Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin v201.5.2 - Release Notes

Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin v201.5.2 - Release Notes

About Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin

The Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin is an add-on to Neverfail Continuity Engine, which provides protection for Clever Devices CleverCAD. It configures Neverfail Continuity Engine to protect both the configuration, data and service items used by Clever Devices CleverCAD application, and also monitors aspects of the application and its environment that could affect availability.

What's New

  1. Plugin defined tasks for enable/disable CleverDevices_CADStore scheduled task depending if active or passive node.

Supported Versions and Platforms

  • Clever Devices CleverCAD plugin supported versions: 9.9, 10.15
    • on Windows 2016, Windows 2019, Windows 2022 (where compatible)
    • using one of the following Databases either local or remote (where compatible)
      • Microsoft SQL Server (future) -  (local database(s) will be protected by dedicated SQL Server Plugin)

Discovery | Control | Monitoring

Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin discovery, control, monitoring and replication consists of the following:

  • Service Availability Monitoring
  • Application Monitoring
  • Performance and Application Health Monitoring 

Service Availability Control and Monitoring

Neverfail Engine monitors services specified by the plug-ins to ensure application availability. In the event that a specified service stops or fails, Neverfail Engine can take up to three pre-configured actions to remedy the issue. The user may configure these reactions via the Continuity Engine Management Service User Interface.

When the plug-in is installed, it scans all services to see if they are in the automatic or the started state. When the plug-in is installed, all protected services will be set to manual (unless otherwise stated).

List of all Clever Devices CleverCAD services protected by this plug-in:

  1. CAD.DCCGateway (DCCGateway)
  2. CAD.MessageServer (CAD.MessageServer)
  3. CAD.Mobile (available in CAD v9.9)
  4. CAD.REALTIMESCHEDULING (available in CAD v9.9; removed in v10)
  5. CAD.ProcessController (CAD.ProcessController)
  6. CAD.TTSService (CAD.TTSService)
  7. CAD.TTSService 32bit (CAD.TTSService32bit)

IIS and SQL database instances protection 

  1. Microsoft SQL Server databases is protected by separate/dedicated plugin solution: – SQL Server Plugin.
  2. Microsoft IIS Server is protected by separate/dedicated plugin solution: –  IIS Server Plugin.

Application Discovery and Monitoring

Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin automatically discovers the application's installed database instances, configuration files, registries and data storage paths, assuring protection and real-time replication for both application’s discovered data and detected services. The application protected items changes are dynamically discovered and applied through a set of dedicated tasks executed periodically.
The following 'Tasks' are installed by  Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin:
  1. Periodic
    1. Protected Services Discovery
    2. File Filter Discovery
      1. Pre-install requirement:
        Notes
        NeverfailProtected registry key created in Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Clever Devices, with CADClientUpdateInstallDir and CADDatabaseInstallDir string values defined (e.g. E:\Program Files (x86)\CleverDevices\CAD.ClientUpdate, C:\Program Files (x86)\CleverDevices\CAD.Database)
    3. Registry Filter Discovery
    4. DisableCADSToreScheduledTaskOnPassive 
      1. periodic 1-minute task checking if passive node and disabling task if passive node
  2. Post Start
    1. executed after applications start (i.e. when applications are started, when Engine start as active, when user hits start applications, at switchover as part of stat applications plan)
    2. Enables CleverDevices_CADStore scheduled task
  3. Pre Stop
    1. executed before applications stop (i.e. when applications are stopped, when user hits stop applications, at switchover as part of stop applications plan)
    2. Disables CleverDevices_CADStore scheduled task
  4. Rule Action
    1. RestartRTS: when executed, it launches "%ProgramData%\Neverfail-Protected\CADScripts\RestartRTS.bat" script
    2. RestartCADMobile: when executed, it launches "%ProgramData%\Neverfail-Protected\CADScripts\RestartCADMobile.bat" script
To configure/modify Periodic 'Tasks', follow the steps below:
  1. Using the Neverfail Advanced Management Client, click on Application -> Tasks .
  2. Select the desired 'Task'.
  3. Click on the Edit button at the top of the 'Tasks' pane.
  4. Configure/modify the 'Interval' field.

Note: 'Interval' is the only field available for configuration/modification and is measured in seconds.

  1. Click OK to save the changes.

Note: This dialog is also used to Enable/Disable the selected 'Task'.

Application and Performance Monitoring

Rules – The following 'Rules' are installed by Clever Devices CleverCAD  Plugin:
  1. CAD RTS Availability
    1. RTS - Dynamic Scheduling availability
    2. RTS - Multi-Variation Headway availability
    3. RTS - On Time Performance API availability
    4. RTS - Operations Modification API Service availability
  2. CAD Mobile Availability
    1. CAD Mobile - WCF services availability

Configuring the rules

By default, Clever Devices CleverCAD Plug-in rules and rule action tasks are installed with:
  1. state: disabled
  2. URL defined using localhost
  3. failure actions: Log Warning
  4. %ProgramData%\Neverfail-Protected\CADScripts\RestartRTS.bat and  %ProgramData%\Neverfail-Protected\CADScripts\RestartCADMobile.bat rule action scripts created when the plugin is being installed areconfigured by default with Transit Domain ID: 1. 
Notes
Recommended configuration – each rule and rule action script should be edited as follows:
  1. review / edit %ProgramData%\Neverfail-Protected\CADScripts\RestartRTS.bat script with correct Transit Domain ID 
  2. review / edit %ProgramData%\Neverfail-Protected\CADScripts\RestartCADMobile.bat script with correct Transit Domain ID 
    1. Note: assure %ProgramData%\Neverfail-Protected\CADScripts\ folder is part of the replication set. Add a user defined file filter if needed. (Starting with System plugin 401.5.7 %ProgramData%\Neverfail-Protected\** will be replicated by default) 
  3. enable rule
  4. review / edit URL by replacing localhost with correct IP address or hostname
  5. edit RTS Availability rules failure actions: 
    1. On First Failure: CleverDevicesCleverCAD\RestartRTS 
    2. On Second Failure: CleverDevicesCleverCAD\RestartRTS 
    3. On Third Failure: Switchover
  6. edit RTS Availability rules failure actions: 
    1. On First Failure: CleverDevicesCleverCAD\RestartCADMobile 
    2. On Second Failure: CleverDevicesCleverCAD\RestartCADMobile 
    3. On Third Failure: Switchover
 

Install/Uninstall the Plug-in

Recommended/Automated - Install Plug-in Via Continuity Engine Management Service (EMS)

Procedure:

  1. Install the latest GA version of Continuity Engine Management Service.
  2. Login to EMS WebUI then install Continuity Engine on the target Clever Devices CleverCAD servers

Manual - Install Plug-in Via the Neverfail Advanced Management Client

The Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin can be installed either via the Neverfail CE deployment process or by using Application -> Plugins in the Neverfail Advanced Management Client using the procedure below. Neverfail recommends that for initial deployments of Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin, installation should be performed using Engine Management Service.

Procedure:

  1. Unzip the Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin to the desired location.
  2. Launch the Neverfail Advanced Management Client.
  3. Navigate to Application -> Plugins .
  4. Click on the Install 
  5. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location of the <plug-in name>.dll 
  6. Click OK to complete the installation.
  7. Repeat this process for each individual plug-in.
To remove/uninstall the Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin, follow the steps below:
  1. Launch the Neverfail Advanced Management Client.
  2. Navigate to Application -> Plugins .
  3. Select the desired plug-in to be removed/uninstalled.
  4. Click on the Uninstall button in the 'Plugins' pane.
  5. When the plug-in is uninstalled, the files are not removed. This is by design for future functionality and therefore the following workaround is provided:
    1. Copy the contents of the r2\plugins\<sponsor>\<version> folder to a different location (e.g. C:\temp).
    2. Delete the contents of the r2\plugins\<sponsor>\<version> 
    3. To reinstall the plug-in, when prompted for the location of the plug-in files, navigate to the new folder location (e.g. C:\temp).
Note: As an alternative, reinstallation can be accomplished by using the downloaded files from the original download location after removing the plug-in.

Applies To

Clever Devices CleverCAD Plugin 201.5.2


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