System Topology Registry

Owned by Kevin Wu
Last updated: Jun 15, 2023
2 min read

The STR is used for managing pico configurations, service configurations, and attributes that control the behavior of .

The STR data is stored in MZ_HOME/common/config/cell and consists of the following:

  • Master registry - The master registry is used for staging changes in the STR. You can update the files in the master registry manually in an editor or using an mzsh command.

  • Active registry - When you are using the mzsh command topo to update the master registry, the changes are automatically validated and propagated to the active registry. The active registry files are used when you start a pico process. These files are hidden  and should not be edited directly by users. 

  • Backup registry - When the active registry is updated the previous data is stored in the backup registry files. These files are hidden  and should not be edited directly by users. 

  • Templates - Templates contain pico definitions and default properties. A template have a namespace based on its parent directory. For instance the namespace of the predefined templates is mz.

  • Containers - Containers are used by the STR to reference a

    installation on a host.

  • Container Groups - A container group contains the configuration of picos that can be started on a set of containers. The STR currently supports a single pre-defined container group named default. Pico configurations in this group can be started in any container in the system.   

  • Cells - A cell contains a set of Container Groups and can be considered synonymous with "system". At the time of writing, only one predefined cell (default) is available.

STR structure - MZ_HOME/common/config/cell