Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS

Planning the Solaris OS

This section provides guidelines for planning Solaris software installation in a cluster configuration. For more information about Solaris software, see your Solaris installation documentation.

Guidelines for Selecting Your Solaris Installation Method

You can install Solaris software from a local CD-ROM or from a network installation server by using the JumpStartTM installation method. In addition, Sun Cluster software provides a custom method for installing both the Solaris OS and Sun Cluster software by using the JumpStart installation method. If you are installing several cluster nodes, consider a network installation.

See How to Install Solaris and Sun Cluster Software (JumpStart) for details about the scinstall JumpStart installation method. See your Solaris installation documentation for details about standard Solaris installation methods.

Solaris OS Feature Restrictions

The following Solaris OS features are not supported in a Sun Cluster configuration:

Solaris Software Group Considerations

Sun Cluster 3.1 8/05 software requires at least the End User Solaris Software Group. However, other components of your cluster configuration might have their own Solaris software requirements as well. Consider the following information when you decide which Solaris software group you are installing.


Tip –

To avoid the need to manually install Solaris software packages, install the Entire Solaris Software Group Plus OEM Support.


System Disk Partitions

Add this information to the appropriate Local File System Layout Worksheet.

When you install the Solaris OS, ensure that you create the required Sun Cluster partitions and that all partitions meet minimum space requirements.

To meet these requirements, you must customize the partitioning if you are performing interactive installation of the Solaris OS.

See the following guidelines for additional partition planning information:

Guidelines for the Root (/) File System

As with any other system running the Solaris OS, you can configure the root (/), /var, /usr, and /opt directories as separate file systems. Or, you can include all the directories in the root (/) file system. The following describes the software contents of the root (/), /var, /usr, and /opt directories in a Sun Cluster configuration. Consider this information when you plan your partitioning scheme.

Guidelines for the /globaldevices File System

Sun Cluster software requires you to set aside a special file system on one of the local disks for use in managing global devices. This file system is later mounted as a cluster file system. Name this file system /globaldevices, which is the default name that is recognized by the scinstall(1M) command.

The scinstall command later renames the file system /global/.devices/node@nodeid, where nodeid represents the number that is assigned to a node when it becomes a cluster member. The original /globaldevices mount point is removed.

The /globaldevices file system must have ample space and ample inode capacity for creating both block special devices and character special devices. This guideline is especially important if a large number of disks are in the cluster. A file system size of 512 Mbytes should suffice for most cluster configurations.

Volume Manager Requirements

If you use Solstice DiskSuite or Solaris Volume Manager software, you must set aside a slice on the root disk for use in creating the state database replica. Specifically, set aside a slice for this purpose on each local disk. But, if you only have one local disk on a node, you might need to create three state database replicas in the same slice for Solstice DiskSuite or Solaris Volume Manager software to function properly. See your Solstice DiskSuite or Solaris Volume Manager documentation for more information.

SPARC: If you use VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) and you intend to encapsulate the root disk, you need to have two unused slices that are available for use by VxVM. Additionally, you need to have some additional unassigned free space at either the beginning or the end of the disk. See your VxVM documentation for more information about root disk encapsulation.

Example—Sample File-System Allocations

Table 1–2 shows a partitioning scheme for a cluster node that has less than 750 Mbytes of physical memory. This scheme is to be installed with the End User Solaris Software Group, Sun Cluster software, and the Sun Cluster HA for NFS data service. The last slice on the disk, slice 7, is allocated with a small amount of space for volume-manager use.

This layout allows for the use of either Solstice DiskSuite or Solaris Volume Manager software or VxVM software. If you use Solstice DiskSuite or Solaris Volume Manager software, you use slice 7 for the state database replica. If you use VxVM, you later free slice 7 by assigning the slice a zero length. This layout provides the necessary two free slices, 4 and 7, as well as provides for unused space at the end of the disk.

Table 1–2 Example File-System Allocation

Slice 

Contents 

Size Allocation 

Description 

/

6.75GB 

Remaining free space on the disk after allocating space to slices 1 through 7. Used for the Solaris OS, Sun Cluster software, data-services software, volume-manager software, Sun Management Center agent and Sun Cluster module agent packages, root file systems, and database and application software. 

swap

1GB 

512 Mbytes for the Solaris OS. 

512 Mbytes for Sun Cluster software. 

overlap 

8.43GB 

The entire disk. 

/globaldevices

512MB 

The Sun Cluster software later assigns this slice a different mount point and mounts the slice as a cluster file system. 

unused 

Available as a free slice for encapsulating the root disk under VxVM. 

unused 

unused 

volume manager 

20MB 

Used by Solstice DiskSuite or Solaris Volume Manager software for the state database replica, or used by VxVM for installation after you free the slice.