Cloning SFHA 6.0 installations across multiple Solaris Installations.

[unix_san]

Hello,

Can some one please tell me the best and convinient method for cloning SFHA 6.0 installations across multiple Solaris Installations. 

We have Solaris LDOM enviornment with multiple Solaris guest LDOMs.  For the Operating system, we clone the Vanilla O.S (Solaris 10) by taking the snapshot of the luns (Installed O.S) at the SAN level and then presenting the clones for multiple copies of the operating systems.  However we have install SFHA manually on all these enviorments, which consumes a considerable amount of time.  Can I Install SFHA 6.0 and then take a snapshot of the san LUN and then present this copy for other O.S.  Will this work, considering that the host id is used by SFHA software.

Thanks in Advance.

[Gaurav_S]

Hello,

There are multiple recommended & tested methods to ease out installation process on multiple clients at the same time

From SFHA installation guide

https://sort.symantec.com/public/documents/sfha/6.1/solaris/productguides/html/sfha_install/ch15.htm

If you have solaris 11, you can use solaris 11 automated installer (AI) to install SFHA on multiple clients in same network

https://sort.symantec.com/public/documents/sfha/6.1/solaris/productguides/html/sfha_install/ch15s02.htm

You can otherwise use a Jumpstart server to install multiple clients

https://sort.symantec.com/public/documents/sfha/6.1/solaris/productguides/html/sfha_install/ch15s03.htm

A flash archive can be used to install SFHA & OS together using Jumpstart

https://sort.symantec.com/public/documents/sfha/6.1/solaris/productguides/html/sfha_install/ch15s03s05.htm

You can also use response files for automated installation

https://sort.symantec.com/public/documents/sfha/6.1/solaris/productguides/html/sfha_install/ch12.htm

Now, about the method you are referring, though I've never tried this method I don't have much to say however I can forsee couple of things you will need to take care if you take snapshots of Luns

1. Licensing : Some licenses are bound with hostid, this may cause a conflict

2. Configuration : If you are installating SFHA, you will need to manually edit configuration files for VCS on each domain

3. Packages: all the packages will be installed with LUN snapshot however I would assume snapshot taken from guest LDOM is presented to guest LDOM ?

G

[unix_san]

Hi Gaurav,

Thanks for the reply.

I can confirm that the guest domain snapshot (taken by SAN tools) is presented to another guest domain.  The cloning of the luns are done at a SAN(Netapp) level using Netapp tools.

I would also like to add that we are not configuring the SFHA product on the Master system after the installation, we are planning to just install the SFHA product on the Master system and then take a snap shot of the same.  We have got a SFHA 6.0 enterprise license based on the number of cores on the system, hence assume that this will not be based on the Hostid.

[mikebounds · Accepted solution]

If you are cloning SF, then you should use:

vxdctl hostid hostid

after cloning to set the correct hostid

See extract fom manual (https://sort.symantec.com/public/documents/sfha/6.0/solaris/manualpages/html/man/volume_manager/html...

hostid

Changes the host ID in the volboot file, and on all disks in disk groups currently imported on this machine. It may be desirable to change the VxVM host ID for your machine if you change the network node name of your machine.

Regarding licences, if you want to use hostid locked licenses then create image which you are going to clone using keyless licencing and then just add licence key after cloning.

Mike

[Gaurav_S]

Hello,

so you shouldn't have issues in cloning as you are only doing installation, as the license is core based & not hostid locked, you shouldn't face issues with licenses. If you do, follow Mike's advise above.

Gaurav

[unix_san]

Thanks for the solution Mike and Gaurav.