ABB Ability™ History supports high availability configurations where two history nodes replicate data between each others and form one high availability database.

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To learn more about the High Availability of History Servers refer to the links:
High availability concepts
High Availability – Database and Application Redundancy

High Availability Network Architecture

High-Level steps for High Availability configuration

Configure dedicated Consistency Control Network (CCN) or Redundant Network between History Servers (Ex:194.168.41.x)
Configure Network Load Balancer in both the History Servers (Ex:172.18.36.x)
Install Primary History Server
Trigger Backup in Primary History Server
Install Secondary History Server

Checklist to be verified before start of installation

Recommended Hardware Configuration is available. [Preferred to have dedicated drives for Database and Backup.]
Dedicated Network adapters are available.
Database Disk Drive should be formatted with 64K Block Size.
Indexing should be disabled for the Disk Drives.
Add database and backup directories as exclusions to the possible AntiVirus software
Open firewall for incoming TCP/IP port 443
Disable firewall for the Consistency Control network and ensure the network throughput is minimum of1Gbps
Installation should be performed with the user having Administrative privileges and both the Primary & Secondary History Server should have the same user.
Windows Time Zone is properly set before starting installation.
Time synchronization should be performed between the redundant servers.
NLB settings should be performed as below.

Configuring Network Load Balancer (NLB)

The NLB Settings are required only in case of redundant History Servers connecting to Data Collector Node or Redundant History servers connecting to other History Server using Netsync.
Before performing NLB settings, verify the following:
a) Availability of common subnet IPs between History Servers and data Collector.
b) Define the IPs in the hosts file of the History Servers. The path of windows hosts file is:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.

Installation of NLB in History Server Nodes

Perform the below steps in both History Server Nodes:
• Navigate to Start menu > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Server Manager and launch Server Manager.

• Select Features and on right-window pane click Add Features

• From the displayed list, select the Network Load Balancing check-box. Click Next.

• Install Network Load Balancing (NLB) by selecting Install on the Confirm Installation Setup page.

• Installation confirmation page will appear once NLB is successfully installed.
• Click Close to complete the NLB installation.

NLB Configuration for Common IP in History Servers

Perform the below steps in the First (or Primary) node of the History Server:
• Navigate to Start menu > All Programs > Administrative Tools > Network Load Balancing Manager. Select and launch Network Load Balancing Manager.
• From the menu bar, select Cluster > New Cluster. Alternatively right-click on Network Load Balancing Clusters and select New Cluster.

• In the pop-up window, enter the Computer Name of the First (Primary) History Server Node. Click Connect. A list of Network Interfaces with IP details will be populated.

• Select the Interface which will be used for NLB. Click Next.

• Define the common IP Address by clicking Add.
• Ensure that this common IP address is having same subnet as the interface of history servers which has been used for NLB.

• After adding the common IP, click Next to define the cluster parameters.

• On the cluster parameters window:
a. Enter the Full Internet name. This will be the common name for the High Availability for the History Servers.
b. Select the Multicast option in the Cluster operation mode.

• Click Next.
In the port rules window, define port rules as applicable for the installation. By default, all port range (0-65535) are allowed.
As a minimum, the following ports should be allowed:
TCP ports: 80, 443,7890, 7980

• After the port rules are added click Finish to complete the configuration for First or Primary Node.

• From the Network Load Balancing Manager, select the common name, right-click and select Add Host to Cluster.
• Alternatively, from the menu bar select Cluster > Add Host.

• In the pop-up window, enter the Second (or Secondary) History Server Node Name and click Connect.
• Select the appropriate Interface. Ensure that the Interface IP is in the same range as of First (or Primary) History Server
• Click Next.

• Refer to Step above for assigning Port Rules.

• Click Finish to complete the NLB Configuration.

Install History Server (First Node):

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Download Package
Download the latest History software from ABB Ability™ History Downloads and copy to your local drive and extract its content to a separate folder (e.g. C:\DVD).
The software download is available only from ABB intranet.
Installation through Network share is not supported.

Refer:
Installation on Windows
Installation parameters

Add User to Windows Vault
Add user and its credentials for CPIMS/ADMIN and CPIMS/DBADMIN to windows vault so that the same can be referred in the installation command in order to avoid passing the clear-text password.

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Note
Make sure that the users you are adding to the vault are same in both nodes of High availability system and part of local admin group. Proceed with installation by log in to the system with the user you are passing for CPIMS/ADMIN

For easy understanding, in below commands the same user 'testadmin' is considered for both CPIMS/ADMIN and CPIMS/DBADMIN, but in production there can be different users for 'CPIMS/ADMIN' & 'CPIMS/DBADMIN' and the below command can be replaced with corresponding users.

cmdkey /generic:CPIMS/ADMIN /user:testadmin /pass

Enter the password for 'testadmin'

cmdkey /generic:CPIMS/DBADMIN /user:testadmin /pass

Enter the password for 'testadmin'

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Domain User
In case the user is part of a domain, make sure to add the user to local admin group and pass <domainname\username> in above mentioned command.
e.g. cmdkey /generic:CPIMS/ADMIN /user:MyDomain\testadmin /pass

Install Command (First Node)

In an elevated command window navigate to the folder where the media is extracted (e.g. cd C:\DVD) and run the below command after altering the parameters within "<>" or you can copy the command from example which is covered in below section.

Cmd /s /c ""\Project CPIMS\Install_Server.bat"  /DBSIZE HIGH /DATAPATH "<DataBaseDriveLetter>:\RTDBData" /APP_ROOT "<DataBaseDriveLetter>:\Application" /TZ "<MyTimeZone>" /DSN "<NLBNAME>-RTDB" /BACKUP_ROOT "<BackupDriveLetter>:\" /NOBACKUP:0 /INSTALLATIONTYPE "2" /CCMULTICASTADAPTERS "<RedundancyIP>" /CCMulticastIP "TCP" /ADMINUSER "*CPIMS/ADMIN" /DBADMINUSER "*CPIMS/DBADMIN" /ADMINPASSWORD "*" /DBADMINPASSWORD "*" /NODETYPE 1"

where
DataBaseDriveLetter - The drive which is decided for data for e.g. "D"
BackupDriveLetter - The drive which is decided for Backup for e.g. "E"
MyTimeZone - The time zone in which the system is running e.g."Asia/Kolkata" (note: This parameter must match with the regional setting of the computer)
NLBName - NLBName of the HA nodes
RedundancyIP - Dedicated Consistency Control IP of Primary History Server node (Not the one used in NLB configuration) e.g. 194.168.41.1

Example HA First Node Installation command

Here is an example install command of a first node of HA RTDB server, considering 'D:' as database driver and 'E:' as Backup drive and 'Asia/Kolkata' as the timezone.
All the available installation parameters are listed in the chapter "Installation parameters
".

Cmd /s /c ""\Project CPIMS\Install_Server.bat" /DBSIZE HIGH /DATAPATH "D:\RTDBData" /APP_ROOT "D:\Application" /TZ "Asia/Kolkata" /DSN "HASYSTEM-RTDB" /BACKUP_ROOT "E:\" /NOBACKUP:0 /INSTALLATIONTYPE "2" /CCMULTICASTADAPTERS "194.168.41.1" /CCMulticastIP "TCP" /ADMINUSER "*CPIMS/ADMIN" /DBADMINUSER "*CPIMS/DBADMIN" /ADMINPASSWORD "*" /DBADMINPASSWORD "*" /NODETYPE 1"

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Note
The above command is only an example, at least replace the following parameters in the command with your corresponding environment values.

/DSN - Provide NLBName-RTDB (e.g. HASYSTEM-RTDB)

/CCMULTICASTADAPTERS - provide redundancy IP of First Node (this IP should not be the one used for NLB).
Also don't forget to provide correct time zone of your system and correct drive letter of your system

This process will verify the time and ask for the user confirmation, you can acknowledge and proceed if the time zone and time is correct. Go through all the prompt from Installation command window and provide acknowledgement accordingly.

If the Vtrin SSL certificate is not present already (which is true in this case), there will be a prompt as shown in below image. You can proceed by providing 'C' in the option to continue the installation by installing the Self signed certificate. If there is already a SSL certificate available from the customer you need to install the certificate and edit the Friendly Name of the certificate as VtrinCert and provide option 'R' so that the installer scans the certificate store again.

There are some cases where during the installation process the system requires restart. The install script will try to postpone it to the end of installation, if the reboot is mandatory then the install script records that in console output as well as the "Install Logfile" and exits the process. Based on the logged output, the user has to initiate the reboot OR reboot and rerun the same command again in order to complete the installation.

Perform the Online Backup in First Node of the History Server

In the First node of the History Server, run the following command from the Command prompt:

%app_root%\bin\App_BackupTool /d

a. Wait for the command to complete and confirm that the online copy is successfully completed.
b. Online copy on the First Node can also be confirmed by running the following in the Run window and check that file OnlineBackup.ok exists.

%app_backup_root%\Onlinecopy

Define Remote Access Settings in the First Node

When the second node is installed, it will copy the online backup of the first node by using NETBIOS remote access, so you need to open the "File Sharing" firewall setting:

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="File and Printer Sharing" new enable=Yes

If you operate with a domain user account, the account must have administrator privileges in both machines. If you operate with local administrator user account, the username and password of both servers must be identical, and in addition, you must do a registry setting so that the Administrators group will be available also for network access of local admin:

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\system /v LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

If the first node is a desktop Windows version (such as Windows 11), you need to also enable the "Remote Registry" service by setting its startup type to "Automatic"

sc config RemoteRegistry start= auto

The service does not need to be started. It will start automatically via a trigger (the start type will then appear as "Automatic (Trigger Start) " when looked with the services control panel).

If there are some reasons why the remote access can't be opened, you need to copy manually the Application, onlinecopy and non-table files from RTDBData directory to the disk that is accessible in the second node, and use the appropriate command line switches to provide the location of these folders, instead of providing the /CCSOURCESYSTEM setting, for example:

Install_Server.bat /CCSourceTables "X:\ha1\Onlinecopy" /CCSourceFiles "X:\ha1\RTDBData" /CCSourceApp "X:\ha1\Application" ...

Install History Server (Second Node):

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Note
Make sure that the users you are adding to the vault are same in both nodes of High availability system and part of local admin group. Proceed with installation by log in to the system with the user you are passing for CPIMS/ADMIN

cmdkey /generic:CPIMS/ADMIN /user:testadmin /pass

Enter the password for 'testadmin'

cmdkey /generic:CPIMS/DBADMIN /user:testadmin /pass

Enter the password for 'testadmin'

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Domain User
In case the user is part of a domain, make sure to add the user to local admin group and pass <domainname\username> in above mentioned command
e.g. cmdkey /generic:CPIMS/ADMIN /user:MyDomain\testadmin /pass

Install Command (Second Node)

In an elevated command window navigate to the folder where the media is extracted ((e.g. cd C:\DVD) and run the below command after altering the parameters within "<>" or you can copy the command from example which is covered in below section.

Cmd /s /c ""\Project CPIMS\Install_Server.bat"  /DBSIZE HIGH /DATAPATH "<DataBaseDriveLetter>" /APP_ROOT "<DataBaseDriveLetter>:\Application" /TZ "<MyTimeZone>" /DSN "<NLBNAME>-RTDB" /BACKUP_ROOT "<BackupDriveLetter>:\" /NOBACKUP:0 /INSTALLATIONTYPE "3" /CCSOURCESYSTEM "<RedundancyIP>" /CCMulticastIP "TCP" /ADMINUSER "*CPIMS/ADMIN" /DBADMINUSER "*CPIMS/DBADMIN" /ADMINPASSWORD "*" /DBADMINPASSWORD "*" /NODETYPE 1"

where
DataBaseDriveLetter - The drive which is decided for data for e.g. "D"
BackupDriveLetter - The drive which is decided for Backup for e.g. "E"
MyTimeZone - The time zone in which the system is running e.g."Asia/Kolkata" (note: This parameter must match with the regional setting of the computer)
NLBName - NLB name of the HA nodes
RedundancyIP - Dedicated Consistency Control IP of Primary History Server node (Not the one used in NLB configuration) e.g. 194.168.41.1

Example HA Second Node Installation command

Here is an example install command of the second node of HA RTDB server, considering 'D:' as database driver and 'E:' as Backup drive and 'Asia/Kolkata' as the timezone.
All the available installation parameters are listed in the chapter "Installation parameters
".

Cmd /s /c ""\Project CPIMS\Install_Server.bat" /DBSIZE HIGH /DATAPATH "D:\RTDBData" /APP_ROOT "D:\Application" /TZ "Asia/Kolkata" /DSN "HASYSTEM-RTDB" /BACKUP_ROOT "E:\" /NOBACKUP:0 /INSTALLATIONTYPE "3" /CCSOURCESYSTEM "194.168.41.1" /CCMulticastIP "TCP" /ADMINUSER "*CPIMS/ADMIN" /DBADMINUSER "*CPIMS/DBADMIN" /ADMINPASSWORD "*" /DBADMINPASSWORD "*" /NODETYPE 1"

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Note
The above command is only an example, at least replace the following parameters in the command with your corresponding environment values.

/DSN - Provide NLBName-RTDB (e.g. HASYSTEM-RTDB)

/CCSOURCESYSTEM - provide redundancy IP of HA1 (this IP should not be the one used for NLB).
Also don't forget to provide correct time zone of your system and correct drive letter of your system

If the installation cannot access the disks and remote registry of the first node, see the guidance in section "Define Remote Access Settings in the First Node" above.

Installation Log

The installation progress is displayed in console and also its stored in a logfile APP_Install_RTDB_Project_YYYY-MM-DD.log in the path "%userprofile%\ABB Oy\Log". It is advised that the user goes through this log file for error codes before starting RTDB. The installation reports the success/failure with the process exit status.

'0' means success
3010 means that the installation was successful but a reboot is still needed
Any other code apart from the above mentioned, then there is a failure.