Connecting ExSign in High Availability Mode
In order to deploy the ExSign as a highly available solution, the user would require and/or fulfill the following set of components and conditions:
- F5 load balancer
- Redundant instances of the ExSign Portal machines.
High availability ensures that the ExSign solution performs normally without any system downtime.
High-Availability Workflow for ExSign Web Portal
Figure 1: Client's communication scenario in HA Mode.
The client will browse the ExSign Web Portal URL (e.g., https://hc-contoso.com) on a machine and this request will be forwarded to F5 Load Balancer which intercepts and routes the request to an active node of the ExSign Web Portal.
The following pre-requisites are desired for the setup of the ExSign Web Portal in High Availability mode:
Number of Portal Machines
For the high availability environment, at least two ExSign Web Portal machines should be added.
Configuring Portal URL in Portal’s General Settings
- Login to the ExSign Portal as the Portal Admin.
- Go to Settings >> General Settings.
- Now, change the Portal URL to the 443 port-based URL.
High-Availability Workflow for ExSign Hub API
Figure 2: Communication between Agent and Portal machines during HA Mode.
Configuring Hub API URL in Portal’s General Settings
ExSign Agent Utility will communicate with the ExSign Portal using API Hub URL on port 8776. In order to route the API Hub URL via F5, this needs to intercept with a Virtual customized URL (e.g., https://api.hc-contoso.com).
This URL has to be updated in the General setting of the ExSign portal as mentioned below.
- Login to the ExSign Portal as the Portal Admin.
- Go to Settings >> General Settings.
- Now, change the Hub Server Access URL to the 443 port-based URL.
Configuring XML Files of Each Portal Machine
Please note that this configuration should be made for both ExSign Portal machines. The steps are stated as follows:
- Navigate to the path C:\Program Files\ExSign Portal\Configs and select ConfigHub.xml file.
- After opening the ConfigHub.xml file, update the IP address within the <uri> tag to match the Portal machine's IP address (the port number should be left unchanged), as indicated in the following figure.
Figure 3: For Portal Machine 1.
Figure 4: For Portal Machine 2.
- Save the above-mentioned Hub configuration files of both machines.