High Availability and Throughput

Depending on the scale and scope of your deployment, the AAA Server provides two optional configurations for high availability:

• Replication for Authentication Servers:

  When this optional configuration for high availability is activated, identical servers are available for authentication. This behavior is based on the primary/backup AAA Server concept assigned to specific access points that span multiple geographic locations. The database replication is handled by the AAA Server. Therefore, you can deploy low-cost solutions (such as Microsoft^® SQL Server^® Express) for your RDBMS. In addition, this configuration enables roaming for users between your geographical locations.

• Creation of a "pool" of authentication servers:

  This optional configuration for high availability addresses large-scale deployments and deployments that span multiple geographic locations. You can configure up to eight identical servers in the pool. Database replication is handled by the DBMS and not the AAA Server. For this reason, you can deploy a pool of servers only with Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle^®.

For both optional configurations, all the servers operate at the same administrative level. This means that an administrative operation must be performed on only one of the servers, as changes are applied to the server(s) in backup/pool configuration. For further information, see Server Deployment Scenarios.