High Availability Setup 

High Availability refers to the ability of a system or component to limit or avoid disruption when a component fails.

Setting the GO!NotifyLink Enterprise Server up with High Availability provides a customer with redundancy should the GO!NotifyLink Enterprise Server experience failure due to factors that might include, hardware failure, Operating System failure, or an unexpected stoppage of a service.

Method of providing High Availability 

GO!NotifyLink Enterprise Server (GO!NLES) itself is not configurable for High Availability.  Therefore, a secondary, or Stand-by, server must be utilized.  This server will only be used in the event of the primary server malfunctioning, and should be installed with the exact same hardware specifications as the primary server.

Configuring a Second GO!NotifyLink Enterprise Server 

Active Server

• Server Configuration

   

  • Web / Messaging Components should be installed on one server.

     

  • Database Component should be installed separately, and in a cluster.

     

Stand-by Server 

• Server Configuration

   

  • Database / Web / Messaging Component

     

-Install all 3 components on this one server

-Stop all GO!NotifyLink Services, and set them to “manual” startup

• Items from the Active Server to have copied on to the Stand-by Server

   

  • Exported copy of the SSL Certificate installed

     

  • Copy of the exported registry settings for GO!NLES

     

-My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Notify Technology Corporation

•  
  • Copy of the GO!NotifyLink Enterprise Server directory

     

-As NLES Patches are released and applied to the Active Server, an updated copy of the GO!NLES Directory should be placed on here

Failing over to the Stand-by Server 

In the event of a failure on the Web / Messaging component when the Stand-by Server must be activated, the following is a list of steps that should be completed in order to get the NLES Server functioning:

• Take the Active Node offline (unplug the NIC)

   

• Change the IP Address of the Stand-by Server to the IP Address of the failed component

   

• Change the Server Name to the name of the failed component

   

• Import the SSL Certificate

   

• Import the registry settings

   

• Copy the GO!NLES directory to the appropriate directory on the new server

   

  • By default, located at C:\Program Files\NotifyLink Enterprise Server

     

• Change the ODBC Connection to point to the database cluster

   

  • Start > Administrative Tools > Data Sources > System DSN Tab > NLSQLServerDSN

     

  • Server = IP of the Database Cluster > Next

     

  • Login ID / Password = the Database User created when setting up NLES > Next

     

  • Next > Finish

     

  • Test the Data Source

     

  • Click OK all the way out

     

• Start all GO!NotifyLink Services, set to “automatic” startup

   

• Verify that the GO!NLES Admin Console can be accessed by the External IP Address, and that logs are updating as expected

   

Licensing 

• GO!NotifyLink Licensing - GO!NotifyLink Licensing is not affected by this configuration

   

• Microsoft Licensing - Please contact a Microsoft Server Specialist for information