Load balance Session Recording servers

Session Recording supports load balancing across Session Recording servers. This article summarizes the load balancing configuration using the Citrix ADC as an example. For more information, see Configure load balancing in an existing deployment and Deploy and load balance Session Recording in Azure.

You can synchronize load balancing configurations among all Session Recording servers.

Note:

The load balancing feature requires Version 7.16 or later of the Session Recording server and Session Recording agent.

Changes to Session Recording in support of load balancing:

• All Session Recording servers share one folder to store recording files.
• All Session Recording servers share one Session Recording Database.
• (Recommended) Install only one Session Recording policy console and all Session Recording servers share this console.

Configure load balancing

To use this feature, perform the following steps on Citrix ADC and on the various Session Recording components:

Configure load balancing (Citrix ADC part)

Configure load balancing servers

Add the Session Recording servers to the load balancing servers in Citrix ADC.

Configure load balancing services

1. Add a load balancing service for each needed protocol on each Session Recording server.
2. (Recommended) Select the relevant protocol monitor to bind each service monitor.

Configure load balancing virtual servers

1. Create virtual servers with the same Citrix ADC VIP address based on the needed protocols and bind the virtual servers to the relevant load balancing services.
2. Configure persistence on each virtual server.
3. (Recommended) Choose LEASTBANDWITH or LEASTPACKETS as the load balancing method rather than the default method (LEASTCONNECTION).
4. Create a certificate to make the HTTPS virtual server UP.

Configure load balancing (Session Recording part)

On each server where you installed the Session Recording server, do the following

1. (Recommended) Type the same Session Recording Database name during the Session Recording server installation.
2. If you choose the Administrator Logging feature, we recommend you type the same Administrator Logging Database name when you install each Session Recording server.
3. Share the Read/Write permission of the file storage folder with all Session Recording server machine accounts. After that, change to use the file storage folder as the shared folder in Session Recording Server Properties. For more information, see Specify where recordings are restored.
4. Add a value to the Session Recording server registry key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\SmartAuditor\Server.
   Value name: EnableLB
   Value data: 1 (DWORD, meaning enable)

5. If you choose the HTTP or the HTTPS protocol for the Session Recording Storage Manager message queue, create a host record for the Citrix ADC VIP address and add redirections in C:\Windows\System32\msmq\Mapping\sample_map. After that, restart the Message Queuing service.

   The redirection is similar to:

   <redirections xmlns="msmq-queue-redirections.xml">
           <redirection>
       <from>http://<ADCHost>*/msmq/private$/CitrixSmAudData</from>
       <to>http://<LocalFqdn>/msmq/private$/CitrixSmAudData</to>
           </redirection>
           <redirection>
       <from>https://<ADCHost>*/msmq/private$/CitrixSmAudData</from>
       <to>https://<LocalFqdn>/msmq/private$/CitrixSmAudData</to>
           </redirection>
   </redirections>
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