Managing Clusters And Peers; Setting Up A Cluster - Cisco TelePresence Administrator's Manual

Clustering and peers

Managing clusters and peers

Setting up a cluster

Before setting up a cluster of X8.1 VCS peers or adding an X8.1 VCS to a cluster, ensure that:
All clusters peers are running the same version of code. The only occasion where different peers are
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allowed to run different versions of code is for the short period of time while a cluster is being upgraded from
one version of code to another, during which time the cluster will operate in a partitioned fashion.
A DNS SRV record is available for the cluster which contains A or AAAA records for each peer of the
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cluster.
Each peer has a different LAN configuration (a different IPv4 address and a different IPv6 address, where
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enabled).
Each peer in a cluster is within a 15ms hop (30ms round trip delay) of each and every other VCS in or to be
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added to the cluster.
Each peer in a cluster is directly routable to each and every other VCS in or to be added to the cluster.
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(There must be no NAT between cluster peers – if there is a firewall ensure that the required ports are
opened.)
Each peer is using a hardware platform (appliance or virtual machine) with equivalent capabilities; for
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example, you can cluster peers that are running on standard appliances with peers running on 2 core
Medium VMs, but you cannot cluster a peer running on a standard appliance with peers running on 8 core
Large VMs.
All peers have the same set of option keys installed:
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The number of call license keys may be different on different peers; all other license keys must be
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identical on each peer.
The VCS must be restarted after installing some option keys in order to fully activate them.
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Cisco TMS, if used, is running version 13.2 or later (12.6 or later is permitted if you are not using Cisco
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TMS for provisioning or FindMe).
Each peer has a different system name.
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H.323 mode is enabled on each peer
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On); even if all endpoints in the cluster are SIP only, H.323 signaling is used for endpoint location searching
and sharing bandwidth usage information with other peers in the cluster.
The VCS cluster has a DNS SRV record that defines all cluster peers.
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The DNS servers used by the VCS peers must support both forward and reverse DNS lookups of Cisco
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TMS and all VCS peer addresses; the DNS servers must also provide address lookup for any other DNS
functionality required, such as:
NTP servers or the external manager if they configured using DNS names
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Microsoft Lync Server FQDN lookup
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LDAP server forward and reverse lookup (reverse lookups are frequently provided through PTR records).
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Note that DNS server configuration is specific to each peer.
If Cisco TMS is to be used for replicating FindMe and/or Provisioning data, ensure that Provisioning
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Extension mode functionality has been enabled on Cisco TMS (see
Deployment Guide for details).
Then, to create your cluster you must first configure a master peer and then add the other peers into the
cluster one-by-one.
You are recommended to backup your VCS data before setting up a cluster.
Cisco VCS Administrator Guide (X8.1.1)
(Configuration > Protocols >
Managing clusters and peers
H.323, and for H.323 mode select
Cisco TMS Provisioning Extension
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