Maintaining a Dual SSP Configuration

To maintain a dual SSP configuration for failover purposes, note the following:

• The spare SSP must be properly configured to function in the same way as the main SSP within the network.

• The main and the spare SSP must run the same version of the SSP software.

• You can run certain types of third-party applications on your SSPs, provided that your SSPs meet the OpenSSP requirements described in the SSP 3.5 Installation Guide and Release Notes.

• For automatic failover:

  • If you have user-created files on the main SSP that need to be maintained on the spare SSP for failover purposes, you must identify those files in the data propagation list.

    This data propagation list determines which user-created files on the main SSP are to be automatically copied to and updated on the spare SSP, as part of the data synchronization process. For details on controlling this list, see "Managing Data Synchronization".

  • If you have user-created commands that run on the main SSP, you must prepare those user commands for failover recovery, as explained in "Performing Command Synchronization".

    If you have user commands that require specific files for processing, be sure to add those files to the data propagation list.

• Any changes that you make to the main SSP must be made to the spare SSP as well.

  If failover is disabled or a failover occurs, and you change the SSP configuration, you must immediately run ssp_backup(1M) on the main SSP to create an SSP backup file. To successfully switchover to the spare SSP if the main SSP crashes, you must have a backup file that can be restored on the spare SSP.