Summary

This article provides information about how to use the Neverfail Advanced Management Client to configure network monitoring and view the network status of your Neverfail Continuity Engine cluster.

More Information

The Neverfail Advanced Management Client provides you the opportunity to configure network monitoring and view the status of your network. Configuration of network monitoring follows the procedure listed below.

Procedure

To configure network monitoring, navigate to Start > Programs > Neverfail > Manage Server . When the Neverfail Advanced Management Client opens, select the Network tab.

Network Monitoring

The Network Monitoring page provides the opportunity to view the status of your network and configure the network monitoring IP addresses and options.

Ping Configuration

Neverfail Continuity Engine monitors the network by sending pings to designated servers in the network. By default, Neverfail Continuity Engine configures the default gateway, DNS server, and global catalog server. The configuration can be modified to ping any server available on the public network.

To modify the ping configuration:

1. Click the Configure Pings button to open the Network Monitoring: Ping Configuration dialog.
2. Edit the current settings as desired.
3. Click OK to apply the changes.
4. Review the Ping Targets From Currently Active Server panel to ensure the ping targets are reachable.

Split-Brain Avoidance

Split-brain Avoidance ensures that only one server becomes active if the channel connection is lost, but all servers remain connected to the public network. Split-brain Avoidance works by pinging from the passive server to the active server across the public network. If the active server responds, the passive does not failover, even if the channel connection is lost. WAN installations require different IP addresses on the public network for the local and remote servers.

To enable Split-brain Avoidance, open the Server Monitoring page in the Neverfail Advanced Management Client, click Configure Failover , and selecting Prevent failover if channel heartbeat is lost but Active server is still visible to other servers (recommended) .

You must configure Management IP addresses on the public network cards of each server to allow the passive server to send a ping. To configure a Management IP address on the public network card, follow the procedure below. Management IP addresses are additional IP addresses assigned to the network card connected to the public network. They are used to allow the passive server to communicate, because unlike the public IP address, they are not filtered.

This allows the passive server to send pings, and is also required to allow the passive server to send email alerts.

To configure a Management IP address:

1. Open the network properties for the public network connection.
2. Double-click TCP/IP to display the properties.
   
   Note: To configure Management IP addresses in an Exchange environment, consult the Neverfail Knowledgebase for the procedure.
3. Click Advanced .
4. Enter an additional (currently unused) IP address in the table.
5. Reposition the IP addresses in the list so that the additional (Management) IP address appears first, and the public network address (by which clients connect to the server) appears second.
6. Click OK on all three dialogs to accept the configuration changes to the network connection.
7. After completing all of the steps, click Next or Finish .

The active server must respond within the time period value specified in the Failover timeout to prevent a failover
from occurring. If the active server responds in a timely manner, the failover process ceases. If the active server does
not respond, the failover proceeds.

How to View the Network Status Using the Neverfail Advanced Management Client

Launch the Neverfail Advanced Management Client, and then select the Network tab to display the Network Monitoring page. This page indicates the public network connection. The public Network Connection status is determined by pinging a selection of hosts on the network. If there is no response, and active server connections have been compromised, then a switchover can be initiated to the other server.

You can configure Neverfail Engien's behavior by selecting the Configure Pings button and changing the settings in the Network Monitoring: Ping Configuration dialog. This dialog allows you to select the Ping interval and Ping echo timeout .

Click OK to save the changes.

Additionally, you can configure Neverfail Continuity Engine to auto-switchover in the event of lost pings. To configure auto-switchover, click on the Configure Auto-switchover button and select the number of missed pings to initiate an auto-switchover. Click OK to accept the settings.

Applies To

Neverfail Continuity Engine

Related Information

None