PA-XP in MC/ServiceGuard environment

[Jim Carter_1]

I'm looking for some documentation on how to configure PA-XP to collect data from multiple frames and run as a ServiceGuard package using a virtual IP.

The standard PA-XP installation instructions does not seem to address a clustered environment.

[Vincent Fleming]

Yes... Performance Advisor isn't required for the XP's availability, so it's classified as not needing HA itself. I've never heard of anyone wanting to do this, and have never seen any documentation about it.

However, What you're looking to do shouldn't be rocket science...

The data collection is done by the Host Agents, which forward the data to the PA server, so collecting the data should be no problem.

All you should need to do is take the PA startup scripts and put them under SG control, along with the VIP and PA database LUN/filesystem and the program files. PA itself is nothing much more than an Apache webserver and a Solid(tm) database.

You'll probably have to set something up with DFS to get the filesystem namespace to work - I don't recall exactly, but as I remember, it assumes you're installing on C:.

Good luck,

Vince

[Jim Carter_1]

I'm sorry, I should've been more descriptive. The plan is to install PA-XP on the CV workstation, but that workstation has no SAN connectivity. Therefore, the actual system talking to the frames' command devices is going to be an HP-UX cluster running SG.

I would like to run the PA-XP host agent as a SG package such that I can point PA at the VIP. Both nodes have access to the command devices.

I think I will need a local agent on each node to forward its own performance data to the PA workstation, but then I think I also need another agent installed on the shared storage and tied to the VIP.

I can't find ANY documentation on this topic yet.

[Vincent Fleming]

A couple of things...

You can collect data from ONLY ONE host with PA. The one host collects data for the entire array, and therefore for all the other hosts.

Other hosts with PA Host Agents don't do any more than send an "xpinfo" once in a while to the PA host. (you have to give the PA host agent the IP addr of the PA host during install).

So, as long as you refer to the cluster by the VIP all the time, I don't see why PA would mind if the VIP failed over to another host.

In other words, it should "just work".

Are you having trouble making it work, or are you still planning this?

Regards,

Vince

[Jim Carter_1]

As far as I can tell, I will have to create pseudo-device names for the command devices for each of the physical nodes. This should allow me to poing the virtual host to the same device name no matter which physical host on which it is running.

I should be able to specify the virtual host (VIP) name in the PA configuration screen.

As far as I can tell, I can have one host collecting for many arrays, but not the other way around.

Any other gotcha's or ideas would be greatly appreciated.