Task 4: Install Additional Software from Local Distribution Media

HP Serviceguard is the service availability tool recommended for use on an HP XC system.

If you intend to use Serviceguard as the availability tool, you must have in your possession the Serviceguard license, distribution media, and product documentation. Use the Serviceguard documentation to install the product and configure it for use now. The documentation is available from the following Web site:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/ha.html

The HP XC System Software has been tested with the following versions of Serviceguard; install the RPMs in the following order:

The quorum server RPM, qs-A.02.00.03-0.product.redhat, is required only if you plan to configure a quorum server. If your particular configuration uses lock LUNs exclusively, you do not install the quorum server RPM.

The HP Serviceguard software contains two modules that are built against the kernel.

After installing the Serviceguard software, proceed to “Deciding on the Method to Achieve Quorum for Serviceguard Clusters” to define and configure the method to achieve quorum.

Deciding on the Method to Achieve Quorum for Serviceguard Clusters. In a Serviceguard configuration, each availability set becomes its own two-node Serviceguard cluster, and each Serviceguard cluster requires some form of quorum. The quorum acts as a tie breaker in the Serviceguard cluster running on each availability set. If connectivity is lost between the nodes of the Serviceguard cluster, the node that can access the quorum continues to run the cluster and the other node is considered down.

The quorum can be either a quorum server or a lock LUN; you must configure one or the other on every availability set. You can configure a lock LUN as the tie breaker only if the head node and the other node in the availability set are both connected to the same shared storage (for instance, an MSA) and both are able to access the same partition.

Configuring a Quorum Server. You can select any node in the HP XC system that is not participating in any availability set to serve as the quorum server, even a compute node. You can use the same quorum server for one or more availability sets. If you configure a quorum server, you must have previously installed the qs-A.02.00.03-0.product.redhat.ia64.rpm RPM. Later, the cluster_config utility prompts you to supply the node name of the quorum server; there is nothing you need to do now.

Configuring a Lock LUN. If you intend to use a lock LUN instead of a quorum server to achieve quorum, enter the following command to create the lock LUN now, before running the cluster_config utility later in the system configuration process.

In the following command, /dev/sdb is the full path to the disk on the MSA, and partition 1 on that disk is configured as the lock LUN:

# /sbin/fdisk /dev/sdb
Command (m for help): n
Command action
  e extended
  p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
HEX code (type L to list codes): 83
Command (m for help): w

When you run the cluster_config utility, it prompts you to supply the name of the lock LUN, and you must supply the full path with partition (for example, /dev/sdb1, where 1 is the partition number).

The HP Scalable Visual Array (SVA) is a scalable visualization solution that brings the power of parallel computing to bear on many demanding visualization challenges. SVA can be a specialized, standalone system consisting entirely of visualization nodes, or it can be integrated into a larger HP Cluster Platform system such as HP XC and share a single interconnect with the compute nodes and a storage system.

If SVA was not installed at the factory, and you want to integrate SVA into the HP XC system, you must have the SVA distribution media in your possession. Install the RPMs now by following the instructions in the SVA documentation:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/highperfcomp.html