Set up a high availability environment in Windows using Shared Folder for Bold Reports

This guide explains how to install and configure the Bold Reports® application on Windows IIS using Shared Folder. By implementing Shared Folder, you can achieve high availability and resilience for your Bold Reports® application. The setup process includes configuring shared storage, enabling centralized IIS settings, and establishing network load balancing to distribute traffic across multiple servers.

Prerequisites: Hardware and Software Requirements:

• Three virtual machines running the same version of Windows Server with Server Manager support (Windows Server 2012 or later).
  • VM1 is used for storing app_data and configuring the Network Load Balancer cluster.

  Note: Since VM1 contains the NLB cluster and app_data, it should remain in an active state at all times.

  • VM2 and VM3 are used for deploying and running Bold Reports®.
• IIS Server and the File Server must be installed on all VMs.
• Shared storage must be configured and accessible from all VMs (e.g., C:\IISSharedContent).
• Network Load Balancing (NLB) must be set up between the VM2 and VM3 from VM1.

Installation Steps:

Step 1: Install IIS, NLB and File Server Features:

1. Open Server Manager on each VM.

2. Navigate to Dashboard and click Add roles and features.
   

   

3. In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, navigate to the Before you begin page and select Next.
   

   

4. On the Select installation type page, choose Role-based or feature-based installation, and then click Next.
   

   

5. On the Select destination server page, choose Select a server from the server pool, opt your server, and then click Next.
   

   

6. On the Select server roles page, select Web Server (IIS) and ensure the following roles are checked and enabled correctly, then click Next.
   

   

7. On the Server Roles page, select File Server and click Next.
   

   

8. On the Features page, select the Network Load Balancing feature.
   

   

9. On the Confirmation page, click Install.

Step 2: Network Load Balancer Setup

1. From VM1’s Server Manager console, click Tools and select Network Load Balancing Manager.
   

   

2. Right-click on Network Load Balancing Clusters and select New.
   

   

3. In the New Cluster window, type the IP address or name of VM2 in the Host field, then click Connect. Verify that the Interface name is listed, then proceed to the next step.
   

   

4. On the Host Parameters page, adjust the Priority value as needed. Also, ensure that the Default status is set to Started. When ready, click Next.
   

   

5. On the Cluster IP Addresses page, click Add to add a new Cluster IP address.
   

   

6. Specify a Cluster IP Address and click OK.
   

   

   Note: This IP address is a new NLB Cluster virtual IP address on which the host service will run.

7. Select an NLB cluster operation mode. You can also specify the FQDN name for the NLB cluster in the Full Internet Name field and click Next.
   

   

8. On the Port Rules page, select the existing port rule and click Edit.
   

   

9. Set the port range to 80 – 80 (as only port 80 is required for the IIS NLB cluster). Select None for the affinity mode and click OK.
   

   

10. Click Add to create a new rule for port 443, following the same steps.
    

    

11. Once the port range is configured, click Finish.
    

    

12. Wait until the machine is added successfully. The icon color of the added NLB node should turn green.
    

    

13. Ensure that the second NLB node has been successfully added by checking if its icon color is green.

14. Repeat the previously mentioned steps to add VM3 to the NLB.

Step 3: Shared Folder setup:

Step 3.1: Configure File Sharing on VM1

• Create a shared folder for IIS configuration (e.g. C:\IISSharedConfig)
  • Create a folder named IISSharedConfig in the C drive.
  • Right-click the folder, go to Properties -> Sharing -> Provide a name for the shared folder and click Share.
    
    
    
    
    
  • Navigate to Advanced Sharing, click Permissions, and then add a user or group (e.g., Everyone or a specific user). Assign Read/Write or Full Control permissions as required.
    
    
    
    
    

File and Printer Sharing:

• Open the Control Panel, navigate to Network and Sharing Center, and then go to Advanced Sharing Settings.
• Under the Private Network section, enable the following:
  • Turn on network discovery.
  • Turn on file and printer sharing.

Set NTFS Permissions:

• Go to the Security tab in folder properties.
• Add the same user or group and assign Full Control permissions.
  
  

Step 3.2: Access the Shared Folder from VM2 and VM3

1. Access the Shared Folder via IP Address:

   • Open File Explorer on VM2 and enter the folder path.
     Example : \10.0.0.4\IISSharedConfig.
     
     

2. Create a Symbolic Link:

• Run the following command in Command Prompt on VM2:
  Example: mklink /D C:\SharedFolder \\10.0.0.4\IISSharedConfig
  

  

• After running this command, navigate to the C drive to verify if the shared folder is present.
  

  

• Repeat the same steps to link the shared folder in VM3.

Step 3.3: IIS Centralized Configuration

1. On VM1:

• Open IIS Manager on VM1.
• Right-click the server name, select Shared Configuration, and then click Open Feature -> Export Configuration.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Choose the shared folder path (e.g., C:\IISSharedConfig) and provide a password to secure the exported configuration.
  
  

2. On VM2 and VM3

• Follow the same steps as on VM1, using the shared folder (e.g., \10.0.0.35\IISSharedConfig).
  
  
• After configuring IIS Shared Configuration, the process generates the following files in the specified export location.
  
  

Step 3.4: Install Bold Reports^® Application

1. On VM2:

• Install the Bold Reports^® application using the shared folder from VM1.
  Example: C:\SharedFolder\BoldServices.
  

2. On VM3:

• Install the Bold Reports^® application using the shared folder from VM1.
  Example: C:\SharedFolder\BoldServices.

  

• Ensure that port 80 is used on both VM2 and VM3
  

  

• Finally, click Install.

• After installation, remove “localhost” from the Host Name in the Bold Reports^® IIS site bindings on VM2 and VM3.
  

• Access the NLB IP address to access the site, then click here to start the application.
  

  

References:

• Bold Reports Windows Installer Documentation
• Configure the IIS shared configuration on all cluster nodes