Live Backup Server

If your primary server has failed, skip to the 'How to Fail-Over to Your LBS' section below.

What is a Live Backup Server?

A Live Backup Server (or LBS) is a hardware and software platform identical to a 'regular' PBXtra server. When you order your Primary PBXtra , you are presented with a variety of hardware and software choices in order to customize the PBXtra platform that fits your business's needs. By selecting the LBS option within the order tool at www.fonality.com , you are ordering two of the same server. The LBS mirrors all of the hardware options that you choose (e.g. PRI card, hard drive size, RAM, etc.) for the Primary PBXtra When you complete the order process, you are presented with a review of your order before you submit it for processing. At this time, you will see a line item indicating that you have purchased a live backup server.

Why do I need an LBS?

Any customer that wishes to minimize downtime caused by a hardware failure of their telephone server should choose the LBS option within the order tool online. Should your Primary PBXtra experience any type of hardware failure (hard drive failure, RAM failure, CPU failure, etc.), you can quickly fail-over to your LBS and continue business operations normally while you contact Fonality Support in order to resolve the hardware failure on the Primary PBXtra .

The typical fail-over time from the Primary PBXtra to the LBS is about 2 minutes. This process can take up to 10 minutes depending on your internet connection. We will discuss in detail later in this article why the fail-over process can take up to 10 minutes in some cases.

How does LBS Work?

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Fonality offers the Live Backup Server (LBS) option to minimize downtime caused by any software or

hardware failure of the Primary Server. You cannot order a Primary PBXtra and then choose the LBS option at a later date. When you select the LBS option, Fonality provisions two Server IDs linked in our database as Primary and Backup. As soon as you plug in a PBXtra server, it immediately contacts Fonality's Data Center in order to establish redundant VPN tunnels that provide the framework for Fonality's hybrid-hosted service. When ordering a Primary server and an LBS, you will need to plug in and activate the Primary server first.

What redundancy is provided by a LBS system (what items are backed up?)

Fonality offers the LBS option with new PBXtra systems as an added level of reliability for an installation. It works by installing an exact replica of the PBXtra system that takes a snapshot of all data on the system including:

• All Voice Prompts

• All Call Recordings

• All Voicemail

• All Configuration Files
   

Fonality collects the system-snapshot at 30 minute intervals. You can enable the LBS to assume full control of your telephony infrastructure at need; the LBS will be ready to take over where the failed system leaves off.

This solution DOES NOT INCLUDE AUTOMATED FAIL-OVER.

The Status / Resources page contains information that is specific to the physical machine in use as the Primary server. When failed over to the backup, records for Server Activity, Network Activity, and Server Resources will not be available for time period prior to failing over. You will only see data for the physical machine currently processing calls. While running on the Backup server, this page will start collecting data and provide details on activity while failed-over. When you switch back from a fail-over to use your Primary server once again, the Resources page will not contain any data for the time period during which you were using the Backup server.

Live Back Up Server Installation Requirements

When you purchase the LBS package, Fonality provisions two Server IDs (SIDs) into our database records in advance of your installation. You will receive two servers, each with their own server ID. You want to plug the first server with the lower ID number, into your network. That server ID wil be your Primary PBXtra , and Fonality automatically configures the other server ID provisioned with your order as the live backup server - even before you plug it server into your network!

You must follow these requirements for the live backup server process to work:

• Both servers must use Static IP Addresses. The IPs can be Public or Private.

• Both servers must be able to communicate with each other on your network. Fonality recommends that you deploy both servers on the same subnet. If you have installed a firewall between your Primary and LBS servers, or you have configured any ACL statements on managed switches, whitelist all ports and TCP/UDP protocols between the servers.

• Both servers must have identical hardware. If you need to move/add/change hardware at any point in the future, you must make the same hardware changes to both servers. For example, if you add an additional PRI card to the Primary server, you must add the same PRI card to the LBS.

• Both servers must be powered on at all times.

• The Primary PBX should be set as the primary DNS server for your network (see our installation guide) for maximum uptime. Otherwise, you may have to wait for DNS propogation to occur in the event of a fail over.

Can LBS be installed at a remote location?

Fonality strongly recommends that both the Primary and the LBS are installed on the same local subnet.  There are many reasons for this:

• Upon failover, your PSTN connections need to be manually switched between the Primary and the LBS.  If the LBS is not local, this becomes a significant challenge unless you have replicated your PSTN connectivity at the remote site (ie. 1 PRI at the Primary server location, 1 PRI at the LBS location, and the ability to have the phone company re-route calls to the LBS PRI quickly and efficiently).

• Chances are that your Primary and LBS locations have different IP addressing schemes/subnets.  When you fail over, the LBS takes on the IP addressing identity of the Primary server.  This adds an additional layer of complexity when failing over because the IP address will have to be changed and sync'd to Fonality's data center before the LBS can start receiving calls.

• If the Primary fails, you will have to be at the console of the LBS to make it the primary.  This can NOT be done remotely meaning that someone at the LBS remote site will have to make the switch.

These reasons and more are why Fonality strongly recommends having both the Primary and LBS as the same location, and in the same subnet.  Remember, the point of LBS is to minimize downtime.  In most cases, having the LBS remote adds additional complexity, and therefore additional time to the failover process.

If these conditions have been met however, and the customer understands the failover process, remote LBS is a viable solution for geographic disaster recovery.

***NOTE:  Fonality uses the internal FQDN to synchronize files between the Primary and the LBS.  This means that the Primary and LBS have to be able to see each other's internal IP address.  In order for Fonality to support a remote live backup server, you MUST use VPN or some other form of internal routing.

PBXtra Activation

For PBXtra customers ordering the LBS option with a new server, you will need to follow the 'activation' process for each of your servers. Once you complete the order process, you should take the following steps:

1. Check your email - Fonality sends you 1 email per server ordered. You should have 2 emails each containing an individual Server ID.

2. Type 'activate' to begin the activation process on the first server. Type 'activate' to continue.

3. You will want to provisiong the lower server ID first. This will be your Primary server.

4. After you complete the activation process on your Primary server, follow steps 3-7 for the LBS. When the LBS attempts to open a VPN tunnel to Fonality's Data Center, Fonality tells the second server that it should be the LBS. The LBS will then sync all of the configuration information from the Primary server through the VPN tunnel, and all binary data (voice prompts, music-on-hold, all audio files, etc.) will be synchronized through an SSH connection that the LBS opens to the Primary server.

How to Fail-Over to Your LBS

In the event your Primary PBXtra fails, you can enable your LBS to take over all Primary responsibilities by following these steps:

1. Unplug the Primary server from the network (disconnect the Ethernet cable). Leave this server offline throughout the entire process

2. Log into your admin control panel.

3. You will see a notice that your primary server is offline, with a link to bring your LBS up in its place

4. Click the link.  The change may take a few moments, then your admin control panel will become accessible again, and your phones will begin to register to your server.

WARNING: If your server has 2 network interfaces, the second network interface is for phones only. If you have phones using this network, they should also be using the ip address of eth1 as their primary DNS server. Systems where the second network interface for the phones has been modified or is not being used by the phones for primary DNS even though they are connected to it, may experience problems with the failover to a live backup server.

Do not run the LBS as the acting primary for any longer than necessary

As soon as the primary server is repaired, you should fail back to your primary server.  Do not continue running your LBS as the acting primary.

The live back up server is designed so that you do not experience down time if your primary server becomes damaged or inaccessible from the network.  The live backup server set is not designed for permanent role reversal, where backup server comes online as the primary and the original primary turns into a backup server.  Attempting to run the servers in reversed roles in this way can cause issues with upgrades and syncing of files. 

Unless the servers were activated incorrectly, the lower server ID of a live backup server set will always be the primary server when it is online. To make sure the servers in your live backup set are operating as designed, you will want to make sure that whenever the lower server ID is active and online, it is operating in its proper role as a primary server.

Bringing the original Primary Server back online after the LBS has been operating as the Primary

When the primary is repaired and ready to come back online following an event that took it offline, you will want to make sure that the live backup server is returned to its role operating as that backup server.  This will ensure that your files are properly backed up, that the fail over process runs smoothly, and that you do not experience any problems with phone registrations or upgrades.

The following steps will allow you to restore your live backup server to its role after your primary server has been down, but is ready to be brought back online.

Leave the original primary unplugged from the network

1. Attach a monitor and keyboard to the backup server, the higher server id.

2. At the console login, use 'ip' as the username and 'ip' as the password to login.

3. Press 'B' from the menu displayed

4. When prompted, enter the IP address of the original live backup server. For example:

   Original setup:

   1. Primary PBXtra 's IP: 192.168.1.2

   2. Primary PBXtra 's Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

   3. Primary PBXtra 's Gateway: 192.168.1.1

   4. LBS's IP: 192.168.1.3

   5. LBS's Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

   6. LBS's Gateway: 192.168.1.1

5. You have switched the IP addresses originally used by the servers in order to maintain the DNS records and allow all of your phones to register without making any changes to the phones

6. Plug the primary server back into the network.

7. Success! As of this step, the original Primary PBXtra should now be fully-functional, and your live backup server should have resumed its role as a backup server.

What If I Experience ANOTHER Failure?

Repeat the process outlined for failing over to your live backup server.