Administering Quorum Devices

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A quorum device is a shared storage device or quorum server that is shared by two or more nodes and that contributes votes that are used to establish a quorum. This section provides the procedures for administering quorum devices.

You can use the clquorum command to perform all quorum device administrative procedures. In addition, you can accomplish some procedures by using the clsetup interactive utility or the Oracle Solaris Cluster Manager GUI. For GUI log-in instructions, seeHow to Access Oracle Solaris Cluster Manager. Whenever possible, quorum procedures are described in this section by using the clsetup utility. The Oracle Solaris Cluster Manager online help describes how to perform quorum procedures by using the GUI. For more information, see the clquorum (1CL) and clsetup (1CL) man pages.

When you work with quorum devices, keep in mind the following guidelines:

All quorum commands must be run from a global-cluster node.
If the clquorum command is interrupted or fails, the quorum configuration information can become inconsistent in the cluster configuration database. If this inconsistency occurs, either rerun the command or run the clquorum reset command to reset the quorum configuration.
For highest availability of the cluster, ensure that the total number of votes that are contributed by quorum devices is less than the total number of votes that are contributed by nodes. Otherwise, the nodes cannot form a cluster if all quorum devices are unavailable, even if all nodes are functioning.
Do not add a disk that is currently configured as a quorum device to an Oracle Solaris ZFS storage pool. If a configured quorum device is added to a ZFS storage pool, the disk is relabeled as an EFI disk and quorum configuration information is lost and the disk no longer provides a quorum vote to the cluster. Once a disk is in a storage pool, that disk can then be configured as a quorum device. Or, you can unconfigure the disk, add it to the storage pool, then reconfigure the disk as a quorum device.

Note - The clsetup command is an interactive interface to the other Oracle Solaris Cluster commands. When clsetup runs, the command generates the appropriate specific commands, in this case clquorum commands. These generated commands are shown in the examples at the end of the procedures.

To view the quorum configuration, use clquorum show. The clquorum list command displays the names of quorum devices in the cluster. The clquorum status command provides status and vote count information.

Most examples shown in this section are from a three-node cluster.

Table 6-1 Task List: Administering Quorum

Task	For Instructions
Add a quorum device to a cluster by using the `clsetup` utility	Adding a Quorum Device
Remove a quorum device from a cluster by using the `clsetup` utility (to generate `clquorum`)	How to Remove a Quorum Device
Remove the last quorum device from a cluster by using the `clsetup` utility (to generate `clquorum`)	How to Remove the Last Quorum Device From a Cluster
Replace a quorum device in a cluster by using the add and remove procedures	How to Replace a Quorum Device
Modify a quorum device list by using the add and remove procedures	How to Modify a Quorum Device Node List
Put a quorum device into maintenance state by using the `clsetup` utility (to generate `clquorum`) (While in maintenance state, the quorum device does not participate in voting to establish the quorum.)	How to Put a Quorum Device Into Maintenance State
Reset the quorum configuration to its default state by using the `clsetup` utility (to generate `clquorum`)	How to Bring a Quorum Device Out of Maintenance State
List the quorum devices and vote counts by using the `clquorum` command	How to List the Quorum Configuration