Installing in a Failover Cluster
Last updated
Last updated
High availability is an Enterprise edition feature
Installing Access Manager in a failover cluster requires the following;
A Lithnet Access Manager enterprise edition license
You must meet the hardware and storage requirements for a Microsoft failover cluster
A shared disk available to all cluster nodes (Recommended minimum size is 50GB)
At least one Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller in the domain where AMS will be installed
The KDS root key in the domain must be enabled
Follow the steps outlined in Microsoft documentation for creating a new failover cluster. Stop once you reach the section for Creating clustered roles and continue from this guide.
If you are setting up a cluster containing an even number of nodes, you must configure an appropriate witness to ensure a cluster quorum.
Open the Disk Management tool, and bring the AMS storage volume online. Initialize the disk, format it, and assign it a drive letter (for the purposes of this guide, we will refer to the AMS storage volume as S:)
Open the Failover Cluster Manager tool, expand the cluster in the left hand side tree view, and select Storage followed by Disks
Select Add Disk from the right-hand actions menu, and add the appropriate disk to the cluster.
On the first node, run the Access Manager Service installer.
When prompted to provide the installation paths, set the log and config folders to be on the S: drive. Eg S:\AMS\logs and S:\AMS\config
\
We also recommend using a group-managed service account for AMS. You must use the same account on all cluster nodes. \
When the installer finishes, do not run the configuration utility when prompted.
Exit the installer and return to the Failover Cluster Manager
From the actions pane, select Move Available Storage and select the next node in the cluster. Confirm that the owner node for the storage has changed to the correct node.
Log onto the next node, and ensure the S: drive is present.
Run the AMS installer again, providing the exact same paths and service account as you did on the primary node.
Repeat this process for all remaining cluster nodes
Once AMS has been installed on all nodes, open the Failover Cluster Manager and go to the Roles node of the cluster
Click Configure rule... from the actions pane
Select Generic service as the role type
Select Lithnet Access Manager Service from the services list
Provide an IP address and name for your client access point. This will be the name of the clustered service, and by default, forms the AD hostname of the cluster.
Select the storage volume that contains the AMS configuration
Click Add on the replicate registry settings screen, and specify the following value SOFTWARE\Lithnet\Access Manager Service\Parameters
Complete the remaining steps of the wizard, and ensure the new role transitions to an 'online' state
Use the Failover Cluster Manager to determine which node currently hosts the AMS service, and log onto that node
Open the AMS configuration utility
From the Web hosting page, select or import the SSL certificate
From the Licensing page, click Enter license key and provide your enterprise license
From the High availability page, select Enable cluster-compatible secret encryption and Enable encryption certificate synchronization (unless you are storing your certificates in a HSM).
Save the configuration at this point. Restart the service when prompted.
Close the AMS configuration utility
Note, the configuration utility requires access to the configuration file, and therefore can only be active on the cluster node that has access to the share storage volume. Always ensure you close the configuration utility before failing over to another node.
Use the Failover Cluster Manager to move the role to the next node
Open the AMS configuration utility
From the Web hosting page, select or import the SSL certificate
Save the configuration and restart the service when prompted
Repeat the certificate selection process on the remaining nodes in the cluster.
At this point, the cluster-specific configure is complete. You can now follow the steps in the installing guide for configuring the AMS features as appropriate for your environment.
