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Recreating an instance

Rumyana Grigorova
  • Updated

    This page guides you through the steps of recreating an existing instance.

    Downtime of this instance will be required.

    Introduction

    Sometimes it will be necessary to recreate an existing indexer or live node instance. The recreation will reset the instance to a clean state.

    Steps

    Before starting the procedure make sure you have the following information available.

    Name Description Where to get it
    INSTANCE The name of the instance to recreate config/topology.txt
    INSTANCE_HOST The host name of the machine that runs the INSTANCE instance config/topology.txt
    INSTANCE_NUMER The instance number of the INSTANCE instance to recreate config/topology.txt
    INDEXER The name of the instance that is the indexer for the INSTANCE. This is only needed if recreating a live instance. config/topology.txt
    INDEXER_HOST The host name of the machine that runs the INDEXER instance config/topology.txt
    INDEXER_REPLICATION_PORT The port on which the syncserver will listen for request. Execute

    bin/deployment-agent-client --location INDEXER_HOST get-option INDEXER syncserver_serverport
    LIVE The name of a live instance attached to INDEXER. This is only needed if recreating the INDEXER instance config/topology.txt
    LIVE_HOST The host name of the machine that runs the LIVE instance. This is only needed if recreating the INDEXER instance config/topology.txt
    The steps are written so that you can execute them from any machine in the cluster. You should be in the home directory of the Fredhopper installation.

    Step 1: Disable data/content replication to the live servers

    This step is only needed when recreating the indexer instance, for live nodes it is not needed.

    Execute the following command for each pair of LIVE/LIVE_HOST defined in config/topology.txt to stop the replication system. The live query servers will no longer receive updates, but will continue to serve queries.

    bin/deployment-agent-client --location LIVE_HOST invoke LIVE syncclient stop

    Note that a fresh-index-to-live will be required at the end when rebuilding an indexer instance.

    Step 2: Rename the old instance

    Rename the old instance so that the new one can be created with the same name. This will stop all processes running for this instance.

    bin/deployment-agent-client --location INSTANCE_HOST rename-instance --force INSTANCE INSTANCE.old

    Step 3: Create the new instance

    This step creates the new instance with the settings of the old instance.

    bin/deployment-agent-client --location INSTANCE_HOST create-instance --preset INSTANCE_NUMBER INSTANCE FAS

    Step 4: Configure replication settings and role

    This step is only needed when recreating a live instance, for an indexer you can skip this step.

    bin/deployment-agent-client --location INSTANCE_HOST set-option INSTANCE syncclient_server=INDEXER_HOST
    bin/deployment-agent-client --location INSTANCE_HOST set-option INSTANCE syncclient_serverport=INDEXER_REPLICATION_PORT
    bin/deployment-agent-client --location INSTANCE_HOST add-role INSTANCE   http://localhost:8177/static/live.xml

    Step 5: Import business configuration and data from the old instance

    This step will import the business configuration and data from the old instance into the new instance.

    bin/deployment-agent-client --location INSTANCE_HOST import-capture INSTANCE  http://_INSTANCE_HOST_:8177/instance/_INSTANCE_.old/capture

    Instead of importing the business configuration and data from the old instance you can also recreate this from scratch: if the instance is a live instance run bin/fresh-index-to-live, if it is an indexer instance run bin/reindex.
    Custom Components
    If you're using custom components you will have to install them again into the new instance. The exact procedure depends on the custom component, please follow the instructions for each component.

    Step 6: Start the instance

    bin/instance INSTANCE start

    On a live node ensure that on the indexer the synserver is running. If not start it on the indexer (bin/deployment-agent-client invoke INDEXER_INSTANCE syncserver start)

    Step 7: Create and publish a new index

    This step is only needed when recreating the indexer instance

    bin/reindex INSTANCE
    bin/fresh-index-to-live INSTANCE

    Step 8: Cleanup

    After the new instance is created the old one is no longer needed, and can now be removed.

    You might want to backup any log files from the old instance first.

    bin/deployment-agent-client --location INSTANCE_HOST remove-instance INSTANCE.old

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