Polycom 3725-77601-001H manual 432

Polycom CMA System Operations Guide

In a redundant configuration, there is only one standby server. The standby server is the server that is not managing the system. It is the server running only the Polycom Service Monitor. In a normal operational state, the redundant server is the standby server. In a failover state, the active server is the standby server. (If at anytime you receive a Cannot find server error when you try to log into a server, check to see if it is the standby server.)

The Polycom Service Monitor monitors redundancy. In a normal operational state, the redundant/standby server sends a SEND_REQUEST_STATUS message via TCP every three seconds on port 700 to the primary/active server and expects the server to answer with a SERVICE_RUNNING message. (These messages do not include any qualitative data about the health of other services; they only verify that the active server is available on the network.)

If the redundant service sends three consecutive SEND_REQUEST_STATUS requests that go unanswered, its Service Monitor initiates a failover and the redundant server becomes the active server.

The most common reasons for system failovers are power failures and network disconnections. Note that failures in services do not initiate a failover, only a server failure.

If both the primary and redundant servers start simultaneously (for example if both are in the same location and recover from a power failure at the same time), both servers will initially attempt to become the active server. However, the redundant server—the server licensed as the redundant server—retreats to standby status once the system reaches its fully functional state.

An administrator can force a failover via the Switch Server Roles function in the CMA system user interface. Failover does not require a system restart.

The primary and redundant servers share the external CMA system database, so what is recorded by one CMA system is read by the other CMA system. An external Microsoft SQL Server database is required. The CMA system database information—call records, endpoint registration information, and network topology configurations—remains consistent and available during a failover because both servers point to the same database.

Also, the failover to the redundant server seems to occur seamlessly because the endpoints are registered with the virtual IP address, which remains constant.

During a failover:

•Active conferences are dropped from the system. Conference participants can call back in using the same conference information.

•Users logged into the CMA system user interface are disconnected during a failover and returned to the main CMA system web page. Users can log back in once the failover is completed.

•Users in the middle of an operation may get an error message, because the system is not available to respond to a request.

432 Polycom, Inc.