IRIS FailSafe^™ Administrator's Guide

Table of Contents

About This Guide

Audience

Structure of This Guide

Related Documentation

Conventions Used in This Guide

1. Overview of the IRIS FailSafe System

What Is High Availability?

What Is IRIS FailSafe?

Hardware Components of an IRIS FailSafe Cluster

IRIS FailSafe Software Architecture

High-Availability Resources

High-Availability Applications

Failover and Recovery Processes

Node States

Overview of Configuring and Testing a New IRIS FailSafe Cluster

Overview of Upgrading an IRIS FailSafe Cluster From Release 1.1 to Release 1.2

2. Planning IRIS FailSafe Configuration

Introduction to Configuration Planning

NFS Filesystem Configuration

Netscape Server Configuration

Disk Configuration

Logical Volume Configuration

Filesystem Configuration

Network Interface and IP Address Configuration

Serial Port Configuration

3. Configuring Nodes for IRIS FailSafe

Overview of Configuring Nodes for IRIS FailSafe

Installing Required Software

Setting NVRAM Variables

Creating XLV Logical Volumes and XFS Filesystems

Configuring Network Interfaces

Configuring the Serial Ports

Configuring NFS Filesystems

Configuring a Netscape Server

Configuring IRIS FailSafe On

4. Creating the IRIS FailSafe Configuration File

Configuration File Formats and Their Versions

Creating a Configuration File

Blocks in the Configuration File

Wsync Filesystem Options

Monitoring Frequency Parameters

5. Testing IRIS FailSafe Configuration

Testing the Serial Connections

Testing the Private Network

Testing the Public Network Interfaces

Testing Logical Volumes

Testing Filesystems

Testing NFS Configuration

Testing Netscape Server Configuration

Testing System Behavior With IRIS FailSafe Running

6. Administering IRIS FailSafe

Starting IRIS FailSafe on Both Nodes

Starting IRIS FailSafe on One Node

Shutting Down IRIS FailSafe

Tips for Administering IRIS FailSafe Nodes

Educating the User Community About IRIS FailSafe

Getting Information About Interfaces

Getting a Node's State

Getting Cluster Information

Moving a Node From Standby State to Normal or Degraded State

Moving a Node From Normal State to Standby State

Moving a Node From Degraded State to Standby State

Moving a Node From Controlled Failback State to Normal State

Moving a Node From Controlled Failback State to Standby State

Moving Heartbeat Messages to the Private Network

7. Upgrading an IRIS FailSafe Cluster

Choosing the Correct Upgrade Procedure

Upgrade Procedure A

Upgrade Procedure B

Upgrade Procedure C

8. Performing Simple Hardware Maintenance

Replacing the Serial Cable

Replacing the Private Network Cable When hb-public-ipname Is Set

Replacing the Private Network Cable When hb-public-ipname Is Not Set

Replacing Batteries in the Remote Power Control Unit

A. Messages About Configuration File Errors

B. System Troubleshooting

General Troubleshooting Procedure

IRIS Failsafe System Does Not Start

No IRIS FailSafe After a Power Failure

Duplicate SCSI IDs

Trouble Accessing a Network Interface

Trouble Accessing a Node Over the Network

Trouble With the Serial Connection

Trouble With Logical Volumes

Trouble Mounting Filesystems

Trouble Accessing a Filesystem Over NFS

Netscape Server Warning Messages at Startup

Netscape Server Not Responding

Netscape Daemons Not Responding to Monitoring

Failover Script Fails

ha_admin Times Out

Error Message From ha_statd

False Failovers

Errors Logged to /var/adm/SYSLOG

C. Sample ha.conf Configuration File

Cluster Configuration

Configuration File

Glossary

Index