website: adding guide on bootstrapping a DC. Fixes #5.

website/source/docs/guides/bootstrapping.html.markdown

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+---
+layout: "docs"
+page_title: "Bootstrapping"
+sidebar_current: "docs-guides-bootstrapping"
+---
+
+# Bootstrapping a Datacenter
+
+When deploying Consul to a datacenter for the first time, there is an initial bootstrapping that
+must be done. Generally, the first nodes that are started are the server nodes. Remember that an
+agent can run in both client and server mode. Server nodes are responsible for running
+the [consensus protocol](/docs/internals/consensus.html), and storing the cluster state.
+The client nodes are mostly stateless and rely on the server nodes, so they can be started easily.
+
+The first server that is deployed in a new datacenter must provide the `-bootstrap` [configuration
+option](/docs/agent/options.html). This option allows the server to assert leadership of the cluster
+without agreement from any other server. This is necessary because at this point, there are no other
+servers running in the datacenter! Lets call this first server `Node A`. When starting `Node A` something
+the following will be logged:
+
+    2014/02/22 19:23:32 [INFO] consul: cluster leadership acquired
+
+Once `Node A` is running, we can start the next set of servers. There is a [deployment table](/docs/internals/consensus.html)
+that covers various options, but it is recommended to have 3 or 5 total servers per data center.
+We start the next servers **without** specifying `-bootstrap`. This is critical, since only one server
+should ever be running in bootstrap mode*. Once `Node B` and `Node C` are started, you should see a
+message to the effect of:
+
+    [WARN] raft: EnableSingleNode disabled, and no known peers. Aborting election.
+
+This indicates that the node is not in bootstrap mode, and it will not elect itself as leader.
+We can now join these machines together. Since a join operation is symmetric it does not matter
+which node initiates it. From `Node B` and `Node C` you can do the following:
+
+    $ consul join <Node A Address>
+    Successfully joined cluster by contacting 1 nodes.
+
+Alternatively, from `Node A` you can do the following:
+
+    $ consul join <Node B Address> <Node C Address>
+    Successfully joined cluster by contacting 2 nodes.
+
+Once the join is successful, `Node A` should output something like:
+
+    [INFO] raft: Added peer 127.0.0.2:8300, starting replication
+    ....
+    [INFO] raft: Added peer 127.0.0.3:8300, starting replication
+
+This indicates that `Node B` and `Node C` have been added as peers. At this point,
+all three nodes see each other as peers, `Node A` is the leader, and replication
+should be working.
+
+The final step is to remove the `-bootstrap` flag. This is important since we don't
+want the node to be able to make unilateral decisions in the case of a failure of the
+other two nodes. To do this, we send a `SIGINT` to `Node A` to allow it to perform
+a graceful leave. Then we remove the `-bootstrap` flag and restart the node. The node
+will need to rejoin the cluster, since the graceful exit leaves the cluster. Any transactions
+that took place while `Node A` was offline will be replicated and the node will catch up.
+
+Now that the servers are all started and replicating to each other, all the remaining
+clients can be joined. Clients are much easier, as they can be started and perform
+a `join` against any existing node. All nodes participate in a gossip protocol to
+perform basic discovery, so clients will automatically find the servers and register
+themselves.
+
+<div class="alert alert-block alert-info">
+* If you accidentally start another server with the flag set, do not fret.
+Shutdown the node, and remove the `raft/` folder from the data directory. This will
+remove the bad state caused by being in `-bootstrap` mode. Then restart the
+node and join the cluster normally.
+</div>
+

website/source/docs/guides/index.html.markdown

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+layout: "docs"
+page_title: "Guides"
+sidebar_current: "docs-guides"
+---
+
+# Consul Guides
+
+This section provides various guides for common actions. Due to the complex nature
+of Consul, some of these procedures can be complex, so our goal is to provide
+guidance do doing them safely.
+
+The following guides are available:
+
+ * [Bootstrapping](/docs/guides/bootstrapping.html) - This guide covers bootstrapping a new
+ datacenter. This covers safely adding the initial Consul servers.
+
+ * TODO: Adding and removing servers
+
+ * TODO: Joining datacenters
+
+

website/source/layouts/docs.erb

@@ -114,6 +114,14 @@
 					</li>
                 </ul>
 
+				<li<%= sidebar_current("docs-guides") %>>
+				<a href="/docs/guides/index.html">Guides</a>
+                <ul class="nav">
+					<li<%= sidebar_current("docs-guides-bootstrapping") %>>
+					<a href="/docs/guides/bootstrapping.html">Bootstrapping</a>
+					</li>
+                </ul>
+
 				<li<%= sidebar_current("docs-roadmap") %>>
 				<a href="/docs/roadmap.html">Roadmap</a>
 				</li>