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Installation Guide for High Availability (HA) Deployment

This guide empowers IT Administrators to build a resilient, uninterrupted ServiceOps environment by eliminating single points of failure, ensuring business continuity during outages.

High Availability (HA) refers to systems that are durable and designed to operate continuously without failure for an extended period. The primary goal of HA is to ensure an agreed-upon level of operational performance and uptime, guaranteeing service and data recovery during an unplanned disruption.

This guide provides detailed instructions for setting up a High Availability environment for ServiceOps.

HA Architecture Overview​

In a ServiceOps High Availability setup, three main components work together:

  • Master Server: The primary ServiceOps server accessed by users.
  • Slave Server: A secondary, idle server that continuously replicates data from the Master's database.
  • HA-Proxy Server: A load balancer that redirects traffic to the Slave server if the Master server becomes unavailable.

During a downtime event, the Slave server is promoted to become the new Master, using its synchronized database to provide uninterrupted service.

Single Data Center Architecture​

High Availability Architecture for a Single Data Center

Prerequisites​

Before proceeding with the HA setup, ensure you have met System Requirements and Pre-Installation Checklist.

HA Configuration Steps​

Follow these steps to configure the High Availability environment.

Step 1: Install Master and Slave Servers​

Install ServiceOps on two separate servers. One will act as the Master and the other as the Slave.

  1. Copy release build installer (service_desk_master_CI) to target machine.

  2. Open terminal and navigate to the directory where the build is.

  3. Make Sure you have the permission to execute the file. If there’s no permission then you can change it using the following command:

    sudo chmod 777 service_desk_master_CI

  4. Run Installer by using the following command:

    sudo ./service_desk_master_CI

  5. Enter the password when prompted. The password will be the same as the system admin password.

  6. Enter the file where the key needs to be saved. Here, just press enter and it will auto-add the key path.

  7. After adding the ssh key, it will prompt to enter the username for the server ssh

For detailed installation instructions, refer to the Standalone Installation Guide

note

Ensure both servers have the same ServiceOps version and are fully functional before proceeding.

Step 2: Set Up the HA Observer Server​

The HA Observer monitors the health of the Master and Slave servers and manages the failover process.

Pre-Installation Checklist
  • Do not use sudo when running the HA Observer installer package.
  • Ensure both Master and Slave machines are ready before starting this step.
  • Use the same username and password for SSH on both Master and Slave machines.
  • Please use common password on SSH Master and Slave machine.
  1. Download the HA Observer installer from the Download Links page.
  2. Assign execute permissions to the installer file:
    chmod 777 service_desk_ha_CI

  1. Run the HA Observer installer:
    ./service_desk_ha_CI

  1. It will prompt for generation of the public key. Press Enter for generating the Key.

  1. After generating public key, it will prompt to enter the Passphrase twice. Press Enter for both the prompts.

  1. It will prompt to “Enter username for server ssh”. This Username will be Common for both the machines i.e Master and Slave.
note

Here flotomate is entered just for example. User needs to enter the respective Machine's Username.

  1. Enter the IP address and password for the Master server when prompted.
note

Here entered IP is just for example. User needs to enter respective Master’s IP.

  1. After entering the IP Address, it will prompt for Password twice. Here, the password will be respective machines password.

  1. Enter the IP address and password for the Slave server when prompted.

  1. Enter the sudo password when prompted. This password will be the same as the common password entered in Step 8.

  1. After entering the sudo password, it will automatically start configuration of Slave and will show message as “Enter slave config started”.

  1. After finishing the above step it will show message "HA Installed SuccessFully". It will then automatically start the mechanism of file sync showing the message "File Sync Setup Started".

  1. After the File Sync Setup started, it will prompt for "Entering Key" for generating public/private rsa key pair. Press Enter in response.

  1. After entering the Key, File Sync Installation Setup finishes. With this HA Observer Installation also finishes.

  1. Finally, ensure the Slave server's database password matches the Master's. You may need to manually update the password in the following configuration files on the Slave server:
/opt/flotomate/main-server/config/application-saas.properties
/opt/flotomate/cm-analytics/config/application-saas.properties
/etc/flotomate_env
/opt/flotomate/cm-analytics/lib/analytics-hosted-exec.conf
/opt/flotomate/main-server/lib/boot-hosted-exec.conf

The core High Availability setup is now complete. At this stage, the Master and Slave servers are configured for data replication.

The following section on configuring an HA-Proxy server is optional but recommended for automatic client redirection during a failover.

tip

For advanced HA-Proxy configurations, especially in a DMZ, refer to the How to Configure HA Proxy in DMZ guide.

Optional: Configure HA-Proxy for Automatic Failover​

While the core High Availability setup ensures data replication between the Master and Slave servers, it does not automatically redirect user traffic if the Master server fails. To achieve seamless, automatic failover, you can deploy an HA-Proxy server.

The HA-Proxy acts as a reverse proxy and load balancer, sitting in front of your Master and Slave servers. It monitors the health of the primary server and, in the event of an outage, automatically reroutes all incoming traffic to the standby Slave server. This ensures that users experience minimal disruption and service continuity is maintained without any manual intervention.

This section guides you through the installation and configuration of an HA-Proxy server for your ServiceOps environment.

HA-Proxy Server Requirements
  • The HA-Proxy requires a separate server with a dedicated IP address.
  • Internet connectivity is required to install the HA-Proxy package.

HA-Proxy Installation​

  1. Log in to the HA-Proxy server as a root user.
  2. Install the HA-Proxy package:
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install haproxy -y

  1. Open the HA-Proxy configuration file for editing:

    sudo nano /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

  2. Add the following configuration to the end of the file. Replace the placeholder IP addresses with the actual IPs of your HA-Proxy, Master, and Slave servers.

    defaults
        log global
        mode tcp
        option httplog
        option dontlognull
        timeout connect 5000
        timeout client 50000
        timeout server 50000
        errorfile 400 /etc/haproxy/errors/400.http
        errorfile 403 /etc/haproxy/errors/403.http
        errorfile 408 /etc/haproxy/errors/408.http
        errorfile 500 /etc/haproxy/errors/500.http
        errorfile 502 /etc/haproxy/errors/502.http
        errorfile 503 /etc/haproxy/errors/503.http
        errorfile 504 /etc/haproxy/errors/504.http

    frontend http_front
        # Replace with your HA-Proxy IP address
        bind 172.16.8.100:80
        stats uri /haproxy?stats
        default_backend http_back

    backend http_back
        balance roundrobin
        mode tcp
        option tcp-check
        # Replace with your Master Server IP
        server master 172.16.8.241:80 check port 80
        # Replace with your Slave Server IP
        server slave 172.16.8.240:80 check port 80

  3. Restart the HA-Proxy service to apply the changes:

    sudo systemctl restart haproxy

Failover Time

In the event of a failover, the Slave server may take approximately 5-8 minutes to become fully active.

HA-Proxy SSL Configuration​

This section provides instructions for configuring SSL certificates for HAProxy.

Prepare Certificate Files​

  1. Create a combined PEM file from your certificate and private key:

    cat example.crt example.key >> example.pem

  1. Copy the PEM file to the HAProxy server:

    cp example.pem /etc/ssl/

  1. Set proper permissions:

    sudo chmod 600 /etc/ssl/example.pem
    sudo chown root:root /etc/ssl/example.pem

Configure HAProxy​

  1. Open the HAProxy configuration file:

    vi /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg
    # or
    nano /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

  2. Update the frontend configuration to enable SSL:

    Standard HTTP configuration (port 80):

    frontend http_front
        bind *:80
        default_backend http_back

    SSL configuration (port 443):

    frontend https_front
        bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/example.pem
        default_backend http_back

  1. Complete frontend configuration example:
    frontend https_front
        bind 172.16.13.68:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/example.pem
        mode http
        option forwardfor
        default_backend http_back

Configure Backend for HTTPS​

If your backend servers also use HTTPS, update the backend configuration:

backend http_back
    mode http
    balance roundrobin
    server master 172.16.13.69:443 check ssl verify none
    server slave 172.16.13.70:443 check ssl verify none

Verify and Test Configuration​

  1. Test HAProxy configuration syntax:

    haproxy -c -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg

  2. Restart HAProxy service:

    systemctl restart haproxy

  3. Verify service status:

    systemctl status haproxy

  4. Test SSL connectivity:

    openssl s_client -connect your-domain.com:443 -servername your-domain.com

Verify SSL Certificate​

  1. Access your application through HTTPS in a web browser
  2. Check certificate details by clicking the lock icon
  3. Verify certificate validity and domain match

Restart HA Proxy Server Service​

Next, after updating the port, restart the HA Proxy server service before validating the haproxy.cfg file.

note

Verify the port number is open from the OS Firewall and Network side.

Next Steps​

After completing the HA deployment, you may need to set up additional components depending on your requirements. Below are links to guides for other server components that you can deploy.