Using Failover Manager for high availability v10

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Note

This procedure is for setting up Failover Manager for a PEM server with a new installation, not with an existing one. The provided commands apply to the configuration on RHEL-based systems where HTTPD is used for the web server services.

Postgres Enterprise Manager (PEM) helps database administrators, system architects, and performance analysts to administer, monitor, and tune Postgres database servers.

Failover Manager is a high-availability tool from EDB that enables a Postgres primary node to failover to a standby node during a software or hardware failure on the primary.

The examples that follow use these IP addresses:

  • 172.16.161.200 - PEM Primary
  • 172.16.161.201 - PEM Standby 1
  • 172.16.161.202 - PEM Standby 2
  • 172.16.161.203 - EFM Witness Node
  • 172.16.161.245 - PEM VIP (used by agents and users to connect)

The following must use the VIP address:

  • The PEM agent binding of the monitored database servers
  • Accessing the PEM web client
  • Accessing the webserver services

Initial product installation and configuration

  1. Install the following on the primary and one or more standbys:

    Refer to the installation instructions in the product documentation using these links or see the instructions on the EDB repos website. Replace USERNAME:PASSWORD with your username and password in the instructions to access the EDB repositories.

    Make sure that the database server is configured to use the scram-sha-256 authentication method, as the PEM server configuration script doesn't work with trust authentication.

    You must install the java-1.8.0-openjdk package to install EFM.

  2. Configure the PEM server on the primary server as well as on all the standby servers with an initial configuration of type 1 (web services and database): 

    /usr/edb/pem/bin/configure-pem-server.sh -t 1

    For more detail on configuration types see, Configuring the PEM server on Linux.

  3. Add the following ports in the firewall on the primary and all the standby servers to allow the access:

    • 8443 for PEM Server (https)
    • 5444 for EPAS 13
    • 7800 for EFM
    • 7908 for EFM Admin

    For example:

        $ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=5444/tcp --permanent 
    success
    $ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8443/tcp --permanent
    success
    $ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=7800/tcp --permanent
    success
    $ sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=7809/tcp --permanent
    success
    $ sudo firewall-cmd --reload
    success

Set up the primary node for streaming replication

  1. Create the replication role:

        $ /usr/edb/as13/bin/psql -h 172.16.161.200 -p 5444 -U enterprisedb edb -c “CREATE ROLE repl REPLICATION LOGIN PASSWORD 'password'”;
    CREATE ROLE

    Give the password of your choice.

  2. Configure the following in the postgresql.conf file:

        wal_level = replica
    max_wal_senders = 10
    wal_keep_size = 500
    max_replication_slots = 10

    For more information on configuring parameters for streaming replication, see the PostgreSQL documentation.

    Note

    The configuration parameters might differ for different versions of the database server. You can email EDB Support at techsupport@enterprisedb.com for help with setting up these parameters.

  3. Add the following entry in the host-based authentication (/var/lib/edb/as13/data/pg_hba.conf) file to allow the replication user to connect from all the standbys:

        hostssl  replication  repl  172.16.161.201/24  scram-sha-256
    Note

    You can change the cidr range of the IP address, if needed.

  4. Modify the host-based authentication (/var/lib/edb/as13/data/pg_hba.conf) file for the pem_user role to connect to all databases using the scram-sha-256 authentication method:

        # Allow local PEM agents and admins to connect to PEM server
    hostssl all    +pem_user   172.16.161.201/24  scram-sha-256
    hostssl pem    +pem_user   127.0.0.1/32       scram-sha-256
    hostssl pem    +pem_agent  127.0.0.1/32         cert
    # Allow remote PEM agents and users to connect to PEM server
    hostssl pem   +pem_user    0.0.0.0/0          scram-sha-256
    hostssl pem   +pem_agent   0.0.0.0/0          cert

  5. Restart the EPAS 13 server.

        systemctl restart edb-as-13.service

Set up the standby nodes for streaming replication

  1. Stop the service for EPAS 13 on all the standby nodes:

        $ systemctl stop edb-as-13.service
    Note

    This example uses the pg_basebackup utility to create the replicas of the PEM backend database server on the standby servers. When using pg_basebackup, you need to stop the existing database server and remove the existing data directories.

  2. Remove the data directory of the database server on all the standby nodes:

        $ sudo su - enterprisedb
    
    $ rm -rf /var/lib/edb/as13/data/*

  3. Create the .pgpass file in the home directory of the enterprisedb user on all the standby nodes:

        $ sudo su - enterprisedb
    
    $ cat > ~/.pgpass << _EOF_
    172.16.161.200:5444:replication:repl:CHANGE_ME
    172.16.161.201:5444:replication:repl:CHANGE_ME
    172.16.161.202:5444:replication:repl:CHANGE_ME
    _EOF_
    
    $ chmod 600 ~/.pgpass

  4. Take the backup of the primary node on each of the standby nodes using pg_basebackup:

        $ sudo su - enterprisedb /usr/edb/as13/bin/pg_basebackup -h 172.16.161.200 \
    -D /var/lib/edb/as13/data -U repl -v -P -Fp -R -p 5444

    The backup command creates the postgresql.auto.conf and standby.signal files on the standby nodes. The postgresql.auto.conf file has the following content:

        sudo su - enterprisedb cat /var/lib/edb/as13/data/postgresql.auto.conf
    # Do not edit this file manually
    # It will be overwritten by the ALTER SYSTEM command.
    primary_conninfo = ‘user=repl passfile=’’/var/lib/edb/.pgpass’’ channel_binding=prefer host=172.16.161.200 port=5444 sslmode=prefer sslcompression=0 ssl_min_protocol_version=TLSv1.2 gssencmode=prefer krbsvrname=postgres target_session_attrs=any’

  5. In the postgresql.conf file on each of the standby nodes, edit the following parameter:

        hot_standby = on

  6. Start the EPAS 13 database server on each of the standby nodes:

        $ systemctl enable edb-as-13
    
    $ systemctl start edb-as-13

  7. Copy the following files from the primary node to the standby nodes at the same location, overwriting any existing files. Set the permissions on the files:

    • /etc/httpd/conf.d/edb-pem.conf
    • /etc/httpd/conf.d/edb-ssl-pem.conf
    • /root/.pem/agent1.crt
    • /root/.pem/agent1.key
    • /usr/edb/pem/agent/etc/agent.cfg
    • /usr/edb/pem/share/.install-config
    • /usr/edb/pem/web/pem.wsgi
    • /usr/edb/pem/web/config_setup.py

For example:

    $ mkdir -p /root/.pem
    $ chown root:root /root/.pem
    $ chmod 0755      /root/.pem
    $ mkdir -p        /var/lib/pemhome/.pem
    $ chown pem:pem   /var/lib/pemhome/.pem
    $ chmod 0700      /var/lib/pemhome/.pem
    $ mkdir -p        /usr/edb/pem/logs
    $ chown root:root /usr/edb/pem/logs
    $ chmod 0755      /usr/edb/pem/logs
    $ for file in /etc/httpd/conf.d/edb-pem.conf     \
                  /etc/httpd/conf.d/edb-ssl-pem.conf \
                  /root/.pem/agent1.crt \
                  /usr/edb/pem/agent/etc/agent.cfg \
                  /usr/edb/pem/share/.install-config \
                  /usr/edb/pem/web/pem.wsgi \
                  /usr/edb/pem/web/config_setup.py; do \
           chown root:root ${file}; \
           chmod 0644      ${file}; \
        done;
    $ chmod 0600 /root/.pem/agent1.key
    $ chown root:root /root/.pem/agent1.key

This code ensures that the webserver is configured on the standby and is disabled by default. Switchover by EFM enables the webserver.

Note

Manually keep the certificates in sync on master and standbys whenever the certificates are updated.

  1. Run the configure-selinux.sh script to configure the SELinux policy for PEM:
    $ /usr/edb/pem/bin/configure-selinux.sh
    getenforce found, now executing 'getenforce' command
    Configure the httpd to work with the SELinux
    Allow the httpd to connect the database (httpd_can_network_connect_db = on)
    Allow the httpd to connect the network (httpd_can_network_connect = on)
    Allow the httpd to work with cgi (httpd_enable_cgi = on)
    Allow to read & write permission on the 'pem' user home directory
    SELinux policy is configured for PEM

    $ sudo chmod 640 /root/.pem/agent1.crt
  1. Disable and stop HTTPD and PEM agent services if they're running on all replica nodes:
systemctl stop pemagent
systemctl stop httpd
systemctl disable pemagent
systemctl disable httpd
Note

At this point, a PEM primary server and two standbys are ready to take over from the primary whenever needed.

Set up EFM to manage failover on all hosts

  1. Prepare the primary node to support EFM:

    • Create a database user efm to connect to the database servers.
    • Grant the execute privileges on the functions related to WAL logs and the monitoring privileges to the user.
    • Add entries in pg_hba.conf to allow the efm database user to connect to the database server from all nodes on all the hosts.
    • Reload the configurations on all the database servers.

    For example:

        $ cat > /tmp/efm-role.sql << _EOF_
    -- Create a role for EFM
    CREATE ROLE efm LOGIN PASSWORD 'password';

    -- Give privilege to 'efm' user to connect to a database
    GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE edb TO efm;

    -- Give privilege to 'efm' user to do backup operations
    GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION pg_current_wal_lsn() TO efm;
    GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION pg_last_wal_replay_lsn() TO efm;
    GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION pg_wal_replay_resume() TO efm;
    GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION pg_wal_replay_pause() TO efm;
    GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION pg_reload_conf() TO efm;

    -- Grant monitoring privilege to the 'efm' user
    GRANT pg_monitor TO efm;
    _EOF_

    $ /usr/edb/as13/bin/psql -h 172.16.161.200 -p 5444 -U enterprisedb edb -f /tmp/efm-role.sql
    CREATE ROLE
    GRANT
    GRANT
    GRANT
    GRANT
    GRANT
    GRANT
    GRANT ROLE
    
    $ rm -f /tmp/efm-role.sql
    
    $ cat > /var/lib/edb/as13/data/pg_hba.conf <<< _EOF_
    hostssl      edb     efm     172.16.161.200/32     scram-sha-256
    hostssl      edb     efm     172.16.161.201/32     scram-sha-256
    hostssl      edb     efm     172.16.161.202/32     scram-sha-256
    hostssl      edb     efm     172.16.161.203/32     scram-sha-256
    _EOF_
    
    $ /usr/edb/as13/bin/psql -h 172.16.161.200 -p 5444 -U enterprisedb edb -c “SELECT pg_reload_conf();”

  2. Create the scripts on each node to start/stop the PEM agent:

        $ sudo cat > /usr/local/bin/start-httpd-pemagent.sh << _EOF_
    #!/bin/sh
    /bin/sudo /bin/systemctl enable httpd
    /bin/sudo /bin/systemctl start httpd
    /bin/sudo /bin/systemctl enable pemagent
    /bin/sudo /bin/systemctl start pemagent
    _EOF_
    $ sudo cat > /usr/local/bin/stop-httpd-pemagent.sh << _EOF_
    #!/bin/sh

    /bin/sudo /bin/systemctl stop pemagent
    /bin/sudo /bin/systemctl disable pemagent
    /bin/sudo /bin/systemctl stop httpd
    /bin/sudo /bin/systemctl disable httpd
    _EOF_
    $ sudo chmod 770 /usr/local/bin/start-pemagent.sh
    $ sudo chmod 770 /usr/local/bin/stop-pemagent.sh

  3. Create a sudoers file (/etc/sudoers.d/efm-pem) on each node to allow the efm user to start/stop the pemagent:

        $ sudo cat > /etc/sudoers.d/efm-pem << _EOF_
    efm    ALL=(ALL)           NOPASSWD:   /bin/systemctl enable pemagent
    efm    ALL=(ALL)           NOPASSWD:   /bin/systemctl disable pemagent
    efm    ALL=(ALL)           NOPASSWD:   /bin/systemctl stop pemagent
    efm    ALL=(ALL)           NOPASSWD:   /bin/systemctl start pemagent
    efm    ALL=(ALL)           NOPASSWD:   /bin/systemctl status pemagent
    _EOF_

  4. Create an efm.nodes file on all nodes using the sample file (/etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.nodes.in), and give read-write access to the efm OS user:

        $ sudo cp /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.nodes.in /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.nodes
    $ sudo chown efm:efm /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.nodes
    $ sudo chmod 600 /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.nodes

  5. Add the IP address and efm port of the primary node in the /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.nodes file on the standby nodes:

        $ sudo cat > /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.nodes <<< _EOF_
    172.16.161.200:7800
    _EOF_

  6. Create the efm.properties file on all the nodes using the sample file (/etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.properties.in). Grant read access to all the users:

        $ sudo cp /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.properties.in /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.properties
    $ sudo chown efm:efm /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.properties
    $ sudo chmod a+r /etc/edb/efm-4.1/efm.properties

  7. Encrypt the efm user's password using the efm utility:

        $ export EFMPASS=password
    $ /usr/edb/efm-4.1/bin/efm encrypt efm --from-env
    096666746b05b081d1a98e43d94c9dad

  8. Edit the following parameters in the properties file:

        db.user=efm
    db.password.encrypted=096666746b05b081d1a98e43d94c9dad
    db.port=5444
    db.database=edb
    db.service.owner=enterprisedb
    db.service.name=edb-as-13
    db.bin=/usr/edb/as13/bin
    db.data.dir=/var/lib/edb/as13/data
    jdbc.sslmode=require
    user.email=username@example.com
    from.email=node1@efm-pem
    notification.level=INFO
    notification.text.prefix=[PEM/EFM] 
    bind.address=172.16.161.200:7800
    admin.port=7809
    is.witness=false
    local.period=10
    local.timeout=60
    local.timeout.final=10
    remote.timeout=10
    node.timeout=50
    encrypt.agent.messages=true
    stop.isolated.primary=true
    stop.failed.primary=true
    primary.shutdown.as.failure=false
    update.physical.slots.period=0
    ping.server.ip=8.8.8.8
    ping.server.command=/bin/ping -q -c3 -w5
    auto.allow.hosts=false
    stable.nodes.file=false
    db.reuse.connection.count=0
    auto.failover=true
    auto.reconfigure=true
    promotable=true
    use.replay.tiebreaker=true
    standby.restart.delay=0
    reconfigure.num.sync=false
    reconfigure.sync.primary=false
    minimum.standbys=0
    recovery.check.period=1
    restart.connection.timeout=60
    auto.resume.period=0
    virtual.ip=172.16.161.245
    virtual.ip.interface=ens33
    virtual.ip.prefix=24
    virtual.ip.single=true
    check.vip.before.promotion=true
    pgpool.enable=false
    sudo.command=sudo
    sudo.user.command=sudo -u %u
    syslog.host=localhost
    syslog.port=514
    syslog.protocol=UDP
    syslog.facility=LOCAL1
    file.log.enabled=true
    syslog.enabled=false
    jgroups.loglevel=INFO
    efm.loglevel=INFO
    jvm.options=-Xmx128m
    script.remote.post.promotion=/usr/local/bin/stop-pemagent.sh
    script.post.promotion=/usr/local/bin/start-pemagent.sh

  9. Set the value of the is.witness configuration parameter on the witness node to true:

        is.witness=true

  10. Enable and start the EFM service on the primary node:

        $ systemctl enable edb-efm-4.1
    $ systemctl start edb-efm-4.1

  11. Allow the standbys to join the cluster started on the primary node:

        /usr/edb/efm-4.1/bin/efm allow-node  efm  172.16.161.201
    /usr/edb/efm-4.1/bin/efm allow-node  efm  172.16.161.202
    /usr/edb/efm-4.1/bin/efm allow-node  efm  172.16.161.203

  12. Enable and start the EFM service on the standby nodes and the EFM witness node:

        $ systemctl enable edb-efm-4.1
    $ systemctl start edb-efm-4.1

  13. Check the EFM cluster status from any node:

        $ sudo /usr/edb/efm-4.1/bin/efm cluster-status efm
    Cluster Status: efm
        Agent Type  Address              DB       VIP
        ----------------------------------------------------------------
        Primary     172.16.161.200      UP       172.16.161.245*
        Standby     172.16.161.201      UP       172.16.161.245
        Standby     172.16.161.202      UP       172.16.161.245
        Witness     172.16.161.203      N/A      172.16.161.245

    Allowed node host list:
        172.16.161.200 172.16.161.201 172.16.161.202 172.16.161.203

    Membership coordinator: 172.16.161.200

    Standby priority host list:
        172.16.161.201 172.16.161.202

    Promote Status:

        DB Type     Address              WAL Received LSN   WAL Replayed LSN   Info
        ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Primary     172.16.161.200                         0/F7A3808          
        Standby     172.16.161.201      0/F7A3808          0/F7A3808          
        Standby     172.16.161.202      0/F7A3808          0/F7A3808          

        Standby database(s) in sync with primary. It is safe to promote.

This status confirms that EFM is set up successfully and managing the failover for the PEM server.

In case of failover, any of the standbys are promoted as the primary node, and PEM agents connect to the new primary node. You can replace the failed primary node with a new standby using this procedure.

Current limitations

The current limitations include:

  • Web console sessions for the users are lost during the switchover.
  • Per-user settings set from the Preferences dialog box are lost, as they’re stored in local configuration files on the file system.
  • Background processes, started by the Backup, Restore, and Maintenance dialogs boxes, and their logs aren't shared between the systems. They are lost during switchover.
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