Questions to QlikView Clustering

[zhadrakas]

Hello Forum,

i want to add a new Server to my QlikView Environment and create a cluster.

I know i Need a clustering licence.  i will buy an "Additional Enterprise Edition Server License".

Now i have some questions regarding the planning and Installation.

1) Do anyone has up to date documentation about Installation of Clusters

-> i checked the Help Site but there is not much information

2) Do i Need to install the Services in a Special order?

2.1) my plan is to install the first Server with the following services

- QlikView Server

- QlikView Distribution Service (Publisher)

- QlikView Web Server

- QlikView Directory Connector Service

- QlikView Management Service

2.2) then install the next Server with following services

- QlikView Server

- QlikView Web Server

-  QlikView Directory Connector Service

2.3) given that Information. What will happen if..

2.3.1) one of the Server nodes will shut down?

2.3.2) one of the Clustered Services (QVWS, QVS, QDCS) will fail?

3) Any Recommendations?

Thanks in advance. Any help is appreciated.

Regards

[Daniele_Purrone · Accepted solution]

Hi!

1) I would still start by the  dedicated page  on the help site. QlikView clustering is actually not that complex to implement, and the page covers the basics  

2) When you install QlikView on a node , the installer install the services in the correct order. It might be a good idea to install first the node where you have the Managament Service, but that's not strictly necessary

2.3.1) The services that exclusive to that node will not be available. So, if node 1 goes down you won't be able to access the QMC and tasks won't run.

2.3.2) you might might have a partially working environment, or not. The first issue would be with the webserver, and that depends on how users are accessing the system. Will there be a load balancer in front of the two webservers and will that be the point of access for the users? Will the loadbalancer check that the webservers are responding? As for the QVSes, it depends. A single QVS might be able to keep working when not much is happening, but it might fail if the load is high.  So, if you plan to have clustering for resilience purposes you'll have to make sure that the system is properly dimensioned so that one node can handle all the weight, if necessary.

You might also want to  read this to understand how load balancing in QlikView works: https://support.qlik.com/articles/000048280

I hope this helps!

Daniele

[zhadrakas]

Thank you for your Response.

2.3.1) The services that exclusive to that node will not be available. So, if node 1 goes down you won't be able to access the QMC and tasks won't run.

-> That means if node1 goes down QDS and QMS are not availabe. But the users can still work? (open Access Point and open the user documents?)

2.3.2) you might might have a partially working environment, or not. The first issue would be with the webserver, and that depends on how users are accessing the system. Will there be a load balancer in front of the two webservers and will that be the point of access for the users? Will the loadbalancer check that the webservers are responding? As for the QVSes, it depends. A single QVS might be able to keep working when not much is happening, but it might fail if the load is high.  So, if you plan to have clustering for resilience purposes you'll have to make sure that the system is properly dimensioned so that one node can handle all the weight, if necessary.

-> There is no load balancer in front.

Option A:
As described above there are 2 QVWS that are pointing to one Access Point.
There should be reliability if one Service goes down. The Server specification are well defined. More Performance than actually needed so that should be good.

Option B:

What about Outsourcing the QVWS into a virtual machine and Forward the users to the Access Point. Is that possible? Do know if there are documents or any Information about that?

regards

tim

[Daniele_Purrone]

-> That means if node1 goes down QDS and QMS are not availabe. But the users can still work? (open Access Point and open the user documents?)

They will be able to reach the access point and the document on the other node. If they'll be able to work, that depends on the load that that node will have. If it becomes overloaded, the performance will be degraded, and, eventually, users won't be able to work.

As for setting up an external QVWS, that's definitely a good option. You will have to install the service separately and then just add it as a webserver in the Management Console: https://help.qlik.com/en-US/qlikview/November2018/Subsystems/QMC/Content/QV_QMC/QMC_System_Setup_Qli...

You might also want to setup Access Point  load balancing (i.e.: not just loadbalancing when opening a document, but also when opening the access point) according to this article: https://support.qlik.com/articles/000043753

[zhadrakas]

Thank you very much for your help

[zhadrakas]

on last Thing.

If i want to set up a virtual machine as webserver:

- do i Need an additional license?

- Any Experience Values how to size this Webservice VM?

Regards

[Daniele_Purrone]

Thanks to you!
No additional license needed. As for the sizing, the Webserver doesn't require much usually. I would go with the basic system requirements and then go up if necessary. Make sure that the resources are statically assigned, and not on demand

[Brett_Bleess]

One more key point here, you do NOT need another QlikView Server Enterprise License, what you need is to add an additional node to your current license, this will show up in the License Enabler File as the NUMBER_OF_CLUSTER_NODES option, and in your case there would be a 2 after that.  

Regarding web server resources, generally, it somewhat depends upon how busy things will be, but for a small environment would probably recommend 4 cores and 8 gig and for a larger one 8 cores and 16 gig.  

Regards,
Brett

[zhadrakas]

thank you very much for that Information. i think that will be much cheaper than another Enterprise licence.

[zhadrakas]

@Brett_Bleess  & @Daniele_Purrone 

Is there a predefined Appliance or VM-Image that i can use for outsourcing the web service.

Alternatively i would try to install that by myself on an VM.

thanks in advance.