SmartIO blueprint and deployment guide for Solaris platform
SmartIO for Solaris was introduced in Storage Foundation HA 6.2. SmartIO enables data efficiency on your SSDs through I/O caching. Using SmartIO to improve efficiency, you can optimize the cost per Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS). SmartIO supports both read and write-back caching for the VxFS file systems that are mounted on VxVM volumes, in multiple caching modes and configurations. SmartIO also supports block-level read caching for applications running on VxVM volumes. The SmartIO Blueprint for Solaris give an overview of the benefits of using SmartIO technology, the underlying technology, and the essential configuration steps to configure it. In the SmartIO Deployment Guide for Solaris, multiple deployment scenarios of SmartIO and how to manage them are covered in detail. Let us know if you have any questions or feedback!
SFHA Solutions 6.0.1: Using Veritas Cluster Server Simulator
Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) Simulator enables you to simulate and test cluster configurations. You can use VCS Simulator to view and modify service group and resource configurations and test failover behavior. VCS Simulator can run on a stand-alone system and does not require any additional hardware. You can install VCS Simulator only on a Windows operating system. VCS Simulator runs an identical version of the VCS High Availability Daemon(HAD) as in a cluster, ensuring that failover decisions are identical to those in anactual cluster. Using VCS Simulator, you can test configurations from different operating systems.For example, you can run VCS Simulator to test configurations for VCS clusterson Windows, AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Solaris operating systems. VCS Simulatoralso enables you to create and test global clusters. You can administer VCS Simulator from the Java Console or from the commandline. To download VCS Simulator, see: http://go.symantec.com/vcsm_download For more information on installing and administering VCS Simulator, see: Installing VCS Simulator on a Windows System Upgrading VCS Simulator Administering VCS Simulator Predicting VCS behavior using VCS Simulator Administering VCS Simulator from the Java Console Administering VCS Simulator from the command line interface VCS documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on theSORT website.SFHA Solutions 6.1: Using AdaptiveHA to select the largest system for failover
Symantec Cluster Server (VCS) service groups are virtual containers that manage groups of resources required to run a managed application. The FailOverPolicy service group attribute governs how VCS determines the target system for failover. For more information, see About service groups Service group attributes Cluster attributes About defining failover policies When you set FailOverPolicy to BiggestAvailable, AdaptiveHA enables VCS to dynamically select the cluster node with the most available resources to fail over an application. VCS monitors and forecasts the unused capacity of systems in terms of CPU, Memory, and Swap, to select the largest available system. If you set FailOverPolicy to BiggestAvailable for a service group, you must specify the load values in terms such as, 1 CPU, 1GB RAM, and 1GB SWAP, in the Load service group attribute.You only need to specify those resources that are used by the service group. For example, if the service group does not use the Swap resource, only specify the CPU and Memory resources in the Load attribute. Note: The Load FailOverPolicy isbeingdeprecated after this release. Symantec recommends that you change to theBiggestAvailableFailOverPolicy for enabling AdaptiveHA. For more information, see About AdaptiveHA Enabling AdaptiveHA for a service group If you upgrade VCS manually, ensure that you update the VCS configuration file (main.cf) to enable AdaptiveHA. When you upgrade from an older version of VCS using the installer, the main.cf file gets automatically upgraded. For more information, seeManually upgrading the VCS configuration file to the latest version VCS documentation for other platforms and releases can be found on theSORTwebsite.SFHA Solutions 6.0.1: Using Veritas Cluster Server Agents
Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) agents provide high availability to resources within a cluster environment. Resources are hardware or software entities that make up the application. A few examples of resources include disk groups and file systems, network interface cards (NIC), IP addresses, and applications are a few examples of resources. Each type of resource requires an agent. The agent acts as an intermediary between VCS and the resources it manages, typically by bringing them online, monitoring their state, or taking them offline. For more information on VCS agents, see: About agents in VCS About agent functions VCS agent framework Administering agents VCS agents are classified as follows: Bundled agents— Bundled agents are Veritas Cluster Server processes that manage resources of predefined resource types according to commands received from the VCS engine, theHigh Availability Daemon(HAD). They include agents for Disk, Mount, IP, and various other resource types. Bundled agents are packaged and installed along with VCS. For more information on Bundled agents, see: Veritas Cluster Server Bundled Agents Reference Guide Enterprise agents— Enterprise agents control third party enterprise applications, namely, Oracle, Sybase, and DB2. These enterprise agents are packaged along with VCS. For more information on VCS enterprise agents, see: VCS Agent for Oracle Installation and Configuration Guide VCS Agent for Sybase Installation and Configuration Guide VCS Agent for DB2 Installation and Configuration Guide You can download the enterprise agents that are shipped separately, from the Symantec Operations Readiness Tools (SORT) website, athttps://sort.symantec.com/agents. Agent Pack agents— Agent Pack agents are developed by Symantec for enterprise applications, databases, and replication solutions. They are part of the quarterly Agent Pack release. These agents are also available on theSORT website. For more information on VCS agents shipped with the Agent Pack release, see: Veritas High Availability Agent Pack Getting Started Guide Custom agents— Custom agents are developed by third parties. Typically, custom agents are developed because the user requires control of an application that current agents do not support. For more information on developing custom VCS agents, see: Veritas Cluster Server Agent Developer's Guide VCS documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on theSORT website.
SFHA Solutions 6.0.1: About GAB seeding and its role in VCS and other SFHA products
Group Membership and Atomic Broadcast (GAB) is a kernel component of Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) that provides globally-ordered messages that keep nodes synchronized. GAB maintains the cluster state information and the correct membership on the cluster. However, GAB needs another kernel component, Low Latency Transport (LLT), to send messages to the nodes and keep the cluster nodes connected. How GAB and LLT function together in a VCS cluster? VCS uses GAB and LLT to share data among nodes over private networks. LLT is the transport protocol responsible for fast kernel-to-kernel communications. GAB carries the state of the cluster and the cluster configuration to all the nodes on the cluster. These components provide the performance and reliability that VCS requires. In a cluster, nodes must share the groups, resources and the resource states. LLT and GAB help the nodes communicate. For information on LLT, GAB, and private networks, see: About LLT and GAB About network channels for heartbeating GAB seeding The GAB seeding function ensures that a new cluster starts with an accurate membership count of the number of nodes in the cluster. It prevents your cluster from a preexisting network partition upon initial start-up. A preexisting network partition refers to the failure in the communication channels that occurs while the nodes are down and VCS cannot respond. When the nodes start, GAB seeding reduces the vulnerability to network partitioning, regardless of the cause of the failure. GAB services are used by all Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA) products. For information about preexisting network partitions, and how seeding functions in VCS, see: About preexisting network partitions About VCS seeding Enabling automatic seeding of GAB If I/O fencing is configured in the enabled mode, you can edit the /etc/vxfenmode file to enable automatic seeding of GAB. If the cluster is stuck with a preexisting split-brain condition, I/O fencing allows automatic seeding of GAB. You can set the minimum number of nodes to form a cluster for GAB to seed by configuring the Control port seed and Quorum flag parameters in the /etc/gabtab file. Quorum is the number of nodes that need to join a cluster for GAB to complete seeding. For information on configuring the autoseed_gab_timeout parameter in the /etc/vxfenmode file, see: About I/O fencing configuration files For information on configuring the control port seed and the Quorum flag parameters in GAB, see: About GAB run-time or dynamic tunable parameters For information on split-brain conditions, see: About the Steward process: Split-brain in two-cluster global clusters How I/O fencing works in different event scenarios Example of a preexisting network partition (split-brain) Role of GAB seeding in cluster membership For information on how the nodes gain cluster membership, seeding a cluster, and manual seeding of a cluster, see: About cluster membership Initial joining of systems to cluster membership Seeding a new cluster Seeding a cluster using the GAB auto-seed parameter through I/O fencing Manual seeding of a cluster Troubleshooting issues that are related to GAB seeding and preexisting network partitions For information on the issues that you may encounter when GAB seeds a cluster and preexisting network partitions, see: Examining GAB seed membership Manual GAB membership seeding Waiting for cluster membership after VCS start-up Summary of best practices for cluster communications System panics to prevent potential data corruption Fencing startup reports preexisting split-brain Clearing preexisting split-brain condition Recovering from a preexisting network partition (split-brain) Example Scenario I – Recovering from a preexisting network partition Example Scenario II – Recovering from a preexisting network partition Example Scenario III – Recovering from a preexisting network partition gabconfig (1M) 6.0.1 manual pages: AIX Solaris For more information on seeding clusters to prevent preexisting network partitions, see: Veritas Cluster Server Administrator's Guide Veritas Cluster Server Installation Guide Veritas Cluster Server documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on the SORT website.
SFW HA 6.1: Support for SmartIO
SmartIO is a new feature introduced in Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions (SFW HA) 6.1 for Windows. SmartIO improves I/O performance of applications and Hyper-V virtual machines by using Solid State Devices (SSDs) as a caching location for read-only I/O caching. Traditional disks are often an I/O bottleneck for high transaction applications. To compensate for this, administrators usually either increase the in-RAM cache size or buy expensive storage. To address this issue, SmartIO uses an SSD-based cache to drive high performance applications. SSDs are available in many sizes and connectivity types. This adds a new layer of complexity and decentralization of the storage. SmartIO adds a central management layer between the physical SSDs and the applications that need to access them. SmartIO lets you use the SSDs to maximize application performance without requiring in-depth knowledge of the technologies. SmartIO supports volume-level read-only caching as SSDs are primarily beneficial in high-read environments. To use SmartIO, you create a cache area (storage space allocated on the SSDs for caching) using one or more non-shared SSDs and link volumes to the cache area to enable caching for the volumes. Using SmartIO, you can also disable caching and grow, shrink, or delete a cache area. In a clustered environment, you may create auto cache areas on all cluster nodes. After failover, the implicitly linked volumes use the auto cache area on the failover node. If the auto cache area is not present on the failover node, then caching is not performed on the failover node. If the data volume is disconnected, caching for that volume is stopped. Caching is restarted once the volume is reconnected and brought online. If the cache area is disconnected, the cache area is taken offline and stops caching of all the volumes linked with it. SmartIO has the following limitations: You cannot reserve a cache area for a particular volume. You can create a new cache area and link the volume with it. File pinning or block pinning is not supported. The cache is volatile and does not persist after the system is restarted. For more information on the SmartIO feature, see the following sections of the "SmartIO" chapter in the Symantec Storage Foundation Administrator's Guide: About SmartIO Administering SmartIO through GUI Administering SmartIO through CLI Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions for Windows (SFW HA) documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on the SORT website.
Adding Shared Storage - Possible Inconsistancy?
Hi Folks, Can you clarify my understandinging? I have added an extra disk into a server, however when I view it frommylittleexpensiveserver02 I get a different view see below DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS disk_0 auto:none - - online invalid fas31400_1 auto:cdsdisk netbackup02 netbackup online thinrclm nohotuse fas31400_2 auto:cdsdisk netbackup01 netbackup online thinrclm nohotuse fas31400_3 auto:cdsdisk netbackup03 netbackup online thinrclm fas31400_4 auto - - error [root@server01 ~]# DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS disk_0 auto:none - - online invalid fas31400_1 auto:cdsdisk - (netbackup) online thinrclm fas31400_2 auto:cdsdisk - (netbackup) online thinrclm fas31400_3 auto - - error fas31400_4 auto:cdsdisk - (netbackup) online thinrclm [root@server02 ~]# group resource system message --------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- server01 RUNNING server02 RUNNING nbu server01 ONLINE nbu server02 OFFLINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- nbu_dg server01 ONLINE nbu_dg server02 OFFLINE nbu_ip server01 ONLINE nbu_ip server02 OFFLINE nbu_mount server01 ONLINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- nbu_mount server02 OFFLINE nbu_server server01 ONLINE nbu_server server02 OFFLINE nbu_CISN-STOR-UNIX_proxy server01 ONLINE nbu_CISN-STOR-UNIX_proxy server02 ONLINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- nbu_bond0_proxy server01 ONLINE nbu_bond0_proxy server02 ONLINE nbu_ie1csnap002_proxy server01 ONLINE nbu_ie1csnap002_proxy server02 ONLINE nbu_vol server01 ONLINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- nbu_vol server02 OFFLINE I dont understand why I am seeing different views of the storage unless server02 is looking at it down a different scsi bus? Any help appreciated --SteveSFW 6.1: Support for Cluster Volume Manager (CVM)
Cluster Volume Manager (CVM) is a new feature introduced in Symantec Storage Foundation for Windows (SFW) 6.1. CVM is a new way to manage storage in a clustered environment. With CVM, failover capabilities are available at the volume level. Volumes under CVM allow exclusive write access across multiple nodes of a cluster. In a Microsoft Failover Clustering environment, you can create clustered storage out of shared disks, which lets you share volume configurations and enable fast failover support at the volume level. Each node recognizes the same logical volume layout and, more importantly, the same state of all volume resources. Each node has the same logical view of the disk configuration as well as any changes to this view. Note: CVM (and related cluster-shared disk groups) is supported only in a Microsoft Hyper-V environment. It is not supported for a physical environment. CVM is based on a "Master and Slave" architecture pattern. One node of the cluster acts as a Master, while the rest of the nodes are Slaves. The Master node maintains the configuration information. The Master node uses Global Atomic Broadcast (GAB) and Low Latency Transport (LLT) to transport its configuration data. Each time a Master node fails, a new Master node is selected from the surviving nodes. With CVM, storage services on a per virtual machine (VM) basis for Hyper-V virtual machines protects VM data from single LUN/array failures, helping maintain availability of the critical VM data. CVM helps you achieve the following: Live migration of Hyper-V virtual machines, which is supported with the following: Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs) of virtual machine lying on one or more SFW volumes Coexistence with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) Mapping of one cluster-shared volume to one virtual machine only Seamless migration between arrays Migration of volumes (hosting VHDs) from any array to another array Easy administration using the Storage Migration Wizard Moving of the selected virtual machines’ storage to new target LUNs Copying of only those NTFS blocks that contain user data using SmartMove Availability of all the volume management functionality The following are the main features supported in CVM: New cluster-shared disk group (CSDG) and cluster-shared volumes Disk group accessibility from multiple nodes in a cluster where volumes remain exclusively accessible from only one node in the cluster Failover at a volume level All the SFW storage management features, such as: SmartIO Thin provisioning and storage reclamation Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing for Windows (DMPW) Site-aware allocation using the site-aware read policy Storage migration Standard features for fault tolerance: mirroring across arrays, hot relocation, dirty region logging (DRL), and dynamic relayout Microsoft Failover Clustering integrated I/O fencing New Volume Manager Shared Volume resource for Microsoft failover cluster New GUI elements in VEA related to the new disk group and volume CVM does not support: Active/Passive (A/P) arrays Storage migration on volumes that are offline in the cluster Volume replication on CVM volumes using Symantec Storage Foundation Volume Replicator For information aboutconfiguring a CVM cluster, refer to the quick start guide at: www.symantec.com/docs/DOC8119 The Storage Foundation for Windows documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on the SORT website.
SFHA Solutions 6.0.1: Configuring a Veritas Cluster Server global cluster
A Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) global cluster links clusters at separate locations and enables wide-area failover and disaster recovery. A global cluster configuration enables disaster recovery of business-critical applications from the production site to a geographically distributed disaster recovery (DR) site, and is recommended when: The distance between the two sites exceeds 80 KM or 50 miles The application data is made available at the DR site through replication The Application is expected to be active at only one site at any point of time (Active/Passive) In a VCS global cluster, if an application or a system fails, the application is migratedto another system within the same cluster. If the application is unable to come online in the same cluster or the entire cluster fails, the application is migrated to a system in another cluster based on policy. Clustering on a global level also requiresthe replication of shared data to the remote site. For more information on VCS global clusters, see: How VCS global clusters work VCS global clusters - The building blocks Planning a global cluster setup Configuring global clusters for VCS and SFHA Additionally you can configure a global cluster using other Veritas Storage Foundation products: Configuring a global cluster with SFCFS or SFRAC Configuring a global cluster with VVR and SFCFS or SFRAC For more information on disaster recovery configurations including campus clusters, replicated data clusters, and global clusters, see: Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions Disaster Recovery Implementation Guide VCS and DR documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on theSORT website.