Does Serviceguard package require a disk resource

[Mohanasundaram_1]

Hi Folks,

I have an interesting query from the customer regarding his unique requirements.

1) Customer wants to configure 2 different packages on 2 different physical LAN cards in his system.

example,
lan0 - package 1 (subnet 10.0.0.0)
lan1 - standby Lan
lan2 - heartbeat lan
lan3 - standby to heartbeat
lan4 - package 2 (subnet 180.10.10.0)

Is this a possibility to configure package on 2 different physical LAN cards (LAN0 and LAN4)? I know I can configure 2 packages on the same LAN card. But customer wants the 2 LANs to be isolated.

2) He wants to configure the package2 without a disk resource. That is, he does not want to allocate any disks, VGs to this package. He just wants to move the IP to the other server in case of failure on the primary node.

Is it possible to configure a package without disk resource?

With regards,
Mohan.

[Luk Vandenbussche]

Hi Mohan,

Your two questions are perfectly possible.
You have to specify the lan configuration in the cluster configuration file

1) for q1
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan0
HEARTBEAT_IP 10.0.0.x
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan2
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan4
HEARTBEAT_IP 180.10.10.x
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan3

2) For Q3, just don't specify a Volumegroup, if you use some startup/shutdown script you must see that they are synchronised on each node

[Mohanasundaram_1]

Hi Luk,

Thanks for your quick response. for the first question I pretty much came upto putting my LAN entries in the cluster ascii file.

But then, when we define the package IP, I do not see any way where we can define that, it has to bind to a specific physical LAN card. In such scenario, how does the package know which LAN card to bind to?

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the package IPs always bind to the first LAN card or something like that. Which means all the package IPs may get bound to a single LAN card only.

This is where I am looking for a clarity. I am unable to find something in the a.11.16 serviceguard manual.

Has someone configured such a setup? it will be interesting to know.

Also, is there a document to show that the package can be configured without VGs? I may need to prove to my customer with a document if it is possible.

With regards,
Mohan.

[Chauhan Amit]

Hi Mohan,

Replies are inline:

1) You can Configure Packages on 2 different physical LAN Cards.

ASCII file should Look like

NETWORK_INTERFACE lan0
STATIONARY_IP 10.x.x.x
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan1
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan2
HEARTBEAT_IP x.x.x.x
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan3
HEARTBEAT_IP x.x.x.x
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan4
STATIONARY_IP 180.10.10.x

*Both stationary and relocatable IP addresses will switch to a standby
LAN interface in the event of a LAN card failure

*When a package is started, a relocatable IP address can be added to a
specified IP subnet. When the package is stopped, the relocatable IP
address is deleted from the specified subnet. Adding and removing of
relocatable IP addresses is handled through the cmmodnet command in
the package control script

2) It's possible to configure a package without disk resource.

-Amit

[Albert_31]

Mohan,

q1) You are right when you mentioned that the Package IP's will be allocated to the first LAN interface mention in the cluster ascii file.. will go in that order for local failover as well...and never came across any docs on how to configure it in that way..will keep searching and update you.. if customer is keen on implementing it then we have to go thru a kind of backdoor if there is...
a) dont specify the package ip /subnet in the package control file..but mention it in the startup & halt script..however you will lose the failover factor..since for a resource to be monitored.. it should be explicity mentioned in both the configuration adn control script as well.


q2) Though I have not quite remember if i have faced such a configuration, however it should be possible to configure a package without activating any vg's or mounting any filesystems since the vg's/FS are not a monitored resource. the docs dont explicity speak about it since HP never thought about such a situation i guess :)..

if i get any more info.. will share it with you..

regards

Albert

Did you work in HP India as a RCE earlier?

[Mohanasundaram_1]

Hi Albert,

Yes, I was in HP India in the Response center. But that was 3 years back. How do you know that?

As for the "backdoor" I already found one and was wondering if there was a straight forward way to accomplish this.

The Kmine document UMCSGKBRC00013763 provides me that option of defining the IP using ifconfig (not cmmodnet) in customer_defined_run_commands(). So I can define a seperate package without VGs and implement the suggestions of that document.

But I would prefer a method where serviceguard can handle this so that I do not have to use the customer_defined_run_commands() and ifconfig.

With regards,
Mohan.

[Mohanasundaram_1]

bouncing it top in the hope of getting some more response.

[Enrico P.]

Hi,
you need only to put the line

IP[0]="xxxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" (in the same subnet of lan4)
SUBNET[0]="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" (of lan4)

in the control file an set the

SUBNET "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" (of lan4)

in the ascii file so when the package start it set the IP[0] to the lan card with the same subnet of lan4 and not the lan0 that have a different subnet.

Enrico

[Mohanasundaram_1]

Hi Enrico,

I am not sure it will happen the way you are saying. I agree with what albert has said. I believe the package IPs will get bound to the primary LAN only.

The problem is, customer will decide to buy or not to buy the solution, based on my inputs. So a lot is at stake for my query.

With regards,
Mohan.

[Stephen Doud · Accepted solution]

It is entirely possible to configure a package without a disk resource and with multiple network resources.

It is possible to create a package that does nothing, (no resources listed at all), and Serviceguard would start and stop that package.

The package control script has the following parameters:

VG[0]=""

#IP[0]=""
#SUBNET[0]=""

The # at the front indicates that the parameter need not be used. On the other hand, if needed, uncomment the parameter.
Also notice the [0] index number scheme. This permits the user to add as many of the resources as needed.
Example:
IP[0]="10.0.0.10"
SUBNET[0]="10.0.0.0"
IP[1]="180.10.10.10"
SUBNET[1]="180.10.10.0"

You wrote:
"1) Customer wants to configure 2 different packages on 2 different physical LAN cards in his system."

And then you wrote this:
"Is this a possibility to configure package on 2 different physical LAN cards (LAN0 and LAN4)? "

This is possible as well.
Each package would only list one of the IP/SUBNET pairs. Note that we recommend a relocatable IP so that when a package is moved to a adoptive server, users will be contacting the server that operates both the package application via the relocatable IP.


Also, the only time a disk resource is absolutely required is when a 2-node cluster is created and there is no chance of using a Quorum Server. Such a cluster requires a cluster lock disk. However, no packages need use the lock disk.

[Mohanasundaram_1]

Hi Stephen,

If it is possible to configure different packages on different physical LAN cards, is Enrico's suggestion the way to do it or is there another method?

With regards,
Mohan.

[Enrico P.]

Hi,
just to conferm what I said you:

Cluster Ascii file
NODE_NAME dtmsdas1
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan0
HEARTBEAT_IP 192.168.58.9
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan5
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan2
STATIONARY_IP 192.168.54.68
NETWORK_INTERFACE lan3


PKG Ascii file:
SUBNET 192.168.58.0
SUBNET 192.168.54.64

PKG Control file:
IP[0]=192.168.58.11
SUBNET[0]=192.168.58.0
IP[1]=192.168.54.70
SUBNET[1]=192.168.54.64

Netstat -in:

Name Mtu Network Address Ipkts Ierrs Opkts Oerrs Coll
lan0:1 1500 192.168.58.0 192.168.58.11 23324 0 23324 0 0
lan3* 1500 none none 0 0 0 0 0
lan2 1500 192.168.54.64 192.168.54.68 176130 0 8397115 0 0
lan0 1500 192.168.58.0 192.168.58.9 101460866 0 82208332 0 0
lo0 4136 127.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 21384968 0 21385010 0 0
lan2:1 1500 192.168.54.64 192.168.54.70 70422 0 23324 0 0
lan6 1500 192.168.0.4 192.168.0.5 563105 0 563106 0 0
lan5* 1500 none none 0 0 0 0 0

Enrico

[melvyn burnard]

Of course it is possible to configure different packages on different physical LAN cards.
As long as these lan crads are part of the SG configuration, on different subnets.
Each package simply has the relevant subnet configured in it's config file, and the relevant IP and subnet entries in the control file.
I suggest you read the Managing Serviceguard manual available at:
http://docs.hp.com/en/ha

[Mohanasundaram_1]

Thanks to all who spent their time and replied.

Luk gave the first confirmation then Enrico showed the method. Probably Enrico deserved 2 bunnies but unfortunately I cannot revert the assigned points.special thanks to him for sharing the config which he had done.

Thanks to Stephen and Melwyn for explaining me with such clarity.
I did try reading the A.11.16 manual, but was not able to locate this information in it. Maybe I have to go through it more thoroughly as Melwyn suggested.

Thanks to Albert and Amit too for their valuable inputs.

With regards,
Mohan.