SystemConfigure for High Availability

In a Loftware Enterprise SP environment using distributed services, you can configure for high availability of distributed services in Loftware Enterprise SP. To use this approach, you configure Loftware Enterprise SP to load balance most services so that they are run simultaneously on multiple Loftware Application Servers. You also configure services to be able to fail over among Loftware Application Servers so that if one or more servers go offline, a standby server or servers begin running the associated services to minimize any interruption for users.

Best Practice

It is recommended that you load balance all services that support load balancing, and that you load balance these services among all of your Loftware Application Servers. For services that only support failover, you should have a second Loftware Application Server in Ready state, standing by as a backup for the first server.

Important! In a Loftware Enterprise SP environment with distributed services, all Loftware Application Servers that are online must be accessible to each client computer.

Important! The Font Management Service should be activated and started on all Loftware Application Servers to ensure consistent fonts.

Note: In a multi-site deploymentClosed A configuration of a Loftware environment that includes Loftware instances located at different sites within the same WAN. In a multi-site deployment, each Loftware instance acts as either a headquarters or a facility. of Loftware Enterprise SP, you can configure high availability using distributed services at headquarters and at facilities. For information on connecting a facility to a load balancer, see Create or Modify a Facility.

Although you can load balance services among all of your servers, depending on your environment and the capabilities of your servers, you also have the potential to optimize specific servers for specific tasks. For example, you can configure one or more servers to primarily support device group services.

For information on configuring remote printing for high availability, see Configure Remote Printing for High Availability.

To configure for high availability, use the following procedure to configure each service.

Note: Some options may not be available for some services.

  1. Go to System System Management > Service Management.

    Note: The Service Management page is primarily relevant if your Loftware Enterprise SP environment includes two or more Loftware Application Servers installed as a distributed environment. For information about how to create a distributed Loftware Enterprise SP environment, see the Loftware Enterprise SP Installation and Configuration Guide.

    2. Note: By default, devices configured for use with a remote site are read-only in Loftware Enterprise SP and are managed by the Loftware Print Agent (LPA) or Remote Print Agent (RPA). If you want to manage devices that are configured for use with a remote site instead, see Manage Remote Site Device Services.

  2. For each service with the Concurrent Running Servers property, select the number of Loftware Application Servers on which the service should run concurrently.

    Best Practice: Load Balancing

    Select All so that you load balance the service among all Loftware Application Servers. This approach typically prevents any noticeable disruption to users if a server goes offline.

    Alternative Practice: Failover

    If you want to use one or more servers as standby servers in case of the need to fail over from another server, select a number less than the maximum available. If a server goes offline, this approach may cause a brief disruption to users.

  3. In the instances table, select Activate for each Loftware Application Server on which the service should have the potential to run, regardless of whether the service is expected to run on that server under ordinary circumstances or only if another server fails.

    Best Practice

    For each service in which the Activate column is displayed, activate the service on all Loftware Application Servers.

  4. For each service in which the Concurrent Running Servers property does not exist or in which you have configured it to be a value other than All, configure the Priority for each server. For any server that you are load balancing and any server that should run the service under ordinary circumstances, set the Priority to 1. For each server that should act as a standby server and run the service only if another server goes offline, set the Priority to 2 or greater.

    Example: How Priority Affects Failover and Restoration

    If you have multiple standby servers, you can use the priority to control which server acts as the failover target for each service. The order proceeds from the lowest number to the highest number. That is, if a Priority 1 server fails and servers with Priority 2 and Priority 3 are available, then the server with Priority 2 will be used if it is running. If the server with Priority 2 fails, then the server with Priority 3 will be used.

    When the server with Priority 1 comes back online, the service will automatically stop running on the Priority 3 server and start running on the Priority 1 server. If you do not want the service to automatically switch servers when a failed server is restored, set the Priority for the service to 1 on all servers.