Requirements, Recommendations, and Restrictions for Network Appliance NAS Devices

This section includes only restrictions and requirements that have a direct impact on the procedures in this chapter. For general support information, contact your Sun service provider.

Requirements for Network Appliance NAS Devices

This section describes the following requirements.

• Requirements When Configuring Network Appliance NAS Devices

• Requirements When Configuring Network Appliance NAS Devices for Use With Oracle Real Application Clusters

• Requirements When Configuring Network Appliance NAS Devices as Quorum Devices

Requirements When Configuring Network Appliance NAS Devices

When you configure a Network Appliance NAS device, you must meet the following requirements.

• Allow HTTP administrative access.

  Sun Cluster uses the HTTP administrative access to support fencing. Sun Cluster automatically removes file system write permission for a node that has left the cluster, and grants file system write permission for a node that has just joined the cluster. These actions ensure that a node that departed the cluster can no longer modify data. You must have the administrator login and password. You need these items when you are configuring the device in the cluster.

• Cluster nodes are configured with Solaris Internet Protocol Multipathing (IPMP).

• Ensure that the SUNWzlib package is available on your cluster.

  The Network Appliance NAS device requires the SUNWzlib package to run on Sun Cluster. If you installed the End User Solaris Software Group on your cluster, you must add the SUNWzlib package using the pkgadd command.

  # pkgadd SUNWzlib

• Directories must be exported to all cluster nodes. When exporting Network Appliance NAS directories for use with the cluster, you must use the form rw=nodename1;nodename2 to specify access to the directories. You make these entries in the exports file on the NAS device.

Requirements When Configuring Network Appliance NAS Devices for Use With Oracle Real Application Clusters

When you configure your Network Appliance NAS device for use with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), you must meet the following requirements.

• You must configure the Network Appliance NAS device with fencing support in order to guarantee data integrity.

• You must create a volume on each Network Appliance NAS device for storing Oracle database files, namely:

  • Data files

  • Control files

  • Online redo log files

  • Archived redo log files

• You must create a quota tree (qtree) for the each directory in the following list:

  • The directory that contains Oracle data files for the cluster

  • The Oracle home directory that is to be mounted on each node

• On each Network Appliance NAS device, you must add an entry to the /etc/exports file for the root of the volume that you created for storing Oracle database files.

• You must ensure that the volume is exported without the nosuid option.

• When adding the Network Appliance NAS directories to the cluster, ensure that the following mount options are set:

  • forcedirectio

  • noac

  • proto=tcp

Requirements When Configuring Network Appliance NAS Devices as Quorum Devices

The administrator has the option of deciding whether to use the Network Appliance NAS device as a quorum device.

When you use a Network Appliance NAS device as a quorum device, you must meet the following requirements.

• You must install the iSCSI license from Network Appliance.

• You must configure an iSCSI LUN on the Network Appliance NAS device for use as the quorum device.

• When booting the cluster, you must always boot the Network Appliance NAS device before you boot the cluster nodes.

  If you boot devices in the wrong order, your nodes cannot find the quorum device. If a node should fail in this situation, your cluster might be unable to remain in service. If the cluster fails because the Network Appliance NAS quorum device was not available, bring up the NAS device. After that action completes, boot the cluster.

• The Network Appliance NAS device must be located on the same network as the cluster nodes. If a Network Appliance NAS quorum device is not located on the same network as the cluster nodes, the quorum device is at risk of not responding at boot time within the timeout period, causing the cluster boot up to fail due to lack of quorum.

Recommendations for Network Appliance NAS Devices

It is strongly recommended that you use a Network Appliance clustered filer. Clustered filers provide high availability with respect to the filer data and do not constitute a single point of failure in the cluster.

It is strongly recommended that you use the network time protocol (NTP) to synchronize time on the cluster nodes and the NAS device. Refer to your Network Appliance documentation for instructions about how to configure NTP on the NAS device. Select at least one NTP server for the NAS device that also serves the cluster nodes.

Restrictions for Network Appliance NAS Devices

When configuring a Network Appliance NAS device as a quorum device, you can only add the quorum device when all cluster nodes are operating and communicating with the Network Appliance NAS device.