Configuration Guidelines for Sun Cluster Data Services

This section provides configuration guidelines for Sun Cluster data services.

Identifying Data Service Special Requirements

Identify requirements for all of the data services before you begin Solaris and Sun Cluster installation. Failure to do so might result in installation errors that require that you completely reinstall the Solaris and Sun Cluster software.

For example, the Oracle Parallel Fail Safe/Real Application Clusters Guard option of Sun Cluster Support for Oracle Parallel Server/Real Application Clusters has special requirements for the hostnames that you use in the cluster. Sun Cluster HA for SAP also has special requirements. You must accommodate these requirements before you install Sun Cluster software because you cannot change hostnames after you install Sun Cluster software.Also note that both Sun Cluster Support for Oracle Parallel Server/Real Application Clusters and Sun Cluster HA for SAP are not supported for use in x86 based clusters.

Determining the Location of the Application Binaries

You can install the application software and application configuration files on one of the following locations.

• The local disks of each cluster node – Placing the software and configuration files on the individual cluster nodes provides the following advantage. You can upgrade application software later without shutting down the service.

  The disadvantage is that you then have several copies of the software and configuration files to maintain and administer.

• The cluster file system – If you put the application binaries on the cluster file system, you have only one copy to maintain and manage. However, you must shut down the data service in the entire cluster to upgrade the application software. If you can spare a small amount of downtime for upgrades, place a single copy of the application and configuration files on the cluster file system.

  See the planning chapter of the Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS for information on how to create cluster file systems.

• Highly available local file system - Using HAStoragePlus, you can integrate your local file system into the Sun Cluster environment making the local file system highly available. HAStoragePlus provides additional file system capabilities such as checks, mounts, and unmounts enabling Sun Cluster to fail over local file systems. In order to failover, the local file system must reside on global disk groups with affinity switchovers enabled.

  See the individual data service guides or Enabling Highly Available Local File Systems for information on how to use the HAStoragePlus resource type.

Verifying the nsswitch.conf File Contents

The nsswitch.conf file is the configuration file for name-service lookups. This file determines the following information.

• which databases within the Solaris environment to use for name-service lookups

• in what order to consult the databases

Some data services require that you direct “group” lookups to “files” first. For these data services, change the “group” line in the nsswitch.conf file so that the “files” entry is listed first. See the chapter for the data service that you plan to configure to determine whether you need to change the “group” line.

See the planning chapter in the Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS for additional information on how to configure the nsswitch.conf file for the Sun Cluster environment.

Planning the Cluster File System Configuration

Depending on the data service, you might need to configure the cluster file system to meet Sun Cluster requirements. See the chapter for the data service that you plan to configure to determine whether any special considerations apply.

The resource type HAStoragePlus enables you to use a highly available local file system in a Sun Cluster environment configured for failover. See Enabling Highly Available Local File Systems for information on setting up the HAStoragePlus resource type.

See the planning chapter of the Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS for information on how to create cluster file systems.