Failover solution architecture

The failover system or solution includes three sets of components:

• Active set

• Standby set

• Failover Manager

  Active and Standby sets operate in different locations. The Failover Manager may reside in a separate location or on the Standby side. The VMware Smart Assurance administrator specifies the components and their locations in the failover.conf file. Deployment considerations and the procedure for setting up the failover system are provided in Chapter 2, “Configure the Failover System.”

  The Failover Manager initially detects one set of components to be the Active set and then detects the other set to be the Standby set. If the sets are not in the Active or Standby state at the time of Failover Manager initialization, the Failover Manager promotes the set in Location-A to Active state and the set in Location-B to the Standby state.

  A failover system supports:

• A single-layer Service Assurance Manager architecture.

• A hierarchical SAM architecture.

• Service Assurance Manager with Notification Cache Publishing Enabled (with its associated services Tomcat, Rabbit MQ, and ElasticSearch) for integration with the SolutionPack for VMware Smart Assurance for use with the VMware Smart Assurance M&R User Interface. The architecture can be single-layer or hierarchical.

  For example, in the Active location, a hierarchical SAM architecture may consist of one or more Service Assurance Managers deployed above any number of subordinate Domain Managers like IP Availability Manager for analysis or Adapter Platform servers which receive events from trap or syslog adapters. The Standby location has the exact same hierarchy. After the failover occurs, the Standby components can manage the exact same set of devices as the Active components. The Standby components do not manage any devices while the Active components are operational.

  Multiple VMware Smart Assurance components may run on one machine within a location.

  The Failover Manager monitors all Active and Standby components of the deployment. The Failover Manager also manages registration with the Broker. The Failover Manager registers only Active Managers to communicate with the Broker.

  Note:

  Unless otherwise noted, Service Assurance Manager (SAM) applies to Service Assurance Manager with and without Notification Cache Publishing Enabled.