Associate a connector with an application

1. Log in to EAA Management Portal.

2. In the EAA Management Portal navigation menu, select Applications.

3. On your application card, click Settings.

4. In Location do the following:

   1. Select the cloud zone closest to your connector.

   2. Click Add or remove connector and select connector, or connectors, from the list.

5. Click Assign Connectors.

6. Click Save and go to Authentication.

Add several connectors to an application for high availability

To be able to associate an application with several connectors for high availability you need to create as many connections as needed for your configuration. You can associate them all at the same time.

1. Log in to EAA Management Portal.

2. Create as many connections as needed for the configuration.

   1. Create and download a connector in EAA.

   2. Install and approve a connector in a virtual environment.

3. In the EAA Management Portal navigation menu, select Applications.

4. On your application card, click Settings.

5. In Location do the following:

   1. Select the cloud zone closest to your connector.

   2. Click Add or remove connector and select all connectors that you want to associate.

6. Click Assign Connectors.

7. Click Save and go to Authentication.

8. Deploy the application.

Rename a connector

You can rename an existing Enterprise Application Access (EAA) connector that is in production. This is not recommended though. Any name change automatically applies to applications that are associated with the connector.

The connector name in the Enterprise Application Access portal can differ from the name of the VM instances where the connector is deployed. The connector name specified on ​Akamai Control Center​, is a way to identify the connector to attach to applications. The name that you assign to a connector that you deploy in their environment (either VMware or the Enterprise Application Access portal) is for user-friendly identification. You can keep the names for both the Enterprise Application Access portal and VMware the same or make them different.

1. Log in to EAA Management Portal.

2. In the EAA Management Portal navigation menu, select Connectors.

3. On the connector card, click Settings.

4. In Name enter the new connector name.

5. Click Save.
   After the connector is renamed, the associated applications show the new name.

6. In the EAA Management Portal navigation menu, select Applications, and select an application that used the connector's original name.

7. On your application card, click Settings.

8. In Associated connectors verify if the connector name has change and check the Name for the new name.

9. Click Save and exit.

10. Deploy the application associated with the connector.

Security updates for connectors

Enterprise Application Access allows in-place patches for your connectors when there are security vulnerabilities.
You can apply in-place patches to their connectors in between Enterprise Application Access releases when there are security vulnerabilities that require kernel updates.

You get alert when connector's operating system has vulnerabilities. They can apply security patches with minimal downtime, thereby improving productivity for users. You can pick off-peak hours that work best for the organization. If there are any failures encountered during the upgrade, you can contact support. During the upgrade, the connector cannot serve traffic. To minimize interruption, Enterprise Application Access automatically chooses alternative connectors available for each application if it has been configured.

If you have a second connector that is associated with the applications and directories, that can be used as a backup while the security upgrade is completed for the connector with security vulnerability.

EAA connector states are described in the below table.

Update connectors for security vulnerability

When you log into the EAA Management Portal, if there are security vulnerabilities for the existing connectors you get the alert message:

ACTION Required: Mandatory connector upgrade for the following connectors. Connector-name-1, Connector-name-2

You can click on the Connectors that need an upgrade to see all the connectors that need to be updated in your environment to mitigate security vulnerabilities.
You can see the connector state, applications and directories using this connector on the connectors list page for each connector.

Find a time that is best for your organization when there are minimum users using the applications, to have minimal downtime. You might also want to first update to connectors that have the least number of applications and directories associated with them, and then perform the update on other connectors.

1. Log in to EAA Management Portal.

2. In the EAA Management Portal navigation menu, select Connectors.
   All of the connectors configured in your account are shown. Start with the connector that has the least number of applications and directories associated with it for least downtime.

3. Click Update.

4. In the Security Updates panel, you can see the number of security updates that need to be performed. Click Show packages, to see all the packages that are upgraded and their exact versions.

   📘

   You cannot choose which packages should or should not be updated. Also, when the connector goes down, if you have another connector for high-availability, then the application, directory traffic is served by the other connector.

5. Click Start security update.
   A warning notifies about a downtime and suggests to pick the right time for the update (outside of the office hours).

6. Click Continue.
   When the update finishes, a success message appears. Connector status changes from Updating to Connector is running (Up to date).

7. If you get Connector is running (Update failed) update the security patch again.
   If the problem persists, contact support.

8. Repeat these steps for the next connector that has the security vulnerability, until all of the connectors are upgraded in your environment. You can update the connectors in parallel if they are independent and associated with another application.

For the automatic updates to connectors from the EAA connector repository see Self-upgrade of EAA connectors.