When planning the configuration of your High Availability (HA) network, you have to decide whether you want to install the UMS Server and UMS Load Balancer on the same host or on separate hosts. At the same time, there is a question how many UMS Servers and UMS Load Balancers are required. The following article describes the most common use cases and provides only general sizing recommendations. Your individual configuration may differ.
When deciding how many UMS Servers and UMS Load Balancers you need, simply counting your endpoint devices is not enough. Most importantly, you have to analyze the entire network environment as well as the other circumstances within your workplace. See (12.04.120-en) Installation and Sizing Guidelines for IGEL UMS as well as (12.04.120-en) IGEL UMS Sizing Guidelines & Architecture Diagrams and contact your IGEL reseller to get counsel.
UMS Server & UMS Load Balancer Are Installed on the Same Host Machine
The most common scenario when deploying UMS High Availability is to install the UMS Server and UMS Load Balancer on the same host machine. Both the UMS Server and the UMS Load Balancer offer redundancy and are installed on two servers. The database is ideally designed as a cluster.
| Typical Use Cases | #UMS Server + UMS Load Balancer |
|---|---|
The installation on the same host machine is suitable if
| 2 UMS Servers |
In this configuration, each of the two servers can also perform the tasks as a UMS Server alone. If both servers are active at the same time, this has a load-distributing effect. Note, however, that the load balancer generates extra load along with the actual UMS Server.
UMS Server & UMS Load Balancer are Installed on Separate Host Machines
If you need to manage a very large number of devices and/or do not want the server resources to be shared between the load balancer and the UMS Server, the installation on separate hosts should be considered.
| Typical Use Cases | #UMS Server Standalone & Load Balancer Standalone |
|---|---|
The installation of the load balancer on a separate host machine is
| Smallest typical configuration: 2-3 UMS Servers General sizing recommendations:
|
In the smallest typical configuration, queries from the devices are passed on to the UMS Servers by both load balancers. If one of the load balancers should fail, the other remains available and assumes responsibility for communications alone. A great number of UMS Servers could overload a single load balancer, which would then become itself a bottleneck. Therefore, there are provisions for no more than three UMS Servers in this configuration. For very large installations with more than three UMS Servers, the number of load balancers should be increased accordingly.
- High Availability with IGEL UMS Load Balancers: All UMS Servers and UMS Load Balancers must reside on the same VLAN.
- For High Availability (UMS HA) with IGEL UMS Load Balancers, network traffic must be allowed over UDP broadcast port 6155, and TCP traffic and UDP broadcast traffic over port 61616. For further port configuration, see (12.04.120-en) IGEL UMS Communication Ports.
- The network configuration on Windows Servers must have the TCP/IPv6 option enabled for UMS 12.
- IGEL UMS HA installation with IGEL UMS Load Balancers is not supported in cloud environments like Azure / AWS as they do not allow broadcast traffic within their networks. The HA installation without IGEL UMS Load Balancers (as well as the Distributed UMS) is, however, supported in cloud environments as of UMS version 6.10.