is blackboard a primary server

How long should the blackboard session timeout be?

To avoid active sessions being sent to the wrong Application Server, Blackboard recommends that the idle timeout of the persistence cookie (cookie-insert) inserted at the Load Balancer should be set to greater than the Blackboard session timeout by at least 1 minute.

What ports does a Collaboration Server connect to?

In this configuration end users must have access directly to the Collaboration Server hostname on ports 8010, 8011 and 8012.

Why add additional application servers?

Down time is reduced because most single points of failure are removed . If a server goes offline, other servers pick up the load dynamically, allowing the application to continue servicing clients.

What is a network switch?

A network switch is used to handle communications from the client machines to the Application Servers and the Collaboration Server. A separate switch is used to handle a secure, private connection between the Application Servers and the File System and Database Servers. The database and file system must be on a secure, private network.

Should queued tasks be re-assigned manually?

Before shutting down an Application Server, any queued tasks should be allowed to complete. If this is not possible, then the tasks should be re-assigned manually to another Application Server so that they may complete.

What are the two most common load balancing methods?

Different algorithms can be used to determine distribution methods. "Round robin" and "least connections" are the two most common load balancing methods used. To avoid overloading any single server in the cluster, select the method that will ensure that each Application Server receives approximately the same amount of traffic.

Can Blackboard be used on only one server?

Certain Blackboard system tasks need to be executed on only one server, while other tasks need to be executed on all servers. Since 9.1 Sp10 Blackboard introduced setting to easily control which Application Server is the 'primary' backend processor and avoid the need for manual configuration of the tasks.xml files.

How to upgrade Blackboard Learn?

Before running the installer to upgrade Blackboard Learn, complete the following tasks: 1 Read the Release Notes and Technical Details. 2 Read the Install Learn and Upgrade Learn topics. 3 Run the Pre-Update Change Report.

Is Blackboard Learn 9.1 Tomcat only?

Starting with the April 2014 release, Blackboard Learn 9.1 is based on an Apache™ Tomcat-only architecture, which no longer requires the installation of an HTTPD service (Apache or IIS). As a result, this release requires specific operating system configuration changes prior to installation that were not necessary for previous versions of Blackboard Learn. Please read the Install Learn topic completely before proceeding. Pay particular attention to required port and web server changes.

Will Hyper-Threading Make A difference?

• Hyper-threading has been a feature-set in the Intel processor architecture for about a decade. In previous processor models, hyper-threading had limited advantages for performance improvements. With the 5500-series processor, the hyper-threading option yielded acceptable performance improvements when moving from 8 CPU threads (2 sockets x 4 cores) to 16 CPU t…

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Sizing by CPU and Memory

Bare-Metal Or Virtual Configurations

Important Notes

• Starting with the April 2014 release, Blackboard Learn 9.1 is based on an Apache™ Tomcat-only architecture, which no longer requires the installation of an HTTPD service (Apache or IIS). As a result, this release requires specific operating system configuration changes prior to installation that were not necessary for previous versions of Blackboard Learn. Please read the Install Learn…

See more on help.blackboard.com

Pre-Upgrade Steps

Form The Upgrade to Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q2 2016 and Later

Form The Upgrade to Blackboard Learn 9.1 Q4 2015 Or Earlier

Upgrade Information For Prior Releases