Configure and initiate a failover

Set up a Synology ActiveProtect appliance as the failover server, maximizing uptime for your site management. When your management server is down or offline, manually switch to the failover to keep everything functioning.

Important:

Backup data on the management server will not be synchronized to the failover server.

Before you start

Deploy at least two ActiveProtect appliances: Configure one as the management server and the other as the failover server. Note that only a ActiveProtect appliance can be set as the failover server.¹
Check OS versions: Make sure that your failover server and management server have the same version of APM.
Check models: To ensure stable performance, check that the model of your failover server is identical to or exceeds that of the management server.
Join a directory service: Only users, groups, and permissions from a directory service can be synced from the management server to the failover server. Therefore, join your management server to a domain or LDAP directory before the setup of failover server.
Synchronize time between servers: To ensure consistent time between your management server and failover server, follow these steps:
1. Go to your management server > Appliance Console > Control Panel > Regional Options > Time.
2. Enable the option Synchronize with NTP server and specify a server address.
3. Repeat the steps above on your failover server.

Specify a failover server

Sign in to your management server.
Go to Infrastructure > Site Management and click Site Settings.
Under the Set Failover Server section, click Set Up.
Select an ActiveProtect appliance and save the settings.
Your backup appliance is now a failover server, which will periodically synchronize system configurations from the management server.

After the server setup, you can also change or remove your failover server on the same page.

Initiate a failover

The following steps depend on how your backup servers connect to the management server:

If your backup servers connect via an FQDN (Recommended)

Go to your DNS server. Point the management server's external address to the IP address of your failover server.
Sign in to the failover server using an APM administrative account.
Under the Failover section, click Take Over.
The failover server is now a management server, while the original management server assumes the role of the failover server.

If your servers connect via an IP address

Sign in to the failover server using an APM administrative account.
Under the Failover section, click Take Over.
Sign in to each of your managed backup servers. Click the pencil icon next to Management server and enter your failover server's IP address.
The failover server is now a management server, while the original management server assumes the role of the failover server.

Synchronized configurations

The failover server synchronizes the following information from the management server:

The management server's FQDN and certificate
Backup server list
Remote storage list
Storage credentials
Plan list
Workload list
Backup version lists
Domain/LDAP information
Permissions for domain/LDAP users
Login styles
Notification settings
Log settings

Note:

ActiveProtect appliance Tower series can't be set as management or failover servers.
We suggest deploying the failover server in an off-site or remote location to reduce the impact of single points of failure, such as disk errors or power outages.
An ActiveProtect appliance needs to sync with the management server after being assigned as a failover server. Avoid managing the workloads until the syncing process is complete.
After your management server joins a directory service, the failover server will restart certain services and cancel the following tasks:
- Backing up virtual machines and physical servers
- Restoring and migrating virtual machines
- Restoring and migrating physical servers as virtual machines
The time required to sync configurations to a failover server depends on the following factors:
- Drive read/write speed
- Available CPU and RAM resources
- Network transfer speed
- Configuration data size
For example, syncing site configurations for 150,000 workloads (each with 30 backup versions) to a failover server takes about 30 minutes.

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