Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide

www.absolute.com
March 19, 2010

Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide - Documentation Release 1 This document, as well as the software described in it, is confidential and contains proprietary information protected by non-disclosure agreements. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form or disclosed to any party not bound by a non-disclosure agreement without the express written consent of Absolute Software Corporation. Absolute Software Corporation reserves the right to revise this document and to periodically make changes in the content hereof without obligation of such revisions or changes unless required to do so by prior agreement. Information contained herein is believed to be correct, but is provided solely for guidance in product application and not as a warranty of any kind. Absolute Software Corporation assumes no responsibility for use of this information, nor for any infringements of patents or other rights of third parties resulting from the use of this information. Absolute Software Corporation, Suite 1600, Four Bentall Centre, 1055 Dunsmuir Street PO Box 49211 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V7X 1K8. 2010 Absolute Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Computrace, Computrace Mobile and Absolute are registered trademarks of Absolute Software Corporation. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Computrace US Patents #5,715,174, #5,764,892, #5,802,280, #5,896,497 , #6,244,758, #6,269,392, #6,300,863, and #6,507 ,914. Canadian Patents #2,205,370 and #2,284,806. U.K Patents #EP793823, and #GB2338101. German Patent #695 125 34.6-08. Australian patent #699045. Japanese Patent #JP4067035.

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Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide

Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide

Introduction
Thank you for choosing Absolute Manage. The Absolute Manage suite is a uniquely seamless, multi-platform client management solution for managing all of your Mac OS X and Windows workstations in a single unified console on the platform of your choice. All Absolute Manage components including the server, admin console, and clients can be mixed and matched from either platform. Every enterprise should have a disaster recover plan in the event of major failure of their IT infrastructure. Implementing a disaster recovery plan including one for Absolute Manage requires some forethought and preparation. With adequate planning you can ensure maximum uptime of Absolute Manage and even get back up and running within minutes of a catastrophic failure. This document outlines some basic strategies for configuring Absolute Manage to enable the built-in fail-safes for doing this.

Benefits of using a DNS name

Replacing or switching out a Absolute Manage server due to a hardware failure is much easier if you assign a DNS name to your Absolute Manage server and point agents to them using this DNS name instead of its IP . Otherwise, when you move or replace the Absolute Manage server and assign it a new IP address you will have to rediscover and repoint all of your agents to the new IP address of the Absolute Manage server with the Set Inventory Server command in the Agent Deployment Center. With a DNS name for the Absolute Manage server you would simply change the entry for it on your DNS server to point to the new IP address. Using a DNS will also let you seamlessly move your Absolute Manage server to a different IP address without any repercussions.

Enabling the Absolute Manage database maintenance and backup

Absolute Manage includes built-in provisions for database maintenance and backup. The maintenance checks for possible corruption, repairs the corruption whenever possible, and compacts the databases. These features can be enabled in the Server Settings area of the Server Center. Click the General tab and enable the Run database maintenance and Backup database options. Make sure that the database maintenance is scheduled approximately 30 minutes prior to the backup. This ensures that the database is compacted to the smallest size possible before its backed up.

Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide

Changing the database backup location

Also consider adjusting the database backup settings to an interval of 3 days and keeping perhaps up to 7 backups. This extends the time window back to 21 days from which you can recover data. The database maintenance will automatically fix minor integrity problems whenever it can. However, there may be moderate corruption that is too extensive to be completely repaired but may not trigger an error message. Extending the time window back to 21 days increases the chances of being able to revert back to a database set before the corruption started. In the case of database corruption without a power outage event we highly recommend that you run a disk scanning utility to verify the integrity of the physical disk hosting the Absolute Manage databases, particularly if there are repeated instances of database corruption.

Changing the database backup location

The database backup will make a copy of the current databases and add a .dbbackup.n extension, where n denotes the numerical age of the backup. Newer backups will have a lower n number with the exception of the most current backup set, which has no n number. By default the Absolute Manage server backs up the databases to the same folder as the live databases at the following location: Mac OS X: /Library/Application Support/LANrev Server Windows Vista, Windows 7: ProgramData%\Pole Position Software\LANrev Server Windows (other versions): %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Pole Position Software\LANrev Server

We recommend that you change this path to another location on another physical or network drive that is backed up on a regular basis for some extra redundancy. The point is to store your backup databases on a different drive than the one hosting your live databases. If that hard disk fails for any reason all of your database backups are fine. To change the database backup path edit the DatabaseBackupDirectory key or value at the following location: Mac OS X: /Library/Preferences/com.polepositionsw.lanrev_server.plist Windows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Pole Position Software\LANrev Server

Restoring the Absolute Manage databases from backup

If you find that you are unable to log into Absolute Manage server or receive error messages about the database integrity, try restarting the server first. If a restart of the server does not resolve the issue then follow the instructions below to restore your databases from a backup. 1. Stop Absolute Manage Server as described at http:// www.lanrev.com/support/tn014.shtml.

Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide

Backing up the Absolute Manage server settings

2. Rename the current copies of the databases by adding a .bak extension to them. 3. Copy the latest backups (.dbbackup) of the databases to: Mac OS X: /Library/Application Support/LANrev Server Windows Vista, Windows 7: ProgramData%\Pole Position Software\LANrev Server Windows (other versions): %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Pole Position Software\LANrev Server

4. Remove any extensions from the copied backup so they are named ServerCommandDatabase.db, ServerDatabase.db, AgentRequestCache.db, and SoftwareLicenseControl.db. 5. Restart Absolute Manage Server, log in, and check to see that your database problem is gone. 6. If the problem persists, repeat steps 15 with the next database backup set until the problem is gone. Instead of renaming the current databases in step 2, delete them since you have already renamed the original database with a .bak extension.

Backing up the Absolute Manage server settings

While all of the client information is stored in the Absolute Manage databases, the Absolute Manage server settings are stored externally in a Mac plist file or Windows registry settings. To ensure a complete backup of your server you should also back up these settings when you have changed any of them from their defaults. On the Mac you need to back up the following plist file while on Windows you must back up the following registry key. Mac: /Library/Preferences/com.polepositionsw.lanrev_server.plist Windows: HKLM\Software\Pole Position Software\LANrev Server

If you have defined any dynamic custom information items based on executable or script files then you will also need to back up the CustomFieldScriptFiles folder at the following locations: Mac: /Library/Application Support/LANrev Server/ CustomFieldScriptFiles Windows Vista, Windows 7: %ProgramData%\Pole Position Software\LANrev Server\CustomFieldScriptFiles Windows (other versions):%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Pole Position Software\LANrev Server\ CustomFieldScriptFiles

Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide

Ensuring maximum uptime with Absolute Manage servers

Ensuring maximum uptime with Absolute Manage servers

Absolute Manage agents can be configured to report in to multiple inventory servers. In larger environments with over 3000 clients you might consider setting up two Absolute Manage severs, one to handle inventory and task execution and another to handle software distribution and license monitoring. All your Absolute Manage agents should be configured to report their inventories to both servers. Should one of the servers fail for any reason, there is still a copy of the inventory data on the second server. You can also continue to issue remote management commands to the agents from this second server. In addition to this, Absolute Manage agents send in updated inventory data on a regular basis so if you replace the failed server, the inventory data will be rebuilt automatically on the replacement server over time without any intervention. This is not necessarily true for optional agent information such as font, printer, installed software, and process information. However, you can configure the agent to send this info in automatically, either by preconfiguring the agent or enforcing agent settings globally, in which case it will be sent in to all inventory servers. On the other hand, Absolute Manage agents can only be configured to report in to a single server for software distribution and licensing monitoring. Because of this, it is imperative that you configure and enable the database maintenance and backup on these servers. Otherwise you can lose all of the payload and package definition, license specification, distribution group, and package and license assignment information in the event of a server failure.

Recovering from a failed staging server

For software distribution you can configure multiple staging server distribution points and Absolute Manage will load-balance between them during a software distribution. If one server goes down you can just replace it with another and have your software payloads replicate again. As a best practice we recommend that you configure at least two staging servers, one master and one secondary mirror staging server. This ensures that there is always a backup copy of your software payloads and lets you continue distributing software even if one of the staging servers is lost. In the event of a master staging server failure, open the Software Distribution > Staging Servers area of the Server Center and edit the staging server definitions. Promote another staging server to master status by enabling the Is master server option in its definition. Then demote the old master staging server by unchecking this checkbox in its definition. Remember to save your changes to the Server Center. When prompted to transfer the software installers to the new master staging server, click Manually Copy Folder because the files already exist on the new master staging server since it was previously a mirror staging server. After this delete the definition for the old master staging server and set up a new secondary mirror staging server as its replacement.

Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide

Recovering from a failed staging server

If a secondary mirror staging server fails, simply add a new staging server definition and specify the address of another agent on the same network segment as the old staging server to serve as its replacement. Then delete the staging server definition for the failed staging server. Remember to save your changes to the Server Center.

Absolute Manage Disaster Recovery Guide