High availability is an Enterprise edition feature
Installing Access Manager in a failover cluster requires the following;
- A Lithnet Access Manager enterprise edition license
- You must meet the hardware and storage requirements for a Microsoft failover cluster
- A shared disk available to all cluster nodes (Recommended minimum size is 50GB)
- At least one Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller in the domain where AMS will be installed
- The KDS root key in the domain must be enabled
Follow the steps outlined in Microsoft documentation for creating a new failover cluster. Stop once you reach the section for Creating clustered roles and continue from this guide.
If you are setting up a cluster containing an even number of nodes, you must configure an appropriate witness to ensure a cluster quorum.
- Open the
Disk Managementtool, and bring the AMS storage volume online. Initialize the disk, format it, and assign it a drive letter (for the purposes of this guide, we will refer to the AMS storage volume asS:) - Open the
Failover Cluster Managertool, expand the cluster in the left hand side tree view, and selectStoragefollowed byDisks
- Select
Add Diskfrom the right-hand actions menu, and add the appropriate disk to the cluster.
- On the first node, run the Access Manager Service installer.
- When prompted to provide the installation paths, set the log and config folders to be on the
S:drive. EgS:\AMS\logsandS:\AMS\config

- We also recommend using a group-managed service account for AMS. You must use the same account on all cluster nodes.

- When the installer finishes, do not run the configuration utility when prompted.
- Exit the installer and return to the
Failover Cluster Manager - From the actions pane, select
Move Available Storageand select the next node in the cluster. Confirm that theowner nodefor the storage has changed to the correct node. - Log onto the next node, and ensure the
S:drive is present. - Run the AMS installer again, providing the exact same paths and service account as you did on the primary node.
- Repeat this process for all remaining cluster nodes
- Once AMS has been installed on all nodes, open the
Failover Cluster Managerand go to theRolesnode of the cluster - Click
Configure rule...from the actions pane - Select
Generic serviceas the role type
- Select
Lithnet Access Manager Servicefrom the services list
- Provide an IP address and name for your client access point. This will be the name of the clustered service, and by default, forms the AD hostname of the cluster.
- Select the storage volume that contains the AMS configuration
- Click
Addon thereplicate registry settingsscreen, and specify the following valueSOFTWARE\Lithnet\Access Manager Service\Parameters - Complete the remaining steps of the wizard, and ensure the new role transitions to an 'online' state
- Use the
Failover Cluster Managerto determine which node currently hosts the AMS service, and log onto that node - Open the AMS configuration utility
- From the
Web hostingpage, select or import the SSL certificate - From the
Licensingpage, clickEnter license keyand provide your enterprise license - From the
High availabilitypage, selectEnable cluster-compatible secret encryptionandEnable encryption certificate synchronization(unless you are storing your certificates in a HSM). - Save the configuration at this point. Restart the service when prompted.
- Close the AMS configuration utility
Note, the configuration utility requires access to the configuration file, and therefore can only be active on the cluster node that has access to the share storage volume. Always ensure you close the configuration utility before failing over to another node.
- Use the
Failover Cluster Managerto move the role to the next node - Open the AMS configuration utility
- From the
Web hostingpage, select or import the SSL certificate - Save the configuration and restart the service when prompted
- Repeat the certificate selection process on the remaining nodes in the cluster.
At this point, the cluster-specific configure is complete. You can now follow the steps in the installing guide for configuring the AMS features as appropriate for your environment.








