Configure Cluster Nodes

This guide will go through the steps of expanding a cluster horizontally. This guide will use the terms Master Node and Slave Node where master node is the node the installer was executed on and a slave node is a node that is taking part in the cluster but does not contain an Admin Server.
Each node in the cluster, including Master Node, hosts one Node Manager which is used as communication channel for the cluster. It is therefore important that this listen address and port can be reached from all nodes in the cluster.

It is good to have at least some basic understanding of how to control the servers.

Note: On Microsoft Windows - when setting up horizontal middleware server cluster the node machines should be connected to a domain, the firewall in Windows will not allow windows services to communicate the way a cluster requires otherwise. Separate firewall rule might be required that accepts RPC Dynamic ports between the cluster nodes depending on how network principals are defined in the network domain.

Note: The server clocks must be synchronized across the cluster.

Additional points to consider:  

• For the cluster.zip creation process, a free disk space of 10-15GB is required as a workspace.
• Linux machines require zip 3.0 installed. Please refer to the OS user manual for details on how to update/install.
  If the zip tool was not found, the cluster files are created as a folder in the instance folder (folder name: 'cluster-node').
  Copy all the contents of this folder to the slave node.
  If the cluster-node folder was manually archived, make sure the archive tool supports file permissions.
  If copied to a Windows machine, Linux file permissions are not preserved.
  
• A slave node can be updated by creating a new cluster.zip file in the master node.
  If the master has had a recent CPU patch apply, use the 'create' option to include updated MWS runtime files.
  If the master was only reconfigured or patched (no CPU), use the 'update' option.
  Stop the NM and all managed servers in the slave node to avoid file locks.
  Copy and extract the cluster.zip to the IFS home in the slave node.
  Use the 'update' option in cluster.sh/cmd in the slave node to update the slave. A new script is generated in slave node to control node manager (since BP 10.16.20.0)

Extending the Cluster

It is not possible to extend the cluster using the IFS Installer, instead, the IFS Admin Console is used to create new servers or delete existing server from a cluster. A machine that is to be part of a cluster must first be setup using a specific cluster script.

1. On the master node, browse to <ifs_home>/instance/<instance>/bin and run cluster.cmd/sh depending on the underlying operating system.
2. The script can either create a cluster node or update a cluster node. The difference between the two operations is that 'create' packs everything needed to create a new cluster node on a machine that is not already part of the cluster (i.e. there is no IFS Home created), whereas 'update' packs files in the current IFS Home that might have been modified or added by the installer during a delivery or reconfigure. Update assumes there is already an IFS Home installed on the cluster node.
   Once 'create' or 'update' has been selected in the command window, the script prompts for confirmation. Press 'y' to proceed or 'n' to abort the operation. If 'create' was selected, this operation will take time.
3. The script will produce a compressed archive in <ifs_home>/instance/<instance>/ called cluster.zip
   Move this archive to one of the slave nodes.
4. Create a new IFS Home on the slave node in the same manner as described in the Intro Process Document and extract the archive in this new empty IFS Home. The directories on all machines in the cluster must be the same.
   On Linux you should extract the archive as user IFS and keep using this user for the remainder of this guide.
5. Still on the slave node, go to <ifs_home>/instance/<instance>/bin and once again run the script cluster.cmd/sh depending on the underlying operating system.
   The script will give three options, create, update and delete. If the current machine is not yet part of the cluster, select 'create', if the current node is already part of the cluster but needs to be updated due to a delivery or reconfigure done on the master node, select 'update'. If this node should no longer be part of the current cluster or if it needs to be recreated, select 'delete'.
   Create: Unpacks all binaries and creates a domain that is part of the cluster. It also creates a new machine automatically.
   Update: Overwrites all the files in the current IFS Home with the files included in the archive.
   Delete: Unregister IFS Middleware Server and removes the machine in the cluster so that the IFS Home can be safely deleted.
   
6. When the script has finished it should have installed the binaries, created an IFS Middleware domain, a machine and the NodeManager should be running.
   
7. Repeat the previous steps for each machine in the cluster. The same archive created during the first steps can be reused, so omit those steps.

Note: Updating cluster nodes is necessary after applying a delivery on the master node except for pure database, client or documentation deliveries.

Configure the Cluster For an External Load Balancer

When an External Load Balancer is used in combination with a horizontal cluster an HTTP Server is needed on each node. HTTP Servers are created and managed from the IFS Admin Console.

IFS Enterprise Explorer deployment

Follow the IFS Enterprise Explorer deployment guide for the client to work on all nodes.

Remove a Cluster Node

Go to <ifs_home>/instance/<instance>/bin and run the script cluster.cmd/sh depending on the underlying operating system.
Select 'delete' when prompted. If there are servers attached to the cluster node the operation will terminate with the following message: 'The node has active Servers running. Shutdown and Delete the servers using IFS Admin Console to continue with node delete'. Using IFS Admin Console stop and delete the servers attached to the cluster node. Then go back to the cluster node and execute <ifs_home>/instance/<instance>/bin cluster.cmd/sh. Now the IFS Middleware Home should be unregistered and the machine should be deleted from the configuration.
Delete the IFS Home from disk.

Verify

	Verify that the machine(s) has been created and that the Node Manager is running.
	Check the logs located in <ifs_home>/instance/<instance>/logs