Service Engine Group

Description

Multiple service engines performing identical functions may be pooled together into groups within Netreo administration for the purposes of load balancing and redundancy. Individual service engines may easily be added or removed from a group as desired.

Details

The creation of a new service engine group also creates a virtual managed device in Netreo with its own Device Dashboard so that you can monitor the group itself for availability and performance just like any other managed device or resource. (This device does not consume a device license in Netreo, since service engines are licensed separately.) Netreo's load-balancing algorithm attempts to distribute the devices assigned to that service engine group evenly across its members.

The members of a service engine group are all treated as a single entity by Netreo for the purposes of reporting and alerting. If a service engine within a group goes down, Netreo automatically load-balances the devices assigned to that service engine to the other service engines within the group (it is also possible to manually trigger a group rebalance). It is not possible to see which devices assigned to a service engine group for monitoring are assigned to which service engine within that group.

Within a service engine group, one service engine is designated as the "scanner" (typically the first service engine added to the group). The scanner handles all auto-discovery and parenting tasks for the group. If the scanner for a group goes down, the role is automatically assigned to the next longest-serving service engine in the group (the scanner role may also be manually assigned at any time).

Service engines cannot have their configuration edited while part of a service engine group. They must be removed from the group first. You must then re-add the engine to the group when you are finished configuring it.

Deleting a service engine group returns all of its members to stand-alone operation. When deleting a service engine group, any managed devices being monitored by that group will remain assigned to the individual service engine they were last assigned to by the group for load balancing purposes. Therefore, after deleting a service engine group you may desire to review which service engines those devices are now assigned to, in case you wish to change the assignment. There should be no gaps in reporting when a device is assigned to a service engine or service engine group, or when a service engine group is either created or deleted.

See also Service Engine Group Management