Summary

This Knowledgebase article provides information about an Application Warning that may appear when attempting to upgrade a plug-in installed in Neverfail Heartbeat stating that re-cloning may be required.

More Information

Installation of Neverfail Heartbeat requires that the Primary server be cloned to create the Secondary server with all applications to be protected included in the cloning operation. When an application plug-in is installed as part of Setup, the plug-in detects the application files and ensures that both the Primary and Secondary server's protected application files are identical. The application plug-in identifies data for replication but does not replicate application files (such as SQL Server or Exchange) themselves.

Under normal circumstances, re-cloning is not necessary and plug-in upgrades can be easily completed using the Neverfail Heartbeat Management Client. Under some scenarios, re-cloning may be necessary. When upgrading a plug-in, the plug-in may require additional files to be cloned and thus display a message stating that you must use Setup to install the plug-in. The user must then re-clone the Primary server to create a new Secondary server thereby ensuring that identical application files exist on both the Primary and Secondary servers.

The following use cases provide guidance for when re-cloning is or is not required:

• The user is uninstalling and reinstalling the exact same version of the plug-in and there is no change to the application versions present - No Action is required, the message can be safely ignored.
• The user is replacing an existing application plug-in version and upgrading to a new version of the same plug-in and there is no change to the application version or service pack level - No Action is required, the message can be safely ignored.
• The user is replacing the existing plug-in and upgrading to a new version of the plug-in for the protected application AND  upgrading the application in some way (for example, a service pack upgrade or installing new instances of the application or new components) - Action is required. Follow the appropriate application upgrade procedure to ensure that the application is upgraded correctly on the passive server. If the application upgrade is not possible on the passive server for some reason then re-cloning is the recommended action.
• The user is installing a new plug-in to protect an application that was present on the servers when Neverfail Heartbeat was installed. If the application is known to work on the Secondary when active then no further action is required because the user is simply protecting something that is known to work.
• The user is installing a new plug-in to protect a new application that has just been installed on the Primary server but does not yet exist on the Secondary server - Recommended Action - re-clone the Primary server (note: some applications may just install ok on the Secondary server).

Applies To

All Versions

Related Information

None

KBID-2475