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For the purpose of these examples we'll name one server tenor.webmaster.com and the second one soprano.webmaster.com
First let's cover to terms that we use to discuss linking servers. The first is called a hub and the second is called a leaf. When running a larger network with more than 2 servers you may want to make sure how the servers are connected together. In other words you might want to have the server that has services in the middle with the other two servers connecting to it. The server in the center is a hub and just like a bicycle tire the spokes or in our case 'leafs' connect to the hub. Hubs don't make automatic connections with the exception of other hubs. If all servers are defined as hubs then server 2 will try and connect to server 1 or 3 and once the server has made the connection it will attempt no further connections. Hubs will not try to connect to leaf servers. Leaves on the other hand will only connect to one server at a time and will only make outbound connections to a hub. Once the leaf has made a connection to a hub it's happy and it will attempt nothing further. In this way you can control which servers connect to which and it allows you to create order from what would otherwise be chaos.
Hubs will only connect to other hubs and once connected to another hub it will attempt no further connections though it will allow other hubs to make connections to it.
Leaves will only connect to a hub and once connect will accept no other links to it, nor will it attempt any further connections.
/as general set hub
On tenor.* I will do the opposite and I will type :
/as general set leaf
Now that we have determined who will be the hub and leaf servers, we need to determine which server will keep on running services. Since the soprano server is Enterprise it means services has more features so we will disable services on the tenor.* server.
On the tenor server type the following
/as services disable
/squit services no longer need these services.
Now we need to configure each server so that the other can connect.
On the soprano server type the following commands:
/as server tenor add
/as server tenor set name tenor.*
/as server tenor set serial 101-0001-001
/as server tenor enable
It should be noted that I could have left the server name as * or *.webmaster.com or tenor.* - unlike previous versions of CR the name of the remote server isn't important to the linking process and is only there if you wish to mandate a specific name or mask.
On the tenor server I will now type the following commands:
/as server soprano add
/as server soprano set name soprano.webmaster.com
/as server soprano set host 209.133.1.1
/as server soprano set port 7000
/as server soprano set ping 300
/as server soprano set serial 102-0000-001
/as server soprano set auto on
/as server soprano enable
The reason that we set an IP address and port on the leaf is so that it can make an outbound connection to tenor. The port has to be any port that soprano has open.
The server tenor should now attempt a connection to soprano but you can force the issue and issue a connect command as follows:
From the tenor.* server type this:
/connect soprano.* 7000
Note that you will need to have an IP and port set for tenor if you wish to make connections from soprano.
Configuring security is easy and just requires that you make sure that the SSL ports for ConferenceRoom are configured. The following command should be entered on both servers:
/as general ssl enable
This will make port 994 the SSL port on the server. Now you can configure your servers to use SSL by issuing the following commands:
/as server soprano set secure on
/as server soprano set secureonly on
/as server soprano set port 994
On sorpano you will want to set:
/as server soprano set secure on
/as server soprano set secureonly on
This will make sure that only SSL connections are made and that you wish to connect via SSL. You need to be a server administrator to enter the configuration of both respective servers, however you simply need to be a server operator to be able to reconnect servers together.
Note: Pay attention to server side messages as they are a good indication as to why 2 servers could not link together.
Linking Multiple Servers Together
Linking 5 or fewer servers
When there are 5 or fewer servers to be linked together, the networking is very simple. Each server defines every other server in its Downstream configuration.
To link a server, you must define it on your console's 'servers' tab, then the administrator of the 'other' server must define you in a similar fashion on his console. To define your end of the connection, perform the following:
If your network is of greater size, it will benefit you to define your network as an organized hierarchy. As previously discussed there are two basic roles servers can play: hubs and leaves.
Hub - A hub is a server which connects to more than one other server and therefore performs routing functions.
Leaf - A leaf is an end node server. It connects to only one other server, which is always considered 'upstream' to it.
The first step in setting up this networking is to delineate which of the servers will be hubs and which can be leaves. This decision may be affected by geographic or organizational considerations.
To illustrate a geographic approach to building a network, consider the case of a network of 8 servers in which 4 of them are located in San Diego, and while the remaining 4 are in New York.
A logical approach to creating this network is to designate 2 hubs (one in each city) and have all the servers in each city connect to it's city's hub. The final step in completing the network is to link the two hubs together.
The server names assigned for our test network were as follows:
hub1.sd.com hub1.ny.com
leaf1.sd.com leaf1.ny.com
leaf2.sd.com leaf2.ny.com
leaf3.sd.com leaf3.ny.com
Upstream - Downstream
hub1.sd.com (auto-connect) -
Definitions for hub1.sd.com - Definitions for Leaves in San Diego
Upstream - Downstream
leaf2.sd.com
Upstream - Downstream
Definitions for hub1.ny.com - Definitions for Leaves in New York
Upstream - Downstream
Remember that WebMaster is here to help and if you have any issues following the above you can contact training@webmaster.com for classes, email support@webmaster.com or just drop into our live support area on http://live.conferenceroom.com/
leaf1.sd.com
leaf3.sd.com
hub1.ny.com (auto-connect) -
leaf1.ny.com
leaf2.ny.com
leaf3.ny.com