Whitepaper

High Availability Documentum Docbases

2013
HariKishan Masapu

Abstract
EMC Documentum Content Server software manages repositories and provides
content management capabilities. Content Server coordinates the different forms of
data to create the object-based repository. This Whitepaper will provide the process
of installing Documentum Content Server to work in a Clustered Mode where two
different Content Servers located on two different systems point to the same
repository.

Table of Contents

General Architecture ...................................................................................................4

Pre-Requisites ...........................................................................................................5
Installation of the Primary Content Server .....................................................................6
Installation of Secondary Content Server .................................................................... 28
Testing Procedure to Ensure that Clustering Works fine................................................. 31

Clustering Documentum Docbases for Load

Balancing and High Availability

General Architecture

Fig: High Level Architecture followed in this whitepaper

Note: This Whitepaper doesnt talk about the Application Server Clustering/ Load
Balancing.

Pre-Requisites
The following are the pre-requisites for the installation of the above mentioned
configuration:
Configuration Item

Pre-requisites

Operating System

The Hardware should be as per the

recommendations given by EMC in
Content Server Release Notes. The
Content Servers should be installed
on two different machines. The
Oracle Server can reside on the
same machine as any of the
content server or it can be an
independent server
The Operating system should be as
per the recommendations given by
EMC in Content Server Release
Notes. The OS used for this
exercise is Windows 2008 R2

JDK

The JDK version used for this

exercise is JDK 1.6 Update 27

Documentum

The Documentum version used for

this exercise is Documentum 6.x

Oracle

The Oracle version used for this

exercise is Oracle 10g R3

Application Server

The Application Server used for this

exercise is Apache Tomcat 7

Hardware

Installation of the Primary Content Server

The following are the steps for the installation of the primary content Server:
1

Welcome screen for content server

This screen gives us the list of the applications that will be

installed during the installation of content server.
2

License agreement to accept the terms and conditions

Documentum Content server installation directory

Mention the location where content server will be installed

4

Developer documentation

Check box selection to install the developer documentation

Documentum DFC environment installation directory

Mention the location where DFC environment will be installed

6

Documentum DFC runtime environment directory

Mention the location where DFC runtime environment will be

installed

Connection Broker name

Provide the connection broker host name and the port

number(1489 default)
8

User credentials for Documentum Content Server

Provide the password for the given install owner for the Content
Server
10

11

12

13

14

15

Admin user credentials for Application Server

Provide the password for the Application server

16

Admin user credentials for ACS administration

Provide the password for the ACS administration

17

Summary Screen

List of the applications that are going to be installed

18

Pre requisite Screen for configuring Oracle

Wizard to check the pre requisites for oracle configurations

19

Server Configuration Program Screen

Provide the password for the given user for Server security and
services
20

Type of Installation

Select the desired type of installation

21

22

Choose the configuration of repository

Select the desired type of configuring repository with the

content server

23

Type of Installation

Select the desired type of installation

24

Choose Connection Mode

Select the desired connection mode for connection broker

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

Repository Configuration

Provide the repository name, repository id, description, repository

size, authentication domain and service startup type
34

Connection Mode Configuration

Select the desired Connection mode for repository

35

Selection of Oracle user accounts

Choose to create a new or use existing Oracle account

36

User Credentials for Oracle user accounts

Provide the User credentials for User and Admin accounts

37

Mail Configuration

Provide the credentials for SMTP server name and email

address
38

Global Repository

Select the repository which needs to be Global

39

40

Global registry user credentials

Provide the user credentials for Global Registry

41

Confirmation Screen for Repository creation

Confirmation message to inform the repository was created

successfully
42

Summary Screen for repository and connection broker

List of the docbroker, database, repository and other details

43

Confirmation screen

Installation of Secondary Content Server

Please follow the same steps till Step 34 as in case of Installation of Primary
Content Server. The rest of the steps are mentioned below.
35

Select database account for oracle

Select the option for using the existing oracle user account and
table space
35

Select database account for oracle

Select the option for using the existing oracle user account and
table space
36

Select Index Tablespace Name

Select the Index Tablespace Name

37

Edit Initialization File

Click on Cancel and cancel out from the installation

Step 38: Ensure that all the Docbases and Docbrokers on both the Content Server
are stopped.
Step 39: Take a backup of the Server.ini file of the desired (TEST4CLONE according)
the screenshots Docbase on the target Docbase.
Step 40: Copy the contents of the Server.ini file from the source Docbase and paste
in the target Docbases Server.ini file.
Step 41: Ensure that the entries mentioned in the target docbases server.ini file are
relevant to the Target Content Server Installation.
Step 42: Save the Server.ini file and close it.
Step 43: Take a backup of the Target Content Servers Aek.key.
Step 44: Copy the aek.key file from the source to the target content server.
Step 45: On the target content server, run the dmencrypt utility to encrypt the
dbpassword.txt file for the Target Repository. The command to run the utility is as
follows:
dm_encrypt_password -location <location of aek.key in targetSystem> -docbase
<DocbaseUserName> -rdbms -encrypt < DocabaseUserpassword>
Step 46: Make the following changes on the server.ini file on the source content
server
[DOCBROKER_PROJECTION_TARGET_1]
host =<ip/ machine_name of source>
Port=<Port number of source content server>
proximity =1
[DOCBROKER_PROJECTION_TARGET_2]
host =<ip/ machine_name of target>
Port=<Port number of target content server>
proximity =2
Step 47: Make the following changes on the server.ini file on the target content
server
[DOCBROKER_PROJECTION_TARGET_1]
host =<ip/ machine_name of target>
Port=<Port number of target content server>
proximity =1
[DOCBROKER_PROJECTION_TARGET_2] M
host =<ip/ machine_name of source>
Port=<Port number of source content server>
proximity =2

Step 48: Make the following changes in the DFC.properties on the Source content
server
[DOCBROKER_PRIMARY]
host =<ip/ machine_name of source>
Port=<Port number of source content server>
[DOCBROKER_BACKUP]
host =<ip/ machine_name of target>
Port=<Port number of target content server>
Step 49: Make the following changes in the DFC.properties on the target content
server
[DOCBROKER_PRIMARY]
host =<ip/ machine_name of target>
Port=<Port number of target content server>
[DOCBROKER_BACKUP]
host =<ip/ machine_name of source>
Port=<Port number of source content server>
Step 50: Start the docbrokers and docbases on both the content servers.
Both the docbases on the separate content servers are now pointing to single
repository.
Testing Procedure to Ensure that Clustering Works fine.
The Cluster can be tested using the following Steps:
1. Make Changes to the dfc.properties of the webtop to point to both the doc
brokers. Make the first Content Server as primary and the second content
Server as Secondary.
2. Restart the application Server.
3. Stop the First Content Server. Try to fire the URL of the Webtop.
4. Check if the docbases come up. If the docbases come up and you are able to
successfully login, that means the second content server has taken over and
clustering is working fine.

Reference(s)
Documentum Content Server Installation Guide V 6.x