Sun Cluster HA for NFS Overview

This chapter describes the steps necessary to configure and run Sun Cluster HA for NFS on your Sun Cluster servers. It also describes the steps necessary to add Sun Cluster HA for NFS to a system that is already running Sun Cluster.

Before beginning the tasks in this chapter, see Chapter 2, Planning the Configuration, for more information on setting up file systems. Refer to "Configuration Restrictions", for HA-NFS configuration restrictions.

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To avoid any failures due to name service lookup, all logical host names should be present in the server's and client's /etc/hosts file. Name service mapping on the servers should be configured to look first at the local files before trying to access NIS or NIS+. This prevents timing related errors in this area and ensures that ifconfig and statd do not fail in resolving logical host names.

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Table 11-1 shows the high-level steps to configure Sun Cluster HA for NFS to work with Sun Cluster. The tasks should be performed in the order shown.

Table 11-1 High-Level Steps to Configure Sun Cluster HA for NFS

Task	Go To ...
Updating the name service with logical host names	Step 4 in the procedure "How to Install the Server Software". (This should have been done prior to running the scinstall(1M) command.)
Modifying name service lookups in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file to access /etc files first	Step 7 in the procedure "How to Install the Server Software". (This should have been done prior to running the scinstall(1M) command.)
Initializing NAFO	Step 21 in the procedure "How to Install the Server Software". (This should have been done as part of the scinstall(1M) process.)
Setting up logical hosts	Step 22 in the procedure "How to Install the Server Software". (This should have been done as part of the scinstall(1M) process.)
Assigning net names and disk groups	Step 25 in the procedure "How to Install the Server Software". (This should have been done as part of the scinstall(1M) process.)
Configuring the volume manager	For Solstice DiskSuite configurations, refer to Appendix B, Configuring Solstice DiskSuite. For VERITAS Volume Manager configurations, refer to Appendix C, Configuring VERITAS Volume Manager.
Creating NAFO backup groups	Step 9 in the procedure "How to Configure the Cluster". (This should have been done as part of the installation process.)
Creating multihost file systems	For Solstice DiskSuite configurations, refer to Appendix B, Configuring Solstice DiskSuite. For VERITAS Volume Manager configurations, refer to Appendix C, Configuring VERITAS Volume Manager.
Editing the dfstab.logicalhost files	Refer to "How to Share NFS File Systems".
Registering Sun Cluster HA for NFS	Refer to "How to Register and Activate NFS".

The mount points for NFS file systems placed under the control of Sun Cluster HA for NFS must be the same on all nodes that are capable of mastering the logical host containing those file systems.

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To avoid "stale file handle" errors on the client during NFS failovers, make sure that the VERITAS Volume Manager vxio driver has identical pseudo-device major numbers on all cluster nodes. This number can be found in the /etc/name_to_major file after you complete the installation. See Appendix C, Configuring VERITAS Volume Manager, for pseudo-device major number administrative procedures.

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