Overview of Administering Sun Cluster

The Sun Cluster highly available environment ensures that critical applications are available to end users. The system administrator's job is to make sure that the Sun Cluster configuration is stable and operational.

Familiarize yourself with the planning information in the Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS and the Sun Cluster Concepts Guide for Solaris OS before beginning administration tasks. For instructions on creating a zone cluster, see Configuring a Zone Cluster in Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS. Sun Cluster administration is organized into tasks among the following manuals.

• Standard tasks, used to administer and maintain the global cluster or the zone cluster on a regular or even daily basis. These tasks are described in this guide.

• Data service tasks, such as installation, configuration, and changing properties. These tasks are described in the Sun Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide for Solaris OS.

• Service tasks, such as adding or repairing storage or network hardware. These tasks are described in the Sun Cluster 3.1 - 3.2 Hardware Administration Manual for Solaris OS.

In general, you can perform Sun Cluster administration tasks while the cluster is operational. If you need take a node out of the cluster or even shut down the node, you can do so while the rest of the nodes continue cluster operations. For Solaris 10, unless otherwise indicated, Sun Cluster administrative tasks should be performed in the global-cluster voting node. For those procedures that require the entire cluster to be shut down, minimize impact on the system by scheduling downtime outside normal working hours. If you plan to shut down the cluster or a cluster node, notify users in advance.

Working With a Zone Cluster

Two Sun Cluster administrative commands (cluster and clnode) can also run in a zone cluster. However, the scope of these commands is limited to the zone cluster where the command is issued. For example, using the cluster command in the global-cluster voting node retrieves all information about the voting global cluster and all the zone clusters. Using the cluster command in a zone cluster retrieves information about that specific zone cluster.

When you use the clzonecluster command in a voting node, the command affects all of the zone clusters in the global cluster. Zone cluster commands also affect all nodes on the zone cluster, even if the node is down when the command is issued.

Zone clusters support delegated administration of resources that are under Resource Group Manager (RGM) control. Therefore, zone cluster administrators can view, but not change, zone cluster dependencies that cross zone cluster boundaries. Only the administrator in a voting node can create, modify, or delete dependencies that cross zone cluster boundaries.

The following list contains the major administrative tasks performed on a zone cluster.

• Creating a zone cluster – Use the clzonecluster configure command to create a new zone cluster. See the instructions in Configuring a Zone Cluster in Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS.

• Starting and rebooting a zone cluster – See Chapter 3, Shutting Down and Booting a Cluster.

• Adding a node to a zone cluster – See Adding a Node.

• Removing a node from a zone cluster – See How to Remove a Node From a Zone Cluster.

• Viewing the configuration of a zone cluster – See How to View the Cluster Configuration.

• Validating the configuration of a zone cluster – See How to Validate a Basic Cluster Configuration.

• Stopping a zone cluster – See Chapter 3, Shutting Down and Booting a Cluster.