Sites
You can create multiple Spotfire environments that share the same Spotfire database, including the library and user directory. These environments, which are called sites, can be configured to reduce latency for multi-geographic deployments. Sites also enable the use of a variety of authentication methods, along with different user directories, within the same deployment.
Each site includes one or more Spotfire Servers along with their connected nodes and services. A site's servers, nodes, and services can only communicate within the site, but because the Spotfire database is shared among the sites, all of the sites have access to the users, groups, and library in your Spotfire implementation.
If the site will contain more than one server, clustering must be enabled for that site; for more information, see Clustered server deployments.
You assign a Spotfire Server to a site when bootstrapping the server. You can change the assignment afterwards by following the instructions in Moving a server and its nodes to a different site. When you assign a Spotfire Server to a site, any nodes that are connected to the server are automatically included in the site.
The potential reduced latency occurs between the servers and the service instances within a site, resulting in quicker manipulation of data that is already present in the site. To optimize the end-user experience, a best practice when configuring sites is to create scheduled updates so that data and analyses are downloaded from the database before users request them. For more information, see Scheduled updates to analyses.
- To route user requests from a particular office to the servers and nodes that are physically closest to that office. This reduces the impact of network latency between servers that are located in different geographic regions.
- To enable different authentication methods for different sets of users who share a Spotfire implementation. For example, internal users may use Kerberos authentication while external users such as customers and partners may use username and password authentication.
Administrators who oversee several sites can switch sites from the landing page of the administration interface.
- Nodes
- Resource pools
- Schedules
- Scheduled updates and routing rules
- Scheduled Automation Services jobs
- Authentication can be configured to be site specific; see Setting different authentication methods and user directories for sites.
- Public address; set a site's public address when creating the site, or later by using the set-public-address command.
- Library
- User directory
- Groups
- Deployments
- Server configuration file
- Service configuration files
- LDAP synchronization
- Signing certificates
- Login page RSS feed
- Creating sites
Sites are created on the command line, and then you assign a server to a particular site when you bootstrap the server. In the case of a server that has previously been installed and configured, use the set-site command to assign it to a site. - Setting different authentication methods and user directories for sites
You can configure the sites in your implementation to use different authentication methods and, if necessary, different user directories. - Moving a server and its nodes to a different site
When moving a Spotfire server and its nodes from one site to another site, you must edit the nodemanager.properties file for each node. This procedure should also be used to move upgraded servers and nodes from the Default site to a site that you created. - Sites administration
Sites are administered in the same way as an ordinary Spotfire environment, with the difference that some features are global and some are site specific. - Deleting sites
Sites are deleted on the command line. If the site contains servers and nodes, you must specify a site to move them to.