You can create a NetMRI failover pair using two NetMRI appliances, in which one acts as the primary appliance and the other as the secondary appliance. A failover pair provides a backup or redundant operational mode between the primary and secondary appliances so you can greatly reduce service downtime when one of them is out of service. You can configure two Operation Center (OC) appliances or standalone appliances to form a failover pair.

In a failover pair, the primary appliance actively discovers and manages network devices and serves the Web UI and the CLI over the shared VIP address while the secondary appliance constantly keeps its database synchronized with the primary. Although you can access a failover pair using either the VIP address of the failover pair or the management IP address of the primary appliance, using the management IP is not recommended because, during a failover, the roles of the primary and secondary appliances reverse, and the management IP becomes unreachable. Accessing the failover pair using the VIP address ensures that you are contacting the active primary appliance. Note that during a failover, all active connections between the NetMRI appliances and the network devices are disrupted, and all ongoing processes fail. Also, all active Web UI and CLI sessions are disrupted during a failover and all users with active sessions must reconnect and log in again after the secondary appliance assumes the role of the primary appliance.

Note the following about the automatic failover feature:

• A failover pair is supported on virtual NetMRI appliances in NetMRI 7.5.4 and later releases.

• The primary and secondary appliances must have the same VM configurations and software NetMRI versions.

• The management IP address of the primary and secondary appliances must be on the same subnet.

• The VIP address, which is shared by the primary and secondary appliances, must be on the same subnet as that of the management IP address.

Deploying Automatic Failover for New Appliances

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 software NetMRI version number.

• By default, two network adapters are configured without HA:

  • Management Interface

  • Scan Interface

• When Automatic Failover needs to be enabled, a third interface is required:

  • HA Provisioning Interface

  • Failover Data Interface

• The management IP addresses of the two nodes that create the Automatic Failover pair are set to use the same subnet.

• 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.

• Both failover appliances should have their failover data interfaces connected to the same network.

To deploy two new Operation Center (OC) or standalone appliances to form a failover pair:

1. Set up and configure two new NetMRI appliances.

2. Run the Setup Wizard on both appliances and set the admin password and install the license. The admin password and time settings must be the same on both systems. 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.

3. For new systems with no network device data collected, you can proceed without resetting and without generating a backup. For systems that are already deployed, and have collected data, follow the steps mentioned in Migrating Existing Systems as Failover Pairs.

4. Choose one system to take the primary role. You can choose the system for which you have completed the entire configuration, otherwise, the configuration might be lost.

5. Log in to the primary system, click the Settings icon > Setup > Failover Configuration, and then specify the configuration settings on in the Failover Configuration page. On both nodes, the replication IP and replication subnet configurations must be set to the same network.
   
   

Migrating Existing Systems as Failover Pairs

You can migrate two existing Operation Center (OC) or standalone appliances to form a failover pair.

Following are the pre-requisites for migrating existing systems as a failover pair:

• Two supported NetMRI appliances with licenses. You can choose an existing appliance and a second appliance of the same model.

• The management IP addresses of the two nodes that create the Automatic Failover pair are set to use the same subnet.

To migrate two existing systems to form a failover pair:

1. Choose an existing NetMRI system and configure a second NetMRI system of the same model NetMRI version.

2. If you are using scan ports, connect the scan ports of all systems to the same network.

3. Run the Setup Wizard on the second system and set the admin password and install the license. The admin password and time settings must be the same on both systems.

4. Exit the Setup Wizard after setting the password and installing the license on the second system.

5. If you want to use the management IP address of your existing system as the VIP of the failover pair, then you must change the management IP address of the existing system.

6. To configure the second system to take the role of the primary system, do the following:

   • Log in to the second system.

   • Click the Settings icon > Setup > Failover Configuration.

   • Specify the configuration settings on the Failover Configuration page.
     Note that 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 network and storage speeds. For details about how to configure these settings, refer to the Infoblox NetMRI Administrator Guide.

7. For an Operation Center, complete the following:

   • Log in to the administrative shell on the Operation Center and run the reset tunserver and configure tunserver commands.  Enter the VIP address of the Operation Center when prompted for the IP address of the Operation Center server.

   • Log in to the administrative shell on each Collector and run the reset tunclient and register tunclient commands. Enter the VIP address of the Operation Center when prompted for the IP address of the Operation Center.