Summary

How do you get a backup failover server out of maintenance mode?

Question

We are attempting to integrate backup/fail over and are testing but have run into an issue where our main server goes down and the backup server goes into maintenance mode. We cannot get the backup server out of maintenance mode once the main server comes back up.

We suspended the main license server to test how FlexNet Embedded would react to using the failover server. The failover server went into a maintenance mode for 3 days. In this mode, it does not synchronize to the main server or to FlexNet Operations. We acquired a license to the failover. Then resumed the main server. The failover server is still in maintenance mode and not communicating with the main server. Then we restarted both servers, but no luck. Failover is still not communicating with the main server.

Is there a manual way to take the failover out of maintenance mode (or configuration setting) or do we simply have to wait for 3 days to expire? 

Answer

The backup server should reset maintenance mode once it is able to sync with the main server. The backup server syncs with the main server on an enterprise configured interval (verify what that is set to).

To force it, you should be able to restart the backup server and it should initiate a connection/sync with the main server, assuming its set up correctly.

In particular, it is the fne.syncTo.repeats setting that defines the sync interval between the backup and the main server. 

From the User Guide:

"If necessary, also update the fne.syncTo.repeats setting in the producer-settings.xml file for the back-up license server to set its synchronization interval with the main license server. (The license server administrator does not have permission to edit this setting.)"

NOTE: Once the main server comes back up, client software can also acquire a license from the main server to "force" the backup server out of maintenance mode.