Introduction to Sun Cluster Hardware
This chapter provides overview information on cluster hardware. The chapter also provides overviews of the tasks that are involved in installing and maintaining this hardware specifically in a Sun™ Cluster environment.
This chapter contains the following information:
Installing Sun Cluster Hardware
The following procedure lists the tasks for installing a cluster and the sources for instructions.
Plan for cluster hardware capacity, space, and power requirements.
For more information, see the site planning documentation that shipped with your servers and other hardware.
Install the nodes.
For server installation instructions, see the documentation that shipped with your servers.
Install the administrative console.
For more information, see the documentation that shipped with your administrative console.
Install a console access device.
Use the procedure that is indicated for your type of console access device. For example, Sun Enterprise E10000 servers use a System Service Processor (SSP) as a console access device, rather than a terminal concentrator.
For installation instructions, see Installing the Terminal Concentrator or the documentation that shipped with your Sun Enterprise E10000 hardware.
Install the cluster interconnect and public network hardware.
For installation instructions, see Chapter 3, Installing and Maintaining Cluster Interconnect Hardware.
Install and configure the storage arrays.
Perform the service procedures that are indicated for your type of storage hardware.
Install the Solaris operating environment and Sun Cluster software.
For more information, see Sun Cluster software installation documentation .
Plan, install, and configure resource groups and data services.
For more information, see the Sun Cluster data services collection.
Maintaining Sun Cluster Hardware
Sun Cluster 3.x Hardware Administration Manual augments documentation that ships with your hardware components by providing information on maintaining the hardware specifically in a Sun Cluster environment. Table 1-1 describes some of the differences between maintaining cluster hardware and maintaining standalone hardware.
Table 1-1 Sample Differences Between Servicing Standalone and Cluster Hardware
Task | Standalone Hardware | Cluster Hardware |
|---|---|---|
Shutting down a node | Use the shutdown(1M) command. | To perform an orderly node shutdown, first use the scswitch(1M) command to switch device groups and resource groups to another node. Then shut down the node by running the shutdown(1M) command. |
Adding a disk | Run boot -r or devfsadm(1M)to assign a logical device name to the disk. You also need to run volume manager commands to configure the new disk if the disks are under volume management control. | Use the devfsadm(1M), scgdevs(1M), and scdidadm(1M) commands. You also need to run volume manager commands to configure the new disk if the disks are under volume management control. |
Adding a transport adatper or public network adapter | Perform an orderly node shutdown, then install the public network adapter. After you install the network adapter, update the /etc/hostname.adapter and/etc/inet/hosts files. | Perform an orderly node shutdown, then install the public network adapter. After you install the public network adapter, update the /etc/hostname.adapter and/etc/inet/hosts files. Finally, add this public network adapter to an IP Network Multipathing group. |
Powering On and Off Sun Cluster Hardware
Consider the following when powering on and powering off cluster hardware.
Use shut down and boot procedures in your Sun Cluster system administration documentation for nodes in a running cluster.
Use the power-on and power-off procedures in the manuals that shipped with the hardware only for systems that are newly installed or are in the process of being installed.
Caution - After the cluster is online and a user application is accessing data on the cluster, do not use the power-on and power-off procedures listed in the manuals that came with the hardware.
Dynamic Reconfiguration Operations For Sun Cluster Nodes
The Sun Cluster environment supports Solaris 8 dynamic reconfiguration (DR) operations on qualified servers. Throughout the Sun Cluster 3.x Hardware Administration Collection, there are procedures that require that the user add or remove transport adapters or public network adapters in a cluster node. Contact your service provider for a list of storage arrays that are qualified for use with DR-enabled servers.
Note - Review the documentation for the Solaris 8 DR feature on your hardware platform before you use the DR feature with Sun Cluster software. All of the requirements, procedures, and restrictions that are documented for the Solaris 8 DR feature also apply to Sun Cluster DR support (except for the operating environment quiescence operation).
Documentation for DR on currently qualified server platforms are listed here.
Sun Enterprise 10000 Dynamic Reconfiguration User Guide
Sun Enterprise 10000 Dynamic Reconfiguration Reference Manual
Sun Fire 6800, 4810, 4800, and 3800 Systems Dynamic Reconfiguration User Guide
Sun Fire 6800, 4810, 4800, and 3800 Systems Dynamic Reconfiguration Release Notes
Sun Fire 15K Dynamic Reconfiguration (DR) User Guide
Sun Fire 15K Dynamic Reconfiguration Release Notes
Sun Fire 880 Dynamic Reconfiguration User's Guide
Sun Fire V1280/Netra 1280 System Administration Guide
DR Operations in a Cluster With DR-Enabled Servers
Some procedures within the Sun Cluster 3.x Hardware Administration Collection instruct the user to shut down and power off a cluster node before you add, remove, or replace a transport adapter or a public network adapter (PNA).
However, if the node is a server that is enabled with the DR feature, the user does not have to power off the node before you add, remove, or replace the transport adapter or PNA. Instead, do the following:
Follow the procedure steps in Sun Cluster 3.x Hardware Administration Collection, including any steps for disabling and removing the transport adapter or PNA from the active cluster interconnect.
See the Sun Cluster system administration documentation for instructions about how to remove transport adapters or PNAs from the cluster configuration.
Skip any step that instructs you to power off the node, where the purpose of the power-off is to add, remove, or replace a transport adapter or PNA.
Perform the DR operation (add, remove, or replace) on the transport adapter or PNA.
Continue with the next step of the procedure in Sun Cluster 3.x Hardware Administration Collection.
For conceptual information about Sun Cluster support of the DR feature, see your Sun Cluster concepts documentation document.