Enabling API clustering

Question:

I have a number of Centova Cast v2 servers and I'd like to be able to provision accounts on them from my billing system such that the accounts are distributed evenly to each server. Does Centova Cast v2 support this?

Answer:

Yes, as of Centova Cast v2.1.0, this is supported.

NOTE: These instructions are for Centova Cast v2 only. Centova Cast v3 uses a newer, more efficient distributed provisioning mechanism described here and does not support the API Clustering mechanism described in this article.

To begin, choose one of your Centova Cast servers to act as the "primary" server in your cluster. This will be the server to which your billing system connects to provision accounts across the cluster of servers.

To enable API clustering, you must edit your Centova Cast system configuration file (usually /home/centovacast/system/config.php) on your primary Centova Cast server and add the following line:

define('ENABLE_API_CLUSTERING',true);

Once this line has been added, perform the following steps:

  1. Login to the primary Centova Cast server's administration area.
  2. Click the Remote Servers link (in the left-hand column) to launch the Remote Servers page.
  3. On the Remote Servers page, add each of the servers that you want to use for new accounts. When adding each server, be sure to set the Include in API cluster option to Yes.
  4. Click the Settings link (in the left-hand column) to launch the Settings page.
  5. On the Settings page, under Single Sign-on, set the Provisioning server for API clustering option to the server on which all new accounts should be provisioned. If you want to evenly distribute the\ accounts, set it to The server with the fewest accounts.

Centova Cast is now ready for distributed account provisioning.

Now you must set up Centova Cast in your billing system. Do this as per the instructions in the Centova Cast installation guide. Note that you do not need to set up all of your Centova Cast servers in the billing system; you should only setup the "primary" server (which you chose in step 1 above) in your billing system, and Centova Cast will automatically ensure that the accounts are provisioned on the correct servers.