Installing Additional Windows Servers

Before proceeding with this section, determine your authentication method and complete the appropriate steps in Authenticating Additional Servers.

For each additional server that you want to add to your deployment, make sure it can communicate with the other servers, and then follow these steps:

  1. Install the same SQL Server version being used by the master server.
  2. Run the Server installer on each machine that you want to configure as an additional Server. Use the same domain administration that you used for the local SQL server installation to ensure you have sa authority.
  3. If you are extracting the server installer from the Installation Generator, select Production Deployment, and I want to install with an existing masthead. Specify the masthead.afxm file from the master server. Otherwise, use the server install package from the BESInstallers folder on the Master Server.
  4. On the Select Database Replication page of the server installer, select Replicated Database.
  5. On the Select Database page, select Local Database to host the database on the server (typical for most applications).
    Note: You can also select a remote database hosted on a different server. In this case ensure that the server you are installing can resolve the hostname of the remote server where the database resides. For additional information see Server installation with remote database.
  6. Proceed through the installer screens until the installer gets to Configuring your new installation and prompts you with a Database Connection dialog box. Enter the hostname of your master server, and the credentials for an account that can log in to the master server with DBO permissions on the BFEnterprise database. The Replication servers window shows you the server configuration for your current deployment. By default, your newly-installed server is configured to replicate directly from the master server every 5 minutes. You can adjust this as necessary. For large installations, the initial database replication can take several minutes and might get interrupted. If you experience this problem, you can discuss it with your IBM Software Support.
  7. Use SQL Server Management Studio to create the same SQL Server login you created earlier on the Master Server with BFEnterprise as the default database and System Admin (sa) authority or the DBO role on the BFEnterprise and master databases.
  8. For NT Authentication via Domain User and User Group, change the LogOn settings for the FillDB service to the domain user or member of the user group created above, and restart the service.
  9. For SQL Authentication, add the following string values to the FillDB registry keys, and restart the FillDB Service.HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\BigFix\Enterprise Server\FillDB:
    ReplicationUser = <login name>
    ReplicationPassword = <password>
  10. On the newly-installed server, run the IBM BigFix Administration Tool and select the Replication tab to see the current list of servers and their replication periods. Select the newly-installed server from the pull-down menu, and verify in the list below that it is successfully connected to the master server. Then select the master server in the server dropdown, and verify that it is correctly connected to the new server. You might need to wait for the next replication period before both servers show a successful connection.
    Note: The initial replication can take several hours depending on the size of your database. Wait for the replication to complete before taking any actions from a console connected to the replica Server.
  11. You can see a graph of the servers and their connections by clicking the Edit Replication Graph button. You can change the connections between servers by dragging the connecting arrows around.