There are several parameters used by the AR System to understand how to treat the Server name for various components and actions.

Having these set incorrectly could cause errors and lead to AR Server behaving in an unplanned manner.

The most important parameters are Server-Name, Server-Connect-Name and IP-Name for the server group ar.conf/ar.cfg files.

 

a) Server-Name:  Entry must be a common value for each ARServer in server group;  It is an alias for the ARServer environment that will be the same for all the servers. It is a name used as a virtual server where all Remedy client computers will connect.  All clients (Mid-Tier, ARS User Tool, API programs) should connect using that value of Server-Name.   In a load-balanced environment, this name resolves to the IP address of the hardware load balancer, which in turn directs the call to one of the AR System servers in the group.  This should be a short host name that resolves to the Load Balancer; not the Fully Qualified Name or the IP Address.   In some case, such as Notification shortcuts and urls,   ARServer will concatenate the domain name of the ARServer host to this Server-Name value to create a fully qualified Server Name.   If the Domain of the ARServer host causes an invalid Fully qualified hostname to be generated, the Domain-Name: paramater can be used to hard code the domain name

  Server-Name: <server_group_server_name>

  Domain-Name: <domain name that will create a valid fully qualified name when added to Server-Name>

   where   <server_group_server_name>  is the alias name that resolved to the Load Balancer

 

  Server-Name: remedybox1

 

b) Server-Connect-Name: Must be a unique value for each AR Server in server group.  The only important details about this entry is that it is case sensitive and it must resolve directly to the AR Server host, not the load balancer.

You can use the FQDN (Fully Qualify Domain Name) format instead of the short name to ensure that it resolves correctly.
Please notice that you need to use only one Server-Connect-Name entry per server using that server's hostname

 

  Example:

  Server-Connect-Name: serverA.your_domain.com             (in serverA ar.conf/ar.cfg)

  Server-Connect-Name: serverB.your_domain.com             (in serverB ar.conf/ar.cfg)

NOTE:
Server Name field in the AR System Server Group Operation Ranking form should match the Server-Connect-Name with the exact value, including case.

 

c) IP-Name is used by the ARServer when an Admin operation is executed.   Some Admin operations such as creating a Filter, require that the client use the correct Server Name when connecting.   The ARServer compares the Server Name that the client used  with its own server name.   If these names do not match you may encounter errors such as ARERR 225 "Set fields actions that reference entries in other forms can only reference forms on the same server in a filter or escalation. "

If this occurs during an action that stores a server name,  it is possible that a hard coded server name with be stored in the definition.

To prevent either of these scenarios,  add IP-Name to ar.cfg/ar.conf.   Multiple IP-Name parameters can exist in a single configuration file.   It is recommended that you set an IP-Name parameter for every possible server name that a client may connect to to perform admin operations.  This includes admin operations triggerred by workflow such as Creating new Classes in CMDB or new Targets in SLM.

 

For example:
       IP-Name: <separate entry for short name or hostname for each server in server group>
       IP-Name: <separate entry for FQDN for each server in server group>
       IP-Name: <separate entry for IP address for each server in server group>
 
NOTE:
To maintain consistent ar.cfg/ar.conf files, in minimum server group environment of two AR Servers there will be a minimum of six separate entries for IP-Name in each config file of each AR Server in that server group.  Each additional AR Server in server group will have additional three entries in each ar.cfg/ar.conf file of each AR Server in that server group.

         Example:
         IP-Name: serverA
         IP-Name: serverA.your_domain.com
         IP-Name: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx                       (where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of serverA)
         IP-Name: serverB
         IP-Name: serverB.your_domain.com
         IP-Name: yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy                       (where yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy is the IP address of serverB)


 Finally, note the following two basic concepts about server groups:

 1. It is important that you know that servers in server group MUST be on physically separate server boxes, and you cannot create server group with servers installed and running on the same server box.

 2. Servers in a server group MUST be the same version and patch because they use the same database, so you cannot create server group with servers of different versions.