ActiveVOS Server MultiSite Configuration

The prerequisites for using MultiSite Clustering include the following:

This feature requires a MultiSite license. Be sure to obtain a license from Active Endpoints to enable this feature in ActiveVOS Server. The server configuration instructions describe how to enter your license. Enter the license into one server in your MultiSite environment.
You must use an Oracle database. Currently MultiSite supports Oracle Database 11g.
Use of MultiSite requires that the ActiveVOS Eventing Service is disabled. Eventing is disabled in a MultiSite license.
Follow all instructions below to ensure successful MultiSite configuration

What is MultiSite?

ActiveVOS Server supports a site configuration, which allows a cluster of process servers to replicate its database to other databases serving other sites. Each site has a cluster of ActiveVOS servers (one or more servers) with a single persistent database, and the site operates independently of other sites. All process instances are available for execution at each site. In the event of a server failure, a process can start execution on one site and complete on a different site. In addition, most ActiveVOS server configuration properties are replicated from site to site. This means you can configure server properties in one site, and they are automatically copied to another site’s administration console.

The following illustration shows a sample MultiSite environment. The database setup is a master-master replication, as shown below. This technique allows you to replicate data in tables across separate databases.

MultiSite environment

MultiSite Setup Overview and Prerequisites

On each site, complete all ActiveVOS Server prerequisites and steps including the following:

Step One. Configure WS-Security.
Step Two. Enable Archivelog Mode in Oracle.
Step Three. Install the ActiveVOS database schema for Oracle database.
Step Four. Perform Oracle Streams set up using ActiveVOS-provided scripts.
Step Five. Test Oracle Streams set up using ActiveVOS-provided scripts.
Step Six. Configure and deploy ActiveVOS Server.
Step Seven. Add the MultiSite license.
Step Eight. Configure/enable MultiSite properties.

Step One. Configure WS-Security

Configure WS-Security in each server node in each site, if desired, to enable the MultiSite WS-Security property for site communication. For details, see the ActiveVOSServerUser.pdf, located in ActiveVOS Installation's doc folder. Refer to Configuring ActiveVOS Server for WS-Security. Alternately, go to activevos.com to link to the product documentation.

Step Two: Enable Archivelog Mode in Oracle

The Oracle Streams capture process reads information from the redo log files of the database. This requires that the database is run in ARCHIVELOG mode. In this mode, Oracle archives the filled online redo log files before reusing them in the cycle. A Recovery Manager (RMAN) utility can be setup to periodically clear or backup these files before they fill up the allocation.

Step Three. Install the ActiveVOS Database Schema

Install the ActiveVOS database schema for Oracle database. The database DDL files are located in your installation folder. For instructions, see ActiveVOS Server and Resource Configuration.

Step Four: Set up Oracle Streams

ActiveVOS provides an automated setup environment for Oracle Streams. The setup files are in the ActiveVOS installation folder in the following location:

weblogic_config/bin/multisite_setup

Note: The automated setup configures two databases at a time. If your environment requires multiple databases, you can reconfigure setup.

The setup files include the following:

streams_readme.txt	Contains instructions for configuring MultiSite
database.properties	Contains your values for user/password of the Oracle user with administrative (DBA) rights
multisite.properties	Contains your values for setup of two MultiSite databases to replicate
setup.cmd	Command line script to perform Oracle Streams setup with your values
teardown.cmd	Command line script to remove Oracle Streams setup
multisite.xml	Ant file used in setup and teardown commands

Complete Streams setup as follows:

Read all instructions in the streams_readme.txt file.
As described in streams_readme.txt, edit database.properties and add your values.
As described in streams_readme.txt, edit multisite.properties and add your values. See the example below.
Execute setup.cmd now or just create the completed setup file to run later. By default, when you execute the setup file, Streams is configured. However, you can set a multisite.execute.scripts flag to false in the multisite.xml Ant script to create an executable script that you can run later.
Execute the setup script.
Test database replication, as described below in Step Five.

As the streams_readme.txt file describes, you must provide values for Streams parameters in the multisite.properties file. The following example shows a completed file:


         multisite.src.tablespace.dir= C:\\ORACLE\\ORADATA\\MY_DB1

		 multisite.src.strmadmin=STRMADMIN

		 multisite.src.strmadmin.pwd=BPEL

		 multisite.src.schema=ABPELRN

		 multisite.src.db.link=MY_DB1

		 multisite.src.host.name=PLUTO

		 multisite.src.port=1521

		 multisite.src.sid=MY_DB1



		 multisite.tgt.tablespace.dir= C:\\ORACLE\\ORADATA\\MY_DB2

		 multisite.tgt.strmadmin=STRMADMIN

		 multisite.tgt.strmadmin.pwd=BPEL

		 multisite.tgt.schema=ABPELRN

		 multisite.tgt.db.link=MY_DB2

		 multisite.tgt.host.name=NEPTUNE

		 multisite.tgt.port=1521

		 multisite.tgt.sid=MY_DB2



         multisite.execute.scripts=true

		 multisite.oracle.sqlplus.path=\\\\neptune\\oracle\\product\\11.1.0\\db_1

		 multisite.queue.suffix=_RN

          multisite.sga.size=50

Step Five: Test Database Replication

After completing database replication for all databases in your sites, you can test the replication process to determine if your configuration is successful.

ActiveVOS MultiSite Test Utility

ActiveVOS provides a utility that verifies database replication. Essentially, the utility performs inserts and deletes within each site’s database tables and verifies synchronization of the data. To use this utility, you must modify a configuration file to provide parameters describing your environment. Then run the utility with the provided batch file. For details on using this utility, see the readme.txt file. The test files are located in:

weblogic_config\bin\multisite_test

Note: Be sure that no ActiveVOS servers are running when you are testing.

Step Six. Configure and Deploy ActiveVOS Server

Configure and deploy ActiveVOS Server by following the instructions in ActiveVOS Server and Resource Configuration.

Step Seven. Add the MultiSite License

Launch the ActiveVOS Console and add the MultiSite license, as described in server and resource configuration. You only need to add the license to one server. The license is replicated to other sites.

Step Eight. Configure/Enable MultiSite Properties

Configure/enable MultiSite properties in ActiveVOS Console on the Admin>MultiSite>Site Properties page. Some properties are site independent and others will be replicated as detailed in the ActiveVOS Console Help.

Pausing Replication When Performing Database Updates

When you upgrade the database schema for a new version of ActiveVOS, be sure to follow the instructions below and then to perform the upgrade as described in ActiveVOS Server and Resource Configuration.

Do the following:

You must temporarily stop database replication.

In Oracle Streams, follow the instructions to stop the Capture and Apply processes for each database in replication. These tasks are located on the Oracle Enterprise Manager's Streams>Manage>Capture and Oracle Enterprise Manager's Streams>Manage>Apply pages.

You must ensure that all servers are stopped before upgrading the schema. Upgrade each site database before starting any server.
When all databases have been upgraded, you can start up the Streams Capture and Apply processes and the ActiveVOS servers.