Using multiple servers (DSA)
Some important elements of multiple server installations.
- Depending on the platform where you plan to install the additional server, you can follow the procedures described in Installing Additional Windows Servers (DSA) or Installing Additional Linux Servers (DSA).
- Servers communicate on a regular schedule to replicate their data. To review the current status and adjust the replication interval, see Managing Replication (DSA) on Windows systems or Managing Replication (DSA) on Linux systems.
- When each server is ready to replicate from the other servers in the deployment, it calculates the shortest path to every other server in the deployment. Primary links are assigned a length of 1, secondary links 100, and tertiary links 10,000. Links that resulted in a connection failure the last time they were used are considered to be non-connected.
- When an outage or other problem causes a network split, it is possible for a custom Fixlet or a retrieved property to be modified independently on both sides of the split. When the network is reconnected, precedence goes to the version on the server with the lowest Server ID.
- If multiple copies of Web Reports are installed, they operate independently. Each Web Report server can connect to the server that is most convenient, because they all contain equivalent views of the database.
- By default, server 0 (zero) is the master server. The BigFix Administration Tool on Windows and the BESAdmin command on Linux only allow you to perform certain administrative tasks (such as creating and deleting users) when connected to the master server.