Domino Consulting - HCL Domino Administrator 11.0.1 Help

ADMINISTERING

Choosing the server availability threshold

Setting the server availability threshold on each server is a key factor in balancing the workload in the cluster. Setting the server availability threshold too high can result in failover occurring unnecessarily. Setting it too low can result in poor performance for users who could have received better performance from a different server.

About this task

Use these steps to determine the proper value for the server availability threshold.

Procedure

1. During periods of normal to heavy load, use one of the following methods to observe the server availability index:

From the Domino® Administrator or the Web Administrator, make the server you want current. Then click the Server -> Statistics tab. Then, in the statistics list, expand Server.
In the Server pane of the Domino Administrator, expand either All Servers or Clusters. Right-click the server you want, choose Server Properties, and then click the Cluster tab.
At the server console, type show cluster.
At the server console, type show stat server.
Note: Before using the next two methods, you must enable statistic reporting.
From the Domino Administrator or the Web Administrator, click theServer -> Analysis tab. In the Task pane, expand Monitoring Results -> Statistics Reports -> Clusters. In the Results pane, open the Monitoring Results document you want.
Open the Monitoring Results database (STATREP.NSF), and look in the Statistics Reports -> Cluster view.

2. Set an initial availability threshold based on the results of your observation. Consider the following when setting this value:

Specify a value in the lowest 25% of observed usage.
Lesser values provide more reserve capacity to accommodate failover from other servers.

3. Track other cluster statistics to see if the workload is reasonably balanced. The following table lists some of the statistics that are helpful in determining if the workload is balanced.

Table 1. Cluster statistics

Statistic name	Description
Server.AvailabilityIndex	The current value of the server availability index. The values range from 0 to 100. A value of 0 indicates that there are no resources available on the server. A value of 100 means that the server is completely available.
Server.ExpansionFactor	The current expansion factor. This value is used to compute the availability index. A value of 1 indicates that the server is completing transactions at the minimum time for that server. A value of 64 indicates that it is taking 64 times longer than the minimum time to complete transactions. By default, an expansion factor of 64 indicates a fully-loaded server, and results in an availability index of 0 (zero). You can use the `NOTES.INI` setting `Server_Transinfo_Range` to change the expansion factor value that indicates a fully loaded server. You can use the Show AI server command to obtain a suggested availability index.
Server.Cluster.OpenRedirects.LoadBalance.Successful	The number of times a BUSY server successfully redirects a client to another cluster member.
Server.Cluster.OpenRedirects.LoadBalance.Unsuccessful	The number of times a BUSY server is unsuccessful in redirecting a client to another cluster member. A server will be unsuccessful if the target server is also in a BUSY state or otherwise unavailable.
Server.Cluster.OpenRequest.ClusterBusy	The number of times a BUSY server tries to redirect a client request when all other cluster servers were also BUSY.
Server.Cluster.OpenRequest.LoadBalanced	The number of times a user tried to open a database on this server when the server was BUSY.

These statistics are cumulative from when the server was started.

4. Compare these statistics for all the servers in the cluster.

5. Adjust the server availability threshold on any servers that do not seem well balanced.

Related reference
Show AI

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