PPM Support Tip: Use a Load Balancer when scheduling PROD Down time

[mike_se]

When bringing down nodes for maintenance, using a Load Balancer to redirect to a static page

Platform issue - How to prevent a perceived PROD Down situation


Sometimes with Project and Portfolio Management (PPM), it is necessary to bring down the nodes to run kUpdateHtml.sh or do some other kind of machine maintenance. This prompted the discussion of options to present the end User with a friendly page that lets them know there is maintenance occurring.


Load Balancers can be used to redirect to a certain page when the PPM nodes are down.

How to do this will depend on the specific Load Balancer being used.

For example, BIG-IP F5 Load Balancer can be configured via iRules to have the following:
 

when HTTP_REQUEST {
if { [active_members [LB::server pool]] == 0 } {
HTTP::redirect "http://123.456.78.90/"
}
}


NOTE: HP Support Engineers are not load balancing administrators, so always check with the company's load balancing administrators for the best solution to meet the environment.