Skip to main content

Promoting a secondary node to primary

You can deliberately promote a secondary node to become the primary node; for example, to move the primary role to a better-provisioned server or to a different data center. The primary node is the one that runs the nightly auto-discovery (PSUPDATE) and writes to the external database, so promoting a node reassigns those responsibilities to it.

This is a planned operation. If the current primary has already failed, follow the recovery steps in Single Bravura Security Fabric server fails instead.

Note

Perform this procedure during a maintenance window. Changing the primary node stops auto-discovery and other scheduled jobs while the roles are reassigned.

Before you begin

Ensure that:

  • The environment has multiple Bravura Security Fabric nodes in a replicated setup, and you have permission to reconfigure the replication settings.

  • All server clocks are synchronized. See Server clocks unsynchronized.

  • The secondary node to be promoted is fully synchronized with the current primary and functioning correctly. See Checking replication status as an administrator.

Promote the node

  1. Stop any processes that change data on the databases, such as PSUPDATE, idtrack, autores, and any other database-intensive automation, so that the replication queues can drain. See Adding a node steps in detail for the tasks to disable.

  2. On the current primary node, disable the PSUPDATE scheduled job and the Windows Task Scheduler Bravura Security External Database Replicator task.

  3. Back up the current primary node's database, and confirm that the backup is consistent and reliable.

  4. On the node you are promoting, enable the PSUPDATE scheduled job so that it runs on only that node for all replicated nodes. Enable the Bravura Security External Database Replicator task on the new primary, and make sure it is disabled on all secondary nodes, including the old primary. For details on setting the primary node's scheduled jobs, see Resynchronizing databases.

  5. Update the replication configuration to reflect the new topology. From the new primary node's web-based interface (Manage the system > Maintenance > Database replication):

    1. Delete the old primary node, then propagate the change to all nodes. See Removing a node from replication.

    2. Add the old primary back as a secondary node, then propagate the change to all nodes. See Modifying node settings for how to propagate replication changes.

  6. Run PSUPDATE on the new primary node and confirm that it completes successfully.

  7. Verify the Bravura Security External Database Replicator task in Windows Task Scheduler. It returns 0 (success) on the new primary node, and returns 1 on each secondary node, which is the expected result on a node that is not the primary.

  8. Confirm that replication is healthy on all nodes. See Checking replication status as an administrator.

In this section: