Deploying Automatic Failover for New Appliances

The following are the pre-requisites for deploying automatic failover for new appliances:

• Configure two supported NetMRI appliances with licenses installed.
• Both the appliances must be of the same appliance model and same software version number.
• Provision of three IP addresses on the same subnet: A VIP address and two management IP addresses for the appliances.
• If you use the direct replication method to connect two appliances, you need an Ethernet cable to connect the appliances directly through their HA ports. This is applicable only to hardware appliances.
• If you are using the network replication method to connect the appliances, you must connect the systems over a local network and two replication IP addresses must be acquired on the same subnet. You must also select a TCP port for the replication traffic.

You can deploy two new Operation Centers (OCs), collector appliances, or standalone appliances to form a failover pair, as follows:

1. Set up and configure two new NetMRI appliances as separate systems. Ensure that the appliances are running NetMRI 7.1.1 or later. For collector failover configuration, make sure that the appliances are running NetMRI 7.1.2 or later. For a failover pair, make sure that the appliances are running NetMRI 7.1.4 or later.
2. Connect both the systems using one of the following methods:
   
   • Direct replication: You can connect the systems directly through their HA ports. For virtual appliances, direct replication is used in a separate VM-only network that contains only an HA pair.

   • Network replication: You can connect the HA port of both systems to a network using an Ethernet cable. For virtual machines, network replication means a virtual machine in one subnet is connected to a virtual machine in another subnet through a network.

     Note

     Infoblox recommends setting up virtual machines (data center or hypervisor) in the same location. If the machines are not set up in the same location, high latency or limited bandwidth can cause unstable performance.

     Infoblox recommends that you connect the systems using the direct replication method.

3. Run the Setup Wizard on both appliances, set the admin password, and then install the license. The admin password must be the same on both systems. For more information, see Running the Setup Wizard. At this point in time, it is not necessary to complete the entire configuration wizard on both systems. You can complete the configuration only on the primary system.

4. Configure the failover settings on the Operation Center and collectors, as described in Specifying Automatic Failover Settings.

   Note

   After specifying the failover configuration settings and completing the enable operation, the systems start synchronizing data. This process might take up to one hour, depending on the appliance model.

5. For an Operation Center and collector failover, complete the following:

1. 1. Log in to the administrative shell on the Operation Center and run the configure tunserver command. Enter the VIP address of the Operation Center when prompted for the IP address of the Operation Center server.
   2. To register the collector on the Operation Center set up, log in to the administrative shell on each Collector and run the register tunclient command. Enter the VIP address of the Operation Center when prompted for the IP address of the Operation Center.