Failover deployments

The failover methods discussed here apply to Central Archive only. To set up Local Archive failover, you must configure the Recorder for failover.

Archive failover may only be deployed with fixed media types (SAN, FTP, Centera).

You can configure Main and Backup Central Archive servers so that if the first Server fails, the second may be activated.

When this Main-Backup server model is deployed:

Main refers to the Central Archive server configured in the enterprise Installations tree as the main archive system.
Backup denotes the Central Archive server configured in the Installations tree as the failover server for the Main.
Active is a runtime state for the Main or Backup Archive Server. It indicates that the server is currently archiving recordings on behalf of the server pair.
Standby is a runtime state for Main or Backup Archive Server. It indicates that the server is not currently archiving recordings.

The Recorder Manager on each Archive Server displays status that indicates whether the server is Main or Backup and Active or Standby.

The Backup server must have the same number of archive drives, with each archive drive running the same campaign Collection of scheduling periods in WFM, which are defined time periods where specific employees target specific workloads. as a corresponding drive on the main machine. Specific types of the drives (SAN, FTP, or Centera) do not have to match, though it makes tracking simpler. The target media is typically the same. Once two servers are paired, they have the same recorder associations assigned to the Archive activity Core component of both schedules and time records in Workforce Management (WFM). When an employee performs any kind of work, activities specify the scheduled work and capture employee adherence to their schedule..

If a server is in Standby mode, the Manage Campaign Recorders button on the Drive Edit page is grayed out. In addition, if you make and save changes to the drive definitions on either server, a warning is displayed that the Main and Backup server configurations don’t match. You can continue saving the changes; however, the system will generate alarms as long as there is a mismatch. If the configurations are mismatched, the failover will not be successful.