Alfresco webinar on large sacale enterprise deployments

1. Large Scale Deployments
Scalability and Reliability
Paul Hampton
Director of Product Marketing
Alfresco

2. Introduction
● Alfresco provide enterprise scale Content
Management
● Many moving parts
o Application server
o Database
o Index stores
o Content stores
o Application
● Multiple points for potential failure
2

3. Single System Install
● Simple install
Database
Content store
● Installs everything on App Server
one system
Share
Tomcat
EHCache
DataBase
Content
Index
Store
3

4. What Needs to be Clustered?
● Application Server
Share
● Content Stores Tomcat
EHCache
● Databases
● The Application
DataBase
Content
Index
Store
● Note:
o Each server must have its own index
o EHCache must be synchronised between all servers
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5. Clustered Alfresco
Load Balancer
● Clustered Alfresco servers
o Share database and content Share Share
store
Tomcat Tomcat
● Load balancer distributes EHCache EHCache
load between servers
● Point of failure
Index
Index
o Application Server 
o Database 
o Content store 
DataBase
Content
Store
Can make use of high
availability disk (i.e. SAN
storage)
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6. Replicated Content Stores
Load Balancer
● Used to synchronise content
between content stores Share Share
● Supports two modes Tomcat Tomcat
o Inbound EHCache EHCache
o Outbound
Content
Content
Index
Index
Store
Store
● Point of failure
o Application Server 
o Database  Database
o Content store  Replicating Secondary Replicating
Content Content Content
Store Store Store
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7. Example – Inbound
Load Balancer
● Content is copied on 1 5
read ?
Share Share
● Pulls content from
Tomcat Tomcat
EHCache EHCache
secondary content store 7
when needed 2
Content
Content
Index
Index
Store
Store
4 Database
6
Replicating Secondary Replicating
Content
Store
3 Content
Store
Content
Store
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8. Example – Outbound
Load Balancer
● Content is copied on 1 6
write ?
Share Share
● Push content from
Tomcat Tomcat
EHCache EHCache
primary store to 7
secondary store 2
Content
Content
Index
Index
Store
Store
● Synchronous or
Asynchronous
4 Database
5
Replicating Secondary Replicating
Content
Store
3 Content
Store
Content
Store
8

9. Database Clustering
Load Balancer
● Use native DB
clustering Share Share
● This is specific to the
Tomcat Tomcat
EHCache EHCache
DB and OS
● Two options:
Content
Content
Index
Index
Store
Store
o Master / Slave
o Master / Master
Database
Database Database
(Master) (Slave)
Replicating Secondary Replicating
Content
Fallover Content Content
Store Store Store
Database Clustering
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10. Application Clustering
● Point of failure Load Balancer
o Application Server  Share Share
o Database 
Tomcat Tomcat
o Content store 
● How to address
scalability
10

11. What About Scalability?
Load Balancer
Share Share
Tomcat Tomcat
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12. JMX Administration
● Use standard JMX tools
to access configuration
settings
o Stop, Configure and Start
Subsystems
● Monitor
o Database connections
o Memory usage
o Alfresco Subsystems
12

13. Configuration Synchronisation
Load Balancer
● Use JMX to change
configuration settings Share Share
● Settings are saved to
Tomcat Tomcat
EHCache EHCache
Database
● Settings are
Content
Content
Index
Index
Store
Store
synchronised to other
Alfresco servers
Data base
Replicating Secondary Replicating
Content Content Content
Store Store Store
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14. Summary
● Alfresco has been designed to be...
o Scalable
o Reliable
● Multiple options
● Enterprise Edition configuration tools simplify
configuration
● More Information
o WIKI – Cluster Configuration
o Docs – Administering an Alfresco ECM Production
Environment (page 158)
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15. Questions?

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