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 |
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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 |
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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