Spectrum Report Manager (SRM) and Fault Tolerance

Products

• Spectrum
• Network Observability

Issue/Introduction

Spectrum Report Manager (SRM) and Fault Tolerance

Environment

Release: All Supported Releases
Component: SPCRPT - Report Manager

Resolution

Although robust Fault Tolerance exists for the CA Spectrum application today, Fault Tolerance (FT) capabilities have not been extended to the Spectrum Report Manager (SRM) component. Significant architectural limitations within SRM do not today allow for a FT configuration beyond standard database/file replications. These limitations include the single threaded nature of the Spectrum application and the architecture of the Spectrum Archive Manager and it's interactions with multiple asynchronous read/write operations.

Field developed workarounds including but not limited to multiple SRM installations leveraging a common set of SpectroSERVERs can and have resulted in inconsistencies between the primary and secondary SRM installations. These inconsistencies can occur due to the lack of an integrated FT architecture within the SRM components and should not be utilized in a production environment given the lack of synchronization or auditing tools.

To enable FT configuration capabilities within SRM would require substantial product updates that are not currently within the Spectrum product requirements backlog. Auditing and troubleshooting mechanisms would need to be developed to allow Users to be alerted when the databases become out of sync. Synchronization methodologies/utilities (automated or otherwise) would also need to be created to allow for reconciliation of discrepancies within the SRM configuration, and to facilitate troubleshooting processes should a chronic problem arise.

If FT SRM capabilities are a critical component of your Spectrum deployment, please contact the CA Technical Support team or your local Sales/Account Representative to ensure a formal enhancement request associated with your site has been submitted. The Spectrum Product Team will continue to evaluate this feature for potential inclusion in future Spectrum releases but no commitment exists at this time.