9.1 TeamWorks Appliance Roles

The appliances in a multiple-appliance TeamWorks deployment perform three distinct roles that are essential to delivering TeamWorks services.

Table 9-1 Appliance Role Summary

 

TeamWorks

Search

PostgreSQL (if needed)

Role

  • Team collaboration

  • Content indexing for searching purposes

  • Database storage of room, topic, and comment data, system configuration, and user/group identities

Number Required

  • At least one and generally three as a best practice for fault tolerance.

    After that, as many as the service load demands.

  • Three

    This ensures search and messaging service fault tolerance.

    Having more than three is not recommended or needed.

  • The best practice is to use an existing SQL database server.

    The PostgreSQL appliance should only be used if an existing database server is not available.

Dependencies

  • At least one Search appliance

  • Access to a PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL database

  • None

  • None

Functions

  • Run a number of web-based services that are responsible for TeamWorks client interactions with the rest of the system.

  • Accept information to be indexed.

  • Respond to user-initiated search requests from TeamWorks Appliances.

Store and provide access to the following:

  • Configuration settings for all of the TeamWorks appliances

  • Information on the users and conversations within the system

Best Practices

Required: Configure /vashare to point to a remote NFS disk that all TeamWorks and Search appliances share in common.

Strongly recommended: Deploy at least three TeamWorks appliances.

Strongly recommended: Deploy three Search appliances to provide fault tolerance and eliminate a single point of failure.

Recommended: Consult with a qualified database administrator and use a high-availability in-house PostgreSQL or Microsoft SQL installation whenever possible.