As discussed in Setting up Primary and Backup Management Servers, the agent on each managed computer should be configured to use one primary management server and one backup management server to provide predictable failover support and static load distribution. For Windows agents, you designate the primary and backup management server during installation or by running the AMAdmin_SetPrimaryMS Knowledge Script. You can also use the AMAdmin_SetPrimaryMS Knowledge Script to change the primary management server, the secondary management server, or both.
Once you explicitly designate a primary management server, the agent services communicate exclusively with that management server.
By default, the Client Resource Monitor attempts to communicate with the primary management server once every minute to determine its availability. If the attempt to connect to the primary management server fails in three consecutive tries, the Client Resource Monitor determines the primary management server is not available and notifies the Client Communication Manager to begin sending events and data to the backup management server until it is able to re‑establish communication with the primary management server.
You can change both the default interval and the number of connection attempts the Client Resource Monitor uses to determine the availability of the primary management server by modifying the Windows registry.
To change the failover configuration for an agent computer, expand the \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \NetIQ\AppManager\4.0\NetIQmc\config folder:
|
Registry Key to Edit |
Description |
|---|---|
PrimaryMSFailOverCtrlTimes |
The number of times the Client Resource Monitor should attempt to connect to the primary management server before failing over to a backup management server. The default is 3 attempts. You may want to increase this value if there are frequent, brief interruptions in communication or you decrease the interval. In general, you should not set this value to less than the default. |
PrimaryMSFailOverInterval |
The number of seconds between attempts to communicate with the primary management server. The default is 60 seconds. You may want to increase this value if there are frequent, brief interruptions in communication or if you use a schedule for transferring data from the agent computer. In general, you should not set this value to less than the default. |
Before changing the failover configuration, you should consider the network connection between the specific agent computer and the management server. If they are connected through a wide area network or have a slow connection, you may need to increase the failover interval to prevent frequent or unnecessary failover. In practice, having an agent computer fail over from a primary management server to a backup management server should be a rare event and any changes to the failover interval or number of connection attempts should reflect this.
Normally, once you have explicitly designated a primary management server and a backup management server, there’s no need to remove the designation using the AMAdmin_RemovePrimaryMS Knowledge Script. Instead, you can change the primary management server, the secondary management server, or both with the AMAdmin_SetPrimaryMS Knowledge Script. In some rare cases, however, you may want to remove a designation entirely for a computer.
Running AMAdmin_RemovePrimaryMS removes the primary and backup designations stored in the registry, potentially allowing any management server available to communicate with the agent computer, depending on the version of the AppManager agent installed and how you have configured management server restrictions with the AMAdmin_AgentConfigMSRestrictions Knowledge Script.
Keep in mind that you should only allow an undesignated management server to communicate with an agent computer if you are:
Using a single management server and you are unsure of the management server name or suspect an incorrect name has been recorded (for example, because it has been edited manually after installation).
Changing your site configuration from a multiple management server environment to a single management server environment and you are unsure of the management server name.
Temporarily decommissioning both the primary management server and the backup management server and want to use any available management server until the primary and backup management servers are available or until you identify new management server names or IP addresses to explicitly designate as the new primary management server and the new backup management server.
For more information about using any of these Knowledge Scripts, double-click the Knowledge Script in the View pane of the Control Center console, select the Values tab, and click Help.