--- canonical: "https://safekit.eviden.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads_safekit/version-82/safekituserguidehtml/documentation/safekituserguideen.htm" llms_index: "https://safekit.eviden.com/llms.txt" llms_section: "User Guide" --- Evidian SafeKit User's Guide 8.2 **SafeKit User's Guide** High Availability Software for Critical Applications **Overview** | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | **Subject** | This document covers all the phases of the SafeKit implementation: architecture, installation, tests, administration & troubleshooting, support, and command line interface. | | | **Intended Readers** | **Architectures** | [Technical overview](#Archi) | | **Installation** | [Installation](#Install) | | **Console** | [The SafeKit web console](#Webconsole) [Securing the SafeKit web service](#Https) | | **Advanced configuration** | [Cluster.xml for the SafeKit cluster configuration](#Cluster) [Userconfig.xml for an application module configuration](#Userconfig) [Scripts for an application module configuration](#Userscripts) [Examples of application module configurations](#Examples) | | **Administration** | [Mirror module administration](#Mirroradmin) [Farm module administration](#Farmadmin) [Command line interface](#Command) [Advanced administration](#Advancedadmin) | | **Support** | [Tests](#Tests) [Troubleshooting](#Troubleshooting) [SafeKit support](#Evidiansupport) [Log Messages Index](#LogMessagesIndex) | | **Other** | [Table of Contents](#TableOfContents) [Third-Party Software](#_Use_SafeKit_in) | | Release | SafeKit 8.2 | | | **Supported OS** | Windows and Linux; for a detailed list of supported OS, see [here](https://customercare.evidian.com/space/PDA/1252786262/Software+Release+Bulletin+-+SafeKit+8.2) | | | **Web Sites** | [Marketing site](https://safekit.evidian.com/)               [Support portal](https://customercare.evidian.com/) | | | Ref | 39 A2 38MC 07 | | | | | | Copyright © Eviden, 2026 The trademarks mentioned in this document are the propriety of their respective owners. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. Eviden disclaims the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose and makes no express warranties except as may be stated in its written agreement with and for its customer. In no event is Eviden liable to anyone for any indirect, special, or consequential damages. The information and specifications in this document are subject to change without notice. Consult your Eviden Marketing Representative for product or service availability. **Table of Contents** Overview.. 3 Table of Contents. 5 1.... Technical overview.. 17 1.1..... Generalities, solutions, architectures 17 1.1.1       Introduction to SafeKit 17 1.1.2       SafeKit solutions. 17 1.1.3       SafeKit architectures. 18 1.1.4       SafeKit cluster definition. 18 1.1.5       SafeKit application module definition. 19 1.1.6       SafeKit limitations. 19 1.2..... The SafeKit mirror cluster 20 1.2.1       Real time file replication and application failover 20 1.2.2       Step 1. Normal operation. 21 1.2.3       Step 2. Failover 21 1.2.4       Step 3. Failback and automatic resynchronization. 21 1.2.5       Step 4. Return to normal operation. 22 1.2.6       Synchronous replication versus asynchronous replication. 22 1.2.7       Behavior in case of network isolation. 22 1.2.8       3-node replication. 23 1.2.9       SafeKit on a single node to protect against software failures 23 1.3..... The SafeKit farm cluster 24 1.3.1       Network load balancing and application failover 24 1.3.2       Principle of a virtual IP address with network load balancing. 24 1.3.3       Load balancing for stateful or stateless web services 24 1.3.4       Chain high availability solution in a farm.. 25 1.4..... Clusters running several modules 25 1.4.1       The SafeKit farm+mirror cluster 25 1.4.2       The SafeKit active/active cluster with replication. 25 1.4.3       The SafeKit N-1 cluster 26 1.5..... The SafeKit Hyper-V or KVM cluster 27 1.5.1       Load balancing, replication, failover of entire virtual machines. 27 1.6..... SafeKit clusters in the cloud. 27 1.6.1       Mirror cluster in Azure, AWS and GCP. 27 1.6.2       Farm cluster in Azure, AWS and GCP. 28 2.... Installation. 31 2.1..... SafeKit install 31 2.1.1       Download the package. 31 2.1.2       Installation directories and disk space provisioning. 32 2.1.3       SafeKit install procedure. 32 2.1.4       Use the SafeKit web console or command line interface. 35 2.1.5       SafeKit license keys. 37 2.1.6       System specific procedures and characteristics 37 2.2..... Mirror installation recommendation. 38 2.2.1       Hardware and system prerequisites 38 2.2.2       Network prerequisites. 38 2.2.3       Application prerequisites. 38 2.2.4       File replication prerequisites. 38 2.3..... Farm installation recommendation. 39 2.3.1       Hardware and system prerequisites 39 2.3.2       Network prerequisites. 39 2.3.3       Application prerequisites. 39 2.4..... SafeKit upgrade. 39 2.4.1       Prepare the upgrade. 39 2.4.2       Uninstall procedure. 40 2.4.3       Reinstall and postinstall procedure. 40 2.5..... SafeKit full uninstall 42 2.5.1       Uninstall on Windows as administrator 42 2.5.2       Uninstall on Linux as root 43 2.6..... SafeKit documentation. 44 3.... The SafeKit web console. 45 3.1..... Start the web console. 45 3.1.1       Start a web browser 45 3.1.2       Connect to a SafeKit node. 45 3.1.3       List of connection nodes 46 3.1.4       Use the SafeKit web application. 47 3.1.5       Update the web console. 49 3.2..... Configure the cluster 49 3.2.1       Cluster configuration wizard. 50 3.2.2       Cluster configuration home page. 53 3.3..... Configure an application module. 54 3.3.1       Select the new module to configure. 55 3.3.2       Module configuration wizard. 56 3.3.3       Modules configuration home page. 61 3.3.4       Edit the module configuration locally and then apply it 63 3.4..... Monitor an application module. 64 3.4.1       Monitoring home page. 64 3.4.2       Module state. 65 3.4.3       Module control menus 67 3.4.4       Module details. 70 3.4.5       Module states timeline. 75 3.5..... Snapshots or logs of application module for debug and support 76 3.6..... Secure access to the web console. 77 4.... Tests. 79 4.1..... Installation and tests after boot 79 4.1.1       Test package installation. 79 4.1.2       Test license and version. 80 4.1.3       Test SafeKit services and modules after boot 80 4.1.4       Test start of SafeKit web console. 82 4.2..... Tests of a mirror module. 83 4.2.1       Test first start of a mirror module on 2 servers STOP (NotReady). 83 4.2.2       Test start of a mirror module on 2 servers STOP (NotReady). 83 4.2.3       Test stop of a mirror module on the server PRIM (Ready). 83 4.2.4       Test start of a mirror module on the server STOP (NotReady). 84 4.2.5       Test restart of a mirror module on the server PRIM (Ready). 84 4.2.6       Test virtual IP address of a mirror module. 84 4.2.7       Test file replication of a mirror module. 85 4.2.8       Test shutdown of the server PRIM (Ready). 86 4.2.9       Test power-off of the server PRIM (Ready). 87 4.2.10      Test split-brain with a mirror module. 87 4.2.11      Continue your mirror module tests with checkers 89 4.3..... Tests of a farm module. 89 4.3.1       Test start of a farm module on all servers STOP (NotReady). 89 4.3.2       Test stop of a farm module on one server UP (Ready). 89 4.3.3       Test restart of a farm module on one server UP(Ready). 89 4.3.4       Test virtual IP address of a farm module. 89 4.3.5       Test TCP load balancing on a virtual IP address. 91 4.3.6       Test split-brain with a farm module. 92 4.3.7       Test compatibility of the network with invisible MAC address (vmac\_invisible) 93 4.3.8       Test shutdown of a server UP (Ready). 94 4.3.9       Test power-off of a server UP (Ready). 95 4.3.10      Continue your farm module tests with checkers. 95 4.4..... Tests of checkers common to mirror and farm.. 95 4.4.1       Test checker with action restart or stopstart 95 4.4.2       Test checker with action restart or stopstart 96 4.4.3       Test checker with action wait 97 4.4.4       Test with action wait 98 4.4.5       Test checker with action wait 99 4.4.6       Test checker with action wait 99 4.4.7       Test checker with action wait 100 4.4.8       Test checker with action restart or stopstart 101 5.... Mirror module administration. 105 5.1..... Operating mode of a mirror module. 105 5.2..... State automaton of a mirror module (STOP, WAIT, ALONE, PRIM, SECOND - NotReady, Transient, Ready) 107 5.3..... First start-up of a mirror module (safekit prim command) 108 5.4..... Different reintegration cases (use of bitmaps) 109 5.5..... Start-up of a mirror module with the up-to-date data  STOP (NotReady) - WAIT (NotReady). 110 5.6..... Degraded replication mode (ALONE (Ready) degraded) 111 5.7..... Automatic or manual failover 112 5.8..... Default primary server (automatic swap after reintegration) 114 5.9..... Prim command fails: why? (safekit primforce command) 115 6.... Farm module administration. 117 6.1..... Operating mode of a farm module. 117 6.2..... State automaton of a farm module (STOP, WAIT, UP - NotReady, Transient, Ready) 118 6.3..... Start-up of a farm module. 119 7.... Troubleshooting. 121 7.1..... Connection issues with the web console. 121 7.1.1       Browser check. 122 7.1.2       Browser state clear 122 7.1.3       Server check. 122 7.2..... Connection issues with the HTTPS web console. 123 7.2.1       Check server certificates. 123 7.2.2       Check certificates installed in SafeKit 124 7.2.3       Revert to HTTP configuration. 125 7.3..... Global environment checks (healthcheck script) 125 7.4..... How to read logs and resources of the module? 125 7.5..... How to read the commands log of the server? 126 7.6..... Stable module  (Ready) and (Ready). 126 7.7..... Degraded module (Ready)and /(NotReady). 126 7.8..... Out of service module /(NotReady) and /(NotReady). 127 7.9..... Module  STOP (NotReady): start the module. 127 7.10... Module WAIT (NotReady): repair the resource="down" 127 7.11... Module oscillating from  (Ready) to  (Transient). 128 7.12... Message on stop after maxloop. 129 7.13... Module  (Ready) but non-operational application. 130 7.14... Mirror module ALONE (Ready) - WAIT/STOP (NotReady) 130 7.15... Farm module UP(Ready)but problem of load balancing in a farm.. 131 7.15.1      Reported network load share are not coherent 131 7.15.2      virtual IP address does not respond properly. 131 7.16... Problem with the virtual IP after failover 132 7.17... Problem after Boot 133 7.18... Analysis from snapshots of the module. 133 7.18.1      Module configuration files 134 7.18.2      Module dump files. 135 7.19... Problem with the size of SafeKit databases 138 7.20... Problem for retrieving the certification authority certificate from an external PKI 139 7.20.1      Export CA certificate(s) from public certificates 139 7.21... Issue with email sending by the SafeKit notification agent 141 7.21.1      Failed to read or parse the configuration file. 142 7.21.2      Email sending test blocked. 142 7.21.3      Curl errors 142 7.22... Issue with antivirus 144 7.23... Issue with SafeKit kernel modules 144 7.23.1      Mirror module with rfs filter in Windows. 144 7.23.2      Farm module with vip kernel module in Linux. 144 7.24... Troubleshooting VIP ↔ MAC resolution. 145 7.24.1      Check cache entries. 145 7.24.2      Force a new resolution. 145 7.24.3      Observe Resolution Requests. 145 7.25... Still in trouble. 146 8.... SafeKit support 147 9.... Command line interface. 149 9.1..... Commands to control and setup SafeKit 149 9.1.1       safeadmin service. 149 9.1.2       safewebserver web service. 150 9.1.3       Email notification agent 151 9.1.4       SNMP service. 151 9.1.5       safecaserv web service. 152 9.2..... Command lines to configure and monitor the cluster 152 9.3..... Command lines to control application modules 154 9.4..... Command lines to monitor application modules 156 9.5..... Command lines to configure application modules 157 9.6..... Command lines for support 159 9.6.1       Application module log. 159 9.6.2       Application module snapshot 159 9.6.3       Other commands 162 9.7..... Command lines during the maintenance of the module application. 162 9.7.1       Application module control for maintenance. 163 9.7.2       Running the application without the module. 164 9.8..... Command lines distributed across multiple SafeKit servers 164 9.9..... Examples 166 9.9.1       Local and distributed command. 166 9.9.2       Cluster configuration with command line. 166 9.9.3       Application module configuration with command line. 166 9.9.4       Application module snapshot with command line. 167 10. Advanced administration and setup. 169 10.1... SafeKit environment variables and directories 169 10.1.1      Global 169 10.1.2      Application module. 170 10.2... SafeKit services/daemons and communications 171 10.2.1      SafeKit services 172 10.2.2      SafeKit daemons per application module. 173 10.3... Firewall settings 177 10.3.1      Firewall settings in Linux. 177 10.3.2      Firewall settings in Windows. 178 10.4... Boot and shutdown setup in Windows 179 10.4.1      Automatic procedure. 179 10.4.2      Manual procedure. 179 10.5... Linux Secure boot settings for SafeKit kernel modules 180 10.6... Antivirus settings 181 10.7... Encryption of application module communications 181 10.7.1      Configuration with the SafeKit Web console. 182 10.7.2      Configuration with the Command Line Interface. 182 10.7.3      Advanced configuration. 183 10.8... Encryption of sensitive files in SafeKit 184 10.9... SafeKit web service settings 185 10.9.1      Apache HTTP server 185 10.9.2      Configuration files 187 10.9.3      Connection ports configuration. 188 10.9.4      HTTP/HTTPS and user authentication configuration. 189 10.9.5      SafeKit API 189 10.10. SafeKit email notification agent 192 10.10.1    SafeKit notification agent configuration. 193 10.10.2    SMTP client credentials setup for authentication. 194 10.10.3    Email sending test 194 10.10.4    SafeKit notification agent activation. 195 10.11. SNMP monitoring. 195 10.11.1    SNMP monitoring in Windows 195 10.11.2    SNMP monitoring in Linux. 196 10.11.3    The SafeKit MIB. 196 10.12. Commands log of the SafeKit server 197 10.13. SafeKit log messages in system log. 198 11. Securing the SafeKit web service. 199 11.1... Overview. 199 11.1.1      Default setup. 200 11.1.2      Predefined setups 200 11.2... HTTP setup. 201 11.2.1      Default setup. 201 11.2.2      Unsecure setup based on identical role for all 203 11.3... HTTPS setup. 204 11.3.1      HTTPS setup using the SafeKit PKI 205 11.3.2      HTTPS setup using an external PKI 213 11.4... User authentication setup. 217 11.4.1      File-based authentication setup. 217 11.4.2      LDAP/AD authentication setup. 220 11.4.3      OpenID authentication setup. 222 12. Cluster.xml for the SafeKit cluster configuration. 225 12.1... Cluster.xml file. 225 12.1.1      Cluster.xml example. 225 12.1.2      Cluster.xml syntax. 226 12.1.3      , , attributes. 226 12.2... SafeKit cluster Configuration. 228 12.2.1      Configuration with the SafeKit web console. 228 12.2.2      Configuration with command line. 229 12.2.3      Configuration changes. 229 13. Userconfig.xml for an application module configuration. 231 13.1... Time-based attributes 232 13.1.1      Time-based attribute example. 232 13.1.2      Time-based attribute syntax. 232 13.2... Macros - . 233 13.2.1      example. 233 13.2.2      syntax. 233 13.2.3      attributes 233 13.3... Farm or mirror module - . 234 13.3.1      example. 234 13.3.2      syntax. 234 13.3.3      attributes 235 13.4... Heartbeats - , . 237 13.4.1      example. 238 13.4.2      syntax. 238 13.4.3      , attributes. 238 13.5... Farm topology - , . 240 13.5.1      example. 240 13.5.2      syntax. 241 13.5.3      , attributes 241 13.6... Virtual IP address - . 242 13.6.1      example in a mirror module. 242 13.6.2      example in a farm module. 243 13.6.3      Alternative to . 243 13.6.4      syntax. 244 13.6.5      , , , , attributes. 245 13.6.6      , , , attributes. 249 13.6.7      Load balancing description. 250 13.7... File replication - , . 252 13.7.1      example. 252 13.7.2      syntax. 253 13.7.3      , attributes 254 13.7.4      description. 262 13.8... Module scripts - , . 271 13.8.1      example. 271 13.8.2      syntax. 271 13.8.3      , attributes 271 13.9... Virtual hostname - , . 272 13.9.1      example. 272 13.9.2      syntax. 272 13.9.3      , attributes 273 13.9.4      description. 273 13.10. Process or service monitoring - , . 274 13.10.1    example. 274 13.10.2    syntax. 275 13.10.3    , attributes 276 13.10.4    commands 280 13.11. Checkers - . 282 13.11.1    example. 282 13.11.2    syntax. 282 13.11.3    description. 283 13.12. TCP checker - . 286 13.12.1    example. 286 13.12.2    syntax. 286 13.12.3    attributes. 287 13.13. Ping checker - . 288 13.13.1    example. 289 13.13.2    syntax. 289 13.13.3    attributes. 289 13.14. Interface checker - . 291 13.14.1    example. 291 13.14.2    syntax. 292 13.14.3    attributes. 292 13.15. IP checker - . 292 13.15.1    example. 292 13.15.2    syntax. 293 13.15.3    attributes. 293 13.16. Custom checker - . 294 13.16.1    example. 294 13.16.2    syntax. 295 13.16.3    attributes. 295 13.17. Module checker - . 297 13.17.1    example. 297 13.17.2    syntax. 297 13.17.3    attributes 298 13.18. Splitbrain checker - . 299 13.18.1    example. 299 13.18.2    syntax. 300 13.18.3    attributes 300 13.19. Failover machine - . 301 13.19.1    example. 301 13.19.2    syntax. 302 13.19.3    attributes. 302 13.19.4    description. 303 14. Scripts for an application module configuration. 307 14.1... List of scripts 307 14.1.1      Start/stop scripts. 307 14.1.2      Other scripts. 309 14.2... Variables and arguments passed to scripts 309 14.3... Scripts output 310 14.3.1      Output into script log. 310 14.3.2      Output into module log. 310 14.4... Scripts execution automaton. 311 14.5... SafeKit special commands for scripts 312 14.5.1      Commands for Windows. 313 14.5.2      Commands for Linux. 313 14.5.3      Commands for Windows and Linux. 314 15. Examples of application module configurations. 317 15.1... Mirror module example with mirror.safe. 318 15.1.1      Cluster configuration with two networks. 318 15.1.2      Mirror module configurations. 319 15.1.3      Mirror module scripts. 321 15.2... Farm module example with farm.safe. 323 15.2.1      Cluster configuration with three nodes 323 15.2.2      Farm module configurations 324 15.2.3      Farm module scripts 331 15.3... Macro and script variables example with hyperv.safe. 334 15.3.1      Module configuration with macros and var 334 15.3.2      Module scripts with var 335 15.4... Process monitoring example with softerrd.safe. 336 15.4.1      Module configuration with process monitoring. 336 15.4.2      Advanced configuration of module scripts. 337 15.5... TCP checker example. 339 15.6... Ping checker example. 340 15.7... Custom checker example with customchecker.safe. 342 15.7.1      Module configuration with custom checker 342 15.7.2      Advanced configuration of module checker script 344 15.8... Split-brain checker example. 345 15.9... Module checker examples 346 15.9.1      Example of a farm module depending on a mirror module. 346 15.9.2      Example with leader.safe and follower.safe. 348 15.10. Interface checker example. 348 15.11. IP checker example. 349 15.12. Virtual hostname example with vhost.safe. 350 15.12.1    Module configuration with a virtual hostname. 350 15.12.2    Module scripts with a virtual hostname. 351 16. SafeKit cluster in the cloud. 355 16.1... SafeKit cluster in Amazon AWS. 355 16.1.1      Mirror cluster in AWS. 356 16.1.2      Farm cluster in AWS. 357 16.2... SafeKit cluster in Microsoft Azure. 358 16.2.1      Mirror cluster in Azure. 359 16.2.2      Farm cluster in Azure. 361 16.3... SafeKit cluster in Google GCP. 362 16.3.1      Mirror cluster in GCP. 363 16.3.2      Farm cluster in GCP. 364 17. Third-Party Software. 367 Log Messages Index. 371 Index. 375