How to Prepare the Nodes for the Installation of the Sybase ASE Software

Perform all of the steps in this procedure on all of the nodes. If you do not perform all of the steps on all of the nodes, the Sybase ASE installation will be incomplete, and Sun Cluster HA for Sybase ASE will fail during startup.

Consult the Sybase ASE documentation before you perform this procedure.

Steps

1. Become superuser on all of the nodes.

2. Configure the /etc/nsswitch.conf file as follows so that Sun Cluster HA for Sybase ASE starts and stops correctly if a switchover or failover occurs.

   On each node that can master the logical host that runs Sun Cluster HA for Sybase ASE, include the following entries in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file.

   passwd:    files nis [TRYAGAIN=0]
   publickey: files nis [TRYAGAIN=0]
   project:   files nis [TRYAGAIN=0]
   group:     files

   Sun Cluster HA for Sybase ASE uses the su user command to start and stop the database node.

   The network information name service might become unavailable when a cluster node's public network fails. Adding the preceding entries ensures that the su(1M) command does not refer to the NIS/NIS+ name services if the network information name service is unavailable.

3. Configure the cluster file system for Sun Cluster HA for Sybase ASE.

   If raw devices contain the databases, configure the global devices for raw-device access. For information about how to configure global devices, see Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS.

   If you use the Solstice DiskSuite^TM/Solaris Volume Manager software, configure the Sybase ASE software to use UNIX file system (UFS) logging on mirrored metadevices or raw-mirrored metadevices. For information about how to configure raw-mirrored metadevices, see the Solstice DiskSuite/Solaris Volume Manager documentation.

4. Prepare the SYBASE_HOME directory on a local or multihost disk.

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   Note –

   If you install the Sybase ASE binaries on a local disk, use a separate disk if possible. Installing the Sybase ASE binaries on a separate disk prevents the binaries from being overwritten during reinstallation of the operating system.

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5. On each node, create an entry for the database administrator (DBA) group in the /etc/group file, and add potential users to the group.

   Verify that the root and sybase users are members of the dba group, and add entries as necessary for other DBA users. Ensure that group IDs are the same on all of the nodes that run Sun Cluster HA for Sybase ASE, as the following example illustrates.

   dba:*:520:root,sybase

   You can create group entries in a network name service. If you create entries this way, also add your entries to the local /etc/group file to eliminate dependency on the network name service.

6. On each node, create an entry for the Sybase system administrator.

   The following command updates the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files with an entry for the Sybase system administrator.

   # useradd -u 120 -g dba -d /Sybase-home sybase

   Ensure that the sybase user entry is the same on all of the nodes that run Sun Cluster HA for Sybase ASE.