Patches and Required Firmware Levels

The SunSolve Online^SM Web site provides 24-hour access to the most up-to-date information regarding patches, software, and firmware for Sun products. Access the SunSolve Online site at http://sunsolve.sun.com for the most current matrixes of supported software, firmware, and patch revisions.

You must have a SunSolve account registered to view and download the required patches for the Sun Cluster product. If you don't have an account registered, contact your Sun service representative or sales engineer, or register through the SunSolve Online Web site.

You can find Sun Cluster 3.0 patch information using the SunSolve EarlyNotifier^SM Service. To view the EarlyNotifier information, log into SunSolve and access the Simple search selection from the top of the main page. From the Simple Search page, click on the EarlyNotifier box and type Sun Cluster 3.0 in the search criteria box. This will bring up the EarlyNotifier page for Sun Cluster 3.0.

Before installing Sun Cluster 3.0 and applying patches to a cluster component (Solaris operating system, Sun Cluster software, volume manager or data services software, or disk hardware), review the EarlyNotifier information and any README files that accompany the patches. All cluster nodes must have the same patch level for proper cluster operation.

For specific patch procedures and tips on administering patches, see the Sun Cluster 3.0 U1 System Administration Guide.

Required SAP Patches for Sun Cluster HA for SAP

The latest patch for the executable sapstart (see OSS note 0396321) protects you from multiple startups of SAP instances when an instance is already active on one node. The patch is important because duplication of SAP instances crashes the instance that was already active. Furthermore, the crash prevents SAP shutdown scripts from clean shut down of the SAP instances, which might cause data corruption.

To overcome this problem, install the latest patch for the sapstart executable, and configure the new parameter in the SAP startup profile for the application server and central instance.

For example, edit the profile START_DVEBMGS00 (the profile for the central instance) to add the new SAP parameter, sapstart/lockfile.

sapstart/lockfile =/usr/sap/D01/DVEBMGS00/work/startup_lockfile

sapstart/lockfile

New parameter name.

/usr/sap/D01/DVEBMGS00/work

Work directory for the central instance.

startup_lockfile

Lock file name that Sun Cluster HA for SAP uses.

You must locate the lock file path on the cluster file system. If you locate the lock file path locally on the nodes, start ups of the same instance from different nodes cannot be prevented.

Even if you configure the lock file in the SAP profile, you do not have to manually create the lock file. The Sun Cluster HA for SAP data service will create the lock file.

With this configuration, when you start the SAP instance, the SAP software locks the file startup_lockfile. If you start up the SAP instance outside of the Sun Cluster environment and then try to bring up SAP under the Sun Cluster environment, the Sun Cluster HA for SAP data service will attempt to start up the instance. However, because of the file-locking mechanism, this attempt will fail. The data service will log appropriate error messages in syslog.