Clustering for Scalability and Availability

Setting Up FairCom Servers for Replication

Following are the steps for setting up a FairCom Replication Manager Server along with six individual FairCom Servers which will be available for implementing a replication plan. Replication can be set up using as few as two FairCom servers or as many as resources allow. This seven-server setup provides a sufficient architecture to evaluate all models for FairCom Server replication. For the sake of these tutorials, you may use fewer or more servers as needed or desired.

These instructions assume all server instances will be set up on the same machine. Setting up on separate machines can be accomplished with the same steps, adjusting machine names to match. For a production implementation, setting up each server on a separate machine is highly recommended.

These steps apply equally to setting up replication between any FairCom Server types: FairCom DB, FairCom Edge, and c-treeRTG.

Expect this configuration to take several minutes for each node.

In This Section Replication Manager Server Setup FairCom Server Setup Replication Network Recommendations

Replication Manager Server Setup

Follow these steps to set up the Replication Manager Server:

1. Extract the FairCom Replication Manager compressed file package (FairCom-Replication-Manager.<platform>.v12.<version>.<tar.gz or zip>) to a desired directory location (e.g. /faircom/servers/manager/). The location where the package is extracted will be the root location for the FairCom Replication Manager Server.
2. Enable the ctagent plug-in in the FairCom Replication Manager Server by editing the <faircom>/config/ctsrvr.cfg file, ensuring the following line is present and uncommented. (Note that in some platforms, the library name may be slightly different, but the plug-in name will be ctagent):

   PLUGIN ctagent; <faircom>/agent/libctagent.so

3. Edit the <faircom>/config/ctagent.json file to match these properties:

   "memphis_sql_port": 19991,

   "memphis_host": "<ip or hostname of Replication Manager Server>",

4. Edit the <faircom>/config/ctReplicationManager.cfg file to match this property:

   MEMPHIS_SQL_PORT 19991

5. Edit the <faircom>/config/cthttpd.json file to match these properties:

   "listening_http_port": 19993,

   "listening_https_port": 19992,

6. Edit the <faircom>/config/ctsrvr.cfg file to match this property:

   SERVER_NAME MEMPHIS

   SQL_PORT 19991

7. Launch the Replication Server by going to the <faircom>/replicationmanager/ directory and running the Replication Manager executable file. (Launching the server causes certain files to be created, including CTSTATUS.FCS, used in the next step.)
8. Open the <faircom>/replicationmanager/data/CTSTATUS.FCS file and verify that toward the end of the file both ctagent and cthttpd (web server) plug-ins are listed as correctly initialized:

   …

   Mon Nov 16 13:47:24 2020

   - User# 00025 cthttpd - Starting Web server

   …

   Mon Nov 16 13:47:24 2020

   - User# 00026 ctagentd - Starting Agent

   …

   Mon Nov 16 13:47:38 2020

   - User# 00026 ctagentd - Replication Manager Agent is active...

   Mon Nov 16 13:47:38 2020

   - User# 00026 ctagentd - Agent plugin is ready

9. In a web browser, connect to the web server where Replication Manager has been installed (e.g. https://<hostname>:19992/)
   • If a web page is not displayed as expected, ensure there are no firewall restrictions preventing external connections.
   • The Replication Manager HTTPS server uses a self-signed certificate for evaluation purposes, so you may see a message similar to the following during the first browser connection. Depending on your security settings, the browser might prevent you from connecting using a self-signed certificate:

   Note: The Chrome browser is shown below. Other browsers will vary somewhat in how they handle a self-signed certificate.

   

   In this case, click the Advanced button and then click Proceed to <hostname> (unsafe):

   

   Note: The self-signed certificate provided by FairCom should only be used for evaluation. For a production environment, it is recommended to replace it with a valid production certificate. Please check <faircom>/replicationmanager/config/cthttpd.json for details.

10. The following initial index page should be displayed:

    

11. Click the Replication Manager option and connect using the default authentication credentials:

    

12. Replication Manager should be loaded with only the replication server initially (as new FairCom Servers are set up they will become visible in the Replication Manager):

    

FairCom Server Setup

For each FairCom Server to set up (we’ll assume 6 for these instructions, but the number will vary for each tutorial), do the following:

1. Extract the FairCom Server V12 package (<FairCom Server>.<platform>.v12.<version>.<tar.gz or zip>) to a unique directory location that will be the root for this specific FairCom Server (e.g.: /faircom/servers/faircomdb<n>/ ).
2. Enable the ctagent plug-in in the FairCom DB Server by editing the <faircom>/config/ctsrvr.cfg file ensuring the following line is present and uncommented. (Note that in some platforms, the library name may be slightly different, but the plug-in name will be ctagent):

   PLUGIN ctagent; <faircom>/agent/libctagent.so

3. Edit the <faircom>/config/ctagent.json file to match these properties:

   "memphis_sql_port": 19991,

   "Memphis_host": "<ip or hostname of Replication Manager Server>",

4. Edit the <faircom>/config/cthttpd.json file to match these properties:

   "listening_http_port": <value_from_table_below_for_Servern>,

   "listening_https_port": <value_from_table_below_for_Servern>,

   e.g. for Server1 ...

   "listening_http_port": 19793,

   "listening_https_port": 19792,

   
   Port Info - cthttpd.json:
   

   Web Server	listening_http_port	listening_https_port
   Server1	19793	19792
   Server2	19803	19802
   Server3	19813	19812
   Server4	19823	19822
   Server5	19833	19832
   Server6	19843	19842

   Note: If you are setting up multiple FairCom servers on the same physical or virtual server with MQTT configuration entries, you must make the mqtt_listening_port and mqtt_websocket_port unique in each cthttpd.json file.

5. Edit the <faircom>/config/ctsrvr.cfg file to match these properties:

   SERVER_NAME <value_from_table_below_for_Servern>

   SERVER_PORT <value_from_table_below_for_Servern>

   SQL_PORT <value_from_table_below_for_Servern>

   e.g. For Server1 ...

   SERVER_NAME FAIRCOM1

   SERVER_PORT 19790

   SQL_PORT 19791

   
   Port Info - ctsrvr.cfg:
   

   Web Server	SERVER_NAME	SERVER_PORT	SQL_PORT
   Server1	FAIRCOM1	19790	19791
   Server2	FAIRCOM2	19800	19801
   Server3	FAIRCOM3	19810	19811
   Server4	FAIRCOM4	19820	19821
   Server5	FAIRCOM5	19830	19831
   Server6	FAIRCOM6	19840	19841

6. Optional Step: It is often desirable to configure a replication-destination server as read-only. For any FairCom Servers to be configured as read-only, add the following keyword in the config/ctsrvr.cfg file:

   READONLY_SERVER YES

7. Start the server by launching the faircom executable file in the <faircom>/server/ directory.

   Replication Manager should now show the newly configured FairCom Server, as shown below:

   

   The following is a view in Replication Manager after two FairCom Servers have been added. (Note: Light blue boxes indicate read/write servers registered with this Replication Manager. Orange boxes indicate registered read-only servers. When a server is off-line it is indicated in a paler color.)

   

   The following shows Replication Manager after six FairCom Servers have been added.

   

With the FairCom Servers and a Replication Manager Server all set up, you are now ready to proceed with configuring and implementing your replication plan. See the tutorials in the Replication Tutorials chapter.

Replication Network Recommendations

Purchase the fastest Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NICs) compatible with your server. For high availability, purchase 2 NICs per server. We recommend 100GbE NICs. The model of NICs depends on the server hardware. For failover between 2 servers, the NICs can be directly connected to each other. For failover across 3 or more servers, the NICs must be connected to a compatible network switch that runs at the same speed or faster than the NICs.

For port access in firewalls, see below.

For the Replication Manager:

Add incoming network port rules for:

• HTTP port 80 or HTTP port 443.
• Custom TCP port 5532 (This is the FairCom RM ISAM port. It depends on the server name and can be found in the CTSTATUS log file.)
• Custom TCP port 7000 (This is the FairCom RM SQL port. It can be found in the ctsrvr.cfg config file.)

For Replication Clients:

Add incoming network port rules for:

• Custom TCP port 5597 (This is the FairCom DB ISAM port. It depends on the server name and can be found in the CTSTATUS log file.)
• Custom TCP port 6597 (This is the FairCom DB SQL port. It can be found in the ctsrvr.cfg config file.)
• HTTP port 80 or HTTP port 443. (This is only needed if you want to access the web tools.)