Install in a failover cluster

Before you begin:

• Using Windows Clustering, create a failover cluster with a cluster shared volume.

  Note: This document covers installing PI Notifications Service in a pre-existing failover cluster. For port requirements, see List of port requirements for PI Notifications Service. For instructions on setting up a new Microsoft Windows Failover Cluster, see the Microsoft TechNet article: Failover Clustering in Windows Server.

To enable high availability for PI Notifications Service, you must install the service in each node of a failover cluster. You can install PI Notifications Service in the same failover cluster as PI Analysis Service, or you can install the services in different failover clusters.

1. In each node of the failover cluster, install PI Notifications Service by running the PI Server install kit.

   See Install PI Notifications Service.

2. From one of the cluster nodes, configure a clustered role for PI Notifications Service:

   1. From Server Manager, click Tools > Failover Cluster Manager to open Failover Cluster Manager.

   2. Click the cluster that you created to open the summary page.

   3. In the Configure pane, click Configure Role to run the High Availability Wizard.

      The wizard prompts you for the following information:

      Page	Description
      Select Role	Select Generic Service as the role to configure for high availability.
      Select Service	Select PI Notifications Service as the service to use.
      Client Access Point	In the Name field, type a unique name to identify the cluster role for PI Notifications Service. The name can be no longer than 15 characters and must be unique within the network. For example, you might type NotifCluster. Later, you use this name to configure the PI AF configuration database.
      Select Storage	You do not need to specify a storage volume. The clustered role can use the shared volume.
      Replicate Registry Settings	You do not need to specify a registry key. PI Notifications Service does not store data in the registry.

   Upon completion, the wizard configures a role for the clustered service and starts the role (that is, the service).

3. Prepare the cluster to configure the PI AF database:

   1. Stop the role for the newly configured PI Notifications Service cluster.

   2. In the cluster shared volume, create a folder to store runtime information.

      This folder should be a shared location among the cluster nodes.

      For example, in the C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1 directory, you might create the subdirectory Xyz\PINotifications.

4. Configure the PI AF configuration database to use the failover cluster:

   1. In PI System Explorer, click Database to select and connect to the configuration database on the PI AF server specified when installing PI Notifications Service.

   2. In the Elements pane, expand OSIsoft > PIANO > Notifications and select Service.

   3. In the Service pane, click the Attributes tab.

   4. Edit the value of the Configuration attribute to set the Hostname attribute to the fully qualified domain name of the cluster role that you created for PI Notifications Service.

      For example, for a cluster role named NotifCluster in the domain MyCompany.com, set the HostName attribute to NotifCluster.MyCompany.com. In this case, set Value to:

      {"HostName":"NotifCluster.MyCompany.com"}

   5. Check in your changes to the PI AF database.

5. Edit the DataDirectory attribute. This attribute is stored in an AF Attribute in the Configuration database located in the path:\OSIsoft\PIANO\Notifications\Service\DataDirectory\, and the attribute points to the folder that stores runtime data.

   1. In PI System Explorer, click Database to select and connect to the configuration database on the PI AF server specified when installing PI Notifications Service.

   2. In the Elements pane, expand OSIsoft > PIANO > Notifications and select Service.

   3. In the Service pane, click the Attributes tab.

   4. Edit the value of the DataDirectory attribute to set the value entry to the folder that you created to store runtime data for PI Notifications Service.

      For example, if you created the storage directory C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\OSIsoft\PINotifications, then change the line to: C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\OSIsoft\PINotifications\Data

      Note: Check to ensure you have specified the correct file path to the Data directory.

6. Restart the role for the PI Notifications Service cluster.

7. Applies only to the cluster using basic authentication. Configure usernames and passwords for each secondary cluster member in PI System Explorer.

   If you are using basic authentication in the primary member of the cluster for the SMTP server or web service connection, you must authenticate against each secondary cluster member as well. Copy the encryption key and complete the steps below to secure passwords. Steps b, c, and d must be completed for each secondary node of the cluster. You should run the commands as an administrator.

   1. Export the primary key from the primary cluster member by running the following command from a command prompt:aspnet_regiis -px "OSIsoft.PINotifications.MasterKey" key.xml -pri

      Note that aspnet_regiis is included with the .NET Framework and is located in C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe.

   2. Move the key.xml file from the primary cluster member to the secondary cluster member.

   3. Import the primary key into the secondary server with the command aspnet_regiis -pi "OSIsoft.PINotifications.MasterKey" <full path to key.xml>

   4. Set permission for a user with the command aspnet_regiis -pa "OSIsoft.PINotifications.MasterKey" "<service account>" where <service account> is the service account of The Notification Service.

   5. Delete the key.xml file.

8. Optional. Run the migration tool.

   Run the PI Notification Migration tool if you have existing legacy notifications that you wish to migrate to notification rules. The migration tool can be launched from PI System Explorer only if PI Notifications Service is installed on the machine; the PINotificationsMigrationTool.exe command is located in the %PIHOME64%\Notifications directory.

   Note: Run the migration tool once for a cluster on any node. It is undesirable to run the migration tool on each node separately because it will create duplicates.