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The primary machine must have a High Availability license installed (provided by Stack8).
The secondary machine must be a carbon-copy of the principal machine (i.e. an existing SMACS machine cannot be repurposed to be used as a secondary machine).
Both machines must be able to communicate over port 443.
Both machines must be on the same version of SMACS.
Both machines must be running SMACS version 7.4 or later.
Cloning the SMACS VM
Log into vCenter with your credentials
Search for the SMACS machine using the Search tool. You can use the hostname, the FQDN or IP address if they were provided during deployment
Shut down the machine with the "Shut down Guest OS" button in the bar next to the server name
Once the machine is powered off (you should see the preview switching to “Powered Off”), click on "Actions" > "Clone" > "Clone to Virtual Machine"
Follow the wizard that appears on-screen to select which name, host and data store to use
Wait until the task is completed (Check "Recent Tasks" tab for more details)
Start the newly created machine using the "Power On" button in the bar next to the server name.
Log into the stack8-console with the s8admin account created when the machine was initially deployed.
Select “View/Edit Network Configuration” and change the configuration so that the machine uses a different unused IP address and save the changes.
(Optional) Create a new DNS entry to forward to your secondary machine.
Start the primary SMACS machine.
Test both SMACS instances to validate that they are in working condition.
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Just like other items in the System Health Status page, a warning will not force users to log out of the application but it will appear as an orange badge within the top bar of the application if you are an administrator and will trigger an email if the System Health Status Notifications have been enabled.
Common Failure Causes & Resolution
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NOTE: In cases where a sync was being performed during a SMACS upgrade and the sync failed, we recommend waiting for the next sync to occur or saving the High Availability settings again to trigger a fresh sync.
NOTE 2: Steps 1 through 4 do not cause any downtime. Feel free to perform those steps at any time of the day.
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