Configure App Control for High Availability and Disaster Recovery

Products

• Carbon Black App Control (formerly Cb Protection)

Issue/Introduction

Can App Control be configured for High Availability (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR) or failover scenarios?

Environment

• App Control Server: All Supported Versions
• Microsoft SQL: All Supported Versions

Cause

An official feature for High Availability or Disaster Recovery is not a configurable option within the App Control Console. 

Resolution

In general, Disaster Recovery processes/guidance will vary depending on environment configuration and requirements. The following details are meant as general guidance on what initial options should be considered when planning for High Availability/Disaster Recovery.

1. Verify the Database Backup Best Practices are being followed.
   • All Policies, Custom Rules, Agent information (etcetera) are stored within the database.
   • The App Control Console is mostly a User Interface to view or make those changes.
   • Reinstalling the App Control Server software and using a recent, known-good, database backup is among the fastest ways to "restore operations".
2. Review and (potentially practice) migrating the Server to a new host.
3. If using SQL Server MultiSubnetFailover (or Always-On-Availability Groups), consider configuring App Control Server for use with MultiSubnetFailver.
   • While this would not give the App Control Server or Console a "failover" feature, it would allow for the database to failover with the rest of SQL Server.
4. Verify the Agent Management settings and test authenticating via the command line (dascli/b9cli). When the Console is unavailable, authenticating with the Agent may be required for various tasks, examples:
   • Change Enforcement Level (Locally)
   • Uninstalling the Agent manually
5. Periodically verify/review the various aspects above.

Additional Information

• It is not currently possible to have two App Control Server installs associated with the same App Control database.
• Official guidance/further enhancement is under consideration as part of EPCB-16316.