How do I cluster ZXTM AFM 3.0?

ZXTM AFM uses a different style of clustering to ZXTM. A ZXTM AFM cluster has a single master server, and one or more slave servers. Only the master server provides the administrative UI.

The normal installation process (as documented in the ZXTM AFM Getting Started Guide) creates a new master server. This can be converted into a slave server by editing the ZXTM AFM config file as described below.

The process for creating a new cluster is as follows:

Install master server

First, install the master server according to the standard installation instructions in the ZXTM AFM Getting Started Guide.

Install and configure slave servers

Then install ZXTM AFM on each of the slave servers in turn by following the standard installation process. Once installed, you must convert them into slave servers by editing the ZXTM AFM config file /opt/zeus/zxtmafm/current/etc/zxtmafm.conf. You should comment out the following two lines:

#adminMasterXMLIP = 127.0.0.1
#adminMasterXMLPort = 8083

And you must edit adminSlaveXMLIP and set it to the IP address that the slave server will listen on for instructions from the master (i.e. it must be an IP raised on the slave server that is accessible from the master).

adminSlaveXMLIP = 172.16.210.31
adminSlaveXMLPort = 8086

Save the config file and restart ZXTM AFM on the slave:

# /etc/init.d/zxtmafm restart

Note that when a ZXTM AFM slave is started, it doesn't start the admin server process (that on a master serves the GUI) and displays a message to this effect as shown below. You can ignore this message.

2009-06-22 16:02:13,008 zxtmafm.guiserver INFO will not start until a valid
adminMasterXMLIP and adminMasterXMLPort is defined in the configuration file

Add the slaves to the cluster

Finally, log in the ZXTM AFM admin server on the master. Go to "Administration -> Cluster Management" and add each slave in turn by entering its IP and port, separated by a colon, in the "add new cluster member" box and clicking "add". E.g. enter "172.16.210.31:8086" to add the slave configured in the example above.

Once the slaves have been added, the master will automatically push the currently active rulesets to the slaves. When you activate rulesets in future, the slaves will be updated automatically.

A note on ZXTM AFM Licences

You will need a ZXTM AFM licence for the cluster master and for each slave server. They should all be uploaded via the "Administration -> License Management" page on the master.

Julian [Zeus Dev Team] 23 June 2009