Can the Reporting & Monitoring Server Be Installed on a Remote Server?

Can the Reporting & Monitoring Server be installed on a server other than the Retain Server?

Yes, as long as it has access to Retain database because it directly reads from and writes to the database.  Just like the Retain Server, it connects with the database over TCP/IP.

However, as of the date of this article, it still has a process that runs on the Retain Server that gathers disk usage information.  This is the statistic that shows how much disk space each mailbox is using.

To install it on a separate server from the Retain Server, run the RetainInstall script or executable just as you did to install the Retain Server software.  When it presents the dialog with the list of components you wish to install, deselect Server and select "Reporting & Monitoring Server" only.

If you have MS SQL or MySQL on the same server as Retain Server, you will need to change the ASConfig.cfg file that gets copied to the R&M Server (.../RetainStatsServer/WEB-INF/cfg).  You will need to change the database connection parameters to use an IP address or DNS host name instead of "localhost".  Look for:

<DBURL>jdbc:mysql://localhost/retain</DBURL>

and

 <confDBURL>jdbc:mysql://localhost/retain</confDBURL>

Replace "localhost" with the IP address or DNS host name of the database server, which is the same as the Retain Server in such cases.

NOTE: 
When using "localhost"  to connect to a MySQL database, MySQL uses a named pipe rather than using TCP sockets; thus, there is a potential performance penalty of changing it to an IP address or DNS host name.  But, if the R&M Server is not on the same server as the database, you really have no other choice.

This article was originally published in the GWAVA knowledgebase as article ID 2448.