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Planning a quorum implementation

Tony Beveridge edited this page Jan 28, 2016 · 3 revisions

Overview

For most (if not all) implementations, a quorum must be planned with some thought. This mini guide outlines the key steps in such planning.

Decide on and implement the worker behaviour

A useful quorum has a worker implementation; a set of behaviours that are executed in some long running process. The guide to implement a worker for a Windows service is here.

Identify quorum members

A quorum is composed of 2 or more machines executing a quorum implementation - typically a Windows service executing a worker implementation. To this end, you should identify all machines that will be part of the quorum i.e. on which the Windows service (or other quorum aware implementation) will be installed.

Decide on the quorum configuration

The main points to consider:

  • The protocol - http, https, tcp or tcps
  • The port on which the quorum member will listen (default is 9999 for non-secure protocols, 8999 for secure protocols)
  • The quorum members identified in the previous step

If you choose a secure protocol, you'll need to read the security notes and then the SSL guide.

Install the QCC

The QCC (Quorum Control Centre) is an IIS hosted MVC web app that allows the quorum to be queried, configured and controlled. You can use both the installation guide and the user guide to install and operate it.

Install the QIT (optional)

The QIT (Quorum Interaction Tool) is a command line app that allows for some basic quorum control. The user guide is here.

Build and install the Windows service or Console app

It's straightforward to build a quorum windows service - see here.

Use the QCC to 'boot' the quorum and validate

Follow the QCC user guide to boot the quorum (supply it configuration) and monitor it.