High Availability Installation

Control-M High Availability enables you to install a secondary instance of Control-M full installation, Control-M/EM, or Control-M/Server. If there is a failure on the primary host, Control-M continues to run on the secondary host.

A secondary installation uses the same installation parameters, database, and schema as the primary installation and must be installed on the same operating system. If there is a conflict in one of the parameters, such as the port, update the port number in the primary installation before installing the secondary.

You must have an existing Control-M environment before you can install the secondary instance. For a more detailed list of requirements, see High Availability Requirements.

The following procedures describe how to install a secondary instance on UNIX and Windows:

After you have installed the secondary, the following occurs:

  • The Configuration Agents of Control-M/EM and Control-M/Server are up and running and monitoring the Configuration Agent on the primary.

    If you restarted your machine, you must start up the Control-M/EM and Control-M/Server Configuration Agent.

    To configure the automatic startup/shutdown script on UNIX, see one of the following topics:

  • The secondary hostname is automatically added to the Authorized Control-M/Server hosts list, and its Control-M/Agents on the primary are updated. When you define the Local IP Host Interface Name or the Agent-to-Server Host Name parameter on a non-active High Availability environment, the changes tsake affect within 10 minutes of the time when they were saved.

  • Files are synced between the primary and secondary (see High Availability Compatibility).

  • (Dedicated PostgreSQL Only): Access to the shared directory and data replication is periodically checked after you initialize the replication process (see Starting Database Replication).

For more information about failover and fallback, see High Availability.

To uninstall a secondary instance, see one of the following topics:

High Availability Requirements

Before installing, upgrading, or uninstalling in a High Availability environment, verify the following:

  • The secondary Control-M/EM Configuration Agent and Control-M/Server Configuration Agent is down.

  • The Control-M/EM database and Control-M/Server database are up during the installation.

  • The installation must be performed on the recently active primary and then on the secondary or distributed.

  • After installing on the primary, you must install on the secondary before starting up the secondary Configuration Agent.

  • High Availability is not available until you install on the secondary.

The following table lists the supported components, operating systems, and databases for Control-M High Availability.

Component

Operating System

Database

Control-M Full Installation

 

UNIX

  • Oracle

  • External PostgreSQL

Windows

  • MSSQL

  • External PostgreSQL

Control-M/EM

 

UNIX

  • Oracle

  • External PostgreSQL

Windows

  • MSSQL

  • External PostgreSQL

Control-M/Server

 

UNIX

  • Oracle

  • External and dedicated BMC PostgreSQL

Windows

  • MSSQL

  • External and dedicated BMC PostgreSQL

BMC does not support using the dedicated PostgreSQL database as an external PostrgreSQL database for a different High Availability installation.

The following requirements must be met if you are using Control-M/Server with a dedicated BMC PostgreSQL:

  • The secondary Control-M/Server and PostgreSQL database server must be on the same computer.

  • You must provide a shared drive on a third server that is always available to back up the replicated data. This server is used if the primary or secondary are temporarily unavailable.

  • Both the primary and secondary hosts must have read/write permissions on the shared drive.

  • The shared drive must have at least 15 GB of available disk space.

  • Both the primary and secondary UNIX accounts must have the same group ID and the shared drive must have the permissions for the group. To change the shared drive directory, see Running the ctmchangeshdir Utility.

The following shared drive requirements must be met in a Windows environment:

  • The primary and the secondary installations must use the same Domain user.

  • The Control-M/Server service Log in as must be set to This account with the same Domain user.

  • The PostgreSQL service Log in as must be set to This account with the same Domain user.

  • Verify that the Domain user has full privileges for the entire Control-M/Server directory and for the shared drive.

  • To run Control-M/Server utilities in batch or online, you must use the same Domain user or another user with full access to the shared drive.

High Availability Compatibility

The following table describes how various Control-M components, products, and security settings work in a High Availability configuration.

Component

Description

BMC Batch Impact Manager

High Availability does not support BMC Batch Impact Manager on a dedicated separate server in a distributed environment.

Control-M Workload Archiving

High Availability does not support Control-M Workload Archiving on a dedicated separate server.

Fix Packs

If you install a fix pack on the primary, you must manually install it in on the secondary. A failover cannot occur if the fix packs on both hosts are not the same.

Cluster

Control-M High Availability is supported in a clustered environment if the primary is installed on a dedicated PostgreSQL database and the Control-M components are not managed by the cluster manager.

The failover mode is set to manual and it cannot be changed.

Control-M/EM Sync Files

The following files are synced to the secondary:

  • etc/site/resource/Defaults.rsc

  • etc/DirectoryServiceType.cfg

  • etc/resource/Defaults.rsc

  • TimeZone.dat

  • etc/ldap.conf

  • etc/log4j.selfservice

  • etc/log4j.wcm

If Advanced Email Configuration (SMTPS) is configured on the primary host, the following configuration files are not synced to the secondary because they contain an encryption key and password, and must be configured manually:

  • etc/mail.properites

  • etc/mail_auth.properites

  • etc/aes.key

Control-M/Server Sync Files

The following files are synced to the secondary:

  • data/Config.dat

  • data/Time_Zone.dat

  • data/AGDEFS/AGDEFS

  • data/AGDEFS/AGUTILS_PERMIT

  • Data/AGENTS_ALIASES.txt

  • data/AGPERMIT_UTILS All files in directory

  • data/REMEDY/Remedy_Conf.xml

  • data/SSL/cert/Remedy,kbd

    This file keeps the remedy server hostname, port, and username. These parameters are defined by the remedy_configure utility and are saved in this file. The encrypted file is saved in the remedy.kbd file.

If Advanced Email Configuration (SMTPS) is configured on the primary host, the following configuration files are not synced to the secondary because they contain an encryption key and password, and must be configured manually:

  • data/mail.properites

  • data/mail_auth.properites

  • data/aes.key

Installing a Secondary on UNIX

This procedure describes how to install a secondary Control-M Full Installation, Control-M/EM, or Control-M/Server for High Availability on UNIX. A secondary installation uses the same installation parameters, database, and schema as the primary installation.

The default installation is interactive and uses a GUI display. XServer must be running and configured using the DISPLAY environment variable. If you do not have XServer available, BMC recommends that you continue with the console installation or perform an automatic installation.

Before You Begin

Ensure that you have met the following requirements:

Begin

  1. Do one of the following:

    • Mount the installation DVD.

    • From the temporary directory that you created (see "Product Distribution" in the Control-M version 9.0.21 Release Notes), extract the .tar.Z file.

  2. Set your DISPLAY environment variable, as described in Setting Environment Variables in UNIX.

  3. From your home directory, type the following command:
    <source_path>/setup.sh

  4. Do one of the following:

    • Interactive Install: Select the Additional Installations > Secondary installation for High Availability option, and continue with the on-screen instructions until the installation is complete.

    • Automatic Install: Create a parameter file and then run the automatic install in non-interactive mode, as follows:

      1. Select the Additional Installations > Secondary installation for High Availability option, and continue with the on-screen instructions until the Summary window appears.

      2. Click Generate and select the location to create the XML parameter file.

      3. Click Yes to quit the installation.

        A confirmation message appears.

      4. Click Yes.

      5. Copy the automatic installation parameters file to a network location that is accessible to all computers where you want to perform an automatic installation.

      6. To run the installation script, type the following command:
        <source_path>/setup.sh -silent <xml_path>/<filename.xml>

        The installation logs can be found at the following location:
        <$HOME>/BMCINSTALL/log/BMC_Control-M_Install_<date-time>.log

        If you are using Oracle, MSSQL, or an external PostgreSQL, the High Availability environment is now activated.
        If you are using a BMC-supplied PostgreSQL, start the replication process, as described in Starting Database Replication.

Installing a Secondary on Windows

This procedure describes how to install a secondary Control-M Full Installation, Control-M/EM, or Control-M/Server for High Availability on Windows. A secondary installation uses the same installation parameters, database, and schema as the primary installation.

Before You Begin

Ensure that you have met the following requirements:

Begin

  1. Log in to the computer using a user ID that has Administrator permissions.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • From the installation DVD, double-click the Setup.exe file.

    • From a command prompt window, enter <source_path>\Setup.exe.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Interactive Install: Select the Additional Installations > Secondary installation for High Availability option, and continue with the on-screen instructions until the installation is complete.

    • Automatic Install: Create a parameter file, and then run the automatic install in non-interactive mode, as follows:

      1. Select the Additional Installations > Secondary installation for High Availability option, and continue with the on-screen instructions until the Summary window appears.

      2. Click Generate and select the location to create the XML parameter file.

      3. Click Yes to quit the installation.

        A confirmation message appears.

      4. Click Yes.

        The automatic installation XML parameters file that is created (<filename>.xml) is relevant only for computers with the same Agent instance name. Otherwise, a separate <filename>.xml file must be created for each computer or modified manually for each computer.

      5. Copy the automatic installation parameters file to a network location that is accessible to all computers where you want to perform an automatic installation.

      6. Log in using a user ID that has Administrator permissions on the current computer.

      7. Ensure that the installation DVD is still in the DVD drive, and run the installation script, as follows:
        <source_path>\Setup.exe -silent <xml_path>\<filename.xml>

        The installation logs can be found at the following location:
        <installFolder>\BMCINSTALL\log\BMC_Control-M_Install_<date-time>.log

        If you are using Oracle, MSSQL, or an external PostgreSQL, the High Availability environment is now activated.
        If you are using a BMC-supplied PostgreSQL, verify that all requirements have been met, as described in High Availability Requirements, and then start the replication process, as described in Starting Database Replication.