Administering the attended high-availability option

Message Networking Release 2.0 supports an attended high-availability option, which is intended for extreme disaster recovery circumstances when an operational Message Networking that cannot perform normal operations due to unscheduled downtime. This topic provides information on the daily administration procedures required to support the high-availability option, as well as procedures you must follow if you must put the secondary Message Networking into services.

See Attended high-availability option overview for more information on the attended high-availability option.

Daily Procedures

The following are the normal day-to-day procedures for the attended high availability option:

1. Verify that the Secondary Message Networking application, although not in use performing message delivery, is powered up.
2. Verify that the Primary Message Networking performs nightly automated backup at 3 a.m.
3. Each morning, take the backup from the Primary Message Networking and perform a restore on the Secondary Message Networking.

   Note: Unattended Message Networking backups do not include subscriber voice names. If subscriber voice names are required, you must use an attended backup instead.

4. In a Connected configuration, change the IP Address of the Secondary Message Networking and reboot the Secondary Message Networking.
5. Perform a basic data sanity check on Secondary Message Networking including:
   • Generate a Remote Machines List Report and verify the remote machines and the number of subscribers for each remote machine.
   • Generate a Remote Machine Dial Plan Report and verify that it is correct.
     

Disaster Recovery Procedures

If necessary, complete the appropriate disaster recovery procedure, depending on the configuration used.

Connected configuration

In a Connected configuration, complete the following disaster recovery steps:

1. Disconnect the Primary Message Networking TCP/IP and analog networking ports.

   Note: In special cases (and if possible depending upon the disaster), it might be beneficial to leave TCP/IP connectivity of the Primary Message Networking, change the IP address of the Primary Message Networking, reboot the Primary Message Networking, and allow remote services PPP access into the down system.

2. Leave the services modem of the Primary Message Networking connected to the analog switch port for remote Services access.
3. Change the IP address of the Secondary Message Networking to that of the Primary Message Networking and then reboot the Secondary Message Networking.
4. Change the translations in the switch to busy-out the analog networking ports of the Primary Message Networking.
5. If the services modem of the Secondary Message Networking was not previously connected due to extraneous alarms, connect the modem to the switch.
6. Change the translations in the switch to reference the telephone numbers of the Primary Message Networking analog networking ports as the corresponding Secondary Message Networking ports.
7. Monitor the Message Networking system to verify that normal operations and message traffic is occurring (such as alarm log views, traffic reports, channel display).

The Secondary Message Networking is now the Primary Message Networking.

Disconnected configuration

In a Disconnected configuration, complete the following disaster recovery steps:

1. Disconnect the Primary Message Networking TCP/IP analog networking ports.

   Note: In special cases (and if possible depending upon the disaster), it might be beneficial to leave TCP/IP connectivity of the Primary Message Networking, change the IP address of the Primary Message Networking, reboot the Primary Message Networking, and allow remote services PPP access into the down system.

2. Leave the services modem of the Primary Message Networking connected to the analog switch port for remote Services access.
3. Connect the TCP/IP port of the Secondary Message Networking to the LAN.
4. Move the switch connections of the Primary Message Networking analog networking ports and services modem to the corresponding Secondary Message Networking ports.
5. Reboot the Secondary Message Networking.
6. Monitor the Message Networking system to verify that normal operations and message traffic is occurring (such as alarm log views, traffic reports, channel display).

The Secondary Message Networking is now the Primary Message Networking.

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