Installing Acronis Access on a Windows 2012 (R2) Microsoft Failover Cluster

Installing Acronis Access

Please make sure you are logged in as a domain administrator before installing Acronis Access.

1. Download the Acronis Access installer.
2. Disable any anti-virus software you have or it may interrupt the installation procedure resulting in a failed installation.
3. Double-click on the installer executable.
   
4. Press Next to begin.
5. Read and accept the license agreement.
6. Press Install.

   Note: If you're deploying multiple Acronis Access servers, or you are installing a non-standard configuration, you can select which components to install from the Custom Install button.

7. Either use the default path or select a new one for the Acronis Access main folder and press OK.
   
8. Set a password for the user Postgres and write it down. This password will be needed for database backup and recovery.
9. Choose a location on a shared disk for the Postgres Data folder and press Next.

   

10. A window displaying all the components which will be installed appears. Press OK to continue.

When the Acronis Access installer finishes, press Exit.

Creating the role

1. Open the Failover Cluster Manager and right-click on Roles.
2. Select Create empty role. Give the role a proper name. (e.g. Acronis Access, AAS Cluster)

   

Configurations on the Active node

1. Configure your Gateway Server's database to be on a location on a shared disk.
   1. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\Access\Gateway Server\
   2. Find the database.yml file and open it with a text editor.
   3. Find this line: database_path: './database/' and replace ./database/ with the path you want to use (e.g. database_path: 'S:/access_cluster/database/').

      Note: Use slashes(/) as a path separator.

      Note: You can copy the configured database.yml from the first node and paste it to the second node.

Adding all of the necessary services to the Acronis Access role

Complete the following procedure for each of the following services: AcronisAccessGateway, AcronisAccessPostgreSQL (this may be different depending on the version of Acronis Access), AcronisAccessRepository and AcronisAccessTomcat

1. Right-click on the Acronis Access role and select Add a resource.
2. Select Generic Service.

   

3. Select the proper service and press Next.

   

4. On the Confirmation window press Next.
5. On the summary window press Finish.

Setting an Access Point

1. Right-click on the Acronis Access role and select Add a resource.
2. Select Client Access Point.

   

3. Enter a name for this access point.
4. Select a network.

   

5. Enter the IP address and press Next.
6. On the Confirmation window press Next.
7. On the summary window press Finish.

Adding a shared disk

1. Right-click on the Acronis Access role and select Add Storage.
2. Select the desired shared drive.

   

Configuring dependencies

1. Select the Acronis Access role and click on the Resources tab

For PostgreSQL and Acronis Access File Repository services do the following:

1. Right-click on the appropriate service and select Properties.
2. Click on the Dependencies tab.
3. Click on Resource and select the shared disk you have added.

   

4. Press Apply and close the window.

For the Acronis Access Gateway Server service do the following:

1. Right-click on the appropriate service and select Properties.
2. Click on the Dependencies tab.
3. Click on Resource and select the shared disk you have added and the Network Name (this is the name of the Client access point).

   

4. Press Apply and close the window.

For the Acronis Access Tomcat service do the following:

1. Right-click on the appropriate service and select Properties.
2. Click on the Dependencies tab.
3. Click on Resource and select the PostgreSQL and Acronis Access Gateway Server services as dependencies.Press Apply and close the window.

   Note: If you want to run the Gateway and Access servers on different IP addresses add the second IP as a resource to the Acronis Access role and set it as a dependency for the network name.

   

Starting the role and using the Configuration Utility

1. Right-click on the Acronis Access role and press Start role.
2. Launch the Configuration Utility. On a clean install, this is generally located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\Access\Configuration Utility
3. Configure the Acronis Access Gateway Server service to listen on the IP address(es) for the Acronis Access Service group.

   

4. Configure the Acronis Access Server service to listen on the IP address(es) for the Acronis Access Service group.

   Note: If Redirect requests from port 80 is selected, Tomcat will listen for incoming traffic on the unsecure port 80 and redirect it to the HTTPS port you have specified above. If you have another program listening on port 80, do not check this box.

   

5. Configure the Acronis Access File Repository to listen on localhost and change the Filestore path to be on the shared disk. This path should be the same for both nodes.

   

6. Click OK to complete the configuration and restart the services.

Installation and configuration on the second node

1. Disable any anti-virus software you have or it may interrupt the installation procedure resulting in a failed installation.
2. Install Acronis Access on the second node, but this time use the default Postgres Data location and the same postgres user password as for the first node.
3. Complete the installation.
4. Configure your Gateway Server's database to be on a location on a shared disk.
   1. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\Access\Gateway Server\
   2. Find the database.yml file and open it with a text editor.
   3. Find this line: database_path: './database/' and replace ./database/ with the path you want to use (e.g. database_path: 'S:/access_cluster/database/').

      Note: Use slashes(/) as a path separator.

      Note: You can copy the configured database.yml from the first node and paste it to the second node.

      Note: The path should match the path set on the first node.

For PostgreSQL you will need to manually replicate the registry:

1. Open Regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AcronisAccessPostgreSQL\
3. Open the key: ImagePath and change part of the value of the key to this: -D "The path you selected for the PostgreSQL data location" (e.g. -D "E:/PostgreSQL/data").
4. Open the key: DataDirectory and change the value to the path you have selected for the PostgreSQL data folder location (e.g. E:/PostgreSQL/data).

   

5. Close Regedit and continue with the steps below.
6. Move the Acronis Access role to the second node.

Using the Configuration Utility on the second node

1. Launch the Configuration Utility. On a clean install, this is generally located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\Access\Configuration Utility
2. Configure the Acronis Access Gateway Server service to listen on the IP address(es) for the Acronis Access Service group.

   

3. Configure the Acronis Access Server service to listen on the IP address(es) for the Acronis Access Service group.

   Note: If Redirect requests from port 80 is selected, Tomcat will listen for incoming traffic on the unsecure port 80 and redirect it to the HTTPS port you have specified above. If you have another program listening on port 80, do not check this box.

   

4. Configure the Acronis Access File Repository to listen on localhost and change the Filestore path to be on the shared disk. This path should be the same for both nodes.

   

5. Click OK to complete the configuration and restart the services.