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Oracle® Solaris Cluster 4.3 Software Installation Guide

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Updated: June 2019
 
 

Planning the Oracle Solaris OS

This section provides the following guidelines for planning Oracle Solaris software installation in a cluster configuration:

For more information about Oracle Solaris software, see your Oracle Solaris installation documentation.

Guidelines for Selecting Your Oracle Solaris Installation Method

You can install Oracle Solaris software from a local DVD-ROM or from a network installation server by using the Automated Installer (AI) installation method. In addition, Oracle Solaris Cluster software provides a custom method for installing both the Oracle Solaris OS and Oracle Solaris Cluster software by using the AI installation method. During AI installation of Oracle Solaris software, you choose to either install the OS with defaults accepted or run an interactive installation of the OS where you can customize the installation for components such as the boot disk and the ZFS root pool. If you are installing several cluster nodes, consider a network installation.

See How to Install and Configure Oracle Solaris and Oracle Solaris Cluster Software (IPS Repositories) for details about the scinstall AI installation method. See your Oracle Solaris installation documentation for details about standard Oracle Solaris installation methods and what configuration choices you must make during installation of the OS.

Oracle Solaris OS Feature Requirements and Restrictions

Consider the following points when you plan the use of the Oracle Solaris OS in an Oracle Solaris Cluster configuration:

  • Minimum Oracle Solaris Package – Oracle Solaris Cluster software requires at least the solaris-small-server package of Oracle Solaris software.

  • Oracle Solaris Operating System – Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.3 core software and Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.3 Quorum Server software require a minimum of Oracle Solaris 11.2.13 software.

  • Required Java Version – Java 1.7 or 1.8 are the versions required to run the Oracle Solaris Cluster software. Java versions earlier than 1.7 are not supported for Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.3.

  • Oracle Solaris Zones – Install Oracle Solaris Cluster framework software only in the global zone.

  • Loopback file system (LOFS) – During cluster creation, LOFS capability is enabled by default. If the cluster meets both of the following conditions, you must disable LOFS to avoid switchover problems or other failures:

    • HA for NFS is configured on a highly available local file system.

    • The automountd daemon is running.

    If the cluster meets only one of these conditions, you can safely enable LOFS.

    If you require both LOFS and the automountd daemon to be enabled, exclude from the automounter map all files that are part of the highly available local file system that is exported by HA for NFS.

  • Power-saving shutdown – Automatic power-saving shutdown is not supported in Oracle Solaris Cluster configurations and should not be enabled. See the poweradm(1M) man page for more information.

  • Network Auto-Magic (NWAM) – The Oracle Solaris Network Auto-Magic (NWAM) feature activates a single network interface and disables all others. For this reason, NWAM cannot coexist with the Oracle Solaris Cluster software and you must disable it before you configure or run your cluster.

  • IP Filter feature – When IP network multipathing (IPMP) is used for public network, Oracle Solaris Cluster relies on IPMP for public network monitoring. Any IP Filter configuration must be made in accordance with IPMP configuration guidelines and restrictions concerning IP Filter.

  • fssnap – Oracle Solaris Cluster software does not support the fssnap command, which is a feature of UFS. However, you can use the fssnap command on local systems that are not controlled by Oracle Solaris Cluster software. The following restrictions apply to fssnap support:

    • The fssnap command is supported on local files systems that are not managed by Oracle Solaris Cluster software.

    • The fssnap command is not supported on cluster file systems.

    • The fssnap command is not supported on local file systems under the control of HAStoragePlus.

System Disk Partitions

When you install the Oracle Solaris OS, ensure that you create the required Oracle Solaris Cluster partitions and that all partitions meet minimum space requirements.

  • root (/) – The primary space requirements for the root (/) file system are as follows:

    • The Oracle Solaris Cluster software itself occupies less than 40 Mbytes of space in the root (/) file system.

    • Each Oracle Solaris Cluster data service might use between 1 Mbyte and 5 Mbytes.

    • Solaris Volume Manager software requires less than 5 Mbytes.

    • To configure ample additional space and inode capacity, add at least 100 Mbytes to the amount of space you would normally allocate for your root ( /) file system. This space is used for the creation of both block special devices and character special devices used by the volume management software. You especially need to allocate this extra space if a large number of shared disks are in the cluster.

    • You need to set aside ample space for log files. Also, more messages might be logged on a clustered node than would be found on a typical stand-alone server. Therefore, allow at least 100 Mbytes for log files.

    • The lofi device for the global-devices namespace requires 100 MBytes of free space. Starting in Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.3, a dedicated partition is no longer used for the global-devices namespace.


      Note -  The lofi device that is created for the global-devices namespace is restricted to that use only. Do not use this device for any other purpose, and never unmount the device.
  • /var – The Oracle Solaris Cluster software occupies a negligible amount of space in the /var file system at installation time. However, you need to set aside ample space for log files. Also, more messages might be logged on a clustered node than would be found on a typical stand-alone server. Therefore, allow at least 100 Mbytes for the /var file system.

  • swap – The combined amount of swap space that is allocated for Oracle Solaris and Oracle Solaris Cluster software must be no less than 750 Mbytes. For best results, add at least 512 Mbytes for Oracle Solaris Cluster software to the amount that is required by the Oracle Solaris OS. In addition, allocate any additional swap amount that is required by applications that are to run on the Oracle Solaris host.


    Note -  If you create an additional swap file, do not create the swap file on a global device. Use only a local disk as a swap device for the host.
  • Volume manager – Create a 20-Mbyte partition on slice 6 for volume manager use.

To support Solaris Volume Manager, you can create this partition on one of the following locations:

  • A local disk other than the ZFS root pool

  • The ZFS root pool, if the ZFS root pool is on a partition rather than a disk

Set aside a slice for this purpose on each local disk. However, if you have only one local disk on an Oracle Solaris host, you might need to create three state database replicas in the same slice for Solaris Volume Manager software to function properly. See Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide for more information.

To meet these requirements, you must customize the partitioning if you are performing interactive installation of the Oracle Solaris OS.