NFS export of ServiceGuard package

[Gary L. Paveza, Jr.]

I have a requirement to NFS export a set of directories which belong to a S/G package (our development package).

I'm trying to decide if I should script this into the package definition, or if I should create a new package which is to be used just for purposes of the NFS export. This would require that the existing package and the NFS package be integrated in such a way as to handle startup/shutdown.

If I create a new package, it will be very basic, no IP address, no VG, nothing except the customer defined code to export and un-export the particular directories.

I'm leaning toward the new package, but wanted to check to see if anyone had any suggestions.

Has anyone done this type of thing before? I have the NFS toolkit, but it doesn't appear that it addresses this particular issue (will be great if I decide to create a new package).

[Sanjay_6]

Hi,

If you want to export one of the filesystem which is part of SG package, do the export within the package startup and shutdown scripts.

to export, do this in user defined run cmds.

exportfs -i /some_file_system

unexport when shutting down the package,

define this in the user defined halt cmds.

exportfs -u /some_file_system

Do "man exportfs" for more options available with the exportfs commands.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Gary L. Paveza, Jr.]

I should have mentioned that the NFS Server services should only be available on the node when that package is running. In other words, I cannot just have NFS Server running, and just have the package export the FS. Wish it were that nice.

However, upon further looking at the hanfs.sh script provided by the Toolkit, I see that I can do what I want very easily and include it in the same package.

That script looks like it will start up the appropriate daemons, etc. And (at least with A.01.15 release of SG) is automatically looked for by the package cntl file.

[generic_1]

I think it would be easier to manage in the startup and shutdown scripts as well. Although if you are going to spend the money to Serviceguard an environment I would not prefer NFS due to the chance of stale mountpoints and that the performance is ont as good as using SAN. Also where you mention developement. Are you trying to create something similar to what a product like Clearcase might provide as a solution?

[Sanjay_6 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If that is the way you want it, get the nfs server startup script /sbin/init.d/nfs.server to your cluster package configuration directory and edit the file to suit your requirements. comment out the section where it is looking at the config file in /etc/rc.config.d and supply the required parameters manually to this file. You can now use this in your package startup script.

Since you are may have to modify the script, i would suggest you not to do your modification in the orginal script, but use that to build your own custom script.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Gary L. Paveza, Jr.]

Jeff,

I don't want to use NFS at all (in fact, it's against our company policy), however, the developers are using a product in Windows to do their development. Basically, I am going to NFS export out their source code directory to a Wintel server and that Wintel server is going to serve it up as a share to the developers. That way they can develop at their desktop with the Windows tools.

[Sanjay_6]

Hi,

If you are talking about cross platform nfs share, i.e share unix filesystem to wintel server, then you'll have to setup CIFS server on the unix side,

See if this is what you should be looking into instead of the default nfs share for unix.

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/netcom/index.html#HP%20CIFS

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Gary L. Paveza, Jr.]

Sanjay,

Actually the product on the Wintel side software which accesses the server as an NFS client and serves up the exported directory as a share. It has the NFS client software built in. It's actually pretty slick. Best part about it is it removes security from me and puts it on our Wintel folks.

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Gary,

Why get MC/SG & (God forbid) NFS involved here when there are already packages available that will serve up development sessions to the coders' Wintel systems?
Two we've used before are:

PVCS Version Manager => Merant SW
CM Synergy => TeleLogic SW

These basically install on an HP system along with bundled DB products to keep track of versioning & then can dole out X-sessions to any system capable of running X-server for the coders to work in.

My $0.02,
Jeff

[Sanjay_6]

I understand. And wintel can handle the security thru Active directory.

Thanks for the clarification.

Regards
Sanjay

[Gary L. Paveza, Jr.]

Jeff,

Perhaps the easiest answer is "because that's what they want". ServiceGuard is involved because we run it for the application. NFS is involved because that's how they want their code served up to the Wintel server. The project was blessed by the CTO, so it's what we are going to do.

[Sundar_7]

Hi Gary,

Creating a seperate package for NFS will complicate the things

In your existing development package

function customer_defined_run_cmds
{
...
...
/sbin/init.d/nfs.server start
exportfs -iv /filesystem1
exportfs -iv /filesystem2
}

function customer_defined_halt_cmds
{
..
..
..
exportfs -uv
/sbin/init.d/nfs.server stop
}

If you want to make the script look better then copy and paste the export file system section from the hanfs.cntl script and define XFS[] variables at the beginning of the development package control script.

Also make sure you run pcnfsd in the server.

Sundar

[generic_1]

Clearcase runs on multiple platforms just as a FYI, but it sounds like your requirements are solidified so changes are probably not in this picture.

If you do implement plain old NFS basically to do this you might want to consider APA to up your bandwidth a bit if you think you might run into some issues there. This might aid performance.

I wish you the best of luck with your implementation.

[Gary L. Paveza, Jr.]

Closing thread