Configuring Netmaster 12.2 Web Portal for redundancy

Products

• NetMaster Network Management for TCP/IP

Issue/Introduction

Can the Web Portal be set up to be redundant, meaning can one NMAPI connect to multiple Web Portal regions for the purpose of failover?  Either connecting to both simultaneously, or switching to a different one if one system goes down?

 

Environment

Release : 12.2

Resolution

Configuring the Web Portal for redundancy 
1. Each LPAR requires a Netmaster region, SOLVESSI and NM API Service task.
2. The NMAPI task connects to Netmaster and the SSI via activation of the NMAPI Parameter group (setting the value to YES).
3. The NMAPI is a server, so does nothing further on its own. It waits for an incoming connection and data request (in this case from the Web Portal), at which time it passes requests to Netmaster, and responses back to the Web Portal.
4. The Web Portal task is also a server. It contains a unique database where data and any customized connection home panels and summary tabs are stored. It has a YAML file that determines which NMAPI Service task(s) to connect to.
5. Once connected, it waits for requests from the front-end web client.
6. When a request comes in, it is passed to the NMAPI Service, and responses from the NMAPI are passed back through the Web Portal to the web client.

When looking at redundancy of the Web Portal itself, the choices are whether you want
a) two tasks that are both active at the same time on separate LPARs, or
b) a failover task that initializes on a backup system when the initial system running the Web Portal goes down.

The main consideration here  is that option A requires two unique Web Portal tasks, each with a separate database and configuration file on their respective systems. That means any customization on LPAR1 (connection panels and connection summary tabs and related data) will not be available on LPAR2, unless the definitions are duplicated manually - there is no way to synchronize the data across Web Portal instances.
With option B, the accessible information and customization will be identical on both LPARs, as the database and configuration can be shared. This set-up requires that both LPAR1 and LPAR2 have access to all the same runtime files on both MVS and USS.

All of the above requires that all involved NMAPI Service and Web Portal tasks share the same certificates.