Fail Over of Kentico CMS 7

Matthew Hall asked on May 28, 2015 11:04

Hi there, Is their a way to set up a mirror copy of Kentico CMS 7 on another server, such that at any moment, (say a server failure) we can point our browsers at the new server and it be the same.

I was thinking of replicating a database (mirroring) to another server, and replicating copying the files in IIS to the new website location, and configuring IIS the same, so that if we have a server failure, we can just change the IP address of the backup server to the production server to take over the work. However, I can't get this setup to work... i believe the objects need to be imported manually?

kentico cms 7 failover mi

Correct Answer

Brenden Kehren answered on June 1, 2015 17:46

Technically you don't need to reference any install files for Kentico. All you need is the code, database and the connection string in the web.config file. So if your SQL instance is on the same server as the web site, then simply leave "localhost" as the server name and ensure that the user and password information is replicated on both database server instances and you'll be fine. Just point your DNS from the down server to the backup server and things will pick up just as if they weren't down.

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Brenden Kehren answered on May 28, 2015 13:36

So you don't want to setup a web farm just more of a mirrored scenario?

You can do this but it will be all dependent on how you set up your file sync and your database replication. You can do this but you'd need to setup a second web server and have server A sync files with server B. You can accomplish this with Microsoft's DFS.

Then for the database, you'd have in a real world scenario, 2 different SQL database servers where SQL db server 1 replicates to SQL db server 2. Then when web server 1 or db server 1 crashes, you do as you say and point your IP to the server 2.

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Matthew Hall answered on May 29, 2015 10:12

Hi Brendon,

Thanks for your response... Yes, just a mirrored scenario... We have a lot of other roles and custom websites on our Primary server, and use SQL mirroring to create a ready to go version of the primary server (once the replication has been stopped and databases set live).

My question is really on the basis that the SQL DB is replicated, along with the website files, but do i need Kentico installed on the second server? Or just the website code and SQL DB? Do i have to create another license key as it is a new server? (This is a short term basis until we get the Primary server functioning again.) I believe the SQL DB and Kentico Code are tied to each other, but are they tied to the servername/server OS too?

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Martin Danko answered on June 1, 2015 15:14

Hello Matthew,

No, Kentico license isn't tied to the servername. You can transfer the license anytime to any other machine, the only fact in this scenario is that one license can be used only with one live server at a specific time. Based on your description it also depends if you are running website and the database on one server or if you have a separate SQL server, etc.

Regards, Martin

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Matthew Hall answered on June 1, 2015 16:02

Thanks Martin,

Using one license at a time is not a problem, We are using the website and Database on one server. It's just when the primary server goes down, the DB and Website is then "set Live" ...

ALTER DATABASE Kentico7 SET PARTNER OFF RESTORE DATABASE Kentico7 WITH RECOVERY GO

Will everything just kick in, if I change the IP Address of the stand by server to Answer in place of the Primary?

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Matthew Hall answered on June 1, 2015 18:00

Many thanks Guys :)

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