Configuring Failover Server

This document provides a detailed guide on setting up a Failover Server in ManageEngine Device Control Plus. A Failover Server ensures high availability by taking over when the primary server goes offline, maintaining uninterrupted services for your network. This guide is intended for IT administrators responsible for server setup and maintenance. To know more about Failover Server, click here.

How to Configure a Failover Server?

1. Go to Admin > Server Settings > Failover Server in the Device Control Plus console.
2. Primary Server IP: Enter the IP addresses of Device Control Plus Server.
3. Secondary Server IP: Enter the IP address of Failover Server.
4. Set up the Virtual IP for the agents to communicate with the correct server. Every communication from the agent, the distribution server will reach the virtual IP. If you have configured NAT settings to redirect all communications to a local IP, you will have to ensure that the redirected communications reach the virtual IP address.
5. Configure the Secondary Server FQDN if servers are in different subnets.
6. Save the configurations.
7. Download the Configure_Failover-server.bat and save it to any folder in the failover server machine.

All request that reaches this virtual IP will be redirected to the primary server, whenever the primary server is not reachable, the communications will be taken to the secondary server. The secondary server will periodically sync all the data from the primary server so that it is up-to-date. You can also configure settings to receive mail notifications, whenever one of the servers is down, or not reachable. Follow the steps mentioned below to configure Failover server:

1. Clone Server components to the secondary server
2. Configuring Secondary Server
3. Activate Failover Server

Cloning Server Components

Perform the following steps on the computer, where (primary) Device Control Plus server is installed:

1. Stop Device Control Plus server.
2. Open the command prompt in administrator mode and navigate to <Installation_Directory>/ManageEngine/DesktopCentral_Server/bin
3. Execute the Clone_Primary_Server.bat script to create a backup of server components.
4. Once it is executed, a new zip file "Product.zip" will be created in the <Installation_Directory>/ManageEngine/DesktopCentral_Server> folder.

Configuring Secondary Server

Note: Ensure that the secondary server does have permissions to synchronize the data from the primary server and vice versa.

To configure, enable the following settings:

• Access to the computer where Device Control Plus Primary & Secondary Server are installed.
• Permission for the admin user to manage both the Device Control Plus Primary & Secondary Server.

The below-mentioned steps should be performed on the primary server first and the same should be performed on the secondary server during activation:

1. Right click on the folder choose Sharing tab > Click Advanced Sharing > Enable Share this Folder.
2. Specify the name as DeviceControlPlus_Server.
3. Click Permissions > Add > Object Types > Computers > Ok.
4. Under Enter Object Name, specify the secondary server name and the username with Admin privileges.
5. Click share permission and select user and computer and ensure that Full Control is enabled.
6. Navigate to Security tab and Click Edit.
7. Click Add to open the Select Users or Groups window. Click Object Types, select Computers, and click OK.
8. Enter the username and computer name, click Check Names, and click OK.
9. Select Full Control for both the user and computer.
10. Click Apply, then OK to save the changes.

Note: If Device Control Plus server is installed in Windows 10 or Windows Server 2012 R2, you will have to ensure that the permissions are modified here, (Right click) Device Control Plus folder -> Properties -> Security -> Edit Permissions -> Edit -> Add (add the name of the secondary server).

Activate Failover Server

Perform the below mentioned step on the computer where the Secondary server is installed:

1. Start the primary server and proceed after it has started completely.
   

   

2. Open Command Prompt as an administrator in the secondary server and navigate to the location where you have downloaded or placed the .bat file (the .bat file can be downloaded from the Device Control Plus Server console as shown in the image above) and execute Configure_Failover_Server.bat {PrimaryServer_IP}
3. After executing the command, product.zip will be automatically extracted from the primary server to secondary server.
4. Repeat the steps for sharing, as mentioned above on the secondary server and ensure that you provide the name of the computer, where the primary server is installed, in step 10.