is if so.

Re: [etch-users] etch client req dependency rcs for fedora 8 & 11

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

On Oct 29, 2009, at 3:40 PM, Kenneth Williams wrote:

> Otherwise etch client dies when trying to write out the history files.

The RPM spec file for the client has a dependency on rcs.  Did that  
not work somehow?

Requires: ruby, facter, rcs, crontabs

Jason

[etch-users] etch client req dependency rcs for fedora 8 & 11

[Kenneth W. <hap...@gm...>]

Otherwise etch client dies when trying to write out the history files.

-- 
Kenneth Williams
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in
session. - Mark Twain

[etch-users] Etch 3.9 release

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Etch 3.8 has been released.

Files can now depend on commands and vice-versa.  <dependcommand> in a  
config.xml file, <dependfile> in a commands.xml file.

You can now request the processing of specific commands on the command  
line.  This can be mixed with request for specific files as well.  So  
"etch /etc/motd linux_package_commands" should do what you expect,  
i.e. generate /etc/motd and process the linux_package_commands set of  
commands.

And a few assorted bug fixes.

Jason

Re: [etch-users] recommendations on etch / nventory versions

[Kenneth W. <hap...@gm...>]

Thanks Jason! That got me on the right track to fixing it.

I'm not sure if this is the best way to fix it, but in case anyone else has
this issue on EC2... I changed line 65 in nventory.rb on my Etch host from
@server = 'http://nventory/' to @server = 'http://
ec2-X-X-X-X.compute-N.amazonaws.com/', replace with your instance's dns
entry.

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 10:21 AM, Jason Heiss <jh...@ap...> wrote:

>
> On Oct 26, 2009, at 11:22 PM, Kenneth Williams wrote:
>
>  Jason,
>> Awesome. That fixed that issue. Thanks!
>>
>> I'm seeing another error "getaddrinfo: Name or service not known
>> (SocketError)" from http.rb, but I believe those are specific to the EC2
>> setup I'm running. The trouble shooting continues ;) Thanks again!
>>
>>
> That sounds like the nventory library is failing to look up the hostname
> for the nventory server.  I think the library uses 'http://nventory/' by
> default.
>
> Jason
>
>


-- 
Kenneth Williams
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in
session. - Mark Twain

Re: [etch-users] recommendations on etch / nventory versions

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

On Oct 26, 2009, at 11:22 PM, Kenneth Williams wrote:

> Jason,
> Awesome. That fixed that issue. Thanks!
>
> I'm seeing another error "getaddrinfo: Name or service not known  
> (SocketError)" from http.rb, but I believe those are specific to the  
> EC2 setup I'm running. The trouble shooting continues ;) Thanks again!
>

That sounds like the nventory library is failing to look up the  
hostname for the nventory server.  I think the library uses 'http://nventory/' 
  by default.

Jason

Re: [etch-users] recommendations on etch / nventory versions

[Kenneth W. <hap...@gm...>]

Jason,
Awesome. That fixed that issue. Thanks!

I'm seeing another error "getaddrinfo: Name or service not known
(SocketError)" from http.rb, but I believe those are specific to the EC2
setup I'm running. The trouble shooting continues ;) Thanks again!

On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 2:54 PM, Jason Heiss <jh...@ap...> wrote:

> Sorry, my bad, I forgot to update the sample scripts to reflect the change
> in the nVentory API.
>
> Fix committed to svn.  You can grab the updated scripts here:
>
>
> http://etch.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/etch/trunk/etchserver-samples/nventory/
>
> I'm working on some enhancements and bug fixes to the features that were
> added in the 3.8 release (config commands and REXML support), hopefully I'll
> get a new release out this week and it will include this fix as well.
>
> Jason
>
>
> On Oct 26, 2009, at 2:14 PM, Kenneth Williams wrote:
>
>  Anyone out there using etch and nventory together? Which versions are you
>> using?
>>
>> I seem to be having some issues getting the nodegrouper and nodetagger
>> scripts working between Etch version 3.8 and nVentory 0.83. Alternativly if
>> anyone has any input into fixing the error below that would be just as
>> helpful, and appreciated too:
>>
>> [root@domU-12-31-39-06-BA-33 nventory]#
>> /usr/bin/etch/etchserver-samples/nventory/nodegrouper localhost
>> /usr/bin/etch/etchserver-samples/nventory/nodegrouper:16:in `get_objects':
>> wrong number of arguments (4 for 5) (ArgumentError)
>>        from /usr/bin/etch/etchserver-samples/nventory/nodegrouper:16
>>
>> I included the nventory file from client/ruby directory of the 0.83
>> version in the nodegrouper and nodetagger scripts.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> --
>> Kenneth Williams
>> No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in
>> session. - Mark Twain
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA
>> is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your
>> developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay
>> ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now!
>>
>> http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference_______________________________________________
>> etch-users mailing list
>> etc...@li...
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/etch-users
>>
>
>


-- 
Kenneth Williams
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in
session. - Mark Twain

Re: [etch-users] recommendations on etch / nventory versions

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Sorry, my bad, I forgot to update the sample scripts to reflect the  
change in the nVentory API.

Fix committed to svn.  You can grab the updated scripts here:

http://etch.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/etch/trunk/etchserver-samples/nventory/

I'm working on some enhancements and bug fixes to the features that  
were added in the 3.8 release (config commands and REXML support),  
hopefully I'll get a new release out this week and it will include  
this fix as well.

Jason

On Oct 26, 2009, at 2:14 PM, Kenneth Williams wrote:

> Anyone out there using etch and nventory together? Which versions  
> are you using?
>
> I seem to be having some issues getting the nodegrouper and  
> nodetagger scripts working between Etch version 3.8 and nVentory  
> 0.83. Alternativly if anyone has any input into fixing the error  
> below that would be just as helpful, and appreciated too:
>
> [root@domU-12-31-39-06-BA-33 nventory]# /usr/bin/etch/etchserver- 
> samples/nventory/nodegrouper localhost
> /usr/bin/etch/etchserver-samples/nventory/nodegrouper:16:in  
> `get_objects': wrong number of arguments (4 for 5) (ArgumentError)
>         from /usr/bin/etch/etchserver-samples/nventory/nodegrouper:16
>
> I included the nventory file from client/ruby directory of the 0.83  
> version in the nodegrouper and nodetagger scripts.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -- 
> Kenneth Williams
> No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature  
> is in session. - Mark Twain
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) Developer Conference in SF, CA
> is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart  
> your
> developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and  
> stay
> ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now!
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference_______________________________________________
> etch-users mailing list
> etc...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/etch-users

[etch-users] recommendations on etch / nventory versions

[Kenneth W. <hap...@gm...>]

Anyone out there using etch and nventory together? Which versions are you
using?

I seem to be having some issues getting the nodegrouper and nodetagger
scripts working between Etch version 3.8 and nVentory 0.83. Alternativly if
anyone has any input into fixing the error below that would be just as
helpful, and appreciated too:

[root@domU-12-31-39-06-BA-33 nventory]#
/usr/bin/etch/etchserver-samples/nventory/nodegrouper localhost
/usr/bin/etch/etchserver-samples/nventory/nodegrouper:16:in `get_objects':
wrong number of arguments (4 for 5) (ArgumentError)
        from /usr/bin/etch/etchserver-samples/nventory/nodegrouper:16

I included the nventory file from client/ruby directory of the 0.83 version
in the nodegrouper and nodetagger scripts.

Thanks!

-- 
Kenneth Williams
No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in
session. - Mark Twain

[etch-users] Etch 3.8 release

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Etch 3.8 has been released.

Major new features:

Add support for configuration commands, i.e. system configuration via  
commands rather than via configuration files.  See http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/etch/wiki/ConfigurationCommands

Add local mode to etch client where it reads configuration from a  
local directory rather than from a server.  This should make testing  
changes easier, and make it easier for new users to evaluate etch.   
See https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/etch/wiki/GettingStarted

Minor stuff:

Server can now run without LibXML.  If LibXML is not available the  
server falls back to REXML.  LibXML is recommended for larger  
environments as it has better performance and allows DTD verification  
of config.xml files, yielding easier to understand errors when there's  
a syntax error in a config.xml file.

Client now postpones saving the original file until it is configured  
to manage that file, so if something isn't a DNS server then the  
original for /etc/named.conf won't be saved until it is configured to  
be a DNS server, thus reducing the chance that we erroneously save a  
zero byte original because there was no setup command to install the  
package that included the original file.

etch now has a man page, as a result the --help output is shorter and  
easier to read

[etch-users] Etch 3.6 release

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Etch 3.6 has been released:

Add client authentication.  See
https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/etch/wiki/ClientAuthentication

Add support for local requests.  See
https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/etch/wiki/LocalRequests

Add etch_to_trunk utility.  In combination with controlled deployment
(see https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/etch/wiki/ControlledDeployment)
this allows you to temporarily bump clients to your subversion "trunk"
or CVS "HEAD" or equivalent so that they pick up the latest
configuration until their controlled deployment tag catches up.  This
helps provide immediate resolution for shoulder-taps or other urgent
requests without otherwise disrupting your controlled deployment system.
The included script is written to talk to nVentory but could be modified
to talk to a different operations database.

Upgrade from Rails 2.1.1 to Rails 2.3.4.  This doesn't get us anything
particular that etch requires, but Rails does change over time and
keeping reasonably current reduces the pain of catching up if there is a
new feature or security fix that is important.

Add timeout to output capturing so that ill-behaved daemons don't cause
etch to hang around forever.

Modify repo_update to update repo directories atomically.  We don't want
clients getting a partial or partially updated copy of the repository

Add RESTful controllers for etch configs, facts and originals. Populate
remaining RESTful methods for results and clients controllers.

Clean up the handling of find and paginate calls in the results and
client controllers, reducing code duplication.  Add support for XML
formatting of results in same.

(These last two should make it easier to write automation tools that
manipulate the etch database.  This will particularly be necessary for
maintenance operations regarding clients and their keys for the just
added client authentication.)

Made the client a little more more tolerant of the server URL syntax, so
you no longer have to remember whether etch wants it with or without the
trailing slash.

[etch-users] Etch 3.5 release

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Etch 3.5 has been released:

Replace REXML for XML parsing with LibXML. Uses less CPU, which  
improves scalability, and adds support for DTD validation.  config.xml  
files are now validated against config.dtd after filtering.  This was  
the behavior in etch 2.x and earlier, but has been missing in etch 3  
until now.  You will need the libxml-ruby gem on your etch servers  
(which in turn requires the libxml2 library, which comes with most  
Linux distros).

Added some Flash charts to the web dashboard to graphically show  
client count and status.  The necessary libraries come in the etch  
distribution so there are no new dependencies for this feature.   
Clients without flash will see no change.

Converted the cron job wrapper script from Perl to Ruby so the client  
package no longer depends on Perl.

Various other minor bug fixes.

[etch-users] Etch 3.4 release

[Jason H. <jh...@at...>]

Etch 3.4 has been released

The major feature in this release is the addition of results  
reporting.  The client now gathers any output shown to the user and  
the success/failure associated with each managed file as well as the  
overall success of the run and reports that to the server.  A web UI  
was added to the server for viewing and searching these results, as  
well as statistics about the overall health of your etch environment.

In the process of making the changes to the client I implemented the  
skip feature in interactive mode.

[etch-users] Etch 3.3 release

[Jason H. <jh...@ap...>]

Etch 3.3 has been released

Add support for a server killswitch.  See the ControlledDeployment page
on the wiki for details.

Fix bug in handling of setup commands, they were being run after the
etch client copied and saved the original file, thus defeating the  
point.

Fix bug(s) where scripts being used to decide about links, directories
and deletes return no contents (thus indicating no action is to be
performed).  The server did not handle that properly, sending bogus
instructions to the client which caused the client to abort.