Switching the Web UI -> Service Association

Question

Hi,

In the install notes you state:-

*• On the Service for Web Interface page, specify the DNS host name of the Adaxes service the Web Interface will connect to. If the specified Adaxes service shares its configuration with other Adaxes services, the Web Interface will connect to the nearest available Adaxes service contained in the configuration set.

Note: This page is not available if you install Adaxes Service and Web Interface at the same time. In this case, the Web Interface will use the Adaxes service installed during this installation.*

Is there anyway to change the association\service that a web server will use post-install?

Also - can you confirm that this selection is dynamic i.e. a web server will find an alternative if the primary\local instance is offline? I'm sure we've tested it and it has in the past, but we've been doing some additional scenario testing and it isn't right now!

Comments

Sorry - to be precise - if we restart IIS it will connect to an alternate service, but not if IIS is running the same 'session' as when the service is taken offline.

I'm sure we have had it dynamically connecting in the past - maybe I'm just going mad!

Rgds

Answer 1

Is there anyway to change the association\service that a web server will use post-install?

Yes, this is possible. For this purpose, you need to manually edit the configuration file for each of your Web Interfaces:

1. Open the folder that contains the Adaxes Web Interface site you want to configure. By default, Adaxes Web Interface sites are installed to the following folders:

   • Administrators:
     C:\Program Files\Softerra\Adaxes 3\Web Interface\Admin\
   • Help Desk:
     C:\Program Files\Softerra\Adaxes 3\Web Interface\HelpDesk\
   • Self-Service:
     C:\Program Files\Softerra\Adaxes 3\Web Interface\SelfService\

2. Find the Web.config file and open it with a text editor.

3. Locate the following XML element: adaxesConfigurationSetId="<set_id>"
   where the <set_id> value will be the ID of the configuration set for the service that you specified during Web Interface installation (or it can be empty in case if Adaxes Web Interface is configured to use the service on the local computer).

4. Enter the ID of the configuration set that you want Adaxes service to connect to.
   To get the ID of a configuration set:

   • Open Adaxes Administration Console.
   • In the Console Tree, locate an Adaxes service joined to the configuration set that you want Adaxes Web Interface to connect to.
   • Right-click the service and click Properties.
   • Activate the General tab.
   • The ID of the configuration set will be displayed in the Configuration set ID field.
     

5. When done, save the file.

Sorry - to be precise - if we restart IIS it will connect to an alternate service, but not if IIS is running the same 'session' as when the service is taken offline.

If Adaxes Web Interface conects to a service that shares configuration with other services, and that service goes down, the Web Interface will automatically switch to another Adaxes service in the configuration set that is available. However, you should keep in mind that it takes about a minute or two for Adaxes Web Interface to detect that the service is down, and during that time the Web Interface will be returning an error.