Grass Valley iControl V.4.43 - Manual (Page 587)

Backup and Redundancy
Summary
Key Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Backing Up an Application Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Restoring Configuration Data to an Application Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Configuring and Managing Application Server Redundancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
Configuring and Managing Autofailovers of Application Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Engaging a Failover of an External Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Key Concepts
Application Server Auto-failovers and Manual Takeovers
Application Servers actively working in the iControl system are known as Main Application
Servers. Application Servers on which copies of configuration data from the Main Application
Servers reside are known as Backup Application Servers. If one of the Main Application Servers
fails, an operator can manually switch service to a Backup Application Server, or else the
system can automatically fail over to a Backup Application Server if configured to do so.
A necessary condition for a successful Auto-failover or Manual Takeover is for the Main
Application Server’s iControl software and Web sites, Webmin configuration data, and
IP address configuration data to be replicated and up-to-date on the Backup Application
Server. Replication is the automatic scheduled copying of Application Servers on the network.
Configuration of the replication function is done through iControl Webmin. After a failover,
the Backup Application Server assumes the exact same configuration profile as the original
Main at the time of its last replication (that is, operational status, IP addresses, Webmin
configuration data are identical to the replication snapshot).
Redundancy Groups
Only when Application Servers are configured to belong to a Redundancy Group can Auto-
failovers and Manual Takeovers occur. In the case of Auto-failovers, a Redundancy Group
defines the pool of Application Servers in the role of Main and the one Application Server
serving as standby in the role of Backup (protecting the Mains). In the case of Manual
Takeovers, Redundancy Groups define the pool of Main and Backup Application Servers on
which operators can choose to perform Manual Takeovers (from any online Main to any
standby Backup) and Reverse Takeovers.