Adding a node to an existing cluster

Before starting

Warning: when you add a node to a cluster you will lose all the data that is on that node.

Before you try to add a node to a cluster, ensure that:

• The new node has the same UC Suite version of the other nodes in the cluster, otherwise you won't be able to complete the procedure
• The node is already configured to use the desired database server (you can check this through Support web page)
• If the cluster is using the Replicated Database strategy, there's enough free disk space on the machine to contain at least twice the size of the database of a node that already belongs to the cluster.

You should notice also that during this procedure all the applications of the Suite will be stopped and unavailable on this node.

Procedure

To add a node to a cluster, log in as administrator in that node's UC Suite and click on Admin -> High Availability.

Choose Add to existing Cluster and click Next.

On the next page you choose one of the IP addresses of the machine. This becomes the address used by the other nodes of the cluster to communicate with this node.

Starting from 2022.Spring.1 release, Imagicle High Availability supports IPv6 addressing too. If you choose this addressing type, please remember that all nodes should be added with same IPv6 addressing.

Then you must enter the IP address of an existing node (chosen from the displayed nodes list) of the cluster you want to join. That node must remain up and running until the end of this procedure.

When you click Next and confirm your choices, the node addition procedure starts. It may take a long time, depending on the amount of data contained at that moment in the cluster (this procedure automatically creates a backup of source node's database, download and restore it to the node to be added). As a coarse idea, the first node that joins an existing cluster could take 16 minutes per GB of database size. Nodes that join later, could take 3 minutes per GB.

When the procedure is complete, the node displays a success notification, but if the addition fails it displays a failure notification.

From now on, the summary page shows the list of all the nodes in the cluster (including the node that you just added). IP addresses are shown in IPv4 or IPv6 format, as they were added in the cluster.

Pls. keep in mind that above cluster's NODE ID corresponds to Imagicle server's host name. You can later change host name, if required; just beware that NODE ID will remain unchanged (with initial host name).

Now, in order to propagate the topology change to all the other nodes, you should restart all of them, one by one.

Next, please be aware you must re-configure some node-specific parameters: 

• PBX connection(s), like SIP/H.323 trunks, FTP/Telnet, Routing rules, etc.
• Proxy settings
• Launch a DB maintenance, if required, from Support web page
• SMTP parameters
• Monitoring parameters, including email and SNMP notifications configuration
• Numbering plan settings
• VoiceMail pilot
• Contact Manager's custom fields
• Email templates related to Digital Fax, VoiceMail and Call Recording applications

Known limitations

There are some actions an administrator won't be able to do on a cluster:

• On UC Suite versions lower than Summer 2015, you can't remove a node from a cluster.
• Once a node is part of a cluster, you can't change its IP Address.
• You can't change cluster's NODE IDs. To change NODE ID, please contact Imagicle Support.
• You can't restore a UC Suite backup to a cluster node: data integrity is granted by the cluster itself.

For any problem regarding one of the activities above, you can contact Imagicle Technical Support.