Appendix D. High-availability distributed installation Check List

This appendix provides the list of items and steps that must be followed to install Sentinet in high-availability distributed environments. The list provides separate items for the installation of the Repository Web Application and Sentinet Node(s) application.

Repository Web Application

  1. When you install the first load-balanced instance of the Repository Web Application select Create new database option in the Repository Configuration Wizard application (select Use existing database option if you upgrade existing Sentinet installation to a newer version).

    When you install second (and all other) instances of the load-balanced Repository Web Application select Use existing database option in the Repository Configuration Wizard application, because database was already created with the first instance configuration.

  2. Make sure that load-balanced instances of the Repository Web Applications are installed on the same IIS server ports.

    For example, first load-balanced instance is installed under Default Web Site that is configured to listen on ports HTTP 80 and HTTPS 443. Make sure that the second (and all other) load-balanced instances are also configured under web sites listening on the same ports, HTTP 80 and HTTP 443. Ports do not have to be 80 and 443 but they must be the same on all load-balanced web sites (all 80 and/or all 443).

  3. Make sure that load-balanced instances of the Repository Web Applications are installed on the same IIS server virtual directories.

    For example, first load-balanced instance is installed under Default Web Site, that is configured in the Sentinet IIS application (virtual directory) of the Default Web Site. Make sure that the second (and all other) load-balanced instances are also configured in the same Sentinet IIS application (virtual directory). IIS application does not have to be named Sentinet, but it must be given the same name on all load-balanced web sites.

  4. Make sure that the same Signing X.509 Certificate is used to configure all load-balanced instances of the Repository Web application when using Repository Configuration Wizard application.

    You can instruct the Repository Configuration Wizard application to generate this certificate when configuring the first load-balanced instance. You can export it (with the private key) and import it in the Local Machine Certificates store on all other load-balanced machines on which the Repository Configuration Wizard will use this existing certificate.

  5. If you make any custom changes to the web.config file of the Repository Web Application, make sure that these exact changes are made to all web.config files in all load-balanced instances.

  6. Avoid selecting different configuration options when running Repository Configuration Wizard application on load-balanced machines (except section of the new versus existing Repository database).

Sentinet Node application

  1. Make sure that load-balanced instances of the Sentinet Node applications are installed on the same IIS server ports.

    For example, first load-balanced instance is installed under Default Web Site that is configured to listen on ports HTTP 80 and HTTPS 443. Make sure that the second (and all other) load-balanced instances are also configured under web sites listening on the same ports HTTP 80 and HTTPS 443. Ports do not have to be 80 and 443, but they must be the same on all load-balanced web sites.

  2. Make sure that load-balanced instances of the Sentinet Node applications are installed in the same IIS server virtual directories.

    For example, first load-balanced instance is installed under Default Web Site configured in the SentinetNode IIS application (virtual directory) of the Default Web Site. Make sure that the second (and all other) load-balanced instances are also configured in the same SentinetNode IIS application (virtual directory). IIS application does not have to be named SentinetNode, but it must be given the same name on all load-balanced web sites.

    If you install first Sentinet Node in the root of the IIS server Web Site, make sure all other load-balanced Sentinet Node instances are also installed in the root of their respective IIS server web sites.

  3. Make sure that the same X.509 Certificate is used to configure Sentinet Node with its certificate identity on all load-balanced instances of the Sentinet Node applications when using Node Configuration Wizard application.

    You can instruct the Node Configuration Wizard application to generate this certificate when configuring first load-balanced instance. You can export it (with the private key) and import it in the Local Machine Certificates store on all other load-balanced machines on which Node Configuration Wizard will use this existing certificate.

  4. If you make any custom changes in the web.config file of the Sentinet Node application, make sure that these exact changes are made to all web.config files in all load-balanced instances.

  5. Change default Host entry on the Node Base Addresses page of the Node Configuration Wizard application to be the address of your load-balancer (you can skip this step and make this change later from the Sentinet Administrative Console application).

  6. Avoid selecting different configuration options when running Node Configuration Wizard application on load-balanced machines (except Node Instance Id which should always be different on load-balanced Sentinet Node instances).

Developer Portal Application

Use the same considerations as for the Repository Web Application described above where they are applicable to the Developer Portal Web Application.