Cayosoft Administrator ensures uninterrupted operation and distributed loads with high availability (HA). With the single-leader replication architecture, you keep the control over your environment in the event of a failure. Depending on your environment and the specific scenario, you can benefit from the following HA aspects:

• Regularly replicate data across multiple servers to ensure data availability in the event of a failure.

• Assign specific roles to your Subscriber servers to govern the access points and enhance security and compliance.

• Distribute the workload between multiple servers to improve the overall system performance.

• Distribute the configuration data to allow users to perform the same administration tasks on different servers.

Learn more about replication and HA in Cayosoft Administrator in the video below:

There are three distinct server roles in Cayosoft Administrator. Refer to the following list to learn more about each role:

• Standalone server—the default server role is assigned to a new deployment. This is the role assigned to the standalone servers with HA not set up.

• Publisher server—the leader server role is assigned to a single Cayosoft Administrator server. Changes done on the Publisher server are replicated to the Subscriber servers uni-directionally.

• Subscriber server—the follower server role is assigned to multiple Cayosoft Administrator servers. The Subscriber servers replicate the Publisher server data upon the Replication rule run.

IMPORTANT: Any changes performed on a Subscriber server are overwritten upon the Replication rule run.

The HA architecture requires a single server to have the Publisher role. Refer to the following steps to assign the Publisher role to a server in your environment:

1. On your target server, run Cayosoft Administrator.

2. In the left pane, navigate to Configuration > Settings > Replication & High Availability. Alternatively, click the Standalone button in the status bar.

3. Select the Publisher option and click Save Changes.

With HA set up, Cayosoft Administrator replicates the configuration data from the Publisher server to all Subscriber servers. The distributed configuration data allows users to perform the same administration tasks on different servers. The configuration data is stored in the Configuration databases.

The HA architecture allows you to introduce multiple Subscriber servers to distribute the roles between them and replicate data to them. Refer to the following steps to assign the Subscriber role to a server in your environment:

0. Install Cayosoft Administrator on the target Subscriber server. Refer to the following article for additional information: Installing Cayosoft Administrator.

1. Configure your new Cayosoft Administrator instance and the corresponding extensions. Refer to the following article for additional information: Initial configuration wizard.

   IMPORTANT: When setting up the extensions, you must use different service accounts to manage the same platforms. The use of the same connection accounts in multiple Cayosoft Administrator instances hinders the operation.

2. In the left pane of your new Cayosoft Administrator instance, navigate to Configuration > Settings > Replication & High Availability. Alternatively, click the Standalone button in the status bar.

3. Select the Subscriber option. Click the Change button next to the Publisher field.

   • Specify the Publisher IP or FQDN in the Server name or IP address field.

   • Specify a custom connection name in the Name your connection field.

   • Use the default AD account you specified in the AD extension. Alternatively, specify a dedicated AD account in the Connect as section.

     IMPORTANT: The dedicated AD account must be a member of the Global Administrators group. Refer to the following article for additional information on role-based delegation in Cayosoft Administrator: Role-based delegation.

     

4. Click Connect > Save Changes to save the configuration.

Cayosoft Administrator establishes HA using the Replication rule. The Subscriber server runs the configured rule to retrieve data from the Publisher server. Review the following sections to prepare for replication in your environment.

IMPORTANT: Restart the Cayosoft Administrator console on the Subscriber server to see the data replicated from the Publisher server.

Cayosoft Administrator replicates the following items:

• Custom Web Actions rules

• Published rules

• WebAdmin rules (pre-configured)

• Attribute polices

• Delegation roles

• Web queries and web actions settings

• Extension status (enabled/disabled) except for the AD LDS extension status

• License subscriptions

• Password to encrypt data in AD

• Background image in the Web Portal sign-in page

Some items are stored exclusively locally. Refer to the following list of such items:

• Custom rules including runbooks, reporting rules, and alerts

• Dynamic Groups

• Generated report files

• Lists and Data

• Change History (local to the Publisher server)

• Execution History (local to the Subscriber server)

• Configurations of extensions, including credentials and passwords

• SSL certificates

• Encryption Keys

Some items are configured exclusively on the Publisher server; all requests from the Subscriber servers are redirected to the Publisher server. Refer to the following list of such items:

• Virtual Attributes

• Service Adoption and License Optimization information

• Office 365 License Quotes

• Restricted Groups

• Family groups

• Change History

You can configure the replication frequency based on your needs. Options range from a one-time replication event to regular, hourly-based replication with customizable time windows. Refer to the following options to set up the replication schedule:

• In the navigation tree, proceed to Configuration > Settings > Replication & High Availability.

• In the navigation tree, proceed to Rules > Built-in Rules (Pre-configured) > Replication.

You can run replication manually via the Replication rule. In the right pane of the rule window, select Run to force replication.

The single-leader replication architecture requires the Publisher server to be permanently accessible. Some items are stored exclusively on the Publisher server. Refer to the following section of the article to review the list of replicated items: Replicated items .

Analytics data, such as Office 365 User Service Usage data, can only be collected by the Publisher server. All Subscriber servers receive this data from the Publisher server. If a user attempts to retrieve analytics data from a Subscriber server, the request will be redirected to the Publisher server. For performance reasons, it is recommended to obtain Office 365 analytics data directly from the Publisher server.

Microsoft limits the number of simultaneous server connections, so Cayosoft Administrator can only handle a certain amount of parallel tasks at once. In large environments with scheduled tasks or dynamic groups, this leads to reduced responsiveness when you perform self-service or web administration tasks. The following topology is recommended to distribute the load between multiple servers:

• Dedicate your Publisher server to run scheduled tasks, reports, and Dynamic Groups.

• Perform any web administration-related task via one or multiple Subscriber servers.

You can group multiple Subscriber servers behind a network load balancer to present a single URL to your administrators and users. Refer to the following steps to implement a load balancer in your Cayosoft Administrator environment:

1. In the tree pane, navigate to Configuration > Web Portal > Web Portal Settings.

2. In the External URL field, specify the load balancer URL.

IMPORTANT: Cayosoft Administrator requires session persistence for a user to remain on a single server for the length of the session.