Semarchy xDM solution template

The Semarchy xDM Solution Template deploys a complete infrastructure suitable for development, test or production purposes.

Prerequisites

Review the information in this section before you begin your installation.

You will need the following to install Semarchy xDM on Azure:

  • An Azure subscription. If you don’t have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

  • Access to SSH on your computer’s command line (such as the Bash shell or PuTTY)

Semarchy xDM supports an installation model suitable for large scale and high-available configurations. The steps in this section guide you through installing and configuring a Semarchy xDM instance on Azure in this model.

Template overview

The solution template creates a set of resources for the instance in a single resource group.

A single Semarchy instance is composed of the following resources:

  • A database server, using one of the following database technologies:

    • Azure Database for PostgreSQL (PostgreSQL). When using this server technology, a single database server is created in the instance with multiple schemas and dedicated users.

    • Azure SQL Database (Microsoft SQL Server). When using this server technology, a database managed instance is created with multiple database resources and dedicated users.

      When creating and configuring databases with the solution template, and later with the instance management scripts, all components of the deployment are automatically configured to use these databases. For example, the datasources are automatically created for the active virtual machine and passive nodes in the scale set to connect the databases.

  • A virtual machine running an active node, which is an Semarchy active web application in a Tomcat server running on an Ubuntu Linux machine. This node is an active version of Semarchy, which runs the certification jobs, and can be used to access the Application Builder. It can also be used for all the other components of the Semarchy platform.

  • A virtual scale set running one or more Semarchy passive nodes (the semarchy passive web application in a Tomcat server running on an Ubuntu Linux machine). These nodes run a passive version of Semarchy and are used primarily for users accessing data management applications, dashboard applications, Dashboard Builder and discovery. This scale set can be scaled up and down depending on the number of business users and data stewards accessing the Semarchy instance.

    You can define the minimum and the maximum number of machines running in the scale set when deploying the Semarchy instance and change them later. By setting these two values to zero, you disable the scale set.

  • An application gateway, to manage and load balance the incoming web traffic.

    • The gateway exposes two ports: one for the active node and one for the virtual scale set. It manages the load balancing of incoming requests on the nodes in the scale set.

    • The gateway also secures the connectivity to the Semarchy instance. To configure HTTPS, you must provide a certificate in the form of a Personal Information Exchange (PFX) file.

  • A network security group is configured for the gateway to filter inbound and outbound access to the resources.

  • A storage account, containing an Azure file share. This file share stores the configuration and files shared by all the Semarchy active and passive nodes.