Enabling failover on the plugin role - OnGuard 5.1.0

OnGuard Plugin Guide 5.1.0
Product
OnGuard
Content type
Guides > Plugin and extension guides
Version
5.1
Release
5.1.0
Language
English
Last updated
2022-11-01

To improve the availability of your plugin role, you can add a secondary server on standby. If the primary server hosting the role becomes unavailable, the secondary server is automatically used.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you have an expansion server available as a secondary server for your plugin role. If you do not have an expansion server available, add an expansion server to your system.
  • If your plugin role is hosted on the main server, you must first move it to an expansion server.
    NOTE: If you must host the plugin role on the main server, configuring the plugin role failover is not enough: you must also configure the Directory failover. Role failover is managed by the Directory role, and Directory failover is managed by the Directory Manager role. For more information, see Directory failover and load balancing.
  • Ensure that the plugin role and the plugin role database are not hosted on the same server. All servers hosting the plugin role must have write access to the remote database server. For more information, see Connecting roles to remote database servers.

What you should know

Failover is a backup operational mode in which a role (system function) is automatically transferred from its primary server to a secondary server that is on standby. This transfer between servers occurs only if the primary server becomes unavailable, either through failure or through scheduled downtime. For more information, see Role failover.
IMPORTANT: Security Center does not handle the failover of role databases. For roles that connect to a database, the database server must be hosted on a third computer, separate from the servers hosting the role. All role servers must have read and write access to the database server. To protect your data, perform regular backups of the role database.

Procedure

  1. From the Config Tool home page, open the Plugins task.
  2. Select your plugin role from the entity tree and click Resources.
  3. Under the Servers list, click Add an item ().
    A dialog box opens, listing all remaining servers on your system that are not yet assigned to this role.
  4. Select the server that you want to add as a secondary server and click Add.
    The secondary server is added below the primary server. The green LED indicates which server is hosting the role.
    NOTE: The servers are listed in the order that they are picked if a failover occurs. When the primary server fails, the role automatically switches to the next server on the list.
  5. To change the priority of a server, select it from the list, and click the or buttons to move it up or down the list.
  6. If you want the primary server to retake control after it is restored from a failover, select the Force execution on highest priority server option.
    To minimize system disruption, the role remains on the secondary server after a failover occurs, by default.
  7. Ensure that the role is not connected to a database on the local machine.
    You can determine that the database server is local to your machine if the name of the Database server starts with "(local)". If it does, rename the database server to match the remote server you prepared in advance for your plugin role.
    1. Back up your plugin role database and restore it on a server that is not hosting your plugin role.
    2. Enable remote access to the plugin role database you restored.
    3. Change the Database server to the server hosting your plugin role database.
      For example, REMOTESERVER\SQLEXPRESS.
  8. Click Apply.

After you finish