single node cluster in VCS5.1 using SMF services to start VCS in Solaris 10

[Peter_Whelan]

Hi,
  I am using VCS5.1 and start/stop of llt, gab, fencing and vcs are controlled using SMF services in Solaris 10.  Appendix E of the install guide outlines how to install a single node cluster. This appendix is only valid where llt, gab and vcs are started using start scripts. There is no detail on how to start a single node cluster using SMF.  gab SMF service depends on llt and vcs SMF service depends on gab so its not possible to start a single node cluster without modifying the manifest file for the vcs SMF service and removing the dependancy on gab. Is this an oversight by Symantec on 5.1 ? There should be a supported method documented for SMF 
                    Rgds
                        Peter

[Gaurav_S]

Hello Peter,

I don't think any of standard Symantec documents on idea to start a single node cluster.

the VCS startup scripts does a check inside to see if GAB is only configured for one node, If condition comes true, it triggers a "hastart -onenode" which will start had.

You can modify this script to workaround the scenario.

Why Symantec didn't documented, well... Single node cluster is not actually a cluster (just presuming) & hence out of recommendation by Symantec..... :)


Cheers


Gaurav

[Peter_Whelan]

Hi Gaurav,
  Well single node clusters are supported. We actually use them in global cluster configurations where customers do not want to buy double hardware. It is supported as hastart -onenode is a supported function. The problem is that the vcs SMF service will not online if the gab service is not online since it has a require_all dependancy on it in SMF. The VCS Install Guide has an Appendix which documents the installation of a single node cluster but not where SMF is being used.
                     Rgds
                           Peter

[Oscar_Wahlberg · Accepted solution]

Peter,
Sounds like there might be a documentation omission.
SFHA 5.1 ships with a manifest for single node VCS in /etc/init.d.
If you import the single node VCS manifest (/etc/init.d/vcs-onenode.xml) into SMF you should be able to do what you want without starting LLT and GAB.

Oscar

[Peter_Whelan]

Hi Oscar,
   Thanks, that makes a lot of sense!  However, there are other issues here aswell. The standard vcs.xml has require_all dependancy on local-filesystem, gab and an optional dependancy on  vxfen. This means that vcs will start when gab is online which depends on llt. However with start scripts in the past vcs did not start until rc3 which is about equivalent to milestone multi-user-server. What will happen in our case is that vcs will try to start services which may not start at this milestone level. In any case its easy to modify the manifest to put in new dependancies.
                 Rgds
                     Peter