Cluster members periodically query other appliances in the cluster to obtain their health information. Cluster member information and health information is cached in memory, with the most recent results displayed on the Cluster settings screen.
Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Cluster | Cluster Management. In the cluster view (left pane), click a member of the cluster to refresh the display of the right pane. From the right pane you can monitor the health of the selected appliance and perform operations against the appliance:
Below the toolbar, this pane displays the following information about the appliance selected in the cluster view.
Table 142: Appliance properties
| Appliance name |
The name of the appliance. |
| IP address |
The IPv4 address (or IPv6 address) of the appliance configuration interface.
|
| Appliance type |
Indicates either Primary or Replica. |
| Appliance state |
Indicates the appliance state. For a list of available states, see Appliance states. |
| Disk Space |
The amount of used and free disk space. |
Click View More to show or hide this additional information.
Appliance
| Serial Number |
The serial number of the appliance |
| Uptime |
The amount of time (days, hours, and minutes) the appliance has been running |
Primary (displayed on replicas)
| Network Address |
The network DNS name or the IP address of the primary appliance in the cluster |
| MAC Address |
The media access control address (MAC address), a unique identifier assigned to the network interface for communications |
| Link Present |
Displays either Yes or No to indicate if there is an open communication link |
| Link Latency |
The amount of time (in milliseconds) it takes for the primary to communicate with the replica. Network latency is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. Ideally, latency is as close to zero as possible. |
Information
| Last Health Check |
Last date and time Safeguard for Privileged Passwords obtained the selected appliance's information |
| Version |
The appliance version number |
|
Errors |
Errors are reported. For example, if an appliance is disconnected from the primary (no quorum), an error message may be: Request Workflow: Cluster configuration database health could not be determined. |
|
Warnings |
Warnings are reported. For example, if an appliance is disconnected from the primary (no quorum), a warning message may be: Policy Data: There is a problem replicating policy data. Details: Policy database slave IO is not running. The Safeguard primary may be inaccessible from this appliance. |
Managed networks are named lists of network segments serviced by a specific Safeguard for Privileged Passwords (SPP) or Safeguard for Privileged Sessions (SPS) appliance in a clustered environment. Managed networks are used for scheduling tasks, such as password change, account discovery, sessions recording, and asset discovery to distribute the task load. Using managed networks, you can:
- Distribute the load so there is minimal cluster traffic.
- Specify to use the appliances that are closest to the target asset to perform the actual task.
An SPP cluster has a default managed network that consists of all cluster members. Other managed networks can be defined.
|
|
CAUTION: If the role of a managed host that belongs to a joined SPS cluster is changed or if a managed host is added or removed from the cluster, SPP will detect the change by querying each Central Management node and attempt to stay in sync with the SPS cluster topology. If the Central Management node is down, SPP warns the administrator there may be invalid policies with a message like: The session connection policy was not found, in addition to flagging each broken Access Request Policy with an Invalid notation (Administrative Tools | Entitlements | Access Request Policies tab). Based on the size of your network and other factors, this will take one to 10 minutes and, during this time window, an unavailable managed host may continue to appear on the Managed Networks page. Any requests made will be invalid and will not be able to be launch sessions. |
Task delegation
A Safeguard for Privileged Passwords' cluster delegates platform management tasks (such as password check and password change) to appliances based on platform task load. The primary appliance performs delegation and evaluates cluster member suitability using an internal fitness score that is calculated by dividing the number of in-use platform task threads by the maximum number of allowed platform task threads.
The maximum number of allowed platform task threads can be adjusted using the Appliance/Settings API and adjusting the MaxPlatformTaskThreads value. By adjusting this number, you can tune task distribution.
IMPORTANT: Adjusting the MaxPlatformTaskThreads will impact SPP's available resources for handling access requests and may impact user experience. Best practice is to engage Professional Services if the value may need to be changed.
Increasing the maximum number of allowed platform task threads will decrease the fitness score thus increasing the number of tasks passed to that appliance.
The fitness score is cached and is recalculated in 8-minute intervals when the scheduler is not busy. When the scheduler is running tasks, the fitness score is calculated more frequently so the scheduler can dynamically adjust.
The selection of a Safeguard for Privileged Sessions (SPS) Appliance is primarily dependent on managed network rules. However, if there aren't any managed network rules or if the managed network rules result in more than one SPS appliances selected, a fitness score is used as the tie breaker. The fitness score is calculated based on the percentage of disk available minus the overall load average of the SPS appliance. (Load average is a Linux metric which provides a numerical indication of the overall resource capacity in use on the server.) The higher the fitness score, the more likely that the corresponding appliance will be selected.
Precedence
The selection made on the Entitlement | Access Request Policy tab takes precedence over the selections on Settings | Cluster | Managed Networks page. If a Managed Networks rule includes nodes from different SPS clusters, SPP will only select the nodes from the same cluster that was assigned on the Session Settings page of the Access Request Policy tab.
Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Cluster | Managed Networks. The Managed Networks page displays the following information about previously defined managed networks. Initially, this page contains the properties for the Default Managed Network, which implicitly includes all networks and is served by all appliances in the cluster.
IMPORTANT: Discovery and password check and change will not work if a managed network has been configured with a subnet but is not assigned to an appliance (the appliance is blank). If the managed network does not have an assigned appliance, a message like the following displays: No appliances in network '<NameOfEmptyNetwork>' available to execute platform task request. To resolve the issue, assign at least one appliance to manage the passwords and/or sessions or delete the managed network entry.
Table 143: Managed Networks: Properties
|
Name |
The name assigned to the managed network when it was added to Safeguard for Privileged Passwords. |
| Subnets |
A list of subnets included in the managed network.
Double-click an entry in the Managed Networks grid to display details about the subnets associated with the selected managed network.
If you have joined Safeguard for Privileged Sessions, the following apply:
- Passwords Managed By: The SPP appliance ID, which includes the MAC address followed by the IP address of the node.
- Sessions Managed By: If applicable, the SPS appliance host name followed by the IP address of the SPS node.
|
|
Passwords Managed By |
The host name and IP address of the appliances and the MAC address assigned to manage the specified subnets.
|
|
Sessions Managed By |
The host name and IP address of the cluster nodes. |
|
Description |
The descriptive text entered when defining the managed network. |
Click a managed network row to bring up the Managed Network dialog where the properties are editable.
Table 144: Managed Networks: Editable Properties
|
Name |
The name assigned to the managed network when it was added to Safeguard for Privileged Passwords. |
|
Description |
The descriptive text entered when defining the managed network. |
| Subnets |
A list of subnets included in the managed network.
Click  Add to add a subnet.
Click  Delete to delete the selected subnet. |
|
Passwords Managed By |
The host name and IP address of the appliances and the MAC address assigned to manage the specified subnets.
Click Add to make a selection.
Click Delete to delete the selected host name and IP address. |
|
Sessions Managed By |
The host name and IP address of the cluster master for the managed nodes.
Click Add to make a selection given this information: Host Name, Network Address, and cluster Master or Replica.
Click Delete to delete the selected host name and IP address. |
Use these toolbar buttons to define and maintain your managed networks.
Table 145: Managed Networks: Toolbar
| New |
Add a managed network. For more information, see Adding a managed network. |
| Delete Selected |
Remove the selected managed network from Safeguard for Privileged Passwords. You cannot delete the Default Managed Network. |
 Refresh |
Update the list of managed networks. |
 Edit |
Modify the selected managed network configuration. You can not modify the Default Managed Network. |
|
Resolve Network |
Locate an IP address in a managed network's list of subnets. For more information, see Resolving IP address. |
Use the Managed Networks page on the Cluster settings view to add managed networks, which can be used to distribute the task load in a clustered environment. It is the responsibility of the Appliance Administrator to define and maintain managed networks.
To add a managed network
- Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Cluster | Managed Networks.
- Click
Add.
- In the Managed Network dialog, provide the following information:
-
Name: Enter the display name for the managed network. This may be the name of the Safeguard for Privileged Sessions Appliance used to authenticate the joined SPS session connection.
Limit: 50 characters
-
Description: (Optional) Enter information about the managed network.
Limit: 255 characters
-
Subnets: Click Add to specify the subnets, or group of hosts, to be managed.
Enter each subnet using CIDR notation. For example, 0.0.0.0/0.
NOTE: You can add a subnet to only one managed network. You will receive an error if you attempt to add the same subnet to another managed network. If you are unsure if an IP address has already been associated with a managed network, use the Resolve Network search box. For more information, see Resolving IP address.
-
Passwords Managed By: Select the appliances to be used to manage the specified subnets.
NOTE: You do not need to specify an appliance when you initially define a managed network. You can use the 
Edit button to specify the managing appliance at a later time.
- Sessions Managed By: If applicable, select the Safeguard for Privileged Sessions (SPS) appliance to associate with the managed network.
- Click OK to save your selections and add the managed network.
To delete a managed network
- Navigate to Administrative Tools | Settings | Cluster | Managed Networks.
- Select the managed network to be deleted, click
Delete.
- In the confirmation dialog, click Yes.
Unjoin: Click
Unjoin to remove a replica from the cluster. For more information, see Unjoining replicas from a cluster.
Failover: Click
Failover to promote a replica to the primary appliance. For more information, see Failing over to a replica by promoting it to be the new primary.
Activate: Click
Activate to activate a read-only appliance so it can add, modify and delete data. For more information, see Activating a read-only appliance.
Diagnose: Click
Diagnose to open the Diagnostics pane where you can perform the following:
Check Health: Click
Check Health to capture and display the current state of the selected appliance.
Restart: Click
Restart to restart the selected appliance. Confirm your intentions by entering a Reason and clicking Restart.