Failover Settings

Using this feature, you can configure a backup server to resume operations in case the system encounters a failover.

Note: Failover must be configured before creating user accounts to avoid the risk of losing data.

Pre-requisites for failover configuration

• The hardware and software of the primary and secondary servers must be identical in all aspects. For example, they must have the same type of GPU, same GPU Slot IDs, and the same Userful software version running on them.

• The primary and secondary servers should be initialized with the same admin password.

Create a failover group

1. Go to Admin Center > System Configuration > Failover Settings.

2. Enter the Cluster Name.

3. Select the Server Type. The primary server is the operational server that stores all files and manages processing. The secondary server is the backup server.

4. Enter the IP address and the system ID of the other configured server in the failover server cluster.

5. The Failover Status shows the current status of this failover cluster.

6. Click Save Changes.

Please ensure that failover is configured properly before creating user accounts. After configuring failover, you can start creating users.

Delete failover group

To delete failover configuration:

1. Navigate to Admin Center > System Configuration.

2. Click Failover Settings in the left pane.

3. Click the delete icon at the top right corner. A confirmation dialog appears.
4. Click Delete.

Types of Failover and Expected Behaviors

Failover type	Happens when:	Expected behavior
Manual failover Failover happens on the active server (primary or secondary whichever is active at the time of triggering failover).	A user navigates to System Configuration > Failover Settings and clicks Manual failover.	About two to three minutes after failover is triggered, the uClients along with the content on displays restart.
Power-related failover on the primary server	A user presses the power button of the primary server twice, switching the system off and switching it on. A user reboots the primary server from the terminal.	Content will move to the secondary server immediately and start playing from there after power loss of primary. The secondary server will show ‘Offline’ status of accessory server after power loss of primary. When power is back, the primary server recovers and shows ‘online’ status. At this point, uClients and the content playing on displays restart. Note: The content does not move to the primary server when it recovers after power loss. The content remains on the secondary server.
Network loss on the primary server while it is the active server	There is a network outage, affecting both systems. Primary loses only its internet connection (but not power) while secondary remains online.	Content will move to the secondary server immediately and start playing from there. When the network is back on the primary server, content moves back to the primary server. About two to three minutes after the primary server takes over, uClients and the content on the displays restart.
Network loss on secondary server while it is on standby	There is a network outage, affecting both systems. Secondary loses only its internet connection (but not power) while primary remains online.	There may be a content restart and uclient reconnect. No failover occurs.

Note:

• In all of the failover events described above, content restart is not expected to happen more than once.

• As long as there are no failover events, content restart is not expected to happen.