The SAM 6.3 Beta includes a first glimpse into an entirely new and fully integrated high availability solution for the Orion Platform. If you plan to play around with High Availability you will need to meet the following requirements.

High Availability Requirements

• High Availability Beta Installer (Built-in and located under [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary -> Setup A New HA Server -> Get Started Setting Up a Server -> Download Installer Now]
  • High Availability Beta Can be used only with the SAM 6.3 Beta
  • No other Orion products or betas can be installed on the same machine running the SAM 6.3 beta in a high availability configuration
• Two servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 or later
  • Both primary and secondary servers must reside on the same IP subnet.
  • Additional available IP address on the same subnet as the primary and secondary servers for use as the VIP.
  • Windows Server OS version, edition, or bitness need not match between primary and secondary servers.
  • Primary and secondary servers may be optionally joined to a Windows domain
  • High Availability supports the following configurations of primary and secondary servers.
    • Physical to Physical
    • Physical to Virtual
    • Virtual to Virtual
    • Virtual to Physical
• A separate server running SQL 2008 or later.
  • This server does not need to reside on the same subnet as the primary and secondary Orion server
  • Any Microsoft SQL edition may be used, including SQL Express
  • Bonus points for utilizing a SQL Cluster

Primary Server Install

When installing the Primary Orion server you will follow the normal 'Advanced' installation process that you would for any other Orion product. Ensure not to select the 'Express' install option during installation, as a separate server running Microsoft SQL 2008 or later is required. When the Configuration Wizard runs you will be prompted to provide the Username, Password, and IP address of the SQL server you will be using for the beta.

Secondary Server Install

Once the primary server is up and running using the SAM 6.3 beta installer, you will need to perform a similar installation on the secondary server using the separate High Availability installer which can be downloaded from within the Orion web interface under [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary -> Setup A New HA Server -> Get Started Setting Up a Server -> Download Installer Now].

Download the High Availability Secondary Server Installer

Next, execute the installation by double clicking on the "SolarWinds-Orion-Installer.exe" downloaded or copied to the secondary server.  Enter the IP address of fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your main Orion server, along with 'Admin' or equivalent credentials used to log into the Orion web interface and click 'Next'. On the following step of the WIzard, select the additional server role you wish to install. Since this will be a High Availability Backup for the main Orion server, select 'Backup Server for Main Server Protection' and click 'Next'.

Enter IP of Main Orion Server & Provide 'Admin' Credentials	Select Server Role to Install

Once the Installation completes the Configuration Wizard will be started. When prompted to provide information regarding the SQL server database, ensure you utilize the same SQL instance and SQL database that was chosen for the primary Orion server.

The following video, while arguably boring to watch, demonstrates the secondary server installation process.

Cluster Pool Creation

As soon as both the primary and secondary servers are installed, return to the Orion web interface and navigate to [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary]. There you will be able to join the two servers into a single high availability cluster pool. The following short video walks through this process in under a minute.

For more detailed instructions on how to make your SAM 6.3 Beta highly availability, please see the beta draft documentation at the link below.

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/188877-102-3-29717/HA_Beta.pdf

After try to execute a Test to Switch-Over, this one took too much time to complete and finally fail… But after this fail, on both servers Primary and Secondary are transmitting packets to LAN trough Public NIC. Also When I try to run Fail-Over Engine Service a Popup Message appears with the Following Next:

But I have an a valid License on Solarwinds License Manager as you can see in the next screenshot

I notice the following conditions

I try to execute Configuration Server Wizard but is not the same Wizard that I use when I installed FoE, on this wizard appears option to Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Servers.

I have an open support case for this but I don't have an answer yet.

Someone with similar problem?

Gusavo.

Hello,

Could someone please verify for me the below is correct in regards to port requirements for an Additional Poller.

- Bidirectional communication on TCP port 17777 between the Primary NPM server and Additional Poller

- Unidirectional communication on TCP 1801 from the Additional Poller to the server hosting the SQL database

These are what I interpret from this document here http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/Orion/docs/SolarWindsPortRequirements.pdf

And I'm assuming due to its absence in the above document, TCP port 1433 is no longer required from the Additional Poller to the SQL server.

Hi

We have 2 Data center i can run WAN or LAN to the server.

Any budy try setup LAN and WAN scenario?

I can understand that when you run the WAN setup there isn't 1 "public IP/DNS" to the 2 servers.

Is that the only thing?cause i don't realy like the "virtual IP"

/SJA

Hello,

Could someone please verify for me the below is correct in regards to port requirements for an Additional Poller.

- Bidirectional communication on TCP port 17777 between the Primary NPM server and Additional Poller

- Unidirectional communication on TCP 1801 from the Additional Poller to the server hosting the SQL database

These are what I interpret from this document here http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/Orion/docs/SolarWindsPortRequirements.pdf

And I'm assuming due to its absence in the above document, TCP port 1433 is no longer required from the Additional Poller to the SQL server.

I just got finished wasting another 5 hours attempting to upgrade Orion NPM on a FOE arrangement.  Let me first state that I followed KB 1480 to the letter, that is up to the point that it made no sense (step 11).  The part that it stopped making sense was when it had both the Primary and Secondary servers public interface at the same time.  I had to work around that.  However, this is where things blew up and I'm not sure if FOE or NPM 11.0.1 is at fault.  The install on the secondary server went fine. Once I was back on the Primary server and had all FOE shut down on both servers, the install went south in a hurry.  The first indicator was it failed a permissions check the second indicator was all my modules like NCM, UDT, etc. disappeared from the service list even though they still showed up in the Windows control panel.  No amount of repair  between myself and the Solarwinds support person could fix that.  We wound up completely uninstalling every module and then reinstalling them.  I'm talking 5 hours of my time gone.  And let me add that the last 5 upgrades of any kind of resulted in something breaking on either the Primary or Secondary server and 3 to 4 hours of my time and supports time to figure it out and no follow up by support to figure out why it keeps failing.  And more to that, I've already had several support personnel tell me that the product that FOE is built on, Neverfail, is an orphaned product.

Now this is a direct request to product management.  The correct step by step guide needs to be updated and not buried in some obscure knowledge base article.  Also I would like to have someone from support do a complete analysis of my FOE install to determine why it keeps failing on upgrades.  I'm sorry I have to put this on a public forum but I can't get your phone support people to put enough into the resolution process to figure out what's going on

1.        What failover engine (FOE) and how it works? (Does it sends hello message)
2.        Do we need two databases for this product?
3.        Does it requires install all Orion modules in both primary and secondary boxes?
4.        Does trap  and syslogs goes to both databases and Orion boxes?
5.        Can we keep primary and secondary box in different location? If so then what should be bandwidth and latency required?

Thanks,

Sanjit

The SAM 6.3 Beta includes a first glimpse into an entirely new and fully integrated high availability solution for the Orion Platform. If you plan to play around with High Availability you will need to meet the following requirements.

High Availability Requirements

• High Availability Beta Installer (Built-in and located under [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary -> Setup A New HA Server -> Get Started Setting Up a Server -> Download Installer Now]
  • High Availability Beta Can be used only with the SAM 6.3 Beta
  • No other Orion products or betas can be installed on the same machine running the SAM 6.3 beta in a high availability configuration
• Two servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 or later
  • Both primary and secondary servers must reside on the same IP subnet.
  • Additional available IP address on the same subnet as the primary and secondary servers for use as the VIP.
  • Windows Server OS version, edition, or bitness need not match between primary and secondary servers.
  • Primary and secondary servers may be optionally joined to a Windows domain
  • High Availability supports the following configurations of primary and secondary servers.
    • Physical to Physical
    • Physical to Virtual
    • Virtual to Virtual
    • Virtual to Physical
• A separate server running SQL 2008 or later.
  • This server does not need to reside on the same subnet as the primary and secondary Orion server
  • Any Microsoft SQL edition may be used, including SQL Express
  • Bonus points for utilizing a SQL Cluster

Primary Server Install

When installing the Primary Orion server you will follow the normal 'Advanced' installation process that you would for any other Orion product. Ensure not to select the 'Express' install option during installation, as a separate server running Microsoft SQL 2008 or later is required. When the Configuration Wizard runs you will be prompted to provide the Username, Password, and IP address of the SQL server you will be using for the beta.

Secondary Server Install

Once the primary server is up and running using the SAM 6.3 beta installer, you will need to perform a similar installation on the secondary server using the separate High Availability installer which can be downloaded from within the Orion web interface under [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary -> Setup A New HA Server -> Get Started Setting Up a Server -> Download Installer Now].

Download the High Availability Secondary Server Installer

Next, execute the installation by double clicking on the "SolarWinds-Orion-Installer.exe" downloaded or copied to the secondary server.  Enter the IP address of fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your main Orion server, along with 'Admin' or equivalent credentials used to log into the Orion web interface and click 'Next'. On the following step of the WIzard, select the additional server role you wish to install. Since this will be a High Availability Backup for the main Orion server, select 'Backup Server for Main Server Protection' and click 'Next'.

Enter IP of Main Orion Server & Provide 'Admin' Credentials	Select Server Role to Install

Once the Installation completes the Configuration Wizard will be started. When prompted to provide information regarding the SQL server database, ensure you utilize the same SQL instance and SQL database that was chosen for the primary Orion server.

The following video, while arguably boring to watch, demonstrates the secondary server installation process.

Cluster Pool Creation

As soon as both the primary and secondary servers are installed, return to the Orion web interface and navigate to [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary]. There you will be able to join the two servers into a single high availability cluster pool. The following short video walks through this process in under a minute.

For more detailed instructions on how to make your SAM 6.3 Beta highly availability, please see the beta draft documentation at the link below.

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/188877-102-3-29717/HA_Beta.pdf

Has anyone tried running with FOE on the newest NPM and NCM versions.

I would write to get info regarding FoE, is it create trouble when upgrade to NPM 12. Would appreciate if anyone could reply or share their experience or thoughts.

regards,

MAK

Hi All, We are planning to implement SolarWinds FOE in organization. We shall be using services from Neverfail technologies for SQL failover but i have one query we have constraint  that our HA setup doesn't failover using similar IP subnet at our DR (Disaster Recovery) location. Since SolarWinds polling works on IP which is configured on the devices once we failover using FOE it will failover to DR which will be active on different IP subnet as to what used at DC at present. How would this work setup work or do we need to some tweaking . Is there any other option available to get this setup I would really like to hear . Appreciate your help, Thank you, Mithun

I have to implement FOE with two different host name. Pl help me to give me the workaround for the same. I am running NPM at my location.

I can not put two hostname same in in one single domain.

We have a core server and 8 additional polling engines. The core server was cloned using vCenter and then FoE was installed following the WAN/DR method.

After the install the core server seems to be running fine. FoE manager shows all green and the website works fine.

One of my co-workers mentioned that they were having trouble adding a new node to one of the additional pollers. When I logged in I found the "Solarwinds Orion Module Engine" service was not running on that polling engine. I started it and it seemed ok but two minutes later the service was stopped again. I also noticed that the "Syslog" and "Trap" services keep stopping and starting. I have opened a ticket but thought I'd see if anyone had any suggestions.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated

Hello,

Could someone please verify for me the below is correct in regards to port requirements for an Additional Poller.

- Bidirectional communication on TCP port 17777 between the Primary NPM server and Additional Poller

- Unidirectional communication on TCP 1801 from the Additional Poller to the server hosting the SQL database

These are what I interpret from this document here http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/Orion/docs/SolarWindsPortRequirements.pdf

And I'm assuming due to its absence in the above document, TCP port 1433 is no longer required from the Additional Poller to the SQL server.

We're plugging away at some improvements we have planned for FoE and would love to get a better understanding of the environment in which you're running FoE today. If you own SolarWinds Failover Engine, we would really appreciate it if you'd complete the following survey telling us a little about your Orion and FoE deployment. There's a total of 17 questions, all of which should be super simple and easy to answer. It shouldn't take much longer than 5 minutes from beginning to end and it's perfectly painless.This will help us build better products, which in turn means happier customers like you.

• SolarWinds Failover Engine Survey

The SAM 6.3 Beta includes a first glimpse into an entirely new and fully integrated high availability solution for the Orion Platform. If you plan to play around with High Availability you will need to meet the following requirements.

High Availability Requirements

• High Availability Beta Installer (Built-in and located under [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary -> Setup A New HA Server -> Get Started Setting Up a Server -> Download Installer Now]
  • High Availability Beta Can be used only with the SAM 6.3 Beta
  • No other Orion products or betas can be installed on the same machine running the SAM 6.3 beta in a high availability configuration
• Two servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 or later
  • Both primary and secondary servers must reside on the same IP subnet.
  • Additional available IP address on the same subnet as the primary and secondary servers for use as the VIP.
  • Windows Server OS version, edition, or bitness need not match between primary and secondary servers.
  • Primary and secondary servers may be optionally joined to a Windows domain
  • High Availability supports the following configurations of primary and secondary servers.
    • Physical to Physical
    • Physical to Virtual
    • Virtual to Virtual
    • Virtual to Physical
• A separate server running SQL 2008 or later.
  • This server does not need to reside on the same subnet as the primary and secondary Orion server
  • Any Microsoft SQL edition may be used, including SQL Express
  • Bonus points for utilizing a SQL Cluster

Primary Server Install

When installing the Primary Orion server you will follow the normal 'Advanced' installation process that you would for any other Orion product. Ensure not to select the 'Express' install option during installation, as a separate server running Microsoft SQL 2008 or later is required. When the Configuration Wizard runs you will be prompted to provide the Username, Password, and IP address of the SQL server you will be using for the beta.

Secondary Server Install

Once the primary server is up and running using the SAM 6.3 beta installer, you will need to perform a similar installation on the secondary server using the separate High Availability installer which can be downloaded from within the Orion web interface under [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary -> Setup A New HA Server -> Get Started Setting Up a Server -> Download Installer Now].

Download the High Availability Secondary Server Installer

Next, execute the installation by double clicking on the "SolarWinds-Orion-Installer.exe" downloaded or copied to the secondary server.  Enter the IP address of fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your main Orion server, along with 'Admin' or equivalent credentials used to log into the Orion web interface and click 'Next'. On the following step of the WIzard, select the additional server role you wish to install. Since this will be a High Availability Backup for the main Orion server, select 'Backup Server for Main Server Protection' and click 'Next'.

Enter IP of Main Orion Server & Provide 'Admin' Credentials	Select Server Role to Install

Once the Installation completes the Configuration Wizard will be started. When prompted to provide information regarding the SQL server database, ensure you utilize the same SQL instance and SQL database that was chosen for the primary Orion server.

The following video, while arguably boring to watch, demonstrates the secondary server installation process.

Cluster Pool Creation

As soon as both the primary and secondary servers are installed, return to the Orion web interface and navigate to [Settings -> All Settings -> High Availability Deployment Summary]. There you will be able to join the two servers into a single high availability cluster pool. The following short video walks through this process in under a minute.

For more detailed instructions on how to make your SAM 6.3 Beta highly availability, please see the beta draft documentation at the link below.

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/188877-102-3-29717/HA_Beta.pdf

I would like to know what are disaster recovery site licenses. Is it another version of Failover Engine? Thanks

Good afternoon folks,

I'm working on my first Solarwinds deployment.  I'm having trouble getting one of my nodes to switch over via the failover engine.  Let me tell you a bit about our topology:

One server running Solarwinds + MSSQL

One Server Running MSSQL (A high availability group has been created, Solarwinds is pointed at the floating IP).  The database files are on drive D.

One additional polling engine.

A clone of the additional polling engine running a failover engine

A clone of drive C of the Solarwinds/SQL Server running a failover engine.

If I initiate a manual switchover or failover of the additional polling engine, it works very nicely.  If I try a switchover of the Solarwinds/Web server it never completes.  When I look in the logs on the failover box I see an error about the SQL Reporting Service being unable to start due to a missing file.  Does the FoE need to start the SQL server, or is something else going on?

After try to execute a Test to Switch-Over, this one took too much time to complete and finally fail… But after this fail, on both servers Primary and Secondary are transmitting packets to LAN trough Public NIC. Also When I try to run Fail-Over Engine Service a Popup Message appears with the Following Next:

But I have an a valid License on Solarwinds License Manager as you can see in the next screenshot

I notice the following conditions

I try to execute Configuration Server Wizard but is not the same Wizard that I use when I installed FoE, on this wizard appears option to Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Servers.

I have an open support case for this but I don't have an answer yet.

Someone with similar problem?

Gusavo.

Hello

I currently have 2 servers setup with FoE in WAN configuration, the servers are working and if I remove the network cables from the Primary server the Secondary Server becomes Active.

The problem I have is that if I shut down the Primary Server the fail-over does not happen, the secondary server remains Passive. Is there any way to get the fail-over to happen when the Primary is shutdown, this is required because if there is a power failure at the primary location the primary server would be shutdown safely be the UPS.

also when the network cables were unplugged from the Primary Server, the Primary Server still remained active. Is there a way to tell the server to become passive when a Network failure happens.