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Chapter 8. Configuring Red Hat High Availability Manually

This chapter describes how to configure Red Hat High Availability Add-On software by directly editing the cluster configuration file (/etc/cluster/cluster.conf) and using command-line tools. The chapter provides procedures about building a configuration file one section at a time, starting with a sample file provided in the chapter. As an alternative to starting with a sample file provided here, you could copy a skeleton configuration file from the cluster.conf man page. However, doing so would not necessarily align with information provided in subsequent procedures in this chapter. There are other ways to create and configure a cluster configuration file; this chapter provides procedures about building a configuration file one section at a time. Also, keep in mind that this is just a starting point for developing a configuration file to suit your clustering needs.
This chapter consists of the following sections:

Important

Make sure that your deployment of High Availability Add-On meets your needs and can be supported. Consult with an authorized Red Hat representative to verify your configuration prior to deployment. In addition, allow time for a configuration burn-in period to test failure modes.

Important

This chapter references commonly used cluster.conf elements and attributes. For a comprehensive list and description of cluster.conf elements and attributes, see the cluster schema at /usr/share/cluster/cluster.rng, and the annotated schema at /usr/share/doc/cman-X.Y.ZZ/cluster_conf.html (for example /usr/share/doc/cman-3.0.12/cluster_conf.html).

Important

Certain procedure in this chapter call for using the cman_tool version -r command to propagate a cluster configuration throughout a cluster. Using that command requires that ricci is running. Using ricci requires a password the first time you interact with ricci from any specific machine. For information on the ricci service, refer to Section 3.13, “Considerations for ricci.

Note

Procedures in this chapter may include specific commands for some of the command-line tools listed in Appendix E, Command Line Tools Summary. For more information about all commands and variables, see the man page for each command-line tool.

8.1. Configuration Tasks

Configuring Red Hat High Availability Add-On software with command-line tools consists of the following steps:
  1. Configuring fencing. Refer to Section 8.3, “Configuring Fencing”.
  2. Configuring failover domains. Refer to Section 8.4, “Configuring Failover Domains”.
  3. Configuring HA services. Refer to Section 8.5, “Configuring HA Services”.
  4. Verifying a configuration. Refer to Section 8.9, “Verifying a Configuration”.