3.4.4 Binding IP Addresses on a Server

If you are using the Symmetric or N + 1 high availability models, there are some additional things you should be aware of during configuration in order to prepare the Sun Cluster Server for Messaging Server.

Messaging Server running on a server requires that the correct IP address binds it. This is required for proper configuration of Messaging in an HA environment.

Part of configuring Messaging Server for HA involves configuring the interface address on which the Messaging Servers bind and listen for connections. By default, the servers bind to all available interface addresses. However, in an HA environment, you want the servers to bind specifically to the interface address associated with an HA logical host name.

A script is therefore provided to configure the interface address used by the servers belonging to a given Messaging Server instance. Note that the script identifies the interface address by means of the IP address which you have or will be associating with the HA logical host name used by the servers.

The script effects the configuration changes by modifying or creating the following configuration files. For the file

msg-svr-base/config/dispatcher.cnf

it adds or changes INTERFACE_ADDRESS option for the SMTP and SMTP Submit servers. For the file

msg-svr-base/config/job_controller.cnf

it adds or changes the INTERFACE_ADDRESS option for the Job Controller.

Finally it sets the configutil service.listenaddr and service.http.smtphost parameters used by the POP, IMAP, and Messenger Express HTTP servers.

Note that the original configuration files, if any, are renamed to *.pre-ha.

Run the script as follows:

To Bind IP Addresses on a Server

1. Become superuser.

2. Execute msg-svr-base/sbin/ha_ip_config

3. The script presents the questions described below. The script may be aborted by typing control-d in response to any of the questions. Default answers to the questions will appear within square brackets, [ ]. To accept the default answer, simply press the RETURN key.

   1. Logical IP address: Specify the IP address assigned to the logical host name which Messaging Server will be using. The IP address must be specified in dotted decimal form, for example, 123.456.78.90.

      The logical IP address is automatically set in the configutil parameter service.http.smtphost which allows you to see which machine is running your messaging system in a cluster. For example, if you are using Messenger Express, your server will be able to determine from which mail host to send outgoing mail.

   2. Messaging Server Base ( msg-svr-base): Specify the absolute path to the top-level directory in which Messaging Server is installed.

   3. Do you wish to change any of the above choices: answer “no” to accept your answers and effect the configuration change. Answer “yes” if you wish to alter your answers.

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      Note –

      In addition, the ha_ip_config script automatically enables two new processes watcher and msprobe with the following parameters: local.autorestart and local.watcher.enable. These new parameters help to monitor the health of the messaging server. Process failures and unresponsive services result in log messages indicating specific failures. The cluster agents now monitor the watcher process and failover whenever it exits. Note that the parameters must be enabled in order for Sun Cluster to function properly.

      For more information on the watcher and msprobe processes, see 4.5 Automatic Restart of Failed or Unresponsive Services

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