Setting up a Multiple Database Provisioning Environment - Documentation for Truesight Server Automation 23.4

In a large, distributed provisioning environment, you might find it efficient to use multiple Application Servers, where each Application Server connects to a different database.

The topics in this section provide instructions for setting up a multiple database provisioning environment.

The following figure shows an example implementation of a multiple database provisioning environment:

Sample multidatabase implementation

To set up a multidatabase provisioning environment, you specify information about the default database and one or more nondefault databases.

When you installed the PXE server, you provided information about one of the databases that you are using. The database that you specified during the PXE server installation process is the default database.

For example, (see Sample Database Implementation) assume that when you installed the PXE server, you specified Database1. Therefore Database1 is the default database. Database2 and Database3 are nondefault databases.

Before you begin

• If you are upgrading from a single-database environment to a multidatabase environment, remove DHCP options 211 and 212 from your DHCP configuration. See Configuring a DHCP server on Windows and Configuring a DHCP server on Linux.
• You must know the IP address and port number for the default database and each nondefault database.
• This procedure assumes that you have installed and configured the PXE and TFTP servers and now want to reconfigure the PXE server for a multiple database provisioning environment.

To configure the PXE server for a provisioning environment that includes multiple Application Servers, each connected to a different database

1. Start the PXE/TFTP Server Configuration tool. See Configuring the PXE and TFTP servers.
2. On the PXE Options tab, select Use pxe.conf file.
3. On the PXE MAS Optionstab, perform the following steps:
   1. Check Set Multi Database Mode Enabled.
   2. (optional) Modify the device cache options.
      • Device Cache Refresh Interval: (optional) Specifies how often the PXE server updates the device cache. Specify an interval in seconds. The default is 300.
        For performance reasons, the PXE server maintains a cache of imported devices and their associated databases. The PXE server creates this cache during initialization, then updates it periodically, as specified by the Device Cache Refresh Interval.
      • Minimum Time for Cache Refresh: (optional) The minimum time that the PXE server must wait between cache refreshes. Specify a time in seconds. The default is 60.
        If a device goes online and the PXE server does not find its MAC address in the cache, the PXE server performs a refresh to try to find it. This parameter prevents the thrashing that might occur if a large number of devices go online simultaneously.
   3. Leave the Single Database Mode DB Name field empty.
   4. To disable automatic discovery of devices, check Device Auto Discovery Disabled.
      Autodiscovery is the process by which an unknown device, when it boots from the PXE server, automatically becomes known to the TrueSight Server Automation system. Disabling autodiscovery allows the PXE server to address only devices that are known.
4. On the PXE MAS Data Sourcestab, perform the following:
   1. Select the default database and click Edit
      .
   2. In the Edit PXE MAS Data Source dialog box, type the IP address and port of the default database and click OK.
   3. For each nondefault database that you want to include in provisioning environment, click Add
      .
   4. Select SQL Server or Oracle.

   5. Provide the information listed in the following table:

      
      PXE database configuration information for multiple databases

      Field	Description
      Database Source Name	Name of the SQL server database or the SID of the Oracle database.
      Database Server	Name or IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) of the server running the database
      Database Port	Port that the database listens on. By default, the TrueSight Server Automation installation uses the following database ports: Oracle: 1521 SQL Server: 1433
      User ID	User name that the database needs to authenticate your connection.
      Password	Password assigned to the User ID
      Application Server IP	IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) of the Application Server associated with the database
      Application Server Port	Port of the Application Server associated with the database
      Advanced	Select this option if you are providing a custom connection string. Then type the string in the text box. In the case of an Oracle database, the string has the following format: jdbc:oracle:thin:@<descriptor>. For sample Oracle RAC connection strings, see Configuring an Oracle RAC database server.

5. On the Diagnostics tab, click Run to check the configuration. The Diagnostics Log displays test results and status messages.
   Test results show the status of the servers, as well as configuration problems and suggested solutions.
   The diagnostics tests also generate a log file: <installDirectory>/PXE/br/PxeDiag.log
6. When you have finished configuration changes, click OK.
7. To have configuration changes take effect, stop and restart the PXE server.
8. After the TrueSight Server Automation Console is running, manually import all of the devices you want to provision.
   In a multidatabase environment, when devices boot up and connect to the network, they do not automatically appear as imported devices within the TrueSight Server Automation Console. Instead, you must use the console to manually import devices before they boot up or are connected to the network.
   Using the example in Sample Database Implementation, you would use the TrueSight Server Automation Console connected to Application Server 1 to manually add the devices in Device Group 1.
   After the TrueSight Server Automation Console is running, manually import all of the devices that you want to provision.
   For information about manually importing devices, see Importing and managing devices.