Cold Standby

The Cold Standby feature allows for improved reliability and risk mitigation by using a standby idle backup server. This Cold Standby Server takes over all Indeni operations in the event the Primary Indeni Server fails.
The switchover to the Cold Standby Server will be done manually.  

Note: The Primary and Secondary Servers must be identical and must be running the same release.

How it works:

Use imanage on the Primary Server to configure the Cold Standby Server.   
Data from the Primary Server is backed-up automatically every 12 hours (at 12 AM & 12 PM).
Data is synced from the Active Server to the Cold Standby Server regularly.
When the Active Server becomes unavailable for any reason, the user can perform a manual switchover to  the Passive Server, making it the Active Server.

Step 1: Establish the Cold Standby Cluster

On the Primary Server, run imanage. The Primary Server is now the Active Server.
Select Set Cold Standby Server.
Enter the IP address and password of the Cold Standby Server; this identifies the Cold Standby Server as the Passive Server, shuts down the Indeni processes and establishes a data sync between the Primary and Cold Standby Servers.

Step 2: Enable Indeni Processes on the Cold Standby Server (Perform a manual Fail-over)

From the Secondary Server, run imanage, select Backup & Restore, then select Restore.
This action results in the Cold Standby Server becoming the Active Server. It will then start all Indeni Services.

Note: The Primary Server backup files are kept on the Cold Standby Server in the form of : 
/home/indeni/system-backups/backup<time stamp>.tgz

Note: When the the Primary Server becomes available again, its services will NOT resume, making it the Passive Server.

 Step 3: Re-building the Cluster (Configuring The Cold Standby feature once both servers are back up)

When the Primary Server becomes operational again, re-establishing the cluster becomes possible. This action effectively swaps the two servers, turning the previously Cold Standby Server to the Active Server.  
Since the Cold Standby Server acted as the Active Server last, the new cluster should be built from it.

To re-build the cluster:
From the Cold Standby Server, run imanage. Select Set Cold Standby Server.
Enter the IP address and password of the Secondary Server (which is now the Active Server). This identifies the Cold Standby Server as the Passive Server, shuts down the Indeni processes and establishes a data sync between the Primary and Cold Standby Servers. 

BlueCat acquires Indeni to boost its industry-leading DNS, DHCP and IP address management platform to help customers proactively assess network health and prevent outages.