Introduction:
In today's data-driven world, uninterrupted availability of your database infrastructure is paramount. Any downtime or disruption can have severe consequences for businesses. That's where DataStax Enterprise (DSE) OpsCenter Failover comes to the rescue. In this blog, we will explore the concept of DSE OpsCenter Failover and how it ensures continuous availability for your database clusters, even in the face of failures or disruptions Meet DSE OpsCenter :
DSE OpsCenter is a visual management and monitoring solution for DataStax Enterprise (DSE). It provides a centralized console for managing all aspects of a DSE cluster, including
Provisioning: OpsCenter can be used to provision new DSE clusters, as well as to add or remove nodes from existing clusters.
Monitoring: OpsCenter provides a comprehensive set of monitoring tools for tracking the performance and health of a DSE cluster. This includes metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage, network traffic, and disk I/O.
Administration: OpsCenter can be used to perform a variety of administrative tasks on a DSE cluster, such as rolling upgrades, node repairs, and backup and restore.
Security: OpsCenter provides a number of security features for protecting DSE clusters, such as LDAP integration, role-based access control, and encryption.
Alerts: OpsCenter can be configured to send alerts when certain events occur, such as a node failure or a performance issue.
However, like any software, it is susceptible to failure. That's why it's important to configure DSE OpsCenter with failover enabled.
With failover enabled, if the primary OpsCenter instance fails, a backup instance will automatically take over. This ensures that you can continue to manage and monitor your DSE clusters even if the primary OpsCenter instance is unavailable.
The screenshot for OpsCenter configured with DSE clusters is shown below.
What is OpsCenter failover?
OpsCenter failover is the process of switching from your primary OpsCenter server to secondary OpsCenter server in the event of a failure. This process can be manual or automatic.
Automatic failover ensures continuous high availability of OpsCenter for managing mission-critical data on DataStax Enterprise (DSE) clusters without the need for manual intervention or downtime. Automatic failover overview | OpsCenter 6.8 (datastax.com)
Manual failover:
In a manual failover, you will need to manually switch from your primary OpsCenter server to your secondary OpsCenter server. This can be done by following the instructions in your failover plan.
Automatic failover:
In an automatic failover, your OpsCenter servers will be configured to automatically switch over to the secondary server in the event of a failure. This is the most common type of failover, as it ensures that your systems will continue to operate without any intervention from you.
Why is DSE OpsCenter failover important?
DSE OpsCenter failover is important because it ensures that OpsCenter will remain available even if the primary instance fails. This is critical for mission-critical applications that rely on OpsCenter for management and monitoring.
Detecting Failure for primary OpsCenter unreachable:
The configured backup OpsCenter instance listens for heartbeat messages from the primary OpsCenter instance to determine whether the primary OpsCenter instance is up. If the backup OpsCenter instance detects no heartbeat from the primary OpsCenter instance during the configured window (60 seconds by default), the backup OpsCenter instance initiates the failover process and automatically assumes the responsibilities of the primary OpsCenter instance.
How does DSE OpsCenter failover work?
DSE OpsCenter failover is based on an active-passive configuration. The primary OpsCenter instance is active, and the backup instance is passive. The passive instance is a mirror of the active instance, and it is kept up to date with all of the same data.
If the primary OpsCenter instance fails, the backup instance will automatically be promoted to the active role. The promotion process is seamless, and there is no downtime for your DSE clusters.
How to configure DSE OpsCenter failover
To configure DSE OpsCenter failover, you need to do the following:
Make sure that both the primary and backup OpsCenter instances are running the same version of OpsCenter.
On the primary OpsCenter instance, open the opscenterd.conf file.
following line copy and paste into the opscenterd.conf file
[failover]
heartbeat_period = 20
heartbeat_reply_period = 360
heartbeat_fail_window = 120
failover_configuration_directory = /opt/opscenter-6.8.26/failover/
override_primary_redirect_url = http://<BACKUP EDGE NODE PUBLIC IP>:8888
Save the opscenterd.conf file.
3. Set the primary_opscenter_location setting to the IP address or hostname of the backup OpsCenter instance.
copy and paste the below line in the primary_opscenter_location file:
<MAIN EDGE NODE IP> (144.57.73.12)
4. Restart the opscenterd service on the primary OpsCenter instance. Once you have configured failover, you can test it by manually shutting down the primary instance. The backup instance should automatically be promoted to the active role.
Primary OpsCenter
Secondary OpsCenter
Benefits of DSE OpsCenter failover
There are several benefits to configuring DSE OpsCenter failover, including:
Continuous high availability: If the primary OpsCenter instance fails, the backup instance will automatically take over without any manual intervention or downtime. This ensures that you can continue to manage your DSE clusters even if there is a problem with the primary instance.
Simplified management: Failover can be managed automatically by OpsCenter, so you don't have to worry about manually configuring or monitoring it. This can save you time and effort
Reduced downtime: If the primary OpsCenter instance fails, the backup instance will automatically take over without any interruption to your DSE clusters. This can help to reduce downtime and keep your applications running smoothly.
Reduced administrative overhead.
For Additional Read: https://docs.datastax.com/en/opscenter/docs/6.8/managing/configuring/enable-failover.html
Author - Ilayaraja Maruthamuthu