Users Guide

Data Flow | Clustering
OMNM 6.5.3 Installation Guide 105
Mediation Server—Mediation Server manages the communication between the
OpenManage Network Manager and the network elements. Like the application
and database servers, you can deploy mediation servers in a fault tolerant master/
slave configuration to maintain constant communication with the network ele-
ments. You can make mediation servers highly available. See Mediation Cluster-
ing on page 129.
NOTE:
If Mediation Servers or clients are outside a firewall from the Application Server, you must disable
multicast connections to Application Servers. See Disabling Multicast on page 111.
Load Balancer (Proxy)—Deployments where many users access the system concur-
rently may require a Load Balancer, also known as a Proxy, to manage traffic to
multiple Web Servers. If one web server is overloaded or un-responsive, the Load
Balancer directs users to a responsive Web server. Single-server installations do
not require a Load Balancer.
All deployments with multiple application servers require an additional load balancer for
application servers too. This ensures that active web servers always direct traffic to an available
application server in the cluster. If the current application server is unresponsive, the load
balancer re-directs the web server to another application server.
With the proper configuration the same load balancer can serve both web server and
application server. See
Using Load Balancers on page 116 for more.
Data Flow
Clients access the OpenManage Network Manager system through a web browser. The system
routes requests to web server(s) to a proxy device (load balancer [LB]) that routes traffic to a
suitable application server. Application server returns data retrieved from the database. If an
application needs to communicate with managed devices, a mediation server handles the task. The
mediation server retrieves the data from the device, and sends it to the application server.
Application server processes, then stores the data in the database.
The images below show the most common deployment architectures:
Single Server
This deployment is the simplest installation. The entire application resides on a single machine.
User / client access is through web browser(s).