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7.3. Colocation of Resources

A colocation constraint determines that the location of one resource depends on the location of another resource.
There is an important side effect of creating a colocation constraint between two resources: it affects the order in which resources are assigned to a node. This is because you cannot place resource A relative to resource B unless you know where resource B is. So when you are creating colocation constraints, it is important to consider whether you should colocate resource A with resource B or resource B with resource A.
Another thing to keep in mind when creating colocation constraints is that, assuming resource A is colocated with resource B, the cluster will also take into account resource A's preferences when deciding which node to choose for resource B.
The following command creates a colocation constraint.
pcs constraint colocation add [master|slave] source_resource with [master|slave] target_resource [score] [options]
For information on master and slave resources, see Section 9.2, “Multistate Resources: Resources That Have Multiple Modes”.
Table 7.4, “Properties of a Colocation Constraint”. summarizes the properties and options for configuring colocation constraints.

Table 7.4. Properties of a Colocation Constraint

FieldDescription
source_resource
The colocation source. If the constraint cannot be satisfied, the cluster may decide not to allow the resource to run at all.
target_resource
The colocation target. The cluster will decide where to put this resource first and then decide where to put the source resource.
score
Positive values indicate the resource should run on the same node. Negative values indicate the resources should not run on the same node. A value of +INFINITY, the default value, indicates that the source_resource must run on the same node as the target_resource. A value of -INFINITY indicates that the source_resource must not run on the same node as the target_resource.

7.3.1. Mandatory Placement

Mandatory placement occurs any time the constraint's score is +INFINITY or -INFINITY. In such cases, if the constraint cannot be satisfied, then the source_resource is not permitted to run. For score=INFINITY, this includes cases where the target_resource is not active.
If you need myresource1 to always run on the same machine as myresource2, you would add the following constraint:
# pcs constraint colocation add myresource1 with myresource2 score=INFINITY
Because INFINITY was used, if myresource2 cannot run on any of the cluster nodes (for whatever reason) then myresource1 will not be allowed to run.
Alternatively, you may want to configure the opposite, a cluster in which myresource1 cannot run on the same machine as myresource2. In this case use score=-INFINITY
# pcs constraint colocation add myresource1 with myresource2 score=-INFINITY
Again, by specifying -INFINITY, the constraint is binding. So if the only place left to run is where myresource2 already is, then myresource1 may not run anywhere.

7.3.2. Advisory Placement

If mandatory placement is about "must" and "must not", then advisory placement is the "I would prefer if" alternative. For constraints with scores greater than -INFINITY and less than INFINITY, the cluster will try to accommodate your wishes but may ignore them if the alternative is to stop some of the cluster resources. Advisory colocation constraints can combine with other elements of the configuration to behave as if they were mandatory.

7.3.3. Colocating Sets of Resources

If your configuration requires that you create a set of resources that is colocated and started in order, you can configure a resource group that contains those resources, as described in Section 6.5, “Resource Groups”. There are some situations, however, where configuring the resources that need to be colocated as a resource group is not appropriate:
  • You may need to colocate a set of resources but the resources do not necessarily need to start in order.
  • You may have a resource C that must be colocated with either resource A or B has started but there is no relationship between A and B.
  • You may have resources C and D that must be colocated with both resources A and B, but there is no relationship between A and B or between C and D.
In these situations, you can create a colocation constraint on a set or sets of resources with the pcs constraint colocation set command.
You can set the following options for a set of resources with the pcs constraint colocation set command.
  • sequential, which can be set to true or false to indicate whether the members of the set must be colocated with each other.
    Setting sequential to false allows the members of this set to be colocated with another set listed later in the constraint, regardless of which members of this set are active. Therefore, this option makes sense only if another set is listed after this one in the constraint; otherwise, the constraint has no effect.
  • role, which can be set to Stopped, Started, Master, or Slave. For information on multistate resources, see Section 9.2, “Multistate Resources: Resources That Have Multiple Modes”.
You can set the following constraint options for a set of resources following the setoptions parameter of the pcs constraint colocation set command.
  • kind, to indicate how to enforce the constraint. For information on this option, see Table 7.3, “Properties of an Order Constraint”.
  • symmetrical, to indicate the order in which to stop the resources. If true, which is the default, stop the resources in the reverse order. Default value: true
  • id, to provide a name for the constraint you are defining.
When listing members of a set, each member is colocated with the one before it. For example, "set A B" means "B is colocated with A". However, when listing multiple sets, each set is colocated with the one after it. For example, "set C D sequential=false set A B" means "set C D (where C and D have no relation between each other) is colocated with set A B (where B is colocated with A)".
The following command creates a colocation constraint on a set or sets of resources.
pcs constraint colocation set resource1 resource2 [resourceN]... [options] [set resourceX resourceY ... [options]] [setoptions [constraint_options]]

7.3.4. Removing Colocation Constraints

Use the following command to remove colocation constraints with source_resource.
pcs constraint colocation remove source_resource target_resource