Managing And Patching Neverfail Continuity Engine Clusters Using Passive Node Management Feature With ConnectWise Automate

Managing And Patching Neverfail Continuity Engine Clusters Using Passive Node Management Feature With ConnectWise Automate

Summary

This article provides information on how to manage or patch Neverfail Continuity Engine clusters through ConnectWise Automate (Web Control Center or Automate Control Center), using Passive Node Management feature.

Prerequisites

ConnectWise Automate active account

An active logon account and valid license is needed for accessing ConnectWise Automate Web Control Center management solution. Here you have access to Agent or Automate Control Center installers.

Note: In the following sections we'll assume that ConnectWise Automate is enabled/configured in your organization.

Enable Passive Node Management

Neverfail Continuity Engine servers should be able to access ConnectWise Automate in order to be managed remotely from there.

  • On the active server this can be achieved through the Public IP address or through a Management IP Address. 
  • On the passive server, this can be achieved only through a Management Name and IP Address.

Thus, a Management Name and IP Address with access to ConnectWise Automate must be configured on each node, in order to be able to connect to ConnectWise Automate Portal when both in active or passive role.

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Managing a Neverfail Engine Cluster

Deploy ConnectWise Automate Agent on Neverfail Continuity Engine Cluster

ConnectWise Automate Agent is a software that should be installed on the managed-to-be servers. This agent connects to the ConnectWise Automate portal providing information related to machine status, etc., as well as means of remote support, patch management, auditing, reporting, scripts scheduling. 

A way of deploying the agent on the managed-to-be Engine nodes is to download the Agent from the ConnectWise Automate Web Control Center > System> Installers then to manually install it on each node to be managed.

After the installation, the managed nodes will be visible on the ConnectWise Automate Web Control Center and Automate Control Centernotice the public name ("ag-cw") configured for both the active and passive nodes is used - this is a limitation of how Agent retrieves and broadcasts the Computer Name to the management portal. However, you can differentiate the nodes by their managed IP addresses:

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Important:

The Computer Name, displayed on ConnectWise Automate portal, remains always the same and won't change when an Engine switchover occurs. This is an expected behavior as the Agent remains registered with its configured name rule - in this case based on Computer Name.  But if you open a Control window for each Engine node, then you'll see the its actual name (new active node will be configured with public name; passive server will be configured with its management name):

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Manage Neverfail Continuity Engine Cluster

All the Engine Cluster nodes registered in ConnectWise Automate can be managed or patched no matter if they're active or passive.

 

Applies to

ConnectWise Automate

Neverfail Continuity Engine 8.5 and later