Clustered and Load Balanced Environments

VoiceConsole On Prem deployment can be installed on servers that are grouped for load balancing or failover. Failover systems provide a fully redundant instance of each node, which is only brought online when its associated primary node fails. In Load Balancing systems, when a node fails, traffic intended for that node is either passed onto an existing node or load balanced across the remaining nodes.

In load balanced environments, it is important to configure both session affinity and IP affinity. Both session affinity and IP affinity are configured in the load balancer.

Session affinity allows devises with a browser connection (such as workstation clients and other devices that use cookies) to maintain connections when passing through the load balancer.

Honeywell Voice devices require IP affinity to maintain connections when passing through the load balancer.
The Honeywell Voice devices can be individually configured to use IP affinity or all devices on the Honeywell Voice network can be configured for IP affinity.

These are simple examples; they may not correspond exactly to your configuration.

Single Database with Clustered Application Servers

VoiceConsole On Prem deployment is installed on multiple nodes of a clustered application server that communicates with a single instance of a database. All VoiceConsole On Prem deployment clients communicate through a dispatcher.

Single Database with Clustered Application Servers

Single Application Server with Clustered Database

VoiceConsole On Prem deployment is installed on a single application server. It communicates with a database that has multiple nodes acting as a single interface for a common underlying database.

Single Application Server with Clustered Database

Clustered Database and Application Servers

This configuration is a combination of the two scenarios described above.

In this scenario, there are no single points of failure because both the application servers and the databases have some form of redundant response mechanism.

Benefits of Clustering/Load Balancing

Increase Performance

Performance can be increased if the system is going to be under heavy stress.

Facilitate Scaling

Depending on implementation, VoiceConsole On Prem deployment could grow by adding cluster nodes without drastic changes to implementation architecture.

Fault Tolerant

Depending on implementation, VoiceConsole On Prem deployment can continue to operate after an application server and/or database failure.

Limitations of Clustering/Load Balancing

Visible Failed Node Symptoms

If using the VoiceConsole On Prem deployment user interface when a node fails, you may have to log in again or repeat some actions.

Risk of Network Bottlenecks

Potential network bottlenecks based on network infrastructure between load balancer, VoiceConsole On Prem deployment servers, and database servers. Implementing database clustering supported by database vendor may be necessary.

Visible Failover Symptoms

If using the VoiceConsole On Prem deployment user interface while a failover occurs, you may have to log in again or repeat some actions. Devices may report some errors and have to resend data if performing actions during a failover. If database failover is desired, the customer must implement it as recommended by the database vendor.

What You Need

If VoiceConsole On Prem deployment is being installed into a clustered environment, you need the following information.

  • The logical hostname of the application server and/or database server cluster.
  • The shared location of the device log and firmware files.