Cisco Redundancy Models for Cisco TMS
Cisco TMS redundancy configuration and overview
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The secondary SQL server is not always a current version of the database, as updates are
‘batched’ job transferred to the secondary server. Shipping intervals are defined in the SQL
Server
The bandwidth and processing required to ship updates to the back-up server limits how
frequently you can update the back-up server
The secondary Cisco TMS server must be kept offline and disabled until the off-site is brought
online to be the primary site.
Fail-over to the secondary site requires changing the address users and devices use to reach
Cisco TMS. For users, a DNS name could be updated, but may take time to propagate. Managed
Device management settings can be updated in bulk from Cisco TMS’s Administrative Tools.
Cutting back to the primary site can be complicated as the database must be re-synchronized
from what has been changed in the secondary SQL server
Recovery Methods
Primary Site Failure.
The primary server must completely disabled before the secondary Cisco TMS server can be
activated. The primary site’s SQL server should be disabled to ensure it does not start up
unexpectedly. The secondary Cisco TMS server must be started by activating all services whose
name starts with Cisco TMS and the WWWPublishingService service. Log into the website of the
secondary Cisco TMS server and update the Cisco TMS Server IPv4 Addresses (and IPv6 if in
use) under Administrative Tools>Configuration>Network to the IP address of the secondary
Cisco TMS server. The DNS hostname used to point to Cisco TMS should be updated to match
the IP address of the secondary Cisco TMS server. The management addresses of all managed
devices must be updated to match these new settings. The Enforce Now button on the Network
page under Administrative Tools>Configuration can automate this process for managed
devices. Please refer to the Cisco TMS Product Support document available on the Cisco TMS
Installation Media for information on what settings must be configured per device type. Any
external integrations must have their Cisco TMS address updated to point to the secondary Cisco
TMS Server’s address as well if the DNS hostname was changed or if they used an IP address
instead of hostname. After these changes, all activity will be directed to the secondary site.
Recovery to the primary site is done in the same fashion except in addition the primary site’s SQL
server must be updated from the secondary SQL Server. Please see Microsoft’s documentation
on Log Shipping for details on how to recovery the primary SQL server before activating the
primary site’s Cisco TMS server.
Note: If you use daily configuration restore, you should create new backups of systems after
updating the management settings of systems to prevent the restore from setting the old values back
onto the systems. If you use any persistent templates that include management settings, these too
should be updated to the new Cisco TMS server address.
Installation
Configuring Microsoft SQL Log Shipping is outside the scope of this document. Please refer to
Microsoft’s documentation for additional details
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/deploy/hasog02.mspx
The database Cisco TMS will create and use is named tmsng. This is the database that must be
replicated to the secondary SQL server.
Cisco TMS and the SQL Server in the primary site should be installed and configured per the model
you have chosen. Once Cisco TMS is configured, Log Shipping to the secondary SQL Server site can
be configured per Microsoft’s directions. Once the secondary SQL Server is configured and has the
tmsng database being published from the primary SQL server, you can install Cisco TMS in the
secondary site. Simply install Cisco TMS according to the deployment model you are using and point
the installation to the secondary site’s SQL Server. Each Cisco TMS install must be consistent with the
other servers, so you must use the same local file paths on each server installation (Example: Cisco
TMS installation path and Software Directory).
