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Creating a Siebel Reports Server Cluster


NOTE:  When using clustering, only one Encyclopedia volume can be used for each Actuate iServer cluster. The clustered environment uses one encyclopedia volume (by default it is the volume owned by the cluster master). All nodes in the cluster point to that volume.

New as of Siebel 7.7 is the ability to cluster the Siebel Reports Server. You can take advantage of Actuate clustering and fail over support to achieve higher levels of report generation performance and high availability. The Reports Server can run in a standalone configuration or be configured to run in a cluster with no single point of failure. Requests are automatically routed to the appropriate machine based on the load and availability to services on each machine.

The Siebel Reports Server is clustered using Actuate's native clustering capability that does not require any additional clustering hardware or software.

Before installing the cluster environment, determine where the actual Encyclopedia files will reside. Nodes with the Encyclopedia, View, or Factory services enabled require direct file access to the Encyclopedia volume data.

For more information about these configurations, read the following sections (and subsections) in the Administering Actuate iServer System manual in the Actuate folder on the Siebel Third-Party Bookshelf CD-ROM.

  • "Understanding Encyclopedia volume configuration"
  • "Understanding the effects of disk I/O speed"

Following is general information for creating a Siebel Reports Server cluster. It is strongly recommended that you review Chapter 4, "Performing Actuate iServer System cluster administration tasks" in the Administering Actuate iServer System manual in the Actuate folder on the Siebel Third-Party Bookshelf.

To create the Siebel Reports Server cluster

  1. Using the Siebel Reports Server Installer, install as a standalone the Actuate iServer and Management Console for Siebel component on each machine that you are planning to cluster.

    NOTE:  Set the Actuate iServer to start manually and not automatically on PMD start.

    When installing the Actuate components, select the default port numbers. You can choose other port numbers, but make sure to note down those port numbers.

    Determine which node will act as cluster master, which one as backup cluster master, and which node will serve as Volume owner and backup owner.

  2. Note the path to your Encyclopedia volume data.

    All cluster nodes require read/write access to this directory.

    Use the following steps for adding all nodes to a cluster.

  3. From the Actuate Management Console for each of the iServers that will join the cluster as nodes, log in to System Administration.
  4. Select Servers from the left-side panel.
  5. Select the General tab, and make a note of the following parameter values for each iServer:
    • Hostname or daemon IP address: = the node's host name (for example, qareport1)
    • Daemon listen port: = the value for port (for example, 8100)
    • Server IP address: = the host name or IP address (for example, qareport1 or 172.20.72.93)
    • Server port: = the port number (for example, 9010)
    • Server port base: enter port number (for example, 9050)
    • Server port count: 500
    • RPC listen base: 0
    • RPC listen count: 1
  6. For the nodes that have been determined to be the cluster master and the backup cluster master and for additional nodes that will run the MDS, select the Message Distribution Service (MDS) tab and make a note of the following parameter values:
    • Message distribution IP address = the host name or IP address (for example, qareport1 or 172.20.72.93)
    • Message distribution Port = the node's port number (for example, 8000)
    • Max. Concurrent SOAP Requests = 1000

      You must take all nodes, except for the cluster master, offline before adding them to a cluster system.

  7. Select System from the left-side panel and click Stop to take the node offline.

    NOTE:  Nodes must be offline before they can join a cluster.

    The following steps will create the actual cluster.

  8. Using Management Console, log in to the System Administration page of the iServer machine that will be the cluster master.
  9. Add the master machine to the cluster first by clicking System > Create Cluster and click OK.

    By default the master node has MDS, View Service, and Factory Service enabled on it. By default the cluster master is the owner of the Volume.

    For more information, see the "Creating a cluster from stand-alone Actuate iServer" section in the Administering Actuate iServer System manual in the Actuate folder of the Siebel Third-Party Bookshelf.

  10. Select Servers from the left-side panel.
  11. Select the Partitions tab and enter a value for the partition path. This partition path was noted in Step 2 on page 88.

    This is the valid Encyclopedia directory path that will be accessible to the cluster master and all nodes. You must specify the same partition for the cluster master and for nodes that you add to the cluster.

    Make sure that all machines have read/write access to the Encyclopedia for the account that is used to install/run the Actuate processes on each node.

    Click Test to verify that the server can access the directory specified.

  12. Click Apply.

    The following steps will add nodes to the cluster.

    Each node is added individually to the cluster. The nodes are added from the cluster master's System Administration screen.

  13. Select Servers from the left-side panel.
  14. Click Add Server.
  15. On the General tab, add the information from Step 5 on page 88:
    • Hostname or daemon IP address: = enter the node's host name (for example, Node1)
    • Daemon listen port: = enter the value for port
    • Server IP address: = enter the node's host name or IP address
  16. Click the check boxes to enable Message distribution service, View service and for Factory service as needed.

    NOTE:  MDS must be enabled on the node designated as the cluster master backup.

  17. If you have enabled the Message distribution service in Step 16 on page 89, then select the Message Distribution Service tab and add the information from Step 6 on page 88:
    • Message distribution IP address = enter the node's machine name (for example, 172.20.72.93). The default is usually the machine name.
    • Message distribution Port = Enter the node port number (for example, 8000)
  18. Select the Partitions tab and enter a value for the partition path. This partition path was noted in Step 2 on page 88.

    Click Test to verify that the server can access the directory specified.

  19. Click Apply.

    For each node to be added to the cluster, repeat Step 13 on page 89 through this step.

    The steps below set up the cluster master backup.

  20. Select System from the left-side panel and click Properties.

    NOTE:  For the node designated as the cluster master backup, make sure that the MDS is enabled.

  21. Select the Backup Master Assignment tab. From the Available Servers list, highlight the server you designated as the cluster master backup and move to the Assigned backup master servers list.
  22. Click Apply.

    The steps below will set up the backup volume server.

  23. Select System Volumes from the left-side panel.
  24. Click the volume and select Properties.
  25. Select the Server Assignments tab.
  26. From the list of Available servers, highlight the server or servers that you have designated as the backup owner of the volume and move to Assigned backup servers.
  27. Click OK.

Setting the Configuration Home Parameter

After the cluster is created, you will complete the following tasks to set the configuration home parameter.

To set the Configuration home parameter

  1. From the Management Console of the Reports Server acting as the cluster master, log in to System Administration.
  2. Select System from the left panel and click Properties.
  3. Select the General tab and go to the Configuration home section.
  4. Select the partition from the drop-down menu, for example DefaultPartition.
  5. Click OK.

For more information, see the "Specifying the location of the configuration file" section, and the "About the Actuate iServer cluster configuration file" subsection in the Administering Actuate iServer System manual in the Actuate folder of the Siebel Third-Party Bookshelf.

You must bring the nodes in the cluster online. For more information on how to start a node, see the "Starting and stopping Actuate iServer nodes" subsection in the Administering Actuate iServer System manual in the Actuate folder of the Siebel Third-Party Bookshelf.

Configuring the Siebel Servers to Interact with the Siebel Reports Server Cluster Environment

After creating the cluster, you will configure the Siebel Server to interact with the Siebel Reports Server in its cluster environment.

To configure the Siebel Servers to interact with the Siebel Reports Server cluster environment

  1. Create the rptinfo.ini file.

    In the Siebel Server's BIN directory, create an rptinfo.ini file and specify the desired MDS refresh interval in seconds. For example:

    RefreshInterval=60

  2. Enable the Actuate Parameters from the Siebel application:
    1. From the application-level menu, select Navigate > Sitemap > Administration - Server Configuration > Servers.
    2. Choose the required component from the Components tab in the second list applet.
    3. For the Actuate Server Report Host parameter, specify the cluster master and the cluster master backup servers.

      The cluster master node should be listed first followed by the cluster master backup nodes, using commas to separate each node (server1:port_number/volume_name, server2:port_number/volume_name).

      For example:

    Actuate Server Report Server Host =
    bpt4000i007:8000/bpt4000i007,bptx330i019:8000/bpt4000i007

    1. Restart the server for these changes to take effect.

The other parameters are the same as for a regular Reports Server configuration.

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