Configure instances

September 10, 2024

To use the transactional messaging capabilities, you need to configure the control and execution instances. You can use either:

IMPORTANT
Schema extensions impacted the resources used by Message Center technical workflows on either control or execution instances need to be duplicated on the other instances used by the Transactional messaging module.

You also need to specify and connect the execution instance(s) to the control instance(s).

All the steps needed to configure and connect the control and execution instances are described in this section.

IMPORTANT
The control instance and the execution instance(s) must be installed on different machines. They cannot share the same Campaign instance.

Configure the control instance

To connect the control instance and the execution instances, you first need to create and configure an Execution instance type external account on the control instance. Therefore, once published, transactional message templates can be deployed to the execution instances.

If you are using several execution instances, you must create as many external accounts as there are execution instances.

NOTE
When execution instances are used by several control instances, data can be divided by folder and by operator. For more on this, see Use several control instances.

Create an external account

NOTE
The steps below must be performed on the control instance.

To create an Execution instance type external account, apply the following:

  1. Go to the Administration > Platform > External accounts folder.

  2. Select one of the execution instance type external accounts provided out-of-the-box with Adobe Campaign, right-click and choose Duplicate .

  3. Change the label according to your needs.

  4. Select the Enabled option to make the external account operational.

  5. Specify the address of the server on which the execution instance is installed.

  6. The account must match the Message Center Agent as defined in the operator folder. By default, the out-of-the-box account provided by Adobe Campaign is mc .

  7. Enter the password of the account as defined in the operator folder.

    NOTE
    To avoid entering a password each time you log on to the instance, you can specify the IP address of the control instance in the execution instance. For more on this, see Configure the execution instance(s).

  8. Specify the recovery method to be used by the execution instance. The data to recover is forwarded to the control instance by the execution instance, to add to transactional message and event archives.

    Data collection occurs either via a Web service which uses HTTP/HTTPS access, or via the Federated Data Access (FDA) module.

    NOTE
    Please note that when using FDA over HTTP, only execution instances using a PostgreSQL database are supported. MSSQL or Oracle databases are not supported.

    The second method (FDA) is recommended if the control instance has direct access to the database of the execution instances. If not, choose the Web service access. The FDA account to specify coincides with the connection to the databases of the various execution instances created on the control instance.

    For more information on Federated Data Access (FDA), refer to this section.

  9. Click Test the connection to make sure the control instance and the execution instance are linked up.

When using several execution instances, repeat these steps to create as many external accounts as there are execution instances.

Identify execution instances

Each execution instance must be associated with a unique identifier to differentiate the history of each execution instance when viewing them on the control instance.

This identifier can be attributed on each execution instance manually. In this case, this step must be performed on each execution instance. To do this, use the deployment wizard as detailed below:

  1. Open the deployment wizard on an execution instance.

  2. Go to the Message Center window.

  3. Assign your chosen identifier to the instance.

  4. Repeat the steps above on each execution instance.

The identifier can also be automatically attributed. To do this, go to the control instance, and click the Initialize connection button.

Configure the execution instance(s)

NOTE
The steps below must be performed on the execution instance(s).

To connect the execution instance(s) to the control instance, follow the steps below.

In order for the control instance to be able to connect to the execution instance without having to give a password, simply enter the IP address of the control instance in the Message Center access rights section. However, empty passwords are forbidden by default.

To use an empty password, go to the execution instances and define a security zone limited to the IP address of the information system that delivers the events. This security zone must allow empty passwords and accept <identifier> / <password> type connections. For more on this, refer to this section.

NOTE
When execution instances are used by several control instances, data can be divided by folder and by operator. For more on this, see Use several control instances.

  1. On an execution instance, go to the operator folder ( Administration > Access management > Operators ).

  2. Select the Message Center agent.

  3. Select the Edit tab, click Access rights , and then click the Edit the access parameters… link.

  4. In the Access settings window, click the Add a trusted IP mask link and add the IP address of the control instance.

When using several execution instances, repeat these steps for each execution instance.

Use several control instances

You can share an execution cluster with various control instances. This type of architecture requires the following configuration.

For example, imagine your company manages two brands, each with its own control instance: Control 1 and Control 2. Two execution instances are also used. You need to enter a different Message Center operator for each control instance: an mc1 operator for the Control 1 instance and an mc2 operator for the Control 2 instance.

In the tree of all the execution instances, create one folder per operator (Folder 1 and Folder 2), and restrict each operator’s data access to their folder.

Configure control instances

NOTE
The steps below must be performed on the control instances.

  1. On the Control 1 control instance, create one external account per execution instance, and enter the mc1 operator in each external account. The mc1 operator will thereafter be created on all the execution instances (see Configure execution instances).

  2. On the Control 2 control instance, create one external account per execution instance, and enter the mc2 operator in each external account. The mc2 operator will thereafter be created on all the execution instances (see Configure execution instances).

    NOTE
    For more on configuring a control instance, rsee this section.