Understanding Clustering - Cisco TelePresence Server 7010 Product User Manual

Understanding clustering

A cluster is a group of blades, hosted on the same Cisco TelePresence MSE 8000 chassis, that are
linked together to behave as a single unit. You can configure and manage clusters using the Cisco
TelePresence Supervisor MSE 8050.
A cluster provides the combined screen count of all the blades in the cluster. This larger screen count
provides you with the flexibility to set up conferences with more participants or several smaller
conferences. For more information about screen licenses, see
Note: The Conference controlling arrangement is not the same as the clustering arrangement of multiple
TelePresence Servers. For more information, see
Overview of a Cisco TelePresence Server MSE 8710 cluster
Cisco TelePresence Server MSE 8710 blades running software version 2 or later support clustering.
Currently you can cluster up to four blades, with one blade being the master and the others being slaves.
Clustering provides you with the combined video port count of the blades in the cluster. For example, on
a cluster of four blades, each with 16 screen licenses, the cluster has 64 video ports. The master can
allocate them as necessary, for example, all in one large conference, or distributed across several
smaller conferences.
Master blades
The screen licenses allocated to all the blades in a cluster are "inherited" by the master blade; all ports in
the cluster are controlled by the master. Therefore, after you have configured a cluster, you must control
functionality through the master using either its web interface or through its API. All calls to the cluster
are made through the master.
Slave blades
Slave blades do not display the full blade web interface. Only certain settings are available, such as
network configuration, logging and upgrading. Similarly, a slave blade will only respond to a subset of
API calls. For more information, refer to the relevant API documentation.
Upgrading clustered blades
If you need to upgrade the blades in a cluster, first upload the new software images to each blade in the
cluster and then restart the master. The slaves will automatically restart and the upgrade will be
completed.
General points
Some points to note about clustering:
If you want to cluster a blade, the blade must have the cluster support feature key.
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The Supervisor must be running software version 2.1 or above to configure clustering.
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You may only cluster identical blades; they must be of the same type and must be running the same
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version of their software.
You can have more than one cluster in a chassis and the chassis can host different types of clusters.
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Cisco TelePresence Server Product User Guide
Understanding screen
Comparing clustering with Conference
TelePresence Servers
licenses.
controlling.
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