Preparing the Nodes and Disks

This section contains the procedures you need to prepare the nodes and disks.

How to Prepare the Nodes

Use this procedure to prepare for the installation and configuration of Siebel.

1. Become super user on all of the nodes.
2. Configure the /etc/nsswitch.conf file so that HA for Siebel starts and stops correctly if a switchover or a failover occurs.

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

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

   HA for Siebel uses the su - user command to start, stop, and probe the service.

   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. Prevent the Siebel gateway probe from timing out while trying to open a file on /home.

   When the node running the Siebel gateway has a path beginning with /home, which depends on network resources such as NFS and NIS, and the public network fails, the Siebel gateway probe times out and causes the Siebel gateway resource to go offline. Without the public network, Siebel gateway probe hangs while trying to open a file on /home, causing the probe to time out.

   To prevent the Siebel gateway probe from timing out while trying to open a file on /home, configure all nodes of the cluster that can be the Siebel gateway as follows:

   1. Eliminate all NFS or NIS dependencies for any path starting with /home.

      You may either have a locally mounted/home path or rename the /home mount point to /export/home or another name which does not start with /home.

   2. Comment out the line containing +auto_master in the /etc/auto_master file, and change any /home entries to auto_home.
   3. Comment out the line containing +auto_home in the /etc/auto_home file.
4. Prepare the Siebel administrator's home directory.
5. On each node, create an entry for the Siebel administrator group in the /etc/group file, and add potential users to the group.

   ---

   Tip - In the following example, the Siebel administrator group is named siebel.

   ---

   Ensure that group IDs are the same on all of the nodes that run HA for Siebel.

   siebel:*:521:siebel

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

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

   ---

   Tip - In the following example, the Siebel administrator is named siebel.

   ---

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

   # useradd -u 121 -g siebel -s /bin/ksh -d /Siebel-home siebel

   Ensure that the Siebel user entry is the same on all of the nodes that run HA for Siebel.

7. Ensure that the Siebel administrator's default environment contains settings for accessing the Siebel database. For example, if the Siebel database is on Oracle, the following entries may be included in the .profile file.

   export ORACLE_HOME=/global/oracle/OraHome
   export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/usr/lib
   export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
   export ORACLE_SID=siebeldb

8. Create a failover resource group to hold the logical hostname and the Siebel gateway resources.

   # clresourcegroup create [-n node] failover-rg

   -n node

   Specifies the node name that can master this resource group.

   failover-rg

   Specifies your choice of the name of the failover resource group to add. This name must begin with an ASCII character.

9. Add the logical hostname resource.

   Ensure that logical hostname matches the value of the SIEBEL_GATEWAY environment variable that is set in the siebenv.sh file of the Siebel gateway, and also the Siebel server installations.

   # clreslogicalhostname create -g failover-rg logical_host

   logical_host

   Specifies an optional resource name of your choice.

10. Bring the resource group online.

    # clresourcegroup online -M failover-rg

11. Repeat Step 8 through Step 10 for each logical hostname that is required.