Configuring RAS Connection Brokers

To view RAS Connection Brokers installed in a Site, navigate to Farm > <Site> > Connection Brokers in the RAS Console. The installed Connection Brokers are listed on the Connection Brokers tab in the right pane.

A Site must have at least the primary Connection Broker installed, which is marked so in the Priority column. You can also add secondary agents to a Site for redundancy (described in the section that follows this one).

To modify the configuration of a Connection Broker, select it and then click Tasks > Properties (or right-click > Properties). The Properties dialog opens where you can modify the following:

• Enable Server in site: Enables or disables the Connection Broker. The option is enabled for secondary Connection Brokers only. It is disabled for the primary Connection Broker.
• Server: Specifies the FDQN or IP address of the server that hosts the Connection Broker. To automatically resolve IP address to FQDN, enable the global Name Resolution option. For details, see Host Name Resolution.
• IP: Specifies the server IP address. Click the Resolve button to obtain the IP address automatically using the FQDN specified in the Server field. This IP address is used so that multiple Connection Brokers share information in real time.
• Alternate IPs: Specifies one or more alternate IP addresses separated by a semicolon. These addresses will be used if RAS Secure Gateways fail to connect to the RAS Connection Broker using its FQDN or the address specified in the IP field. This can happen, for example, if Secure Gateways are connecting from a network which is not joined to Active Directory.
• Description: A user-defined description.
• Standby: If selected, puts a secondary Connection Broker into a standby mode. This means that no agent will connect to this Connection Broker until another Connection Broker goes offline. This option is enabled automatically for any new secondary Connection Broker in excess of the three agents that already exist. It is not recommended to have more than three active Connection Brokers because it may degrade system performance. Using this option you can have more than three agents, but have them in standby mode until they are needed. For more information, see Secondary Connection Brokers.

When done making the changes, click OK and then click Apply in the main RAS Console window.

The Tasks drop-down list on the Connection Brokers tab has the following items:

• Add. Adds a RAS Connection Broker to the Site. See the section that follows this one for the information on how to add secondary Connection Brokers.
• Upgrade all Agents. Upgrades agents to the current version. The item is disabled if all agents are up to date.
• Tools. Gives you access to a set of standard server management tools.
• Troubleshooting. The Check agent menu item verifies that the Connection Broker is functioning properly. It opens a dialog where you can see the verification results and optionally install (or uninstall) the Connection Broker. The Logging menu item allows you to configure logging and retrieve or clear log files. For more information, see Logging.
• Promote to primary. Promotes a secondary Connection Broker to primary. The current primary becomes a secondary Connection Broker.
• Refresh. Refreshes the Connection Brokers list.
• Delete. Deletes a secondary Connection Broker from the Site. To delete the primary Connection Broker, you first need to promote a secondary Connection Broker to primary.
• Settings audit. Opens the Settings Audit dialog where you can view the changes that were done to the Connection Broker. For more information, see Settings Audit.
• Move up and Move down. Changes the priority of a secondary Connection Broker (moves it up or down in the priority list).
• Properties. Opens the Connection Broker Properties dialog (see above).

RAS Connection Brokers overview

In addition to the Connection Broker editor described above, you can also see the summary about the available RAS Connection Brokers. To do so:

1. In the RAS Console, navigate to the Farm > <Site> .
2. The available RAS Connection Brokers are displayed in the Connection Brokers group on the Site Info tab.
3. To go to the Connection Brokers editor, right-click a RAS Connection Broker and choose Show in the editor.

For additional info, see Sites in the RAS Console.