Using Proficy WebSpace with Microsoft Cluster Service

Transcription

1 Using Proficy WebSpace with Microsoft Cluster Service On Windows hosts, the Application Publishing Service can be configured to automatically restart if the service fails. If a Relay Server fails, clients are disconnected but sessions continue to run on the dependent servers that were connected to the Relay Server. These dependent servers will attempt to reconnect to the Relay Server every 15 seconds. When a dependent server reconnects to the Relay Server, it re-adds its sessions to the Relay Server and restores any state information associated with the disconnected sessions. Clients are then able to sign back in and resume their sessions. Clients do not automatically attempt to reconnect to the Relay Server. In order to provide higher service availability, a separate failover server can be configured for the Proficy WebSpace Relay Server using Windows High Availability. The Proficy WebSpace Relay Server was tested with the Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) on Windows Server 2003/2008/2012. In an MSCS configuration, if the Relay Server fails for any reason, the failover server immediately takes the place of the failed server. Application hosts automatically reconnect to the failover server, and users will generally be able to log on and reconnect to their disconnected sessions within 1-2 minutes of the Relay Server failure. The following serves as an example on how this is configured. I this environment, VMware Workstation version 9 virtual machines were used with three Relay Servers forming the cluster: ---- [Windows 2008 AD] Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard 64-bit COMPUTERNAME: WIN2008 VMNET#: vmnet2 IP: SUBNETMASK: [CLUSTER1 Cluster/Relay Server] Computer Name: CLUSTER1

2 IP: IP: Subnet Mask for both IP: [CLUSTER2 Cluster/Relay Server] Computer Name: CLUSTER2 IP: IP: Subnet Mask for both IP: [CLUSTER3 Cluster/Relay Server] Computer Name: CLUSTER3 IP: IP: Subnet Mask for both IP: [DEPEND1 Proficy WebSpace Dependent Server]

3 Computer Name: DEPEND1 IP: [DEPEND2 Proficy WebSpace Dependent Server] Computer Name: DEPEND2 IP: [SESSION Proficy WebSpace Session Node] Windows XP Professional Computer Name: SESSION IP: [SESSION2 Proficy WebSpace Session Node] Windows XP Professional Computer Name: SESSION2 IP:

4 Dependent Server Setup The dependent servers require ifix 5.8 and then Proficy WebSpace 4.71 or greater to be installed. Prior to the WebSpace installation, it is imperative that the proper prerequisites be in place. The Proficy WebSpace 4.71 or greater IPI (Important Product Information) Release Notes tab>prerequisites section explain these requirements. Proficy ifix 5.8 and WebSpace 4.71 or greater can be installed using either the default installation path or a location of your choosing, but what is important is that the installation paths for each product match the paths on the other dependent servers. Each dependent application server should be configured the same, with the same installed software, settings, and install locations. In other words, all software, pictures, and network access must be the same on each dependent application server in your configuration. From a networking perspective, dependent application servers must be located on the same network as their associated Relay Server. The most recent version of Proficy Common Licensing needs to be installed on each dependent server. Since you are using VMware images, a local licensing server is recommended. A license is required on each server for BOTH ifix and "x" numbers of Webspace sessions. Whatever decision is reached on how the sessions are spread across dependent servers, make sure you configure the Proficy WebSpace Administration>Tools>Host Options>Session Startup tab>maximum sessions on this host accordingly. Assuming you have thought of a name of the cluster you will configure later on, you need to add it to the dependent server configuration. Open Proficy WebSpace Administration>Tools>Host Options>General tab. Enter the cluster name into the Relay server field box. Finally, you need to ensure that applications stay running in the event the active relay server in the cluster experiences a problem. To set this, switch to the Session Shutdown tab under Proficy WebSpace Administration>Tools>Host Options, locate the section Disconnected sessions terminate, enable the After radio button and enter 15 minutes (which should be more than enough time for another cluster server to take over the active role). The last bit of configuration ensures that both the Proficy WebSpace Application Publishing Service and World Wide Web Publishing Service start automatically when Windows starts and that all recovery options are set to Restart the Service.

5 Relay Server Setup To take advantage of high availability, you will require at least 3 cluster nodes that also have Proficy WebSpace server installed and configured in a relay server fashion. The reason for at least 3 cluster servers is that we are using a Node Majority quorum configuration. Your choice of how you will implement the cluster may vary. Proficy Common Licensing and ifix are not needed on the cluster/relay servers; they are only required on dependent servers. As was done for the dependent servers, ensure the proper prerequisites are in place for each server that will be part of the cluster. The Proficy WebSpace 4.71 or greater IPI (Important Product Information) Release Notes tab>prerequisites section explains these requirements. Once this is completed, you can install Proficy WebSpace 4.71 or greater on each. Because ifix is not installed on the relay servers, a small change is needed for the ifix application path in the Proficy WebSpace Administration on the relay servers. In this example setup, the ifix installation path on the dependent servers was C:\Program Files (x86)\proficy\proficy ifix. Using this installation path, you need to reconfigure the Command-Line Options field box with the location of the web.scu file on the dependent servers. Assuming WebSpace is installed and running on every relay server, you can make this change from a single relay server of your choosing. Open Proficy WebSpace Administration, click to highlight a relay server, and double-click ifix under the Applications tab. Replace the contents of the Command-Line Options field box with IFIX /s"c:\program Files (x86)\proficy\proficy ifix\local\web.scu" With the Proficy WebSpace Administration still open, follow the same step as you did on the dependent servers to set Disconnected sessions terminate to 15 minutes. Next, set Maximum sessions on this host to the sum of all licensed sessions across the dependent servers. Finally, enter the Windows name of the server into the Relay server field box. Repeat these steps for the remaining relay servers. The last step that needs to be performed is to configure both the Proficy WebSpace Application Publishing Service and World Wide Web Publishing Service like you had done earlier on the dependent servers. Adding the Relay Servers to a Cluster Before a new cluster can be configured, the Failover Clustering feature needs to be enabled on each relay server. Once this is completed, open the Failover Cluster Manager on any of the relay servers. Under the Actions pane, choose Validate Configuration to open the Validate a Configuration Wizard. This is an important step to validate a set of unclustered servers for a cluster configuration. After clicking Next, add all of the relay server names that will be part of the cluster in the Select Servers or a Cluster window followed by clicking Next. Under the Testing Options window, choose the Run all tests radio button, click Next, and then once more in the Confirmation window to start the validation process. Once this process completes, and assuming the configuration is suitable for clustering, make sure the Create the cluster now using the validated nodes checkbox is enabled and click Finish.

6 Now you are ready to create a cluster with the Create Cluster Wizard which opens momentarily. Click Next. Under the Access Point for Administering the Cluster window, you need to provide a name for the cluster, and choose which networks the cluster will use. An access point is a name and associated IP address information. Access points can be used to administer a cluster or to interact with a service/application in the cluster. One or more IP addresses (IPv4, IPv6) can be tied to an access point. In this setup, the name given to the cluster was SELTZER. Both the /24 and /24 networks were enabled; choosing / for IP addresses. After making your choices, click next to open the Confirmation window. By default, the Add all eligible storage to the cluster checkbox is enabled and it was left that way. Click Next to build the cluster and then Finish when it completes. The next step is to apply a quorum configuration to your cluster. Right-click your cluster name and choose More Actions>Configure Cluster Quorum Settings. This opens the Configure Cluster Quorum Wizard. Click Next. Choose to leave the Use typical settings (recommended) radio button enabled and then click Next. In the Confirmation window, you will notice that a Node Majority quorum configuration was decided on and Cluster Managed Voting is enabled. Click Next. Once the quorum has been completed, click Finish. Connecting WebSpace Sessions To establish a WebSpace browser session, you want to use the name of the cluster in the URL. For example - After sessions are established, if the active cluster node goes down, the WebSpace client will eventually be presented with a Proficy WebSpace message Your connection to the host "<name of relay server>" has been broken. Would you like to reconnect?" One way to bypass this message and automate a reconnect to the active cluster that will take over is to start sessions in a browser using an autoreconnect client option. When this option is specified, the client automatically attempts to reconnect to the session a specified number of times. When used, the application's user interface disappears on the client when the current relay server crashes, but the application's user interface will reappear, without any user intervention, as soon as the new active relay server and its dependent servers are back online. A characteristic of this option is that the client does not notify the user when it is trying to reconnect to the session. An example use of this option would be