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Table Of Contents
Cisco Digital Signs Failover Configuration
Set Up the Primary DMM Appliance
Set up the Secondary DMM Appliance
Connect the Primary and Secondary Appliance Replication Interfaces
Configure the Secondary Cisco DMM Appliance
Cisco Digital Signs Failover Configuration
Revised: May 2011,
This chapter describes how to configure failover on a Cisco Digital Signs installation. It covers both new installations and adding failover to an existing installation.
If your Cisco Digital Signs installation includes Cisco Show and Share, you must follow the instructions in Cisco Show and Share Failover Configuration, page 3-1.
This chapter contains the following topics:
Prerequisites
Before you can configure failover, you must meet the following requirements:
Licensing Requirements
When licensing your failover cluster, you only need to install the feature, author, and failover licenses on the primary Cisco DMM appliance. The secondary pair of appliances only need the base licenses that come with the appliances. They will inherit the optional feature, device, and author licenses during the failover activation process.
You must have a failover license installed on your primary Cisco DMM appliance to activate the failover configuration. You can enter the failover settings without the license, but you cannot activate failover until the license is installed. See the following for information about installing licenses:
Hardware Requirements
Failover configuration is supported on the following DMS hardware platforms:
•
DMM-SVR-C210-K9
You cannot configure failover for the following DMS hardware platforms:
•
The primary and secondary appliance in a failover pair must be identical. Table 2-1 shows the failover appliance part numbers that correspond to the primary appliances.
Table 2-1 Failover appliance part number for Cisco DMM appliance.
Cisco Digital Media Manager
DMM-SVR-C210-K9DMM-FA-C210-K9
Software Requirements
The appliances must be running Cisco DMS 5.2.3.
Configure NTP on the appliances before configuring failover.
Pre-Configuration Worksheet
You will need the information in the following tables to complete the configuration. We recommend that you print out the table and fill in the information before you begin.
Configuring Failover
To configure failover for your DMS installation, perform the following procedures in the order presented:
1.
2.
3.
4.
6.
Set Up the Primary DMM Appliance
If you have an existing DMM appliance, the existing FQDN and IP address will become the virtual FQDN and IP address for the failover configuration. Users will not need to change their bookmarks.
If you are setting up a new Cisco DMM appliance, set up the primary DMM as you would a standalone system. See the Quick Start Guide for Cisco Digital Media Suite 5.2.x for information about setting up the appliance.
When setting up the appliance, use the primary FQDN and IP address for the appliance. They will become the virtual FQDNs and IP address during the failover configuration process. In a later step, you will replace the primary FQDNs and IP addresses used here with the alternate, dedicated FQDNs and IP addresses.
Before you continue to the next step, make sure you:
•
•
•
Set up the Secondary DMM Appliance
Set up the secondary DMM Appliance as you would a standalone system. See the Quick Start Guide for Cisco Digital Media Suite 5.2.x for information about setting up the system.
Use the secondary appliance dedicated FQDN and IP address for the appliance.
The application interfaces for both DMM appliances must be on the same subnet as the primary DMM appliance.
Install the base licenses installed that came with the appliance. You do not need to install additional feature or device licenses on the secondary DMM appliance.
Connect the Primary and Secondary Appliance Replication Interfaces
You have two options for connecting the primary and secondary appliance replication interfaces:
•
•
If you are using a switch between the replication interfaces, the replication interfaces must be on a different subnet than the application interface.
GigabitEthernet 2 is the replication interface. Figure 2-1 shows the location of the replication interface (marked by the arrow labeled 1) on a Cisco DMM-SVR-C210-K9 appliance.
Figure 2-1 The replication interface on a DMM-SVR-C210-K9 appliance
Configure the Secondary Cisco DMM Appliance
Configure the secondary appliance to recognize the primary Cisco DMM appliance as the cluster master.
Procedure
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
The Failover Configuration page appears.
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Configure the Primary DMM
To configure the primary DMM, follow these steps:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
The Failover Configuration page appears.
Step 4
a.
b.
Step 5
Note
a.
b.
Step 6
•
•
Step 7
What to do next
Next, see Activate the Failover Cluster.
Activate the Failover Cluster
When you activate the DMM cluster, the primary DMM configures and activates the other appliances in the failover cluster. Activation can take up to 20 minutes. After activation, the primary appliances are replicated to the secondary appliances. Replication process can take up to 15 hours. However, the primary appliances are available during replication and users can view and upload files as normal.
Procedure
Step 1
A dialog displays a summary of the failover cluster settings.
Step 2
The activation begins. A series of activation progress dialogs appear.
You cannot navigate away from this page by clicking in the interface while the activation is in progress. If you close the browser or use the browser navigation to move away from this page and then return, the Activate button appears to be enabled. However, if you attempt to activate again you will receive the message: [FailoverConfig]: Another request already in progress.
Activation can take up to 20 minutes. Once activation is complete, replication occurs. You can monitor replication progress on the Failover Status page. Replication can take up to 15 hours.
What to do next
Monitor the replication progress and verify your configuration. See Monitor Replication Status.
Monitor Replication Status
Go to the Failover Status page (Administration > Failover > Failover Status).
While replication is in progress, the primary appliance will be in the Up/Active state and the secondary appliances in the Down state. This is normal. You will see status bars that show the percent complete of the replication.
Note
During replication, users can access and use the Cisco DMM GUI interface. However, performance will be degraded.
When replication is complete, you should see the primary appliances in the Up/Active state and the secondary appliances in the Up/Standby state.
If the secondary system is in the Down state when replication has completed, access the system AAI interface reboot the system. See the Administration Guide for Cisco Digital Media Suite 5.2.x Appliances on Cisco.com for information about using AAI.
Back Up Your Cluster
You cannot restore backups taken from a standalone Cisco DMM appliance on a Cisco DMM appliance in a failover configuration. You should immediately back up the active appliance when activation and replication is complete.
See the Backup and Restore Appliance Configurations chapter in Administration Guide for Cisco Digital Media Suite 5.2.x Appliances.
