pdm_server_control -t returns "APPLICATION" on a Standby Server.

Products

• CA Service Desk Manager
• CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

In a CA Service Desk Manager Advanced Availability (AA) environment, the CA SDM server types of the different servers should consist of only a single background (BG) server, at least on3 (1) standby (SB) server, and usually two (2) or more application (APP) servers.

The "pdm_server_control -t" command can be run on each server to check the server type of that server.

In an Advanced Availability environment, pdm_server_control -t returns "APPLICATION" on a Standby Server.  Due to this, it is not possible to use "pdm_server_control -b" to perform a failover such that this Standby server becomes the Background server.

Environment

CA Service Desk Manager 17.x

Advanced Availability (AA) architecture

Resolution

Check the value of "NX_SERVER_TYPE" in the NX.env file.

For both Standby and Background server, the value of NX_SERVER_TYPE should be 1.

For Application servers, the value of NX_SERVER_TYPE should be 2.

If the wrong values are in the NX.env file of the Standby Server:

1. Make a backup copy of the NX.env file that exists in NX_ROOT (the base Service Desk Manager installation directory)

2. Run "pdm_configure"

3. On the "General Settings" page, ensure that "Configuration Type" is displayed as "Standby Server". On "Config Options" page, select the appropriate dropdown value for the "configuration of this server" (if there is only one configuration available, the value is "Default"). 

4. Check the new NX.env file for the correct value of the NX_SERVER_TYPE.  It should now be 1.

5. Compare the backup NX.env file to the newly created NX.env file and add back in any missing statements.  Re-start the CA Service Desk Manager service on the servers.

Additional Information

The pdm_configure tool reads the Options table from the database and synchronizes the NX.env file with the Options Manager.  However, any options in NX.env that are not Options-Manager-maintained could be lost.  Therefore, taking a backup of the NX.env file before running pdm_configure is recommended as you may want to manually add back in the non-Options-Manager-maintained options that had been present before running pdm_configure.