Zone-Cluster Requirements and Guidelines

• Distribution of nodes – You cannot host multiple nodes of the same zone cluster on the same host machine. A host can support multiple zone-cluster nodes as long as each zone-cluster node on that host 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. You can use the clsetup utility or the clzonecluster command to create the zone cluster. The name of the zone-cluster node must be unique within the zone cluster. The infrastructure automatically creates an underlying non-global zone on each host that supports 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 host that supports the zone cluster is also zc1.

• Cluster name – Each zone-cluster name must be unique throughout the cluster of machines that host the global cluster. The zone-cluster name cannot also be used by a non-global zone elsewhere in the cluster of machines, nor can the zone-cluster 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. If the Disaster Recovery Framework will be enabled in the zone cluster, the cluster name must be suitable as a hostname, and must be in the naming system.

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

  Note:

  If you do not configure an IP address for each zone cluster node, two things will occur:

  • That specific zone cluster will not be able to configure NAS devices for use in the zone cluster. The cluster uses the IP address of the zone cluster node when communicating with the NAS device, so not having an IP address prevents cluster support for fencing NAS devices.

  • The cluster software will activate any Logical Host IP address on any NIC.

• 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.

• Oracle Solaris Zones brands – All nodes of a zone cluster are configured as non-global zones of the solaris, solaris10, or labeled brand that is set with the cluster attribute. No other brand types are permitted in a zone cluster.

  For Trusted Extensions, you must use only the labeled brand.

• IP type - You can create a zone cluster that is either the shared IP type or the exclusive IP type. If the IP type is not specified, a shared-IP zone cluster is created by default.

• Global_zone=TRUE resource-type property – To register a resource type that uses the Global_zone=TRUE resource-type property, the resource-type file must reside in the /usr/cluster/global/rgm/rtreg/ directory of the zone cluster. If that resource-type file resides in any other location, the command to register the resource type is rejected.

• File systems – You can use the clsetup utility or the clzonecluster command to add the following types of file systems for use by the zone cluster. A file system is exported to a zone cluster by using either a direct mount or a loopback mount. Adding a file system with the clsetup utility is done in cluster scope, which affects the entire zone cluster.

  • By direct mount:

    • UFS local file system

    • Oracle HSM stand-alone file system

    • Oracle HSM shared file system, only when used to support Oracle RAC

    • Oracle Solaris ZFS (exported as a data set)

    • NFS from supported NAS devices

  • By loopback mount:

    • UFS local file system

    • ZFS cluster file system

    • Oracle HSM stand-alone file system

    • Oracle HSM shared file system, only when used to support Oracle RAC

    • UFS cluster file system

  You configure an HAStoragePlus or ScalMountPoint resource to manage the mounting of the file system.