Guidelines for Non-Global Zones in a Cluster

For information about the purpose and function of Solaris 10 zones in a cluster, see Support for Solaris Zones on Sun Cluster Nodes in Sun Cluster Concepts Guide for Solaris OS.

Consider the following points when you create a Solaris 10 non-global zone, simply referred to as a zone, on a cluster node.

• Unique zone name - The zone name must be unique in the node. Do not specify the same name to more than one zone on the same node.

• Reusing a zone name on multiple nodes - To simplify cluster administration, you can use the same name for a zone on each node where resource groups are to be brought online in that zone.

• Private IP addresses - Do not attempt to use more private IP addresses than are available in the cluster.

• Mounts - Do not include global mounts in zone definitions. Include only loopback mounts.

• Failover services - In multiple-node clusters, while Sun Cluster software permits you to specify different zones on the same node in a failover resource group's node list, doing so is useful only during testing. If a single node hosts all zones in the node list, the node becomes a single point of failure for the resource group. For highest availability, zones in a failover resource group's node list should be on different nodes.

  In single-node clusters, there is no functional risk if you specify multiple zones in a failover resource group's node list.

• Scalable services - Do not create non-global zones for use in the same scalable service on the same node. Each instance of the scalable service must run on a different cluster node.

• LOFS - Solaris Zones requires that the loopback file system (LOFS) be enabled. However, the Sun Cluster HA for NFS data service requires that LOFS be disabled, to avoid switchover problems or other failures. If you configure both non-global zones and Sun Cluster HA for NFS in your cluster, do one of the following to prevent possible problems in the data service:

  • Disable the automountd daemon.

  • Exclude from the automounter map all files that are part of the highly available local file system that is exported by Sun Cluster HA for NFS.