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The pasUnity application can be configured for high availability by installing on a Windows Server Failover Cluster. This can significantly reduce downtime associated with the maintenance and patching. Installation is nearly identical to the traditional installation but there will be some post installation steps that need to be performed. While licensing in a clustered environment is the same as in traditional environments the license activation process is very different.
Prior to installing pasUnity ensure that all nodes of the Windows Failover Cluster meet the prerequisites identified here. Additionally, you will need to perform the following actions:
•Install your Windows Failover Cluster using the documentation provided with your operating system (varies by operating system version).
•Determine the NETBIOS name, IPV4 address, service account credential, and (optional) drive letter for shared storage that will be used to run the pasUnity services.
•Contact support and provide them with the NETBIOS name of the cluster and the Window Account Name of the service account so that a custom license can be issued.
•Place the license file in the folder C:\ProgramData\PAS\pasProtect\1.0 on each node in the cluster.
Follow the installation procedure as outlined here on each node in the cluster but do not perform the license activation steps.
Follow these basic steps (may vary slightly by operating system version) to configure high availability:
•Ensure that the pasUnity services are stopped on all nodes in the cluster.
•Launch the Failover Cluster Manager
•Use the Create Empty Role or Create Empty Service or Application menu option and provide it a meaningful name for your service (such as pasUnity)
•Add a Client Access Point resource to your role using the NETBIOS name (to create a Network Name resource) and the IPV4 address (to create an Address resource) you reserved earlier and bring the resources online.
•For each of the five pasUnity services add a Generic Service resource.
•Modify each of the Generic Service resources to contain a dependency on the Network Name resource created previously and to use the Network Name for the computer name.
•Optionally add a storage resource to this cluster group in pasUnity jobs will need a dedicated storage location for job processing.
•Bring all the resources in the cluster role online and ensure that failover between nodes works correctly.
The pasUnity services may be managed normally from any machine that uses the same configuration database. Slight behavioral changes will be noted when using the pasUnity GUI from one of the Failover Cluster nodes. First, the licensing menu will always report that the license installed on the server is not valid. This is because the name of the cluster instance does not match the name of the cluster node and is expected behavior. The license will, however, correctly report the synchronization status. If you have upgraded the product and the synchronization status is shown as false, you may wish to obtain new license files. Second, you cannot run jobs interactively from within pasUnity because technically the instance on which they are running is not necessarily the same as node to which you are logged in. Therefore, only the background enqueue method can be used to launch jobs from the UI. Finally, ensure that the pasUnity service accounts are running with permissions adequate to perform their tasks and that the resources used by jobs (such as temp folders) are available to all nodes in the cluster. It is recommended that temp folders be placed on a storage resource included in the cluster role for consistency across nodes.
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