Failfast Mechanism

If the CMM detects a critical problem with a node, it calls upon the cluster framework to forcibly shut down (panic) the node and to remove it from the cluster membership. The mechanism by which this occurs is called failfast. Failfast will cause a node to shut down in two ways.

• If a node leaves the cluster and then attempts to start a new cluster without having quorum, it is “fenced” from accessing the shared disks. See Failure Fencing for details on this use of failfast.

• If one or more cluster-specific daemons die (clexecd, rpc.pmfd, rgmd, or rpc.ed) the failure is detected by the CMM and the node panics.

panic[cpu0]/thread=40e60: Failfast: Aborting because "pmfd" died 35 seconds ago.
409b8 cl_runtime:__0FZsc_syslog_msg_log_no_argsPviTCPCcTB+48 (70f900, 30, 70df54, 407acc, 0)
%l0-7: 1006c80 000000a 000000a 10093bc 406d3c80 7110340 0000000 4001 fbf0

After the panic, the node might reboot and attempt to rejoin the cluster or stay at the OpenBoot^TM PROM (OBP) prompt. The action taken is determined by the setting of the auto-boot? parameter in the OBP.