BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide

Clustering Central Management Servers

If you have a large or mission-critical implementation of BusinessObjects Enterprise, you will probably want to run several CMS machines together in a CMS cluster. A CMS cluster consists of two or more CMS servers working together to maintain the system database. If a machine that is running one CMS fails, a machine with another CMS will continue to service BusinessObjects Enterprise requests. This "failover" support helps to ensure that BusinessObjects Enterprise users can still access information when there is equipment failure.

This section shows how to add a new CMS cluster member to a production system that is already up and running. When you add a new CMS to an existing cluster, you instruct the new CMS to connect to the existing CMS database and to share the processing workload with any existing CMS machines. For information about your current CMS and CMS cluster, go to the Settings management area of the CMC and click the Cluster tab.

Before clustering CMS machines, you must make sure that each CMS is installed on a system that meets the detailed requirements (including version levels and patch levels) for operating system, database server, database access method, database driver, and database client outlined in the platforms.txt file included in your product distribution.

In addition, you must meet the following clustering requirements:

• For best performance, the database server that you choose to host the system database must be able to process small queries very quickly. The CMS communicates frequently with the system database and sends it many small queries. If the database server is unable to process these requests in a timely manner, BusinessObjects Enterprise performance will be greatly affected.
• For best performance, run each CMS cluster member on a machine that has the same amount of memory and the same type of CPU.
• Configure each machine similarly:
  • Install the same operating system, including the same version of operating system service packs and patches.
  • Install the same version of BusinessObjects Enterprise (including patches, if applicable).
  • Ensure that each CMS connects to the CMS database in the same manner: whether you use native or ODBC drivers, ensure that the drivers are the same on each machine, and are a supported version.
  • Ensure that each CMS uses the same database client to connect to its system database, and that it is a supported version.
  • Check that each CMS uses the same database user account and password to connect to the CMS database. This account must have create, delete, and update rights on the system database.
  • Run each CMS service/daemon under the same account. (On Windows, the default is the "LocalSystem" account.)
  • Verify that the current date and time are set correctly on each CMS machine (including settings for daylight savings time).
• Ensure that each and every CMS in a cluster is on the same Local Area Network.
• If you wish to enable auditing, each CMS must be configured to use the same auditing database and to connect to it in the same manner. The requirements for the auditing database are the same as those for the system database in terms of database servers, clients, access methods, drivers, and user IDs.

Tip:    By default, a CMS cluster name reflects the name of the first CMS that you install, but the cluster name is prefixed by the @ symbol. For instance, if your existing CMS is called BUSINESSOBJECTSCMS, then the default cluster name is @BUSINESSOBJECTSCMS. To modify the default name, see Preparing to migrate a CMS database.

There are two ways to add a new CMS cluster member. Follow the appropriate procedure, depending upon whether or not you have already installed a second CMS:

• Installing a new CMS and adding it to a cluster

  See this section if you have not already installed the new CMS on its own machine.

• Adding an installed CMS to a cluster

  Follow this procedure if you have already installed a second, independent CMS on its own machine. While testing various server configurations, for instance, you might have set up an independent BusinessObjects Enterprise system with its own CMS. Follow this procedure when you want to incorporate this independent CMS into your production system.

Note:    Back up your current CMS database before making any changes. If necessary, contact your database administrator.