Implementation Guide › Installing a High Availability Deployment › High Availability › Benefits and Limitations of a High Availability Deployment

Benefits and Limitations of a High Availability Deployment

A high availability deployment helps ensure that your CA ControlMinder Enterprise Management components continue to service requests if one or more components or servers fails. If the endpoints cannot connect to the primary environment, they connect to the secondary server until the primary environment is restored.

A high availability deployment has the following benefits:

• Prevents loss of privileged accounts, DMS datasource files and endpoints definitions if the primary Enterprise Management Server fails.
• Helps ensure uninterrupted use.

Consider the following limitations when planning a high availability deployment:

• The Enterprise Management Server does not support session continuity in an event of a failure. User sessions terminate if the active server fails to respond. Logged-in users must log in again.
• Only one active DMS is supported.
• Identical communication passwords used when installing the primary and secondary Enterprise Management Servers.
• The Java Connector Sever (JCS) on the primary and secondary servers must have the same name.

Note: We recommend that you use virtual DNS names that are controlled by the clustering software solution to seamlessly transition between the servers in case of failure.

For example, in case the primary Enterprise Management Server fails when a user session is open, the user can either type in the URL of the secondary Enterprise Management Server or, using a virtual DNS or load balancer, continue working using the same URL.