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nore's avatar
nore
Level 3
10 years ago

Some questions regarding VCS

Greetings,

I have two nodes that I want to cluster using VCS in order for an application to have high availability, it is a JAVA application running on JBOSS (JBoss clustering was not helpful) and having an Oracle DB as backend.

I downloaded VRTS_SF_HA_Solutions_6.1_RHEL.tar.gz and installed the VCS product on both nodes though a 3rd host (let's call it balancer). Now what?

node1: 10.172.21.144

node2: 10.172.21.164

I understand that there is VOM on each node (I got that info after VCS installation was finished) and I think it's the tool to manage the cluster, but how should I use it? shouldn't it be on a 3rd host or something in order to manage both nodes? I tried accessing it from node1 such as https://10.172.21.144:5634/admin/htdocs/cs_config.htm - I tried to go on with the wizard here to configure it, but it failed with "VRTSsfmcs package is not installed" after keeping the defaults. I checked the VRTS on node1, and there was no VRTSsfmcs installed, I also didn't find it in the main installer (when running it on balance the first time). What can I do here? and what is VRTSsfmcs anyway?

Another thing, during the installation, I added a virtual ip. The virtual ip was configured on node1 on eth1 as an alias as I see it. Isn't the virtual ip, an IP used for reaching and load balancing the two nodes? why is it configured on eth1:0 on node1 only? I didn't see it on node2. Or does VCS magically reconfigure it on node2 if node1 is down?

I understand that the virtual ip is the ip to use when dealing with the application that should be installed on both nodes. Am I right here?

Note: I am testing VCS on two VMs (node1 and node2) with each having two bridged NICs (for testing fencing too), and balancer here is also a VM. All on RHEL 6.4 64bit.

Any help is appreciated

Regards

 

business continuity
Cluster Server
Configuring
Installing
Linux

7 Replies

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  • mikebounds's avatar
    mikebounds
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    If this is your first VCS cluster, then you probably don't want to be installing VOM, as this requires a separate server/Virtual Machine, so the Java GUI will be best for you.  The Java GUI is not included in the media so you need to download the VCS Cluster Manager Java Console 6.0.1 from https://www4.symantec.com/Vrt/offer?a_id=89446 to install on a windows (or Linux/UNIX client). 

    You can connect to Java GUI using IP of either node or a Virtual IP

    VRTSsfmh is the software you install on the SF/VCS nodes for VOM server to connect to and so VOM server is a separate download.

    Mike

  • TonyGriffiths's avatar
    TonyGriffiths
    Level 6
    10 years ago

    Hi 

    VOM is reccommended to manage VCS as not all the features in 6.x will usable in the VCS Cluster manager.

    From VCS 6.1 releases notes

    https://sort.symantec.com/documents/doc_details/sfha/6.1/Linux/ProductGuides/

    Limited support from Cluster Manager (Java console)

    Features introduced in VCS 6.0 may not work as expected with Java console.
    However, CLI option of the simulator supports all the VCS 6.0 features. You are
    recommended to use Veritas Operations Manager (VOM) since all new features
    are already supported in VOM. However, Java console may continue to work as
    expected with features of releases prior to VCS 6.0.

    cheers

    tony

  • Gaurav_S's avatar
    Gaurav_S
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    Hi,

    You can connect with any reachable IP address of node, doesn't need to be virtual IP.

    About package, you can download the package file from here,

    https://www4.symantec.com/Vrt/offer?a_id=89446

     

    G

     

  • nore's avatar
    nore
    Level 3
    10 years ago

    Is the application actually called JAVA GUI ? because all I found in the package was this:

    [root@balancer dvd1-redhatlinux]# find . -name "*.msi"
    ./rhel5_x86_64/windows/VRTSvradv.msi
    ./symantec_ha_console/Pkgs/Common/x64/VRTSsfmh.msi
    ./symantec_ha_console/Pkgs/Common/x64/symantec_appcontrol_server_x64.msi
    ./symantec_ha_console/Pkgs/Common/x64/symantec_applicationha_srm_x64.msi
    ./rhel6_x86_64/windows/VRTSvradv.msi

    VRTSvradv.msi - is replicator advisor

    VRTSsfmh.msi - is VOM

    dunno what the rest are.

  • nore's avatar
    nore
    Level 3
    10 years ago

    Thank you very much for your answer.

     

    "Once installed, you can connect to cluster using the IP address or FQDN" - do you mean here connecting using the virtual ip? or just an IP of either node?

  • Gaurav_S's avatar
    Gaurav_S
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    Hi,

    First thing, you don't really need a VOM to manage the cluster. VOM would be useful to manage if you have a big cluster farm & you want view of your all the clusters. For an individual cluster, I would prefer Java GUI.

     Java GUI is available in the product tar bundle under windows folder. There would be a file with *.msi file (don't recollect the exact name - probably vrtsvcssim.msi). You can install this on your laptop or desktop. Once installed, you can connect to cluster using the IP address or FQDN. You would need to add the cluster to Java gui using a "+" or "Add cluster" button.

    About Virtual IP, the virutal IP you have given would go in a group called "clusterservice". If you are connected to server via command line, you can run "# hastatus -sum" command to check the summary of your cluster & you would find "clusterservice" group created & online on any one of nodes. This "clusterservice" group is a failover group & hence will be online on one node & for the same reason the virtual IP will be online on any one of nodes only. This IP was put in to manage cluster via another method called "WebUI" or if you scale up this cluster to be used for DRs (global cluster), this IP can help to communicate to node in DR site. If any fault happens to this group, VCS will failover the group to other node. This IP is not a load balancer IP which will help to reach out to both nodes. Load balancer is different.

    If you have an application which has to run in active/active mode (for e.g Oracle RAC), then RAC would have its own IP addresses configured (additional Virtual IPs) on which once the traffic is hit, will be diverted to different instances running on nodes. Typically an IP address at a time can reside only on 1 node.

    Hope this answers

     

    G