To ensure constant query capacity of Fredhopper Query Servers the indexing process is located on an offline machine. The FAS replication system continuously synchronizes the FAS Query Servers with new data and configuration from the FAS Index Servers.

Assumptions

It is assumed that sufficient infrastructure (hardware load balancers, switches, etc.) are available for requests to be routed from the host application servers to the Fredhopper installation and that the network is sufficiently performing (Gigabit network, or better) to allow for adequate response times.

It is assumed a full reindex of the FAS Staging environment is done once a day. Only during a full reindex facets can be added to the configuration. Changes to the search configuration that requires a reindex are only active after a full reindex.

Description

The advanced deployment scheme supports the concept of preview and live data, for example, is common in Hybris. FAS does not have this concept but supports it using the following deployment scheme.

The following image visualizes the advanced deployment scheme.

 

• FAS Live 1 handles user requests from the website to the Fredhopper Application Server. It receives data updates (e.g. stock/price) from the FAS Staging. Configuration updates are also received from the FAS Staging box.
• FAS Live 2 handles user requests from the website to the Fredhopper Application Server. It receives data updates (e.g. stock/price) from the FAS Staging. Configuration updates are also received from the FAS Staging box.
• FAS Staging receives data (XML format) from the data store. This includes price and stock updates as well as full exports for a reindex of the FAS application. The data on the FAS Staging machine is the data that is live on the website. Configuration updates are received from the FAS Preview environment.
• FAS Preview receives data (XML format) from the data store. This includes price and stock updates as well as full exports for a reindex of the FAS application. The data on the FAS Preview machine is the data that is preview data in Hybris.
• Configuration changes are done by the business users on the FAS Preview environment.

Supported Scenarios

This setup supports the following four scenario's

1. A full reindex of the live data
2. A full reindex of the preview data
3. Daily configuration updates that do not require a reindex
4. Continuous delta updates (e.g. stock/price)

Below is a detail for each of the four scenario's which actions take place.
A full reindex of the live data

A full reindex of the live data will consist of the following actions:

1. Stop the synchronization clients on the FAS live server
2. Stop all FAS applications on the FAS Staging instance
3. Clean the indices on the FAS Staging instance
4. Copy all hybris XML to the FAS data manager pipeline
5. Start the FAS applications on the FAS Staging instance
6. Stop the FAS applications on the FAS Live 1 server
7. Clean the indices on the FAS Live 1 server
8. Start the FAS applications on the FAS Live 1
9. Stop the FAS applications on the FAS Live 2 server
10. Clean the indices on the FAS Live 2 server
11. Start the FAS applications on the FAS Live 2

A full reindex of the preview data

A full reindex of the preview data will consist of the following actions:

1. Stop the synchronization clients on the FAS Staging instance
2. Stop the entire FAS application on the FAS Preview instance
3. Clean the indices on the FAS Preview instance
4. Copy all Hybris XML to the FAS data manager pipeline
5. Start the FAS application on the FAS Staging instance

Daily configuration updates that do not require a reindex

Configuration changes are done continuously on the FAS Preview environment. As soon as changes are ready to be put live the user clicks on the Publish button in the FAS Business Manager on the FAS preview environment.

Continuous delta updates (e.g. stock/price)

Delta updates like price and stock are sent to the FAS data pipelines throughout the day. Both the FAS Preview and the FAS Staging machine receive the delta updates. On the FAS Staging the updates are indexed by FAS immediately and pulled from the staging server to the FAS Live 1 & FAS Live 2 server.
On the FAS Preview environment, the delta updates are also indexed immediately and can be seen by business users.

Applications per server

FAS Staging

FAS Live 1

FAS Live 2

Configuration files

In the table below you can find the configuration files required to setup the advanced deployment scheme. Please rename each of the files to preference.<machinename>.xml.