Clustering is the ability to have two or more instances of GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer (MFT) working together. This is a common setup to increase the power and stability of your environment.
First, we will cover the features and benefits of clustering with MFT, then we will go over the requirements for its implementation.
The Benefits of Clustering
Clustering allows for High Availability of GoAnywhere services. This means that if one server were to go down or become unavailable, any other nodes would still support incoming connections. Besides preventing downtime, a clustered system also supports Load Balancing.
When two or more servers are clustered, scheduled jobs will be shared between the nodes, which will prevent a single instance from becoming overloaded compared to the others. By implementing GoAnywhere Gateway or a third-party load balancer, hosted services can also be load balanced.
Another benefit of clustering is shared data and resources, which includes the backend database. Many settings will be shared between the nodes of the cluster, allowing uniform changes across the whole system.
Requirements
There are a few requirements to note before clustering can be enabled. First, an external database must be in place. There are several additional benefits to externalizing the backend database, but regarding clustering, the default file-based Derby Database cannot be used because all the nodes in the cluster will need access to the same network database.
Similarly, a shared network location will be required for storing user data and configuration files, which ensures both nodes can access the same data and settings. These file locations also need to be reachable by every node of the cluster.
Another requirement is that each node must be running the same version of GoAnywhere MFT. It is also recommended that the OS and Java versions match to simplify configurations. The system time on each server will also need to be within five minutes of the other nodes. Finally, each node in the cluster will require a license with the “clustering” feature.
Additional Information
For additional information on Clustering, please visit the User Guide. There are several pages of instructions covering initial setup, as well as troubleshooting for some common errors. Details about different types of clustered setups can be found in the System Architecture Guide.