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Not applicable

Clustering Issues

Hi,

We recently got a cluster license and after trying to cluster the 2 server we are experiencing inconsistency.

The setup:

- 2 Servers (for the sake of server names lets call server 1 as server A and server 2 as server B)

- Each server running all the default QV services

- We have put a VIP (Vitual IP with Stickeness) on top of the 2 server in round robin mode so that the load on the web app is distributed equally

- The QVD files are located on server A and are shared with a UNC path (\\ servername\C$\path....). Both servers are pointing to a shared drive

- 64bit server on windows 2008

Issues we are facing:

- Server A where we have put in the cluster license first sees both servers and it appears that the cluster is setup correectly

- Server B does not see server A. It appears that its pointing to local host even though the cluster license has been put in and all the clustering steps are followed

- Server A shows the cluster name and Server B shows local host under cluster section as well as access point server connections

- I have tried to use the QvsStatus tool from server A and see clustering for both server up and running however when going fro B server, I only see localhost

31 Replies
Not applicable
Author

Hello all, I'm 100% new to this whole setup thing.

I'm trying to follow the instructions in the Clustering White paper mentioned above, but at the most it has 9 bullet points each one sentence long. Either I'm densed or it is simply not giving me enough information. I'm probably densed since most of you seem to understand the document.

We currently have one production server and after we got that server we purchased a clustering license. So here are the questions.

1) Install the second server. What are the services that need to run on it?

2) Install the Access Point server. What are the services that need to run on it? There is no mention that I can find about the access point server in the 9 bullet points.

3) Do what on the first server? The picture in the document has two URLs under the Cluster tab. One URL has server 1 and the other has server 2. For some reason server 2 has a port number.

I had asked the "clustering" question from one of the technical people about setting up the second server and he said that I could fully install the second server and later make the two server a cluster. So that's what I have done until I came here and notices that some servives should not be running.

Finally, we have a 3rd "test" license. We are installign that on a 4th server. We will be using that of course for testing purposes. According to the technical person I talked to that server at any point can be added to the cluster. Basically the third server can be use to also upgrade to a new version of QV and test everything on it. Once we're satisfied with this new version, we can make that the master in the cluster, upgrade another of the two servers to the new version and make that the second server a node on the cluster. Finally upgrade the 3rd server and make that our test server.

By his explanation, which I described, it seems to me that a full install is needed on each of the server so they can all be used in a musical chair approach when upgrades are done. Anyone of those server can be the master at any point in time as we move around.

So I'm basically lost in the clustering maze.

Thanks for any advice.

danielrozental
Master II
Master II

Oscar, how many servers are you planning to install?

If you have just two servers

Server1: QVS, DSC, QDS, QMS, IIS or QVWS

Server2: QVS, DSC, IIS or QVWS (that's if you don't also have clustered QDS)

If you have 3 servers you could do something like

Server1: QDS, QMS

Server2: QVS, DSC, IIS or QVWS

Server3: QVS, DSC, IIS or QVWS

If you have 5 servers

Server1: QDS, QMS

Server2: QVS, DSC

Server3: QVS, DSC

Server4:  IIS or QVWS

Server5:  IIS or QVWS

When you do an upgrade you must upgrade all services at the same time. QlikView Test server can't be included in the same cluster, you would need to buy another server license for that.

Not applicable
Author

Hi Daniel, thanks for the reply.

I have 4 servers:

  • 3 are produciton QV servers
    One of these is the access point
  • 1 server is the test server

In your description which one is the Access Point?

What I was told is to use the 4th server as the test server. When I new version was available, update the 4th server and test. Once satisfied:

  • Take down one of the production servers in the cluster.
  • Change the production license to the test server. So I assume this one will now become the master.
  • Upgrade the production that I had taken down
  • Add the newly upgraded to the cluster
  • And of course, then the last server will become the test by changing its license to the test licese.

Does this make sense at all?

Oscar

danielrozental
Master II
Master II

Oscar,

I don't know the specs on your prod servers so I don't know how were you planning to split them, do you have a publisher license in place? I would probably split the QDS and the QMS on their own server and run the AP in both QVS.

I wouldn't do the like that. I would involve moving files and configurations around. I would first upgrade the test server, test everything there, then take down all 3 produciton servers and update them.

There's a very good document about upgrades you should probably read, please

Not applicable
Author

Daniel,

Three of the servers (including the test server) are pretty strong (24 cores and 512GB memory). The 4th server, which will be my access point is a small VM since it is just supposed to route traffic. I have a publisher license for all three strong servers.

Doing the upgrade how you mentioned it, is what makes sense to me. But I was just going with I was told by QlikTeck. The reason, of course, if that our reporting is mission ciritical. We don't want to have our reporting down at any time (or at least minimize the down time.)

So does it make sense to setup the environment in produciton to look like:

Prod1: QVS, DSC, QDS, QMS, QVWS

Prod2: QVS, DSC, QDS, QVWS

Access Point: QVWS

Test:QVS, DSC, QDS, QMS, IIS or QVWS

If that's correct, then is there better documentation than the 9 bullet points in the Clustering White Paper that explains the settings?

Thanks again Daniel...

Oscar

danielrozental
Master II
Master II

Oscar,

Do you have 1 publisher license for all three environments? then you can only install one QDS.

Seems correct, sorry but I don't have any other documents on that, you should probably go through the Server reference manual as well.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Author

Steve

I followed your 1 to 10 crib list you posted Sep 6, 2012 11:18 PM in this thread & it worked perfectly - many thanks.

Best Regards,     Bill

Not applicable
Author

Hi Daniel,

Our current set-up is we have a SBE server installed on a physical machine. But we are moving to a bigger environment where we have 2 QES clustered in the DMZ, 1 SBE for internal production server, 1 publisher and 1 test server all in cloud. Is there a step by step process on the installation and configuration for my scenario? I understand we have to install different services based on th type of servers. Can you give me in detail which services needs to be installed on each server. Also how would I move all my current production server data to the new production server without any downtime?

Thanks

danielrozental
Master II
Master II

No, Sorry. I don't think there is a step by step guide for every possible configuration. You should probably consider contacting QlikView Expert Services or a local partner to help you with the environment setup.

stevedark
Partner Ambassador/MVP
Partner Ambassador/MVP

I can highly recommend the book QlikView Server and Publisher by Stephen Redmond for all things server related.  Whilst it will cover putting different services on different boxes it obviously can't cover every scenario - particularly migration scenarios.

One thing you should look at obtaining is a QlikView Migration Licence, this will allow you to run two servers in parallel for a period of 30 Days. This will allow you to cut across from one environment to the other in a controlled fashion.

Hope that helps.

Steve