# Creating Clusters

If you've performed the tasks described in "Before You Install" and you've successfully installed ClusterCATS, you're ready to begin creating your server clusters.

This section explains:

- "Creating clusters with the Cluster Setup Wizard"
- "Creating clusters manually"

## Creating clusters with the Cluster Setup Wizard

The ClusterCATS Explorer includes a Cluster Setup Wizard that makes creating and configuring clusters easy. The Wizard walks you through a series of online screens that let you define and configure required load balancing and high availability features for your server clusters.

Note | While you can create server clusters manually using the ClusterCATS Explorer menu options, it's easier and quicker to create and configure them completely using the Cluster Setup Wizard. If you use the Wizard initially, you can always modify the configuration of your server clusters at anytime after you have created them. To modify the settings you've configured using the Wizard, follow the procedures described in "Configuring Load Balancing & High Availability Features".

| To create a server cluster using the Cluster Setup Wizard:

1. Click Start>Programs>ColdFusion Server 4.5>ClusterCATS for ColdFusion Explorer.

   The ClusterCATS Explorer opens.

2. Choose Cluster Setup Wizard from the Configure menu. Alternatively, you can click the Cluster Setup Wizard icon that appears in the tool bar.

   The Create New Cluster dialog box appears.

3. Enter a name for your cluster and `GoColdFusion` in the License Key field and click Next.

   Tip | Make your cluster names logically consistent with their purpose. For example, Sales Web, Customer Support Web, and so on. Also, the License Key field is case-sensitive, so enter the key exactly as shown in step 3.

   The List of Web Servers dialog box appears.

4. Click Add to add available Web servers to your cluster.

   The Add New Server dialog box appears.

5. Enter the fully qualified TCP/IP host name of a Web server in the New Web Server Name field (for example, doc.allaire.com).
6. If you are not configuring this Web server for offline maintenance support, go to step 9. However, if you already configured this Web server with a maintenance IP address as described in "Configuring ClusterCATS offline maintenance support (NT only)", go to step 7.

   Note | Offline maintenance support is only available on NT server clusters. You can only set the maintenance support option when creating a cluster or adding a cluster member to a cluster. You cannot configure or modify this option after you have created and added the cluster member to the cluster.

   If you need help configuring the maintenance IP address, see "Assigning a static IP address to each server's NIC".

7. Select the ClusterCATS Maintenance Support check box to enable support for offline maintenance.
8. Enter the fully qualified host name of the maintenance address (for example, serv1.yourcompany.com) in the Maintenance Address field.
9. Click OK.
10. Repeat steps 4 through 9 for each Web server you want to add to the cluster and then click Next to proceed.

    The Load Management dialog box appears.

11. If you want to use the default load threshold settings, click Next and go to step 14. However, if you don't want to use the defaults, select the server and click Configure to configure new peak and gradual redirect load thresholds for that cluster member.

    The Load Thresholds dialog box appears.

12. Enter new numerical values (not higher than 100%) in the Peak and Gradual Redirect fields and click OK.

    Be sure to keep your Peak threshold below 100% to accommodate ColdFusion's processing needs. Set your Gradual Redirection threshold to be 10% - 30% lower than your Peak threshold. Any larger differential will degrade overall performance.

13. Click Next.

    The Alert Notification dialog box appears.

14. Enter the name of your outbound SMTP mail server in the SMTP Mail Server field and the e-mail address for a recipient of cluster alerts in the E-mail Address field. If multiple people will receive different alerts for different types of notification events, go to step 15. Otherwise, click Next and proceed to step 17.
15. If you want to configure different types of alerts to go to different people, click Details in the Alert Notification dialog box.

    The Alarm Notification dialog box appears.

16. Click an alert event and enter the e-mail address of the recipient.

    If you want the same person to receive the majority of alerts, click Propagate to automatically fill each event's Recipient column with the same e-mail address. You can then manually change the few recipients that are different. If there are multiple recipients for the same alert event, separate your e-mail address entries with commas. Click OK to return to the Alarm Notifications dialog box and then Click Next to proceed.

    The Session State Management dialog box appears.

17. If your server cluster supports a site that needs to maintain persistent state on the same Web server during a user session, leave the Yes option selected to enable session-aware load balancing. Otherwise, select No and click Next.

    The Load Balancing Device dialog box appears.

18. If you are using a hardware-based load balancing device in addition to ClusterCATS to manage and distribute load, enter the name of the Web site that this device supports (for example, www.yourcompany.com) and click Next.
19. Click Finish.

    ClusterCATS creates the cluster you just configured and displays it in the ClusterCATS Explorer's left pane.

Congratulations -- y ou've just created your cluster, added servers to it, and configured each server with load balancing and high availability capabilities using the Wizard. See "Configuring cluster administration security" to learn how to secure your cluster environment.

## Creating clusters manually

If you do not want to create your clusters using the Cluster Setup Wizard, you can create them manually.

| To create clusters manually using the ClusterCATS Explorer:

1. Click Start>Programs>ColdFusion 4.5>ClusterCATS for ColdFusion.

   The ClusterCATS Explorer opens.

2. Choose New Cluster from the Cluster Manager menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the Cluster Manager icon and select New Cluster or click the New Cluster button that appears in the tool bar.

   The Create New Cluster dialog box appears.

3. Enter a unique name for the cluster in the Cluster Name field and enter `GoColdFusion` in the License Key field.

   Tip | Make your cluster names logically consistent with their purpose. For example, Sales Web, Customer Support Web, and so on. Also, the License Key field is case-sensitive, so enter the key exactly as shown in step 3.

4. Enter the fully qualified host name (for example, doc.allaire.com) in the Web Server Name field for the first server you want to be a member of this cluster.

   Note | You cannot create an empty cluster; you must specify a Web server that will be part of the cluster. This first server that you add to the cluster is known as the Admin Manager. The remaining steps guide you in configuring the Admin Manager.

5. If you are not configuring this Web server for offline maintenance support, go to step 8. However, if you already configured this Web server with a maintenance IP address as described in "Configuring ClusterCATS offline maintenance support (NT only)", go to step 6.

   Note | Offline maintenance support is only available on Windows NT server clusters. You can only set the maintenance support option when creating a cluster or adding a cluster member to a cluster. You cannot configure or modify this option after you have created and added the cluster member to the cluster.

   If you need help in configuring the maintenance IP address, see "Assigning a static IP address to each server's NIC".

6. Select the ClusterCATS Maintenance Support check box to enable support for offline maintenance.
7. Enter the fully qualified host name of the maintenance address (for example, serv1.yourcompany.com) in the Maintenance Address field.
8. Click OK

   Your cluster appears below the Cluster Manager icon in the ClusterCATS Explorer left pane.

   To manually add additional cluster members to it, see "Adding and deleting cluster members".

### Adding and deleting cluster members

You add servers to and delete servers from a cluster one at a time using the ClusterCATS Explorer.

| To add a cluster member to a cluster:

1. Open the ClusterCATS Explorer and select the cluster to which you want to add a server.
2. Choose New>Cluster Member from the Cluster menu. Alternatively, you can click the Add tool bar button or right mouse click the cluster icon and choose New>Cluster Member.

   The Add New Server to Cluster dialog box appears.

3. In the Web Server Name field, enter the fully qualified TCP/IP host name of the Web server (for example, doc.allaire.com).
4. If you are not configuring this Web server for offline maintenance support, go to step 7. However, if you already configured this Web server with a maintenance IP address as described in "Configuring ClusterCATS offline maintenance support (NT only)", go to step 5.

   Note | You can only set the maintenance support option when creating a cluster or adding a cluster member to a cluster. You cannot configure or modify this option after you have created and added the cluster member to the cluster.

   If you need help in configuring the maintenance IP address, see "Assigning a static IP address to each server's NIC". Offline maintenance support is only available on Windows NT servers.

5. Select the ClusterCATS Maintenance Support check box to enable support for offline maintenance.
6. Enter the fully qualified host name of the maintenance address (for example, serv1.yourcompany.com) in the Maintenance Address field.
7. Click OK.
8. Repeat steps 2 through 7 to add additional servers to the cluster manually.

| To delete a member from a cluster:

1. Open the ClusterCATS Explorer and select the server you want to remove from the cluster.
2. Choose Delete from the Server menu. Alternatively, you can right-click the server name and choose Delete.

   The selected server is deleted from the cluster you selected.

### Deleting a cluster

To delete an entire cluster, individually delete each member from the cluster using the procedure above. When the last cluster member has been removed, the cluster itself is deleted.

Note | You must delete the Admin Manager, which is the first server you added to the cluster, last to delete the cluster. You can determine which server is the Admin Manager by right clicking on the cluster icon and choosing Configure>Administration. The cluster's Properties dialog box appears displaying the Administration tab. The server designated as the Admin Manager will be the active entry in the drop-down list.