ServerLink Installation and Configuration


Introduction

The main steps for ServerLink Configuration are as follows:

Configuring ServerLink on Primary Server

Step 1: Enabling ServerLink on a Primary Server

To enable ServerLink options in the Admin Portal, add the following key to cloudconfig.php

Windows Location : C:\xampp\htdocs\config\cloudconfig.php

Linux Location : /var/www/html/config/cloudconfig.php

define("TONIDOCLOUD_SERVERLINK_SHOW", 1);

If ServerLink is disabled, any local data that changes later will never be replicated to other servers later even if ServerLink is later enabled.

  1. Open the Admin Portal for the site and go to Settings->ServerLink tab, then click the Settings tab.

  2. Enable ServerLink by checking Enable ServerLink.
  3. Enter a ServerLink nickname for this server. Once set, this name can not be changed. Make sure this name is unique among all the servers doing ServerLink. replication. For example: you can set a name like austinhq for the headquarters and names like parisbranch, singaporebranch for the branch offices.
  4. Enter a strong ServerLink security key. This key is used for all ServerLink communications.

Configuring ServerLink on Secondary Server

If you are setting up a secondary server for an existing primary server, it is important that you copy the primary site completely to the secondary site first.
Enabling ServerLink on a site without an original copy of primary data may result in data missing on the secondary site if the primary data is not fully replicated.


For every secondary FileCloud ServerLink server, the following steps must be done:

  1. Copy all data from primary ServerLink server (primary should have ServerLink enabled when copy is done)
  2. Install a license with ServerLink component enabled
  3. Enable ServerLink
  4. Set the primary URL and the primary Password
  5. Run the ServerLink client app

Step 1: Copy data from Primary ServerLink server

To start a secondary server, make sure first to enable ServerLink on the primary and then copy the file data as well as the MongoDB databases to the secondary server. In many cases, it might be simple just to clone the primary (if it is a virtual machine).
It is important to ensure that the copy is done only after ServerLink is enabled. Making a copy without enabling ServerLink will mean changes made after the copy might not get replicated to the secondary servers.

Step 2: Install ServerLink enabled License

To enable serverlink on a secondary server, you need a special license file, as ServerLink is licensed separately from the main product.

To use ServerLink for a secondary FileCloud Server, you need a license with ServerLink functionality enabled. Once installed, you can check if the functionality is enabled by opening your Settings->License Tab and verifying the component shown.
 

To enable ServerLink options:

  1. Add the following key to cloudconfig.php

    define("TONIDOCLOUD_SERVERLINK_SHOW", 1);
  2. Open the Admin Portal for the site and go to Settings->ServerLink tab.

  3. Enable ServerLink by enabling the "Enable ServerLink" checkbox.

  4. Add a ServerLink nickname for this server. Once set, this name can not be changed. Make sure this name is unique among all the servers doing ServerLink replication. For example: you can set a name like austinhq for the headquarters and names like parisbranch, singaporebranch for the branch offices.

  5. Add a strong ServerLink security key. This key is used for all ServerLink communications.

Note: In FileCloud Version 19.3, the Disable SL AutoLink checkbox was removed from the Local Server settings.

Step 4: Set Primary URL and Password

  1. Open the Admin Portal for the site and go to Settings->ServerLink tab.

  2. Set the Enable Replication with Primary option
  3. Enter the primary Server URL in Primary Server URL. This should be publicly available and accessible from the secondary site. For example: https://mainhq.codelathe.com
  4. Enter the primary Server's security key; this should match what was entered as the security key on the primary site. ServerLink will not work if the security key doesn't match.

Step 5: Running ServerLink Client

Windows

  1. Open an Administrator command prompt 
  2. Navigate to the XAMPP folder

    cd c:\xampp
  3. Register the ServerLink Client service

    slclient.exe /registerService /displayName="FileCloud ServerLink Client Service"
  4. Start the ServerLink Client service. The server link client is now running and server to server replication should start.

    net start slclient
  5. To stop the ServerLink Client Service

    net stop slclient
  6. To completely remove the ServerLink Client Service

    slclient.exe /unregisterService

Ubuntu

For Ubuntu versions of Linux, run the following commands:

curl --location https://patch.codelathe.com/tonidocloud/live/3rdparty/slclient/deb/slclient.service -o /etc/systemd/system/slclient.service
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable slclient.service
service slclient start

RHEL

For RHEL versions of Linux, run the following commands:

curl --location https://patch.codelathe.com/tonidocloud/live/3rdparty/slclient/rpm/slclient.service -o /etc/systemd/system/slclient.service
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable slclient.service
service slclient start