Add a new query instance to an installation

Prerequisites

Before adding a new live instance to an existing setup, please ensure that you have covered all prerequisites:

• The Fredhopper Deployment Agent is running on the target system
  If this is not the case, please download and install the Deployment Agent according to steps 1 and 2 in the article Install Fredhopper with Deployment Package.
• The correct version of Fredhopper is available within the Deployment Agent
  Install the correct version of Fredhopper on the target server, see Select a different initial FAS version.

  Consistency across instances Ensure that this is the same version of Fredhopper that is used throughout your environment. Indexer/query instances cannot communicate across versions.

• There is no instance currently active on the preset you want to use
  Ensure that there is no previous instance created with the same host and preset.
• At least one configuration was published on the indexer instance you want to connect to
  In the Business Manager of your indexer instance, go to System>Management>Publication Manager and check that one listed version has the status published

The following variables will be used

• <INSTALLATION>: Name of the installation you want to use
• <INSTANCE>: Name of the new instance you wish to create
• <PRESET>: The preset name to configure the defaults of the Fredhopper instance. See Working with the topology file for more information about presets.

• <SYNCSERVER_PORT>: Port of the syncserver process of the indexer. This can be normally calculated by the following formula:

  ((preset of the indexer) * 1000) + 7100

• <SYNCSERVER_HOST>: Host of the syncserver process of the indexer. Identical with the hostname of the server the indexer is residing on.
• <QSERVER_MEMORY>: Memory available to the query server process.
• <BASE_DIRECTORY> : Fredhopper Deployment Package Base Directory (e.g. C:\fredhopper, /home/fredhopper/)
• <EXISTING_LIVE_INSTANCE> : Name of an existing live instance. The easiest way to get the host and name of such an instance is to retrieve it from the topology file.

Assumed location for the execution of scripts For all the scripts below, it is assumed that you are located in the <BASE_DIRECTORY> of the server.

Step-By-Step Instructions

No interruption of operation All of the steps below can be executed in a running system and will not impact other processes.

Step 1: Get memory setting for query instances

If you do not use the standard memory settings for query instances, you will first need to retrieve the memory setting from an existing instance.

1. Log in on the server that is containing the <EXISTING_LIVE_INSTANCE> instance.
2. Retrieve the Qserver process memory setting (from now represented by <QSERVER_MEMORY>):

   bin/deployment-agent-client get-option <EXISTING_LIVE_INSTANCE> qserver_memory

Step 2: Create a new instance on the target system

1. Log in on the server you want the instance to reside on
2. Create the installation:

   bin/deployment-agent-client create -I <PRESET> <INSTANCE> <INSTALLATION>

Step 3: Configure the new instance

1. Set the memory for the Qserver process:

   bin/deployment-agent-client set-option <INSTANCE> qserver_memory=<QSERVER_MEMORY>

2. Set the syncserver port this instance should connect to:

   Make sure this matches the syncserver port setting on the indexer!

   bin/deployment-agent-client set-option <INSTANCE> syncclient_serverport=<SYNCSERVER_PORT>

3. Set the syncserver host this instance should connect to:

   bin/deployment-agent-client set-option <INSTANCE> syncclient_server=<SYNCSERVER_HOST>

4. Set the role of the server to be "live":

   bin/deployment-agent-client add-role <INSTANCE> http://localhost:8177/static/live.xml

Step 4: Start the instance and verify the operation

1. For FAS 8 users there is an extra manual step needed for each newly added live node, copy the following directory from the indexer to the live node:
   1. from: indexer: <HOME>/fredhopper/data/instances/<INSTANCE>/config/backup/<LATEST_TIMESTAMP>/*
   2. to: live: <HOME>/fredhopper/data/instances\<INSTANCE>/config
2. Start the syncclient process of the instance:

   bin/deployment-agent-client invoke <INSTANCE> syncclient start

3. Start the qserver process of the instance in live mode:

   bin/deployment-agent-client invoke -Drole=live <INSTANCE> qserver start 

4. Verify that instance is up and running: Access the preview pages through the browser.

   Configuration files Note that it takes 10-15 minutes for the business.xml file to sync from the index server to the query server. This is normal. Any custom components (.jar files) must be added manually. Click here for more information on custom components. Any system.xml must be added manually, by copying them from another live node.

Step 5: Set up for automation and verify

1. On each of the Deployment Agent installations, add the new instance to the topology file of that installation.
2. During the next execution of bin/fresh-index-to-live, verify in the kitchen.log file that the new instance is mentioned and restarted.