Blackpoint on a clustered WFE

Last post 08-30-2008, 6:24 AM by cmurphy54. 5 replies.
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  •  08-27-2008, 11:52 PM 25755

    Blackpoint on a clustered WFE

    How would it be to install blackpoint on 2 WFE's, whould that need 2 licenses?
    Yousef T. Eqtait
    K2 Consultant - DXB
  •  08-28-2008, 10:34 AM 25784 in reply to 25755

    Re: Blackpoint on a clustered WFE

    yousef.eqtait:
    How would it be to install blackpoint on 2 WFE's, whould that need 2 licenses?

    Just like K2 blackpearl, blackpoint has a Server component and then also a SharePoint component. You can install the SharePoint components on as many WFE's as you like, all that matters from a licensing perspective is how many server components you are installing. So, you can have multiple WFE's which all communicate back to a single blackpoint server and not require multiple licenses.

     

     

     


    Colin
    K2 Insider
    K2 Blog: K2 Thought
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  •  08-29-2008, 1:35 PM 25812 in reply to 25784

    Re: Blackpoint on a clustered WFE

    Shouldnt the blackpoint server service be installed on the same WFE's?

    If it's user's based, an unlimited license should be used for the 2 servers, am i wrong?

    My environment has 2 wfe's and 2 backends .... where the BP server should be installed in this case?


    Yousef T. Eqtait
    K2 Consultant - DXB
  •  08-29-2008, 2:19 PM 25814 in reply to 25812

    Re: Blackpoint on a clustered WFE

    blackpoint is licensed on a per server basis (which is different than the default blackpearl license which is per user), so if you install it on multiple servers, you'll need multiple licenses.

    You must install the SharePoint components on all of your WFEs (this doesn't require a server license). You must install the server components on at least one server (you need a blackpoint license for each one you install it on). The only reasons you install the server components on multiple servers are for redundancy or performance. Just because you have multiple WFEs doesn't mean you have to install the server components on multiple servers.

    All that matters for your WFEs to function properly is that you have installed the SharePoint components on each of them and that the server components have been installed on at least one server somewhere which is accessible from your WFEs.

    As far as which server(s) to install the server components on, a lot of factors come into play such as how heavily utilized the machine already is, how many workflow instances will be active at any one point, etc. There isn't a single, one size fits all answer, but it is important to recognize that workflow processing takes up CPU, RAM, IO, etc., on whatever machine(s) you install the blackpoint server components on. 

     If you expect to have tens of thousands of active process instances, you'll probably want to give it its own dedicated server(s) or if your WFEs are serving thousands of users a minute, again, the WFE probably isn't the best place to be running the server components.  But if you have only a few hundred active processes or are only serving a small number of users then you won't have a problem with your WFE(s) running the server. It really just depends on your situation.

     


    Colin
    K2 Insider
    K2 Blog: K2 Thought
  •  08-29-2008, 9:58 PM 25820 in reply to 25814

    Re: Blackpoint on a clustered WFE

    Thanks, this sounds clear.

    Just another thing, installing the server components on a different server other than WFE's, wouldnt that require kerberos settings?


    Yousef T. Eqtait
    K2 Consultant - DXB
  •  08-30-2008, 6:24 AM 25823 in reply to 25820

    Re: Blackpoint on a clustered WFE

    Yep, you'd need kerberos. Even if you install blackpoint only on one of your WFEs, you'd still need kerberos to be able to handle connections from the other WFE. If you installed blackpoint on both your WFEs, you'd still potentially need kerberos since by default there isn't any guarantee that the WFE is going to try to hit the local blackpoint server as opposed to the one on the other box (you could force this behavior through host file, router or load balancing configuration).

     


    Colin
    K2 Insider
    K2 Blog: K2 Thought
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