Assigning Relay servers to SharePoint Workspace users

 

Applies to: SharePoint Workspace 2010, Groove Server 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2011-09-07

This article describes how to assign Groove Server 2010 Relay services to Groove Server 2010 Manager domain members. Groove Server Relay facilitates communications among SharePoint Workspace users by offering temporary storage or forwarding when users are offline, performing other tasks that enable continuous virtual peer communication regardless of status (online or offline) or network conditions, fanning-out high-volume data transmissions, and providing alternative communications paths for clients operating behind firewalls or over slow links. SharePoint Workspace users are provisioned with Relay servers when they are assigned to a Relay server pool. A pool is a collection of Relay servers that have been registered with Groove Server Manager.

This procedure requires that Groove Server Relay is installed as described in Install and configure Groove Server 2010 Relay and that Groove Server Manager is installed as described in Install and configure Groove Server 2010 Manager.

To assign Relay servers to management domain members

  1. Create a directory of SharePoint Workspace users for Groove Server Manager, as described in Create a SharePoint Workspace user directory for Groove Server Manager.

  2. Register at least one Relay server with Groove Server Manager and add it to a pool, as described in Registering Relay servers with Groove Server Manager.

  3. Log on to your Groove Server Manager administrative Web site.

    Note

    The Default Relay Pool is assigned to new users by default. Each Relay server is assigned to a single pool on a single Groove Server Manager.

  4. To change Relay pool assignments, expand the Members list and select a pool as follows:

    • To change the Relay pool for all management domain or group members, click Group Properties in the toolbar, select a pool from the Relay pool drop-down menu, select Apply to all group members, and then click OK.

    • To change the Relay pool for the domain or a group without affecting pool assignments for existing members or groups, click Group Properties in the toolbar, select a pool from the Relay pool drop-down menu, select Apply to all group members, and then click OK. Do not select Apply to all group members.

    • To change the Relay pool for a specific member, click the member name, select a pool from the Relay Pool drop-down menu, and then click OK.

  5. To create a new Relay pool, click Relay Pools in the navigation pane, click Add Relay Pool in the toolbar, enter a pool name, select a value in the Number of Relays to provision to each member field, and then click OK.

    Note

    The Relay provisioning rule controls load balancing among Relay servers in the pool. Groove Server Manager will provision users with the specified number of Relay servers, load-balancing as necessary, depending on SharePoint Workspace traffic. The number of provisioned Relay servers must not be 0.

  6. To change the Relay provisioning rule or to change the Relay pool name or description, click the Properties tool in the toolbar and change settings as follows:

    • To change the Relay name or description, edit the Name or Description text areas as needed.

    • To change the Relay provisioning rule for the number of Relay servers with which a pool member can be provisioned, select another value from the list. Provisioning members with multiple Relay servers provides for redundancy and fault tolerance. Up to three servers may be configured for each member of the pool.

      For example, if a Pool contains 10 Relay servers and the provisioning rule allows two servers for each pool member, each user will be provisioned with the two least-used and available Relay servers (a primary and a secondary Relay server) in the pool. In this way the Pool automatically load balances member provisioning across all active Relay servers in the Pool and manages optional redundancy.

  7. To delete a Relay server from a pool, select the check box of the Relay servers that you want to delete, click Delete Relay Servers in the toolbar, and then confirm your decision and then click OK.

  8. To delete a Relay pool from the pools list, select the check box of the pools that you want to delete, click Delete Selected Pools in the toolbar, and then confirm your decision and then click OK.