Zone-Cluster Requirements and Guidelines

• Distribution of nodes – You cannot host multiple nodes of the same zone cluster on the same node of the global cluster. A global-cluster node can host multiple zone-cluster nodes as long as each node is a member of a different zone cluster.

• Node creation – You must create at least one zone-cluster node at the time that you create the zone cluster. The names of the nodes must be unique within the zone cluster. The infrastructure automatically creates an underlying non-global zone on each global-cluster node that hosts the zone cluster. Each non-global zone is given the same zone name, which is derived from, and identical to, the name that you assign to the zone cluster when you create the cluster. For example, if you create a zone cluster that is named zc1, the corresponding non-global zone name on each global-cluster node that hosts the zone cluster is also zc1.

• Cluster name – The name of the zone cluster must be unique throughout the global cluster. The name cannot also be used by a non-global zone elsewhere in the global cluster, nor can the name be the same as that of a global-cluster node. You cannot use “all” or “global” as a zone-cluster name, because these are reserved names.

• Public-network IP addresses – You assign a specific public-network IP address to each zone-cluster node.

• Private hostnames – During creation of the zone cluster, a private hostname is automatically created for each node of the zone cluster, in the same way that hostnames are created in global clusters. Currently, you cannot rename the private hostname of a zone-cluster node. For more information about private hostnames, see Private Hostnames.

• Solaris zones brand – All nodes of a zone cluster are configured as non-global zones of the cluster brand. No other brand type is permitted in a zone cluster.

• Conversion to a zone-cluster node – You cannot add an existing non-global zone to a zone cluster.

• File systems – You can use the clzonecluster command to add only the following types of file systems for use by a zone cluster:

  • Highly available local file systems

  • QFS shared file systems, which are supported for use by Oracle Real Application Clusters

  Do not directly add a cluster file system from the global zone to a zone cluster node. Instead, add a loopback mount of the cluster file system from the global zone to the non-global zone.

  To add a local file system to a zone cluster, you must instead use the zonecfg command as you normally would in a stand-alone system.

• No fencing support for NAS devices in non-global zones – Sun Cluster software does not provide fencing support for NFS-exported file systems from a NAS device when such file systems are used in a non-global zone, including nodes of a zone cluster. Fencing support is provided only for NFS-exported file systems in the global zone.