topic Re: IP failover from Primary to Backup in Operating System - HP-UX

IP failover from Primary to Backup

Shivkumar — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:12:20 GMT

Hi All,

We have a server having 2 IP.
We want to use one IP as primary and 2nd IP as backup.
Just in case first first IP becomes
unavailabl then application like weblogic should failover to backup
IP.

We do not want to use Cluster.

My queston is:
Is there any software or tool used to failover from primary IP to backup IP ?

Thanks,
Shiv

Re: IP failover from Primary to Backup

Tingli — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:18:08 GMT

You can use firewall to do the trick.

Re: IP failover from Primary to Backup

Mel Burslan — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:29:16 GMT

You can use a device called load balancer available from Cisco as well as many other network equipment providers. If you want to handle it via software, you might want to look into HP's auto port aggregator but functionality might be a little different than what you currently have and it is not a free product.

Hope this helps

Re: IP failover from Primary to Backup

Patrick Wallek — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:30:58 GMT

There is a product called Auto Port Aggregation (APA) that allows you to do things with your Network cards.

You can have 1 card as the primary and another as a secondary. If the primary fails the IP address will move to the secondary card.

This is not precisely what you are talking about. I think it is better.

Information on APA is here:
http://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=HPUX-APA

I think what you are talking about -- having the application listen on a 2nd IP if the primary fails -- is VERY application dependent. You would have to configure your software so that it knows which IP address to use.

This scenario could also be confusing for clients as well. If the primary IP fails, how are they to know to use the 2nd IP?

I think APA is a much better solution for the problem you have described.