confused about active-passive and active-active deployment

[gisarchitect]

Hello, folks

I am very confused about Active-Passive and Active-Active deployment in HA Environment.

My first question:

(do the concept of active-passive and active-active for ArcGIS Server only or it can be applied on the base deployment as a whole unit as this point is very vague in the documentation.

consider this point for the next two questions: I will install arcgis enterprise highly available (active-passive). I say (active-passive) because I have only one license for ArcGIS Enterprise. This is the only point I can understand about the concept of active-passive. That I buy only one license  for the two sites.

Second question:

regarding portal installation, when I install the portal on the second machine should join the existing portal or create a separate one. And what about the shared content? will be one directory or separate directories.

Third question:

Regarding ArcGIS Server installaion, when I install the second arcgis server should I join the existing site or create a new one. And what about the config-store and output directory will be the same for two machines or separate? Kindly need help

[BillFox]

Hello gisarchitect,

say hi to Roger too at this reference link:

https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-enterprise-portal-questions/migrating-arcgis-portal/m-p/1244605...

[gisarchitect]

Thanks you @BillFox  , I do appreciate every reply to my post, I checked it but it seems that it do not have answers for my questions. Part of my confustion is about the installation procedures of ArcGIS Server and portal. I cannot understand how I should install two different arcgis servers as this link describe

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/web-adaptor/latest/install/iis/single-machine-high-availability-act...

and when coming to portal installation I should merge two installtion in one portal as described in this link

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/configuring-a-highly-available-por...

I hope I'm able to explain my inquiry

[SimonSchütte_ct]

Take a look at the 10.7 version of the documentation, there are helpful diagrams:
https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/web-adaptor/10.7/install/iis/single-machine-high-availability-activ...

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/web-adaptor/10.7/install/iis/single-machine-high-availability-activ...

[gisarchitect]

Thanks @SimonSchütte_ct  for your reply

[ReeseFacendini · Accepted solution]

To configure a highly available ArcGIS Enterprise, the "join site" method is the only option. Creating a new site will create a whole new Enterprise, and the two systems won't be aware of each other. The single license for Enterprise is okay, as during a joined site configuration the license is essentially shared across the system. You will need to authorize both installs of ArcGIS Server with the same license file, but there's no concern of being in violation of the licensing terms.

ArcGIS Server is the only component that functions in an active-active role. All machines participating in that site will throw their resources into the ring for all services. Portal for ArcGIS and ArcGIS DataStore function in an active-passive (primary-standby) role, where one machine is active until a failover event triggers the other machine to become primary.

Portal for ArcGIS needs to have the content folder (only the content folder) located on a network share to be accessed by both machines (i.e., \\myNetwork\shared\folder). ArcGIS Server will need to have both the config-store and arcgisserver directories on a network share as well (can be the same share or different). ArcGIS DataStore will read the information from ArcGIS Server, and there is no need (or way) to have DataStore configured to write to a network share.

[gisarchitect]

Thanks a lot @ReeseFacendini , the picture is more clear now. Appreciate your help

[SaurabhUpadhyaya]

Hi @gisarchitect @ReeseFacendini @BillFox 

We have followed all the steps outlined for the active/active configuration(https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/latest/install/windows/single-machine-high-availability-acti...). of ArcGIS Server 10.8, and everything has been working well until we introduced security measures. Currently, nothing is on the shared drive (ArcGIS Server config store) as we haven't implemented the token concept yet.

Since this is a production environment with many users, we want to avoid any risks.

could you please help us by sharing the exact steps or solutions we need to implement? We prefer not to experiment in the production environment.

Here are the specific areas where we need guidance:

1. How to match the shared key.
2. How to match the public key, as it is also not the same.
3. Copying the primary site (Server1) config store and pasting it into the secondary site config store.
4. Sticky sessions.
5. Or any better approach?

Thank you for your assistance.