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Deploy Windows Admin Center with high availability

  • Applies to: ✅ Windows Admin Center, ✅ Windows Admin Center Preview

You can deploy Windows Admin Center in a failover cluster to provide high availability for your Windows Admin Center gateway. This solution is active-passive, where only one instance of Windows Admin Center is active. If one of the nodes in the cluster fails, Windows Admin Center gracefully fails over to another node so that you can continue managing the servers in your environment seamlessly.

Learn about other Windows Admin Center deployment options.

Important

Windows Admin Center versions 2311 and older don't support direct upgrades from high-availability deployments to versions 2410 and newer because of architectural changes. To upgrade, you must uninstall and reinstall Windows Admin Center.

Prerequisites

  • High-availability deployment scripts from the Windows Admin Center HA Script zip file. Download the .zip file containing the scripts to your local machine. Then copy the deployment script as needed based on the guidance in this article.
  • A failover cluster of two or more nodes running on Windows Server 2016 or later. Learn more about how to deploy a failover cluster.
  • A cluster shared volume (CSV) for Windows Admin Center to store persistent data that all the nodes in the cluster can access. Your CSV needs only 10 GB.
  • A certificate thumbprint from a certificate from a valid certificate authority (CA) with the private key installed on every node.

Note

The Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.zip file contains the following scripts:

  • Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy.ps1
  • Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Validate.ps1
  • Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Inspect.ps1
  • Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Uninstall.ps1

Install Windows Admin Center on a failover cluster

  1. Copy the Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy.ps1 script to a node in your cluster. Download or copy the Windows Admin Center .exe file to the same node.
  2. Connect to the node via Remote Desktop Protocol, go to the folder that contains the script, and run the Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy.ps1 script as an administrator with the following parameters:
    • -clusterStorage: The local path of the CSV to store Windows Admin Center data.
    • -clientAccessPoint: The name that you use to access Windows Admin Center. For example, if you run the script with the parameter -clientAccessPoint contosoWindowsAdminCenter, you access the Windows Admin Center service by visiting https://contosoWindowsAdminCenter.<domain>.com.
    • -staticAddress: Optional. One or more static addresses for the cluster generic service.
    • -InstallerPath: The path for the Windows Admin Center .exe file.
    • -CertificateThumbprint: A Transport Layer Security certificate thumbprint present on every node.
    • -generateSslCert: Optional. If you don't want to provide a signed certificate, include this parameter flag to generate a self-signed certificate. The self-signed certificate expires in 60 days.
    • -HttpsPort: Optional. If you don't specify a port, the gateway service is deployed on port 443 (HTTPS). To use a different port, specify in this parameter. If you use a custom port instead of 443, you access the Windows Admin Center by going to https://\<clientAccessPoint\>:<port>.

Note

The Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy.ps1 script supports -WhatIf and -Verbose parameters.

To perform further lifecycle operations on your high-availability installation, ensure that all scripts from the Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.zip file are present on all nodes.

Example

$parameters = @{
  ClusterStorage = "C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\Gateway"
  ClientAccessPoint = gateway-ha
  StaticAddress = '10.0.0.50'
  InstallerPath = "C:\Installers\WindowsAdminCenter2511.exe"
  CertificateThumbprint = "AA11BB22CC33DD44EE55FF66AA77BB88CC99DD00"
}
Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy @parameters

Update an existing high-availability installation

Use the same Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy.ps1 script to update your high-availability deployment, without losing your connection data.

Update to a new version of Windows Admin Center

When a new version of Windows Admin Center is released, run the Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy.ps1 script again with the updated executable specified in the -InstallerPath parameter:

$parameters = @{
  ClusterStorage = "C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\Gateway"
  ClientAccessPoint = gateway-ha
  StaticAddress = '10.0.0.50'
  InstallerPath = "C:\Installers\WindowsAdminCenter2511new.exe"
  CertificateThumbprint = "AA11BB22CC33DD44EE55FF66AA77BB88CC99DD00"
}
Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy @parameters

You can also update the certificate when you update the Windows Admin Center platform by using a new .exe file.

Update the certificate used by Windows Admin Center

You can update the certificate used by a high-availability deployment of Windows Admin Center at any time by using the -UpdateCertificate flag.

$parameters = @{
  UpdateCertificate = $true
  ClusterStorage = "C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\Gateway"
  ClientAccessPoint = gateway-ha
  CertificateThumbprint = "AA11BB22CC33DD44EE55FF66AA77BB88CC99DD00"
}
Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Deploy @parameters

Uninstall the high-availability deployment

To uninstall the high-availability deployment of Windows Admin Center from your failover cluster, run the Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Uninstall.ps1 script.

$parameters = @{
  ClusterStorage = "C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\Gateway"
  ClientAccessPoint = gateway-ha
}
Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Uninstall @parameters

Troubleshooting

Logs are saved in the temp folder of the CSV. An example is C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\temp.

If needed, you can run diagnostics by passing Diagnostics by using the -Mode flag in the Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Inspect.ps1 script. The following example shows running the diagnostic collection for the last 24 hours on a cluster:

$parameters = @{
  Mode = Diagnostics
  ClusterStorage = "C:\ClusterStorage\Volume1\Gateway"
  ClientAccessPoint = gateway-ha
  DiagnosticLookbackHours = 24
  DiagnosticsOutputPath = "C:\Temp\wac-ha-diag"
}
Deploy-GatewayV2Ha.Inspect @parameters
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