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Foglight Experience Monitor 5.8.1 - Installation and Administration Guide

Installing and configuring Multi-appliance clusters Configuring the appliance Specifying monitored web traffic Transforming monitored URLs Managing applications Foglight components and the appliance Using the console program Troubleshooting the appliance Appendix: Third party software Appendix: Dell PowerEdge system appliance

Multi-appliance clusters

Some environments require the deployment of a group of appliances due to the volume of traffic to be monitored or because traffic cannot be collected from a single location on the network. This section explains how to setup, configure, and manage multi-appliance clusters for users who need to deploy them.

 
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NOTE: If you have only a single stand-alone appliance installed at your location then this section is not applicable.

For more information, see these topics:

•
About multi-appliance configurations
•
Setting up High Availability (HA) mode
•
Aggregation of metrics and configuration
•
Switching from stand-alone to clusters

About multi-appliance configurations

An appliance can be configured to monitor up to 300 distinct servers, but depending on the volume of traffic for each server this could be too much load for a single appliance. In these cases, multiple probes are deployed that can each monitor a share of the total traffic. Additionally, there may exist organizations that use multiple data centers to serve up the same application. In either of these cases, a multi-appliance configuration is required.

A multi-appliance cluster centers around the portal, which acts as the hub through which all other appliances in the cluster communicate. These other appliances, referred to as probes, are each configured to monitor a set of server IPs which is typically distinct from the server IPs configured for the other probes.

Portals, probes and stand-alone appliances all utilize the same basic hardware platform. During the Setup Wizard, you can choose to configure an appliance to serve the role that has been assigned to it in your deployment plan.

Figure 13. Type page

During initial configuration using the Setup Wizard, you are asked to indicate whether the appliance will act as a portal, probe or as a stand-alone.

For the end user viewing metrics and reports, there is no difference between what they see when browsing the web console of either a probe, portal, or stand-alone. The user interface has the same look-and-feel and functions the same way. The data itself is different because a portal shows an aggregated view of the metrics collected on all of the probes reporting to it. By logging into the web console on a probe, the user sees only the metrics collected by that probe, not the aggregate metrics that the portal displays. End users should retrieve reports from the portal in a multi-appliance deployment.

 
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NOTE: User accounts and report sets are not synchronized in a multiple appliance cluster. If a particular user needs to log in to all appliances, you must create a separate user account for this user on each of these appliances.

Setting up High Availability (HA) mode

If you are setting up the appliance as a portal, you need to determine if you are going to setup monitoring probes that either report to the portal using high availability mode or as a regular probe.

HA mode enables you to designate pairs of probes that provide redundancy in the event of a catastrophic failure of one of the systems. Both probes should be configured to monitor identical streams of traffic coming to your site. One probe, which is designated as the primary probe, is the preferred source of metrics by the portal. The other probe, which is designated as the secondary probe, is utilized by the portal in the event that the primary probe fails to communicate with the portal, no matter the reason. When the primary probe returns online, the portal switches back to that probe as the preferred source of metrics for the pair. However, if the primary server restarts, the appliance portal will accept data from this server.

You need to configure your primary and secondary probes to monitor the same set of servers and ports to ensure that the metrics they are collecting are identical. While operating in HA mode, both the primary and secondary probes are collecting traffic and generating metrics, which are transmitted to the portal. However, the portal only accepts one data feed, preferably from the primary. Again, if the primary probe fails to communicate, the portal will utilize the data feed from the secondary probe. This capability allows you to protect yourself against a catastrophic failure in one of the probes.

For more information, see these topics:

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Configuring Probes for High Availability mode
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Deleting High Availability configurations

Configuring Probes for High Availability mode

To configure probes for High Availability mode:
1
Navigate to Configure > Appliance > High Availability.
By default, any existing configurations are displayed.
2
Click the Add Pair link to create a new configuration.
3
From the Primary list, select a server IP that you want to act as the Primary probe.
4
From the Secondary list, select a server IP that you want to act as the Secondary probe.
 
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NOTE: After creating a configuration, the probe IPs that you selected from the Primary and Secondary lists no longer displays in the list.
5
Click OK.
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