Cluster Heartbeat connection by a cross cable

[Kaushlesh Kumar]

Dear Sir,

I need a clarification that can we connect RAC through cross cable.

I have two DB server on which cluster implemented . there are four NIC card 2 are assigned prvate IP for Data and 2 are assigned VIP( 10.0.0.1) for cluster.

So can we make connectivity of this VIP of one server to another server

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

cross cable is the same, if you are using the normal switches between. We have MC/Servicegueard with 2 HeartBeat connection with the cross cable.

mikap

[Kaushlesh Kumar]

Sir,
Presentlay i have a 100 mbps switch to connect these two DB server over heart beat .

But i want to connect two DB directly from 1st server's NIC to another server's NIC directly with cross cable . i want to remove 100 mbps switch.

Can i do ....

[Michal Kapalka (mikap) · Accepted solution]

hi,

you can do it, the cross cable can be used for HB connection betveen 2 cluster nodes.

mikap

[Sajjad Sahir]

Dear Friend

we are using two cross cables for reduncy and for heartbeat

thanks and regards

Sajjad Sahir

[Suraj K Sankari]

HI,
>>But i want to connect two DB directly from 1st server's NIC to another server's NIC directly with cross cable .

Yes, you can use cross cable between these two DB server.


Suraj

[sujit kumar singh]

hi advantages of using the croos-over-cables for heartbeat:
1) one component that is switch is removed from the list of potential failing devices.

disadvantages:

1) you cant extend the number of nodes bveyond 2.
2) with a switch in place at least using the LED indications you can find which Servers LAN is faulty.

regards
sujit

[Mel Burslan]

another disadvantage:

you can not monitor the health of this heartbeat connection, whereas most oribably all your switches are being monitored for uptime.

By replacing a couple of network ports, you are shifting your trust from a hundred thousand dollar worth of equipment (I am assuming you are using enterprise grade Cisco switches by this price) to a $2 worth cable. Think what will happen when people start pushing these cables to the edges of the cabinet to make the cabinet look good. They will start breaking and you will not be able to notice, until one day, when your cluster will take a dump for no other reason than losing a heartbeat.

I strongly discourage you from doing this. If you are willing to shell out big bucks to have serviceguard license to maintain your business continuity, I am sure you can afford to spend a couple of hundred bucks on a couple of switch ports.

My 2 cents worth advice

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I've done this in my home lab.

It works. You can monitor the connection with a ping script.

When possible, I run a heartbeat through a private network. Usually I try and cajole network group to give me an old cisco switch for the purpose.

SEP

[George Denyer_1]

Although its possible to use a crossover as a heartbeat link it reduces all heartbeat failure conditions to the same result: both nodes lose link on the heartbeat NIC. With a switch in the middle if node A's NIC fails node B wont communicate with node A but it will still have link on its NIC so it will know the problem is on node A.