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Deploying Multiple Enterprises

With 8.1.1.x version, customers have option of creating a multiple enterprise environment to manage VMS servers. The enterprise servers can be deployed based on countries, regions or business units to make it easier and simpler to manage VMS server/appliance. There are no additional license requirements for the enterprise server, customers will need the hardware to install enterprises servers.

Figure 1: Multi-Enterprise Deployment Diagram

Benefits of Multi-enterprise deployment

  • Multiple enterprises can be done based on Region, country, role, division
  • Allows roll-out of upgrades based on priority by enterprises
  • Reduces single point of failure of a single enterprise across the entire deployment
  • Allows the ability to setup a back-up server for reduced downtime
  • Centralized approach to managing multiple Enterprise Servers with a parent enterprise (like corporate enterprise)
  • One Enterprise Server can be a parent or child for another
  • Supports System Manager and Op-center

Pre-requisites

  • Make sure to install/upgrade System Manager to 8.1.x or later version to login to 8.1.x Enterprise Server or it’s associated VMS Server(s)
  • Make sure to upgrade Enterprise server(s) first before upgrading the appliances attached to the Enterprise servers. By the way, Appliances can stay on with older releases as long as they are on at least 7.2.5.12 or later version but the drawback in keeping Appliances with older version is that it can not avail the performance improvements done as part of health alert/User synchronization so it is highly recommended to upgrade appliances to 8.1.x version

Upgrade to 8.1.1.x Enterprise Server

Scenario 1: Customers having only one Enterprise Server

Step 1: Upgrade existing Enterprise Server

Upgrade the existing Enterprise Server to the latest 3VR Release 2017 ( 8.1.x or above)

For easier reference, this is called as ‘3VR Corporate Enterprise Server’ for this example. Back up the database. Follow the process defined by specific database to back-up the database being used at the enterprise server. This will be the Corporate or Root (top level) Enterprise Server.

Step 2: Adding a new enterprise

Customers can choose now to migrate to multiple enterprises. Following procedure explains setting up one child enterprise and same can be followed for multiple ES set up. Setup a fresh new Enterprise Server. Refer to the install configuration guide to set up a new enterprise server

Now the Enterprise Server is ready for migrating VMS Servers/Appliances from the Enterprise upgraded in Step 1.

For easier reference in the example used here, this ES is called as ‘3VR Enterprise Mid-West’

Step 3: Add new ES to Root ES

Add new Enterprise Server('3VR Enterprise Mid-West’) to Root Enterprise Server(‘3VR Corporate Enterprise server’) by following below steps.

  1. Login to Root Enterprise server (3VR Corporate Enterprise Server’) set up in Step 1.
  2. Right click on Root Enterprise Server region and click on ‘Add Enterprise’.


    Figure 2: Add Enterprise from Root Enterprise Server Region
  3. Enter new Enterprise Server IP address and credentials to add it to Root Enterprise Server in the below popup and press ‘OK’.
    New ES will be added after few minutes. After it is added, make sure that it shows up in Appliance Tree in System Manager.

Step 4: VMS/Appliance Migration

Please note that to migrate 3VR VMS/Appliances from one ES to another, appliances need to be under some Region so first step is to bring all To-Be-Migrated units under one Region. If it does not make sense to bring all of them under one Region, then create multiple Regions and distribute them accordingly. At any time, only one Region can be migrated at any level but it include all of it’s sub Regions, meaning, if ‘Region A’, ‘Region B’, ‘Region C’ are at the same level in Appliance tree, only one Region can be migrated at any time so same procedure needs to be repeated for every Region but while migrating Regions, it will automatically migrate all Sub Regions under it.

Following steps explain with an example about migration.

  1. Login to Root Enterprise server (3VR Corporate Enterprise Server’) set up in Step 1.
    If appliances to be migrated are not under Region, create Region and drag them under it.
    Right click on the Region which needs to be migrated and select ‘Export Appliances to File…’ to export into output file. Make sure to check the “Clear and remove region from the system after exporting”. This will ensure that the VMS Servers/appliances are removed from the existing enterprise so they can be added to the new enterprise.
  2. Check the box ‘Include assigned users and roles’ if users assigned to these appliances need to be migrated. By default, it is checked.

If ‘Include assigned users and roles’ is checked, it will export all the users’ details along with their roles so that when you import into new ES, those will be created automatically.

Figure 3: Export Mid-West Region

Now, we can import the region into the new enterprise.

  1. Expand the new Enterprise(‘3VR Enterprise Mid-West’) added above by clicking on ‘+’ sign in System Manager and right click on ‘3VR Enterprise Mid-West’(# of appliance) and select ‘Import Appliances from file’.

  2. Select the file imported in above.

    ‘File Information’ text box shows all the details of the file about the Region, appliance count, user information so it will be good for cross check.

    Make sure to select the check box ‘Import user assignments’ if file contains User/Roles and if those need to be migrated.’

    When ‘import user assignments’ is selected, it will import all the users’ details along with their roles for all the appliances in to new ES. While importing, if there are any conflicts, it will provide merge option to the user for conflict resolution.

  3. Select ‘Import into new enterprise and add selected region’.

    ‘New Region Name’ field is filled with the Region name found in imported file. if you want to rename the Region, it can be done before importing.

  4. Click on ‘Import’ to start the migration process. After few minutes, Migration will be finished and you will see new region under new Enterprise server.
    Follow same process for other regions as needed

Scenario 2: Customers having more than one Enterprise Server in Production

Following procedure needs to be followed for customers having multiple enterprises running on 7.3.2.x version that would like to migrate to the new multiple-server functionality with Corporate/Root Enterprise.

Step 1: Upgrade the existing enterprise servers.

  1. Upgrade the existing Enterprise Server to the latest 3VR Release 2017 ( 8.1.x or above).
  2. Back up the database. Follow the process defined by specific database to back-up the database being used at the enterprise server.
  3. Right click on Enterprise Server in System Manager and click ‘Export Users…’ and save to file.
  4. Follow Steps 1 through 3 for as many enterprise servers that are deployed.

Step 2: Adding the new Corporate/Root Enterprise server.

  1. Setup a fresh new Enterprise Server
  2. Follow the process to set up a new enterprise server Refer to the install configuration guide to set up a new enterprise server.
  3. This new enterprise server will be set up as the corporate/root Enterprise server.
  4.  Add original Enterprise server into the Corporate/root Enterprise server
  5. Right click the Corporate/Root Enterprise server and select ‘Import Users…’
  6. Choose the file exported in the 3rd Step from Step: 1(Upgrade existing enterprise servers above)
  7.  If there are user conflicts to resolve, follow the steps to resolve the conflicts by updating username or First Name or Last Name.
  8. Repeat steps 4 through 7 for all the remaining existing enterprise servers.

User Security Policy with Multi-Enterprise  Setup

To avoid connection issues with Enterprise Servers and to share the load properly, it is advised to give users access to only the Enterprise server(s) based on appliances and regions but not to Root Enterprise Server. For example, operators of a store should only have access to the Enterprise server which their store appliances are connected to but not to the Root ES. With proper user assignment, when user logs in to OpCenter/System Manager via parent Enterprise Server, the user will automatically directed to the highest denominated ES they have access to. This will help reduce the load on parent or root Enterprise Server.

For instance, if user needs access to Munich and Athens appliances in the below diagram, that user only needs to be given access to EU Enterprise Server but not it’s parent(Europe) or root(FBS Corporate) which is not required.

User Management Operations

Since all users are managed at Root Enterprise server, it is strongly advised to provide User Management permissions to administrators who has access to root level Enterprise Server otherwise it might cause some user discrepancies. Please follow below guidance while creating any Administrator for child level Enterprise Servers.

Create a new role called ‘ChildESAdmin’ and in this role

  • Select ‘System Manager Permissions’
  • Uncheck ‘Allow access to the Accounts – Users tab’
  • Uncheck ‘Allow access to the Accounts – Roles tab’
  • Uncheck ‘Allow editing of users’
  • Uncheck ‘Allow editing of enterprise configuration’



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