Setting up a cluster of Spotfire Servers

Some deployments that include clustered Spotfire Servers are very complex, and their installation and configuration are best left to a Spotfire consultant. However, if you plan to do it yourself, follow these guidelines.

Prerequisites

  • The Spotfire database has been set up on your Oracle or SQL Server database; for instructions, see Preparation.

For general information about Spotfire Server clusters, see Clustered server deployments.

Procedure

  1. Install Spotfire Server on each computer; for instructions, see Installation.
    Note: For reasons of security and performance, do not install a Spotfire Server on the same computer as the database. (This is true for non-clustered systems as well.)
    1. Ensure that all the clustered Spotfire Servers have the same:
      • Version number
      • Database
      • Database drivers
      • Encryption password. This is an optional setting on the Bootstrap page of the configuration tool.
      Note: If you plan to use ActiveSpaces to secure the clustered environment, you must perform the following step on each server computer. If ActiveSpaces is already installed on the server computers, you may want to do it now.
      • Copy the file ActiveSpaces installation dir/lib/as-common.jar to the following directory: Spotfire Server installation dir/tomcat/webapps/spotfire/WEB-INF/lib
  2. Apply any available hotfix to each server. For instructions, see Applying hotfixes to the server.
  3. Set clustering configuration options in the Spotfire Server configuration. The following steps modify the shared Spotfire Server configuration, so they are only done once.
    Important: Make sure that none of the servers are running before you change the clustering configuration.
    Note: These instructions are for using the configuration tool. Alternatively you can use the config-cluster command on the command line. For more information, see Executing commands on the command line.
    1. If the configuration tool is not open, open it; for instructions see Opening the configuration tool.
    2. On the Configuration page, at the bottom of the left pane, click Clustering.
      Clustering page of the configuration tool
    3. Under Configure Clustering, next to Enabled, select Yes.
    4. Next to Type, select ActiveSpaces or Hazelcast. For information on using ActiveSpaces versus Hazelcast in a clustered implementation, see Using Hazelcast for clustering and Using ActiveSpaces for clustering.
    5. Next to Port, enter the TCP/IP port that is used for clustering. This port is the same for all servers in the cluster. (The default is 5701.)
      Note: Make sure that this port is not protected by a firewall.
    6. If you selected ActiveSpaces in step d, next to TLS enabled, select Yes.
    7. At the bottom of the page, click Save configuration.
  4. Start all the servers in the cluster.
Related reference