Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS

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 offers two choices of locations to host the global-devices namespace:

This section describes the guidelines for using a dedicated partition. This information does not apply if you instead host the global-devices namespace on a lofi.

The /globaldevices file system is usually located on your root disk. However, if you use different storage on which to locate the global-devices file system, such as a Logical Volume Manager volume, it must not be part of a Solaris Volume Manager shared disk set or part of a VxVM disk group other than a root disk group. This file system is later mounted as a UFS cluster file system. Name this file system /globaldevices, which is the default name that is recognized by the scinstall(1M) command.


Note –

No file-system type other than UFS is valid for the global-devices file system. Do not attempt to change the file-system type after the global-devices file system is created.

However, a UFS global-devices file system can coexist on a node with other root file systems that use ZFS.


The scinstall command later renames the file system /global/.devices/node@nodeid, where nodeid represents the number that is assigned to a Solaris host when it becomes a global-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 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 have only one local disk on a Solaris host, you might need to create three state database replicas in the same slice for Solaris Volume Manager software to function properly. See your Solaris Volume Manager documentation for more information.

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 Solaris host 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 Solaris Volume Manager software or VxVM software. If you use 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. On the Solaris 10 OS, if you choose to use a lofi device instead of a dedicated partition, leave slice 3 as Unused. 

unused 

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

unused 

unused 

volume manager 

20MB 

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