Flexlm on Service Guard cluster

[greyfox]

Hello,

I wish to run flexlm(Floating License Management System) on ServiceGuard Cluster.
Does anyone run flexlm on SG?

And, is it possible to construct redundant on node A,B, and C, describes below?

Mater Server:(Virtual)nodeA(SG1(Real) node + SG2(Real) node)
Slave#1 Server:(Real)nodeB
Slave#2 Server:(Real)nodeC

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks!

[Deepak Kr]

No idea about Floating License Management System but in SG you can run an application with one primary node and other nodes are acting as failover in case something goes wrong with primary node and application needs to failover.

Are you already running SG cluster in your environment or planning new now?

For more info refer to:

http://docs.hp.com/en/ha.html

provide complete details for more info...

:-)

[greyfox]

Hi! KumarD

Thank you for your reply and reference docs information!

Just planning new one.

I think SG made 1-virtual service node out of 2-real(physical) nodes...Is it wrong understanding?

Generally, Flexlm is recommended 3 up nodes(Master server/Slave server#1/Slave server#2) redundant system, in case of something goes wrong with Master server, then Slave#1 promoted to Master server to keep licensing service.

So, I think with SG, +1 up node lead to strong-built licensing system!

Sorry for my awkward English...

Thank you!

[Deepak Kr]

No problem !!

cheers!!

Here in SG no concept of virtual node or real node. Actually we use a floating entity here called package. Package is a combination of following:
> Services to be highly available

>IP address to which application services will be always available irrespective of the node on which it is running

>disk group (or volume group) providing file system services to application running in HA

So, in cluster once a package is configured to run in HA setup, users always connects to IP of package not to physical IPs of servers under HA cluster setup.

I am not fully aware how the flexlm should run in HA but if there is some particular service or set of services thats needs to be made available always no matter which node is active then corresponding package can be configured here.

I would suggest you to take a good reading of package formation procedures and guidlines in link below:

http://docs.hp.com/en/B3936-90117/index.html

let us know if you have more queries!!

[Matti_Kurkela]

The problem of running flexlm in any cluster environment is that the licenses are very often tied to some hardware ID of the server(s). If a flexlm setup that is configured for Node A is moved to Node B, flexlm will usually treat it as a licensing violation and will refuse to run.

So there is no point in building ServiceGuard packages for flexlm servers - if the license is created for one particular license server, the package will only run successfully on that server and nowhere else.

The HP Integrity VM might be able to "virtualize" the flexlm set-up, *IF* the hardware ID that flexlm checks stays the same when the VM is moved from one real server to another.

(This could easily be developed into a method of "replicating" a license server to get more licenses than you've paid for, so I would not be too surprised if newer versions of flexlm completely refused to run if they detect *any* signs of being run in a virtualized environment.)

However, flexlm has a built-in clustering option, but it requires that your licenses are created specifically to support that option.

The flexlm product is currently owned by Acresso Software (www.acresso.com). The PDF documentation for flexlm is available on their download pages. The documentation lists a couple solutions for providing redundant license service. You should read it very carefully to understand the possibilities and their associated limitations.

MK

[greyfox]

Thank you for your reply! Deepak Kr and Matti Kurkela

Sorry for late reply by business trip.

Yes, I know flexlm service tied to hardware(NIC) ID(MAC address) of the server(s).

I think, virtual host uses one of the MAC address of physical host for Layer2 transport.
In SG environment, this MAC address is used by 2 host(virtual host and physial host),
only one MAC address alive in broadcast domain.
So, usually virtual host's MAC address receives demand of service, and in case of something
goes wrong with virtual host, then physical hosts's MAC address receives a service demands.

There is nothing also until it says, NIC trouble may stop service.
But in this case, other redundant (2)hosts(not constitute SG) prompt to Master's role.

It became helpful for me about "specifically created licenses" information!

Thank you for your advices!
I investigate to a slight degree(with very careful) for information you gave me.