Manual Chapter : GLOBAL-SITE Controller Administrator Guide v3.0: Changing the Host Name or IP Address

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GLOBAL-SITE Controller

  • 3.0.0
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Changing the Host Name or IP Address



Changing the host name or IP address of a GLOBAL-SITE Controller

When changing the IP address or the host name of a GLOBAL-SITE Controller, you must leave the GLOBAL-SITE identifier the same. The GLOBAL-SITE identifier is independent of the controller's host name.

Warning: If you change the GLOBAL-SITE identifier, the controller cannot communicate with other GLOBAL-SITE Controllers in a publisher/distributor configuration.

In order to change the host name or IP address on a GLOBAL-SITE Controller, you need to have the following information at hand:

  • The new IP address and host name
  • The current GLOBAL-SITE identifier assigned to the box. You can find this in either the List Distributors screen or the System Settings screen.
  • A list of all other GLOBAL-SITE Controllers that use this controller as a distributor.

    The process of changing the IP address or host name of a controller includes three separate tasks. You must:

  • Change the host name or IP address using the ITCMconsole command netinet. See netinet, on page 6-17 for more information.
  • Reset the GLOBAL-SITE identifier on the controller.
  • Update the distributor lists on the other GLOBAL-SITE Controllers that reference the original host name.
    For each of these controllers, delete the old distributor, and create a new distributor. If you have no additional GLOBAL-SITE Controllers, then skip this step.

    Note: If you change only the IP address, you have fewer tasks to perform. In the edit task, you need edit only the /etc/hosts file, and then in the update task you update only the GLOBAL-SITE Controllers that recognize the changed controller by IP address.

Editing the network and hosts files

The first task in this process is to change the name of the GLOBAL-SITE Controller. You should only do this using the ITCMconsole netinet command. Please see netinet, on page 6-17 for more information.

Resetting the GLOBAL-SITE identifier

You only need to reset the GLOBAL-SITE identifier if, for some reason, the netinet command fails to do so. Follow these instructions in cases where the network name changed without resetting the GLOBAL-SITE identifier.

Remember that in the command line utility, the distributor is called a repeater.

To reset the GLOBAL-SITE identifier for this controller

  1. Log on as the user gsite:

    su - gsite

  2. Then set the distributor (repeater) information for this GLOBAL-SITE Controller, and delete the old distributor (repeater) information from the database. For both the <newhostname> and the <oldhostname>, use the fully qualified domain name.

    /usr/local/bin/gsSetRepeaterInfo name=<newhostname> identifier=<identifier>

    /usr/local/bin/gsDeleteRepeater <oldhostname>

    This GLOBAL-SITE Controller now has the correct host name and IP address, and its GLOBAL-SITE identifier is correct.

  3. To verify the new name and IP address, use the gsShowRepeater <newhostname> command.
    You should see a line that shows the installation ID as an integer, like this:

    Installation ID: 74565

    This number is the GLOBAL-SITE identifier and should be something other than a 0.

Updating the distributor lists on other GLOBAL-SITE Controllers

The next task in this process is to add the new host name to the distributor lists on the other GLOBAL-SITE Controllers that referenced the old name. They must be updated with the new server name on their distributor lists. If you have no additional GLOBAL-SITE Controllers, you do not need to do this.

You can use the GLOBAL-SITE Controller browser interface to delete the old distributor name and create a new one. For each GLOBAL-SITE Controller that needs to reference the new name, you need to log on to that GLOBAL-SITE Controller, and update the information.

To update the other controllers, you log on to each individual controller and complete the following three tasks:

  • Create the new distributor.
  • Reassign to the new distributor all subscribers that reference the old distributor.
  • Delete the old distributor.

    When you reassign the subscribers, note that you reconnect to the new distributor any subscribers that had previously been set up with the old distributor. If there are no subscribers, you can skip this task.

    If you have multiple GLOBAL-SITE Controllers, you then log off the first, and log on to the next GLOBAL-SITE Controller and repeat the process.

Creating a new distributor

You create a new distributor using the new host name, the original GLOBAL-SITE identifier, and the key phrase shared between the publisher and distributor pair.

To create the new distributor

  1. Log on to the GLOBAL-SITE Controller that needs to recognize the changed name.

    You may want to verify the GLOBAL-SITE identifier and key phrase for this controller before continuing. To do so, in the navigation pane click List Distributors.

    The Distributor List screen displays.

    Click the name of the old GLOBAL-SITE Controller in order to view the Distributor Detail screen and verify the GLOBAL-SITE identifier and key phrase. Then continue to add the new distributor.

  2. In the navigation pane, click Add a Distributor.
    The Add a Distributor screen displays.
  3. In the Host Name box, type the new unique identifier host name or IP address for the original GLOBAL-SITE Controller that you changed. (You have this information from the first task where you changed the names by editing files.)
  4. In the Description box, type in an optional description. This is makes it easy for you to identify the distributor. You can use the same description that you had before the name change.
  5. In the GLOBAL-SITE Identifier box, type the unique, pre-assigned identifier for the GLOBAL-SITE Controller that you are re-adding as a distributor. This identifier has not changed. You can find the GLOBAL-SITE identifier by looking at the host's List Distributor screen.
  6. In the Key Phrase box, type in the key phrase that is shared by the publisher and distributor pair. (Both the publisher and the distributor must have the same Key Phrase.) This should not have changed.
  7. Click Add to complete the addition.
    The GLOBAL-SITE Distribution List screen displays, with the re-added distributor listed at the bottom.

    Once you re-add the distributor, you can move on to the next task of reassigning subscribers to the distributor. If the distributor does not use subscribers, you can skip this task and go to the final task of deleting the old distributor.

Reassigning subscribers to the new distributor name

Once you have created the new distributor, and before you delete the old distributor, you need to connect to the new distributors any subscribers that are set to the old distributor.

You can undertake this task at a later time, but doing it now may make it easier to track your changes, and you can do it all before logging out of this GLOBAL-SITE Controller and into another one, if you have multiple distributors.

To reassign a subscriber

When you reassign a subscriber, you redefine the path that points to the subscriber.

  1. In the navigation pane, click List Distributors.
    The Distributor List screen displays.
  2. On the Distributor List screen, click the name of the distributor you have just changed.
    The Distributor Detail screen displays.
  3. On the Distributor Detail screen, review the subscribers. For each subscriber on this distributor, you can change the path from the old distributor to the new distributor, using the next two steps).
  4. Click the first subscriber name.
    The Subscriber Detail screen displays.
  5. Change the GLOBAL-SITE Distributor information from the old distributor name to the new name. (Refer to the online help for the Subscriber Detail screen if you need procedural details for changing subscriber settings.) When you have finished the changes, click the Save button.
  6. Return to the Distributor Detail screen, and then select the next subscriber.
  7. Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 for each subscriber that references the changed distributor.

    When you have completed the task of reassigning the subscribers to the new host name, delete the old distributor on this GLOBAL-SITE Controller. After that, you can move to the next GLOBAL-SITE Controller that needs to recognize the changed distributor.

Deleting the old distributor

Now that you have added the new distributor, and reassigned all subscribers referencing it, you are ready to delete the old distributor. Once you have finished this task, you can move on to another GLOBAL-SITE Controller if you have multiple controllers that reference the changed distributor.

To delete the old distributor

You should still be logged on to the GLOBAL-SITE Controller that needs to recognize the changed name.

  1. In the navigation pane, click List Distributors.
    The Distributor List screen displays.

    You may want to click the name of this GLOBAL-SITE Controller, in order to view the Distributor Detail screen and verify that no subscribers are still attached to it.

  2. On the Distributor List screen, locate the name of the old GLOBAL-SITE Controller for which you just changed the host name or IP address. Click the Delete button at the far right of that name.

    This deletes the old distributor from this GLOBAL-SITE Controller.

  3. Log off this GLOBAL-SITE Controller.

    If there are additional distributors that recognize the changed GLOBAL-SITE Controller, you need to log onto the next GLOBAL-SITE Controller, and repeat the tasks of adding the distributor with the new name, reassigning the subscribers to it, and deleting the reference to the old name.