Tuesday Tip by Gene Howard, Principal Support Engineer for 4-17-2012
SiteMinder's AgentWaitTime - Part 2
-------------------------------------------
This is the followup tip to the one published earlier with the same subject.
Example: How to properly test your AgentWaitTime Value
Step 1:
Use the following formula to derive your base line value (note the correction from the earlier note):
AgentWaitTime = {(Number of Policy servers listed in SmHost.conf -1) + (Number of Policy servers listed in HCO -1)} * 30 Seconds + 10 Seconds OR 70, whichever is greater.
Sample SmHost policy server order:
LODLCSUN013.ca.com - 141.202.152.61
howeu01-VM36216.ca.com - 10.130.245.23
howeu01-VM36218.ca.com - 10.130.245.26
Sample HCO policy server order:
LODLCSUN013.ca.com - 141.202.152.61
LODSUN28H.ca.com - 10.130.58.143
howeu01-VM36218.ca.com - 10.130.245.26
howeu01-VM36219.ca.com - 10.130.244.36
howeu01-VM36220.ca.com - 10.130.236.28
howeu01-VM36216.ca.com - 10.130.245.23
From the formula: AgentWaitTime = {(3-1) + (6-1)} * 30 + 10 = 220 (Seconds)
Step 2:
Set the AgentWaitTime in the WebAgent.conf file to the Value Calculated above. In this case, 220.
Step 3:
Disable all policy servers except 1 in the SmHost and 1 in the HCO. It should not matter what order the working ones are listed in. For maximum delay leave the last Policy server in each list as the working one.
Step 4:
Start the web server as normal.
Results:
The web agent should take longer than normal to start but it should start just the same. If you have a slow network you may need to increase the time by 10 or 20 seconds to allow for latency.