11.1.3 Understanding How Consoles Interact with Each Other and with Access Manager Devices

Primary and secondary consoles use eDirectory synchronization to keep their configuration databases current.

WARNING:When the primary console is running, all configuration changes must be made at the primary console. If you make changes at both a primary console and a secondary console, browser caching can cause you to create an invalid configuration.

Access Manager devices use the secondary console only when the primary console is down. Therefore, if a secondary console goes down while the primary console is running, devices are notified. But they continue to run by using the primary console for configuration information. The secondary console can be down for as long as required to fix the problem without affecting other Access Manager devices.

When the primary console goes down, all devices discover this and switch to using the secondary console. This can take a few minutes, because each device has its own trigger for checking in with Administration Console. After the device switches to the secondary console, it continues to run just as it did when it was communicating with the primary console. When the primary console is up again, all devices discover this and switch back to using the primary console. Again, this can take a few minutes.

Tasks Requiring the Primary Console

You must use the primary console for the following tasks:

New Device Installation: The primary console must be running when you install new devices.

Backup and Restore: Backup and restore must be run on the primary console. When the restore is completed, you must restart Tomcat on all secondary consoles.

  • Linux: Run the following command:

    /etc/init.d/novell-ac restart
  • Windows: Run the following commands:

    net stop Tomcat8
    net start Tomcat8

For more information about backup and restore, see Section 30.0, Back Up and Restore.

Tasks Available from the Secondary Console

When the primary console goes down, the secondary console can be used for the following tasks:

  • Administrators can make configuration changes on a secondary console, and these changes are sent to Access Manager components.

  • Access Manager components can use the secondary console to access their configuration information and to respond to configuration changes. When the primary console becomes functional, components revert to using the primary console, but they continue to accept commands from the secondary consoles.