Multi instance

Several Redpeaks instances can work together to distribute monitoring workload.

The instance with central server role will manage the configuration and distribute tasks to the ones with agent role.

A central server can also act as an agent.

A standalone Redpeaks instance will therefore be a central server and an agent.

Communication between Server and agents is Unidirectionnal: Only agents will initiate connection to the Server.

The Server doesn't require any inbound connection to the agent's network.

The server can therefore be publicly accessible while the agents can be in protected area: No need for SSL tunnel, VPN or complex network settings to deploy a mutli-instance implementation and centrally manage the monitoring of multiple isolated environments.

This architecture can also be used to add more robustness, by having several monitoring agents and be resilient in case one goes down.

Role settings

In the Role section, you can configure:

Central server role : If active, the instance will centrally manage monitoring configuration

Agent: If active, the instance will execute monitoring tasks (connect to systems, detect problems, generate metrics and alerts)

Central server URL: The server to bind to.

Download and install a certificate

Simply click on “Download and install a self-signed certificate” button and Redpeaks will perform all necessary operation to have the job done !

Be aware of the following :

Default certificate will not work in Multi-instance mode, agents will refuse the connection because the certificate is not bound to server IP address

In this case, you must generate a self signed certificate and bind it to the local IP

Generated certificates will be stored in the keystore

Redpeaks keystore is located in the certificates/.keystore file of Redpeaks install folder

ATTENTION : Any change in security settings will be effective only after restarting Redpeaks

Standalone server role

This is the default mode, no specific configuration is required.

Central server and agent roles are both enabled. In this mode, Redpeaks is an agent and a server at the same time.

The server will manage the configuration, user interface and execute monitoring tasks.

Every Redpeaks instance with an enabled agent has a local agent used to execute monitoring tasks.

The agent will appear automatically in the list of accepted agents and cannot be deleted.

NOTE: In standalone mode, it is not necessary to assign groups to the local agent. But if you do so, unassigned groups won't be monitored.

Central server role

In this mode, Redpeaks will manage the configuration of the monitoring and distribute tasks to one or several remote agents.

It will be used as monitoring portal for the users and also hold the database, and connect to the plugins.

Central server role must be active in the Multi-instance tab

Central server URL, including scheme and port number must be registered in the Central server URL field of each agent

Each agent bound to the server must be accepted once by the admin

Associations between groups and agents must be done via the Agents groups tab.

One group can be managed by several agents, in that case, group workload will be distributed across each compatible agent.

Some system settings from central server will be propagated automatically to each agent:

Number of parallel tasks

Monitoring process timeout

Log level and duration

Most others like Monitoring process memory will still be local settings

If the Agent role is enabled, the local agent will be used as any remote agents.

NOTE: You can visualize agent activities in the Monitor statistics menu (Must activate monitors results retention in System tab)

Agent role

In Multi-instance tab, activate Agent mode and deactivate Central server role

Define the agent name to use

Set the primary server URL

Save the settings. The agent will connect to the primary server and will be handled from there.

Some local settings will still remain available, such as System->monitoring processes memory or log retention

Connecting to central server in HTTPS:

Server must use an certificate generated for its actual IP (will not work will the default certificate)

Download server certificate using your browser and add it in the Redpeaks keystore of the agent (see HTTPS config for more details)

NOTE:

If the instance was previously used as a server, its configuration will be hidden until switched back to its server role.

The Agent doesn't require any licence

Failover

Failover allows to implement high availability for a Redpeaks collector

Warning:

The failover feature cannot be used when a collector is associated with a Redpeaks cockpit

To implement high availability, one Redpeaks instance must be set as PRIMARY and another one as SECONDARY

Url of the PRIMARY must be registered in the SECONDARY

Instance UUID of the SECONDARY must be set in the PRIMARY

PRIMARY must be set to ACTIVE mode

SECONDARY must be set to STANDBY mode

Once set the following will happen:

The SECONDARY will regularly poll the PRIMARY and refresh its configuration if anything changed on the PRIMARY.

The SECONDARY will switch to ACTIVE mode to replace the PRIMARY in two cases:

If the SECONDARY cannot reach the PRIMARY after a timeout.

If the PRIMARY indicates an inconsistent state to the SECONDARY

To revert from a failover:

If the PRIMARY becomes online again, the SECONDARY will not switch to STANDBY automatically

You have to manually set the SECONDARY to STANDBY. DO NOT SWITCH PRIMARY TO ACTIVE I must become active automatically

If SECONDARY is in STANDBY mode, the PRIMARY will automatically switch to ACTIVE

By default, the failover mode is set to OFF, use this mode to deactivate the failover mechanism.