MACROMEDIA BREEZE-CLUSTERING BREEZE PRESENTATION... User manual

Clustering Breeze Presentation Platforms

Trademarks
Afterburner, AppletAce, Attain, Attain Enterprise Learning System, Attain Essentials, Attain Objects for Dreamweaver,
Authorware, Authorware Attain, Authorware Interactive Studio, Authorware Star, Authorware Synergy, Backstage, Backstage
Designer, Backstage Desktop Studio, Backstage Enterprise Studio, Backstage Internet Studio, Contribute, Design in Motion,
Director, Director Multimedia Studio, Doc Around the Clock, Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver Attain, Drumbeat, Drumbeat 2000,
Extreme 3D, Fireworks, Flash, Fontographer, FreeHand, FreeHand Graphics Studio, Generator, Generator Developer's Studio,
Generator Dynamic Graphics Server, Knowledge Objects, Knowledge Stream, Knowledge Track, LikeMinds, Lingo, Live Effects,
MacRecorder Logo and Design, Macromedia, Macromedia Contribute, Macromedia Coursebuilder for Dreamweaver,
Macromedia M Logo & Design, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Xres, Macromind, Macromind Action, MAGIC, Mediamaker,
Multimedia is the Message, Object Authoring, Power Applets, Priority Access, Roundtrip HTML, Scriptlets, SoundEdit,
ShockRave, Shockmachine, Shockwave, shockwave.com, Shockwave Remote, Shockwave Internet Studio, Showcase, Tools to
Power Your Ideas, Universal Media, Virtuoso, Web Design 101, Whirlwind and Xtra are trademarks of Macromedia, Inc. and
may be registered in the United States or in other jurisdictions including internationally. Other product names, logos, designs,
titles, words or phrases mentioned within this publication may be trademarks, servicemarks, or tradenames of Macromedia, Inc.
or other entities and may be registered in certain jurisdictions including internationally.
This guide contains links to third-party Web sites that are not under the control of Macromedia, and Macromedia is not
responsible for the content on any linked site. If you access a third-party Web site mentioned in this guide, then you do so at your
own risk. Macromedia provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of the link does not imply that Macromedia
endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content on those third-party sites.
Apple Disclaimer
APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE
ENCLOSED COMPUTER SOFTWARE PACKAGE, ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES IS NOT PERMITTED BY SOME STATES.
THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY PROVIDES YOU WITH SPECIFIC
LEGAL RIGHTS. THERE MAY BE OTHER RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY HAVE WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO
STATE.
Copyright © 2003 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. This manual may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced,
translated, or converted to any electronic or machine-readable form in whole or in part without prior written approval of
Macromedia, Inc.
First Edition: October 2003
Macromedia, Inc.
600 Townsend St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

3
Beta
CONTENTS
Clustering Breeze Presentation Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Setting up a cluster of Breeze Presentation platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Verifying failover for HTTP requests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Verifying replication of content across the cluster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 Contents
Beta

5
Clustering Breeze Presentation Platforms
If your Macromedia Breeze license permits, you can install the Breeze Presentation platform on
two or more computers and then cluster the Breeze Presentation platforms to provide load
balancing and failover.
Clustering Breeze Presentation platforms has the following advantages:
•You can effectively use third-party hardware or software to provide load balancing and failover
for HTTP requests. Clustering Breeze Presentation platforms allows them to share session
data with each other so that load balancing and failover through third-party solutions can
be effective.
•Clustered Breeze Presentation platforms provide their own load balancing for requests to
create Breeze Flash presentations from Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
•All Breeze Presentation platforms in a cluster have copies of the same content. If one computer
in a cluster fails, the Breeze Presentation platform on another computer in the cluster can take
over and supply the same content.
Note: If you are using Breeze Live as a stand-alone product, all references to the Breeze
Presentation platform in this white paper apply also to the Breeze application server.
This white paper explains how to cluster Breeze Presentation platforms and verify that the cluster
functions successfully. The following topics are discussed:
•“Setting up a cluster of Breeze Presentation platforms”
•“Verifying failover for HTTP requests” on page 7
•“Verifying replication of content across the cluster” on page 8

6 Clustering Breeze Presentation Platforms
Setting up a cluster of Breeze Presentation platforms
Each Breeze Presentation platform in a cluster must be able to access the Breeze database. Because
licensing restrictions do not allow more than one Breeze Presentation platform to access the
Breeze database engine, you must use Microsoft SQL Server 2000 for the Breeze database.
The following figure illustrates a cluster with a load balancer and with the Breeze Presentation
platform on three computers.
To set up clustered Breeze Presentation platforms:
1Install the Breeze Presentation platform on each computer that will be in the cluster.
For information on installing the Breeze Presentation platform, see the Macromedia Breeze
Installation Guide. During installation, you use the same license key each time you install the
Breeze Presentation platform.
2Set configuration properties in the custom.ini file belonging to one of the Breeze Presentation
platforms in the cluster.
For information on setting configuration properties for the Breeze Presentation platform, see
Chapter 4, “Configuring the Breeze Presentation Platform,” in the Macromedia Breeze
Installation Guide.
Some of the properties you need to set in the custom.ini configuration file apply to the Breeze
database. For information on these properties and on setting up the Breeze database, see
Chapter 3, “Setting up the Breeze Database,” in the Macromedia Breeze Installation Guide.
3Copy the custom.ini configuration file to the installation folder of all the other Breeze
Presentation platforms in the cluster.
All Breeze Presentation platforms must have identical custom.ini files.
Your Breeze Presentation platforms are now clustered. Before you start one of the Breeze
Presentation platforms, you need to start Microsoft SQL Server.
Load balancer
Breeze
Presentation
platform
Breeze
Presentation
platform
Breeze
Presentation
platform
Breeze database
(Microsoft SQL Server 2000)

Verifying failover for HTTP requests 7
Verifying failover for HTTP requests
This section describes a procedure for verifying that your Breeze Presentation platform cluster
provides failover in the event that one of the computers in the cluster fails. The procedure
assumes that there are two computers in the cluster, Computer1 and Computer2. The steps for
verifying failover with more than two computers is very similar.
The basic approach in the procedure that follows is to demonstrate failover when you are using
the Breeze Manager, a web application within the Breeze Presentation platform. If the computer
you are accessing for the Breeze Manager fails and you can continue to use the Breeze Manager
without logging in again and without interruption, failover is successful.
To verify failover for HTTP requests in a Breeze Presentation platform cluster with two
computers:
1Make sure that the Breeze Presentation platform on Computer1 is started and that the Breeze
Presentation platform on Computer2 is stopped.
Before you start the Breeze Presentation platform, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 must
be running.
To start the Breeze Presentation platform:
■Select Start > Programs > Macromedia > Macromedia Breeze 3 > Start Breeze Server.
To stop the Breeze Presentation platform:
■Select Start > Programs > Macromedia > Macromedia Breeze 3 > Stop Breeze Server.
2Log in to the Breeze Manager.
You can log in to the Breeze Manager from the following URL: http://admin_host/servlet/
admin.
In the URL, admin_host is the host name you entered as the value of the ADMIN_HOST property
in the Breeze Presentation platform custom.ini configuration file (see step 2 under “Setting up
a cluster of Breeze Presentation platforms” on page 6).
When you log in, the Breeze Manager home page opens.
[User name]

8 Clustering Breeze Presentation Platforms
3Start the Breeze Presentation platform on Computer2.
4Stop the Breeze Presentation platform on Computer1.
5Click the Reports tab.
If failover is successful, the Breeze Manager Reports page opens. If the login page opens or any
other page is displayed, failover was not successful.
Verifying replication of content across the cluster
This section explains how you can verify that content uploaded to one Breeze Presentation
platform in a cluster is replicated to all other Breeze Presentation platforms in the cluster and is
therefore available whenever failover is necessary. As in the preceding section, the procedure that
follows assumes a cluster with two Breeze Presentation platforms.
To verify replication of content across a cluster with two Breeze Presentation platforms:
1Make sure that the Breeze Presentation platform on Computer1 is started and that the Breeze
Presentation platform on Computer2 is stopped.
Before you start the Breeze Presentation platform, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 must
be running.
To start the Breeze Presentation platform:
■Select Start > Programs > Macromedia > Macromedia Breeze 3 > Start Breeze Server.
To stop the Breeze Presentation platform:
■Select Start > Programs > Macromedia > Macromedia Breeze 3 > Stop Breeze Server.
2Log in to the Breeze Manager.
You can log in to the Breeze Manager from the following URL: http://admin_host/servlet/
admin.
In the URL, admin_host is the host name you entered as the value of the ADMIN_HOST property
in the Breeze Presentation platform custom.ini configuration file (see step 2 under “Setting up
a cluster of Breeze Presentation platforms” on page 6).
When you log in, the Breeze Manager home page opens.
3Upload a JPEG image or other content to the Breeze Presentation platform on Computer1:
aMake sure that you are a member of the Account Authors user group.
To upload content, even if you are an account administrator, you must also be a member of
the Account Authors user group. As an account administrator, you can add yourself to the
Account Authors group. For information on how to do this, open Breeze Manager Help >
Contents > Managing Users and Groups > Managing Groups > Adding members to
a group.
bClick the Content tab in the Breeze Manager.
The Content page opens.
cClick the New Content button and then follow the steps displayed in your browser for
adding content.
Once your test content is uploaded, a User Content page opens and displays a list of the
content that belongs to you.
4Click the link to the newly uploaded test content.
A Content Information page with a URL for viewing your test content opens.

Verifying replication of content across the cluster 9
5Make a note of the URL.
You will use it in step 9.
6Click the URL.
Your test content is displayed.
7Start Computer2, wait 10 seconds or so, and then stop Computer1.
8Close the browser window in which you were viewing the test content.
9Open a new browser window and go to the URL for viewing your test content.
If your test content is displayed, replication to Computer2 was successful. A blank window or
an error message means that replication failed.

10 Clustering Breeze Presentation Platforms