Site servers and collector homing

What it does

• A site server is a collector with the relay role at a customer site. Uplivra sends the site's other collectors its address and certificate fingerprint, and they report through it. Only the site server connects to Uplivra.
• Every minute, each collector checks in with every site server it has, signed in with its own key. The check-in passes through the site server to Uplivra, so an answer proves the whole path works.
• Work goes through the first site server that answers. With two, a collector moves to the second when the first stops answering.
• If no site server answers, or one says it can't reach Uplivra itself, the collector reports to Uplivra directly (as it's set up to), keeps checking in every minute, and goes back as soon as a site server answers or you point it at a different one.
• Nothing is lost while it switches: checks keep running, results wait and are sent on the next path.

You need Uplivra 26.10.28 or later on the server and the collectors.

Step 1: Make a site server

New computer. Run the installer and choose Site server. Connect it to your Uplivra server (or your MSP's master collector) with a setup code for the same site as the collectors. The installer opens HTTPS 443 for the other collectors; the management page can share the port.

An existing collector can become one: an MSP master collector is already one for its own site. For a collector at a customer site, run the installer again and choose Site server (settings are kept), or add "relay" to roles in collector.json and restart it.

On its page in Settings › Sites and collectors, the Home servers card says it's a site server, how many collectors reported through it in the last 5 minutes, and the address the others use. When they reach it by another address (a DNS name, NAT, a second interface), type it under Address other collectors use.

Step 2: Nothing (the collectors do it themselves)

Within a minute of the site server's first status report, the site's other collectors are told about it. Their Home servers card shows each site server, whether it answered its last check-in, how fast, and which one they report through.

To choose differently for one collector, open its page and pick:

Every change is in the audit log. A home server can also be set on the collector itself in collector.json (home_servers, with url and fingerprint); that wins over the web interface.

Firewall rules

No new ports on the Uplivra server. See Ports and firewall rules.

Good to know

• Collectors pin the site server's certificate (sent by your Uplivra server over its own authenticated connection), so a look-alike can't pose as it.
• Each collector still signs in with its own key through the site server; Uplivra sees exactly who is talking.
• Site servers report directly, never through each other.
• Remote access sessions, packet capture pulls and firmware downloads go through the same path.
• The collector's management page and Administration › Diagnostics show its home servers and which one it uses.

Troubleshooting