2 x Powerswitch servers in tandem?

mmusger · Post by **mmusger** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:57 am

Hi,

we have 2 seperate Powerswitch 10.1 servers with a lot of flows.

1 servers is actually the backup of the other. Currently, to optimise things, both servers run one half of the flows.

But I was thinking that it would be nicer to have both servers run all flows to reduce workload. That would mean both servers poll the same inputfolders.

Is this possible?

Best regards,

Marc

jonasy · Post by **jonasy** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 2:22 pm

Hi Marc,

It can give problems when both your PowerSwitch instances are trying to pickup the files in the input folders at the same time. I would advise not to use Switch this way.

An alternative could be to pickup the jobs with one Switch and use a load balancing flow to distribute the jobs to a processing flow on the same Switch instance and the same processing flow on another Switch instance.

You can find a flow illustrating the principle of load balancing on the following page:

http://www.crossroads-world.com/en/Get% ... ncing.aspx

Kind Regards,

Jonas

mattbeals · Post by **mattbeals** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 10:00 pm

It may be best to leave the processing the way it is. Using the load balancer may be problematic in that you need to control how many files go to each server. The load balancer is necessarily setup well for a/b a/b a/b a/b . It needs to see how many files reside in a's folder before it sends to b. But depending on how fast a clears the job from the folder a will almost always be "free". Then you have to deal with pack/unpack metadata potentially.

Keeping the work segregated the way you do may very well be the optimal way. You can always dump jobs onto b as needed.

Keep in the back of your mind this; use a as your primary server and b as your secondary/dev/testing server. You can parallel test to ensure b is working normally. Then when needed you can flip b to being the main processing server and a becomes the backup/test/dev server. In a peak period you can always have some sort of setup (different inputs, etc.) to use both.

But... do you have two production licenses, one production & one dev/cold spare or what? What about the other programs licenses?

mmusger · Post by **mmusger** » Mon Oct 10, 2011 3:27 pm

Thanks for the replies.

It seems it is not possible in the way I intended. However, file balancing (load balancing) is possible, but not with the suggested flow.

We use 'Limagito' (.com for you curious people) as our heavy duty file manager and it does file/load balancing the right way. So eventually there is a solution afterall

Basically, it would mean that both servers can run simultaniously, the input folders just have to be different. Limagito will provide the files.

@mattbeals: we do have 2 production licences and all other licenses, like Adobe and other Enfocus products are here too. Why would I post a support question without a clean background.

mattbeals · Post by **mattbeals** » Wed Oct 12, 2011 4:55 pm

Why? Well, lots of people do these sorts of things intentionally or unintentionally. It sounds as if the Limagito solution is workable with the two servers.

Rossini · Post by **Rossini** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:21 am

Hi, in fact we have tried to run two SWITCH with same flow but could se that some of the files picked up twice (of both SWITCH).

In best worlds SWITCH 1 should lock the file A so SWITCH 2 could not also use it, but unfortunatly it did´nt work.

We now use SWITCH 1 to sort and loadbalance, but then if SWITCH 1 fails the whole flow i still, that was the reason we also had prefered two run them in "tandem".

//Henrik

mattbeals · Post by **mattbeals** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:57 am

You almost need a script that runs in front of Switch to hand files to either Switch server. I have a customer that wrote a custom program that they can set to copy the same data to both servers, only one server or alternate delivery between the two.