same Content Manager database for two difference instances of Cognos BI Server

[Daljith]

Hi Cognoiser,

I configured two different instances of Cognos BI Server but both using the same content manager. Currently, I see that both the servers are up and running fine without any issue.  The reason to have two servers is if by chance for maintenance, one BI server is down, second server can be used. hence, we want to keep both the servers up all the time.

From past one week, both the servers are working fine with same content manager.

Just need to confirm if this is a right strategy to point same content manager to two different instances. I mean can it create any problem for content manager or can it corrupt the content manager or if there is any other issue, I can have due to this setting. Please suggest.

Please suggest.

Ana

[MFGF]

Hi Cognoiser,

I configured two different instances of Cognos BI Server but both using the same content manager. Currently, I see that both the servers are up and running fine without any issue.  The reason to have two servers is if by chance for maintenance, one BI server is down, second server can be used. hence, we want to keep both the servers up all the time.

From past one week, both the servers are working fine with same content manager.

Just need to confirm if this is a right strategy to point same content manager to two different instances. I mean can it create any problem for content manager or can it corrupt the content manager or if there is any other issue, I can have due to this setting. Please suggest.

Please suggest.

Ana

Hi,

You don't have two different instances of Cognos - you have a single instance with processing split between two physical servers. The servers know about each other and will load balance between each other. They will also fail over too.

Cheers!

MF.

[Daljith]

Hi MF,

Thanks for quick response.

First server is  ServerA   (I do not see anywhere in configuration referring to 2nd server name)
Similarly, ServerB ( I do not see anywhere in configuration referring to Server1 in configuration)

But the common thing I find is content manager database details is same on both server's configuration.

Even, in this case also, we'll call it split processing.
Please suggest.

Ana

[SomeClown]

This is not a recommended solution - you're running two content manager services against the same database instance.  At best, they won't interfere (you don't get real failover in this config); at worst, you'll corrupt the content store and lose objects.

You either need read the documentation a lot more thoroughly or hire a consultant to help you with a failover configuration (a 100% failover typically requires 4-6 servers).   This isn't achieving what you think it is.

[Daljith]

I agree. Its not designed for fail-over. This setup was done by someone else. And the person has left the organisation. We cannot get other resource.  So whatever setup is available, I am trying to understand that.

But for me using current setup, I guess I need to keep only one server up at a time to avoid any issue of content manager crash.

Regards
Ana

[SomeClown]

I see.

You may want to look at how the content manager services are registered in the configuration: if you have two entries (server 1 and server 2), then the system is set up to split processing load.  In this case, one content manager service will be running in standby mode (whichever starts up last), and both dispatchers are processing work (load-balanced by Cognos).  You can probably leave the config alone: it's not ideal but it's not broken.

If you have only have one content manager listed on each server (server 1 points to server1; server 2 points to server 2), then you have the situation I described in the first note.

Are both servers also the gateway?  Did they put the servers behind a load-balancer?

If you have the situation I first described, you can probably use the second server if you shut off the content manager service in configuration, point server 2 to the content service on server 1 and have them share a single gateway (assuming they aren't sitting behind a hardware load balancer).  Alternatively, you can add the other server in the Content Manager server list and then the configuration would be sharing the load appropriately.

Is this in support of a 24x7 operation?  Trying to understand why server maintenance would warrant a configuration like this.

[Daljith]

Thanks Someclown.

Yes, Content Manager is registered on both the servers and I have two entries on each server.
Having them share single gateway makes sense to me. But we have netscaler as load balancer. Does it stop me from doing so?
Please suggest.

Yes, we have 24x7.

Ana

[SomeClown]

If you mean single gateway in that the Cognos configuration points to the load balancer, that's how it would be set up - I would guess netscaler points to both gateways on its configuration (netscaler routes to the gateway on each Cognos server)