Load balancer configuration examples

Following are several common configuration examples. All configurations require that AR System servers have been properly configured.

Before you review the examples, verify that the following configuration steps have been completed:

1. All AR System servers share the same database.
2. All AR System servers  have the same server name (server name alias), and they have a unique name configured for server-to-server communication, Server-connect-name.
3. All AR Systems plug-ins are configured to access the local server.
4. All AR System servers are configured to listen on TCP ports that the load balancer is configured for.
5. External operations managed by the server group such as Flashboards, must be installed locally on the AR System server that manage them.
6. Remedy Alert is configured for a load-balanced environment.
   • The load-balancer IP address is mapped to the AR System server IP address.
   • The server is configured to ignore the actual IP address recorded during Alert client registration.
7. Distributed Server Option (DSO) is configured for a load-balanced environment.
   Mappings have been updated to take advantage of the server group. For more information, see Configuring-DSO-for-a-server-group.
8. Clients are configured to use the virtual address and port of the load balancer.
9. Servers are declared to be server group members, and operation rankings are configured.
10. If you are using a firewall, make sure that ports 80 and 443 are available for the clients to communicate with the external load balancers.

Example: Load balancer with multiple AR System servers

In this example, the load balancer is directing traffic to three AR System servers that share a single database. In the following figure, the uppermost server has the primary ranking for the Administration and Escalation operations. The other two servers can be used to back up these operations, when the uppermost server is not running. 

 Basic load-balancer configuration with multiple AR System servers for multiple services

Example: Load balancer with a firewall and multiple AR System servers

In this example, client requests pass through a firewall and into the external load balancer. The load balancer directs traffic to three AR System servers. The three servers share a single database. 

In the following figure, the uppermost server has the primary ranking for the administration operation, but the bottommost server has the primary ranking for the escalation operation. As mentioned earlier, the administrative server can be a computer other than the escalation server.

 Load-balancer configuration with a firewall and AR System servers