Clustered Servers listed in TMS

[Patrick Sparkman]

How does TMS handle licensing for a clustered MSE 8510, TCS, VCS Control, VCS Expressway.  Does each slave/peer have to be added into TMS or only the master have to be added?  I know for the MSE 8510 it says to not add the slave to TMS, to only add the master, that you can access the slave via the master in TMS through a clustering tab.  Is this the same way for the other devices, and do the slave/peers take up any device licenses within TMS?

Thanks, Patrick

[daleritc]

Hi Patrick,

Any room or system that is added to TMS will take up a system license. As far as the various infrastructure systems and whether you need to add the slaves or not varies from the device type. For example, and as you point out, Cisco recommends only adding the Master since you do have 'visability" to the slave via the clustering tab. However, and for the VCS(s), it's recommended that all the VCSs should be added to the TMS, i.e. same with the TCS(s) I believe. Therefore, and to answer your questions in short, it's device dependent wrt the slaves and when adding any system or room to TMS, it will consume a system license.

rgds,

Dale

[Patrick Sparkman]

Thanks Dale, I have seen under our VCS that there is a clustering tab, and perhaps one for the TCS as well (but might be hidden when not clustered).

I wonder if anyone out there in the forums has a clustered TCS or VCS that could comment on how their TMS is setup to handle them.

[daleritc · Accepted solution]

Hi Patrick,

I can tell you that for the VCSs and that is each VCS must be added to the TMS. When there in cluster, and you select the Cluster tab and depending on which VCS you've selected, you will see the cluster information to include the overall cluster name under 'Cluster Settings' and then all the VCSs in the cluster under 'Cluster Peers'. Depending on which VCS you've selected, you will see who is the 'master' and who is a 'slave' in the 'Cluster Peer' pane.

As far as the TCS goes, and I assume your talking about the TANDBERG Content Server, I'll need to research that since I admit I don't have a TCS cluster in my lab. However, I want remember each TCS needs to be added to the TMS as well and it will appear as the VCS does in TMS. And this should be covered in their documentation as well, i.e. adding TCSs and/or TCS clusters to TMS.

cheers,

Dale

[Patrick Sparkman]

Thanks for the VCS cluster info, could you tell me why all the VCSs would have to be added?  I haven't found anything documented on how or a best practice for a VCS cluster in TMS as far as adding them all.

I just found this from the TCS cluster guide, hidden in one of the steps, almost missed it.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/telepresence/tcs/5_0/administration/guide/cluster.html#wp1001736

Add one or more Content Servers in the cluster to  TMS. You only need to add one Content Server in the cluster to make  calls to the whole cluster. 

So, it looks like you can go either way with a TCS, either add each individual TCS or just one, I guess it would simply depend on personal preference what you'd like to see in TMS.

[daleritc · Accepted solution]

Yup...I just found the same TCS doc you refer to above, i.e. you beat me to it

As far as why you need to add each of the VCSs, it's really down to the implementation differences between it and the other products we're discussing here. In the case of the VCS, the slave VCSs need to be added to the TMS's db so that it is aware of them and understand who is the master and who is the peer, albeit it's getting this information from the VCS but not collectively from the master, e.g. like the other products. In addition, there are 'tools' in TMS that you can run against the VCS cluster, e.g. Run Cluster Diagnostics, as well as getting ticketing information from the all the VCSs, when and if something goes amiss on any of the VCSs in the cluster...which I/we would assume would be important to admins since these are 'key' systems in your telepresence network

[Patrick Sparkman]

It makes perfect sence, for us admins to have that 'knowledge' and be able to see what all of our infrastructure is doing and how it is health wise is very beneficial.  I can see how just adding the master wouldn't fully report on it's peers, as all it at most would do is report back on the cluster status and not the actual peer status, hense adding all VCSs (master or peer) into TMS to get the abiltity to see fully what state everything is running in.

Thanks!