Applies to LANDesk Management Suite 9 SP2 and greater
When using LANDesk content replication, the Replicator is the machine that does most of the work. It will download the files from any number of Sources and then "push" them out to any number of Preferred servers. This type of configuration allows a larger variety of devices to be used as Sources and Preferred servers, including NAS devices and Linux or Mac machines running Samba. The Replicator can get files from a Source using HTTP or UNC, but can only write files to Preferred servers via UNC. The Replicator can be configured to use bandwidth throttling and controls the schedule of replication jobs.
Selecting/Creating a Replicator
A Replicator MUST be a Windows-based managed node. Mac or Linux managed nodes cannot be used as a Replicator. The Replicator will leverage existing tools in the LANDesk agent and is driven primarily by vulscan.exe. The device used as the Replicator will need to have enough storage for the files being replicated to be stored in the cache.
Important Note: The Core Server should not be used as a Replicator.
To create a new Replicator, select Replicators in the left pane, then right click in the right pane and select "New." The list that appears will only list 500 devices so it may be necessary to search for the correct device. Once found, double click or select the device and press "Select." Once a replicator is added, it cannot be changed and the selection box will not appear. To remove a Replicator simply select it and press "Delete."
A Replicator can also be "created" from the Preferred server configuration by selecting the machine and assigning it to the Preferred server. For more information on configuring a Preferred server see: LANDesk Content Replication - Preferred Server (Target) Configuration
Identification
- Once a Replicator has been selected, this pane will only show the Device name, IP address, Primary owner and LDAP location. The Inventory button will bring up the full inventory record for the device.
Preferred servers (Targets)
- The Preferred servers that this Replicator will replicate to is configured here. Any configuration made in the Preferred server configuration will be reflected here as well
- Preferred servers not currently assigned to this Replicator will appear in the top pane. To assign them, select the Preferred server and press Include.
- Preferred servers that are currently assigned to this Replicator will appear in the lower pane. If the Replicator should not be assigned to the Preferred server select it and press Exclude.
- If a Preferred server is excluded from the Replicator configuration, make sure to go back to the Preferred server and assign a new Replicator
- Important: Each Preferred server can only have ONE Replicator. A single Replicator can serve many Preferred servers, but each Preferred server can only have a single Replicator.
Settings
- The first settings pane will show the current Replicator settings revision as configured on the core, the Replicator settings revision on the Replicator and the last time the Replicator reported.
- If the Replicator settings are out of date or behind, they will automatically be updated the next time vulscan.exe runs on the client as a Security Scan or a Content Replication job.
- If this Replicator is new, it will not have any settings. To get the settings to the Replicator, run an Apply settings task either immediately or scheduled, or run a Core initiated Content Replication job.
- If settings are not applied by a Core initiated Apply settings task or Content replication job, the schedule configured in the Replicator settings WILL NOT run.
Run options
- The Run options are the settings that the Replicator will use for all replication jobs that run by the Replicator
- WAN bandwidth settings: If the Replicator determines it is connected to the Source via WAN it will use the bandwidth throttling configured here to download the files to itself.
- LAN bandwidth settings: If the Replicator determines it is connected to the Source via LAN it will use the bandwidth throttling configured here to download the files to itself.
- Show progress dialog: If this is selected, the vulscan (Security Scan) UI will be displayed during the Content replication job. The UI will present any errors as well as some progress messages.
- Allow peer download: By default, during a Content replication job, the Replicator WILL NOT attempt to get any necessary files from peers. If it is very likely that peers have the needed files, this can be checked and the Replicator will attempt peer download for any needed files.
- Limit the number of days files are kept in cache: Files downloaded to the Replicator will be stored in the SDMCache folder just like files downloaded for patching or software distribution. By default these files are discarded after 30 days. This option allows the time to keep the files in the cache to be configured to any number of days.
- Bandwidth settings to use when pushing files to targets: The Replicator will only detect the network connection type (LAN or WAN) when downloading and connecting to a Source. This option is used to determine which percentage of bandwidth to use when "pushing" files to the assigned Preferred servers. The Replicator will still detect the actual bandwidth between the Replicator and the Preferred server and respect the percentage configured.
Schedule
- From here the Replicator can be configured with a schedule or set of schedules to run Content Replication jobs. This schedule is driven by the LANDesk Local Scheduler on the device, not the Core server. However, when jobs start, the Core server is contacted and receives frequent status updates.
- The main window will show all scheduled jobs, the start time, how often to repeat, any day of week or date of month limitations and the max duration the job is allowed to run
- The lower pane will only populate with data if a scheduled job is selected and will show which Preferred servers are part of the job. Jobs can be configured to run on specific Preferred servers, or on all Preferred servers currently assigned to this Replicator.
- Jobs can be added, edited or deleted from this dialog.
- Important: Jobs configured here will run according to the local time and clock on the ReplicatorNOT the time on the Core server.
Schedule Options
- Adding or editing a Content replication job will bring up the Schedule content replication dialog to allow the configuration of various options for a job
- Time: This is the time that the Content replication job will start. The Replicator will actively evaluate the next scheduled start time to ensure it does not drift too far from the scheduled start time.
- Repeat after: This is the frequency to run the job. The intervals are None, Minutes, Hours and Days. There is no reason to create a job with a recurrence of none, as jobs can be started or scheduled on the core for these cases.
- Weekly between and Monthly between: These are filters that must pass for the Content replication job to run. To limit to a weekend for example the Weekly between can be set to Friday and Sunday. To limit it to the first half of the month, the Monthly between can be set 1 and 15
- If the job is set to repeat, but the filters do not pass, the job WILL NOT run. For example, if the job is set to repeat every day, and the Weekly between is set to Friday and Friday, the job will run on Friday, but when the repeat time comes on Saturday it WILL NOT run. In this case, the job will only run on Fridays.
- If the Replicator is unavailable at the start time (usually because it is off), when it becomes available, the start time and frequency will be evaluated. If the frequency and filters dictate should run an additional evaluation is made. If the current time is more than 2 hours after the scheduled start time the Content replication job will not run and will be attempted the next time the filters (day of week and month) pass.
- Maximum duration: This allows the job to be time limited. The job can be configured to run until replication completes or end after a certain amount of time. If the replication job is not complete at the end of the time, replication will resume where it left off the next time a replication job runs.
- Select preferred servers to update: This allows different jobs and times to be assigned to different Preferred servers. The job can be set to update all Preferred servers assigned to the Replicator, or only the selected Preferred servers.
For more information on Content Replication and Preferred Servers see: