Installation of FAB Software on Microsoft Windows Cluster

The following FAB Software can be installed on a fail-safe Microsoft Windows Cluster system with 2 nodes:

  • FAB Network Controller FT-NC
  • FAB Archive Server FT-ARCHIVE
  • FAB Subtitle Database FT-STTDB
  • FAB DVB Interface FT-DVB
  • FAB Subtitler

The above software (except FAB Subtitler) is running as a service application under Windows and the clustering functionality can automatically start/stop the service on node 1 or node 2. The following guidelines for installation on a cluster system shall be followed:

  • Install FAB Software to C:\Program Files(x86)\FAB Application Name on cluster node 1 and on cluster node 2. The reason why the application is installed on the local disk C: of every node is that this way the software can be updated on one cluster node while the application is running on the other cluster node.
  • If the service application does not appear listed under Services then it can be installed manually from command prompt (started as administrator) by starting:

ncservice.exe /install

  • Open Services, find the FAB Application and click on Properties
  • Set the start mode to “Manual” and STOP the service application
  • In cluster management select/create a group that will contain the FAB Application
  • Add a new service application that will be started within the group and select the FAB Application in the list of services
  • Make sure to set dependencies correctly. FAB Applications depend on disk, network, network name and share
  • Start the application and check that it is running correctly. You should be able to move the application between node 1 and node 2

Installation of a software update for FAB Software on Microsoft Windows Cluster

  • Install the software updates on the (second) cluster node where the application is currently not running
  • Move the application from the first cluster node and start it on the second node (where the new software version is already installed)
  • Install the software update on the (first) cluster node where the application is currently not running

Installation of FAB Subtitler on Microsoft Windows Cluster

FAB Subtitler is a GUI application. Microsoft Windows Cluster does not provide support for GUI applications out of the box. Therefore FAB Activity Manager is used as a helper program so that FAB Subtitler can be used on Microsoft Windows Cluster. Follow these guidelines to run FAB Subtitler on the cluster so that FAB Subtitler will be running on one cluster node at any time:

  • Install FAB Subtitler and FAB Activity Manager on both cluster servers
  • Make sure that a cluster disk resource is available on one server with a certain drive letter (i.e. F:)
  • Open FAB Activity Manager and configure one instance of FAB Subtitler with the following settings on both servers:
  • Program location: “C:\Program Files (x86)\FAB Subtitler\sttwin.exe”
  • Parameters: /INTDATADIR=F:\FAB\FABSubtitlerData
  • Application should only be running when disk is available F:

The above settings will make sure that when the cluster will move drive F: from one cluster server to another cluster server, then FAB Subtitler will be stopped on one server and started on the other server. The parameter /INTDATADIR= defines the folder where FAB Subtitler will store all configuration data so that the same configuration will be used independent of the server where FAB Subtitler is started.

When moving the cluster role which contains the drive F: to another server FAB Activity Manager will automatically detect that the drive F: is not available anymore and it will stop FAB Subtitler. On the other server FAB Activity Manager will detect that the drive F: is available and it will start FAB Subtitler.

Running Scheduled Tasks

In certain cases scheduled tasks will be used that will follow a certain resource around the cluster so that the task will only be executed on the server where a specific resource is currently running.

There is no UI for managing clustered tasks, as all administration is done using PowerShell. There are four PowerShell cmdlets to know of.

  • Register-ClusteredScheduledTask: Create a new clustered task
  • Get-ClusteredScheduledTask: Retrieve or query an existing clustered task
  • Set-ClusteredScheduledTask: Modify an existing clustered task
  • Unregister-ClusteredScheduledTask: Remove a clustered task

You will perform the following steps to create a new scheduled clustered task. Start by creating an action using New-ScheduledTaskAction.

$TaskAction = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute C:\Windows\System32\someprogram.exe

Then you will create a trigger to start the clustered task using New-ScheduledTaskTrigger:

$TaskTrigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -At 01:00 -Daily

Next, create the new clustered task using the previous action and the trigger. The following example will create a resource specific task that will follow a HA resource called AHAResource around the cluster:

Register-ClusteredScheduledTask -Cluster HVC1 -TaskName “An example resource specific Cluster Task” 
-TaskType ResourceSpecific -Resource AHAResource -Action $TaskAction -Trigger $TaskTrigger

Any clustered task that you create will appear in Task Scheduler under Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Failover Clustering. Once created, you cannot modify the type of the clustered task; you will have to remove the original clustered task and create a new one of the desired type.

This page was last updated on 2021-01-22