Overview of Administering Oracle Solaris Cluster

The Oracle Solaris Cluster highly available environment ensures that critical applications are available to end users. The system administrator's job is to make sure that the Oracle Solaris Cluster configuration is stable and operational.

Familiarize yourself with the planning information in Chapter 1, Planning the Oracle Solaris Cluster Configuration, in Oracle Solaris Cluster Software Installation Guide and the Oracle Solaris Cluster Concepts Guide before beginning administration tasks. For instructions on creating a zone cluster, see Creating and Configuring a Zone Cluster in Oracle Solaris Cluster Software Installation Guide. Oracle Solaris Cluster administration is organized into tasks among the following manuals.

• Standard tasks, used to administer and maintain the global cluster or the zone cluster on a regular or even daily basis. These tasks are described in this guide.

• Data service tasks, such as installation, configuration, and changing properties. These tasks are described in the Oracle Solaris Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide.

• Service tasks, such as adding or repairing storage or network hardware. These tasks are described in the Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.1 Hardware Administration Manual.

In general, you can perform Oracle Solaris Cluster administration tasks while the cluster is operational. If you need take a node out of the cluster or even shut down the node, you can do so while the rest of the nodes continue cluster operations. Unless otherwise indicated, Oracle Solaris Cluster administrative tasks should be performed in the global-cluster node. For those procedures that require the entire cluster to be shut down, minimize impact on the system by scheduling downtime outside normal working hours. If you plan to shut down the cluster or a cluster node, notify users in advance.

Working With a Zone Cluster

Two Oracle Solaris Cluster administrative commands (cluster and clnode) can also run in a zone cluster. However, the scope of these commands is limited to the zone cluster where the command is issued. For example, using the cluster command in the global-cluster node retrieves all information about the global cluster and all the zone clusters. Using the cluster command in a zone cluster retrieves information about that specific zone cluster.

When you use the clzonecluster command in a global-cluster node, the command affects all of the zone clusters in the global cluster. Zone cluster commands also affect all nodes on the zone cluster, even if a zone-cluster node is down when the command is issued.

Zone clusters support delegated administration of resources that are under Resource Group Manager (RGM) control. Therefore, zone cluster administrators can view, but not change, zone cluster dependencies that cross zone cluster boundaries. Only the administrator in a global-cluster node can create, modify, or delete dependencies that cross zone cluster boundaries.

The following list contains the major administrative tasks performed on a zone cluster.

• Creating a zone cluster – Use the clsetup utility to launch the zone cluster configuration wizard or use the clzonecluster install command. See the instructions in Creating and Configuring a Zone Cluster in Oracle Solaris Cluster Software Installation Guide.

• Starting and rebooting a zone cluster – See Chapter 3, Shutting Down and Booting a Cluster.

• Adding a node to a zone cluster – See Chapter 8, Adding and Removing a Node.

• Removing a node from a zone cluster – See How to Remove a Node From a Zone Cluster.

• Viewing the configuration of a zone cluster – See How to View the Cluster Configuration.

• Validating the configuration of a zone cluster – See How to Validate a Basic Cluster Configuration.

• Stopping a zone cluster – See Chapter 3, Shutting Down and Booting a Cluster.