Now you have to decide on some of your implementation. Your "cluster" is established via a "heartbeat" between the two computers (nodes) generated by the software package of the same name. However, this heartbeat needs one or more media paths between the nodes.
At this point, you're actually ready to begin hardware-wise. Of course, since you're looking into HA, you'll mostly likely want to avoid having only one point of failure. In this case, that would be your null modem cable or serial port. So, you need to decide whether you wish to add a second serial/null modem connection or a second network interface card (NIC) to each node connected via a crossover cable. See Appendix A for instructions on how to build a crossover cable. My setup goes the 2 NIC route because I only had one null modem cable, had plenty of NICs on hand and thought it was good to have two medium types for the heartbeats.
Once your hardware is in order, you must install your OS and configure your networking (I used Red Hat). Assuming you have 2 NICs, one should be configured for your "normal" network and the other as a private network between your clustered nodes (via the crossover cable). For an example, we will assume that our cluster will have the following addresses:
Node 1 (linuxha1): 192.168.85.1 (normal 192x net)
10.0.0.1 (private 10x net)
Node 2 (linuxha2): 192.168.85.2 (192x)
10.0.0.2 (10x)
Note: Neither of these addresses should
be your "cluster address" - the address handled by heartbeat and failed
over between nodes!
Red Hat makes this easy during installation (please don't think I'm carrying their banner, it's just what I use), however, if you use another distribution or are having any problems, refer to the Ethernet HOWTO. To check your configuration, type:
ifconfig
This will show your network interfaces and their configuration. You can obtain the same information in a less verbose form from "netstat -nr"
If it looks good, make sure you can ping between both nodes on all interfaces.
Next, you need to test your serial connection. On one node, which
will be the receiver, type:
cat
</dev/ttyS0
On the other node, type,:
echo
hello >/dev/ttyS0
You should see the text on the receiver node. If it works, change their roles and try again. If it doesn't, it may be as simple as having the wrong device file. Volker's HA Hardware Guide and the Serial HOWTO are two good resources for troubleshooting your serial connection.
Untar it into your favorite source directory. The RPM version is available at the web site, or make your own RPM version, type "make rpm" and use rpm to install. Otherwise, you can simply type "make install".
For our example, we'll assume the high availability services are Apache and Samba. The IP for the cluster is mandatory, and don't configure the cluster IP outside of the haresources file!. The haresources will need one line:
linuxha1.linux-ha.org 192.168.85.3 httpd smbSo, this line dictates that on startup, have linuxha1 serve the IP 192.168.85.3 and start apache and samba as well.
Note: httpd and smb are the name of startup scripts
for Apache and Samba, respectively. Heartbeat will look for startup
scripts of the same name in the following paths:
/etc/ha.d/resource.d
/etc/rc.d/init.d
These scripts must start services via "scriptname start" and stop
them via "scriptname stop".
So you can use any services as long as they conform to the above
standard.
Should you need to pass arguments to a custom script, the format would be:
scriptname::argumentSo, if we added a service "maid" which needed the argument "vacuum", our haresources line would modify to the following:
linuxha1 192.168.85.3 httpd smb maid::vacuum
This brings us to some added flexibility with
the service IP address. We are actually using a shorthand notation
above. The actual line could have read (we've canned the maid):
linuxha1 IPaddr::192.168.85.3 httpd smbWhere IPaddr is the name of our service script, taking the argument 192.168.85.3. Sure enough, if you look in the directory /etc/ha.d/resource.d, you will find a script called IPaddr. This script will also allow you to manipulate the netmask and broadcast address of this IP service. To specify a subnet with 32 addresses, you could define the service as (leaving off the IPaddr because we can!):
linuxha1 192.168.85.3/27 httpd smbThis sets the IP service address to 192.168.85.3, the netmask to 255.255.255.224 and the broadcast address would default to 192.168.85.31 (which is the highest address on the subnet). The last parameter you can set is the broadcast address. To override the default and set it to 192.168.85.16, your entry would read:
linuxha1 192.168.85.3/5/192.168.85.16 httpd smbYou may be wondering whether any of the above is necessary for you. It depends. If you've properly established a net route (independent of heartbeat) for the service's IP address, with the correct netmask and broadcast address, then no, it's not necessary for you. However, this case won't fit everybody and that's why the option's there! In addition, you may have more than one possible interface that could be used for the service IP. Read on to see how heartbeat treats this...
Once you straighten out your haresources file, copy ha.cf and haresources
to /etc/ha.d and you're ready to start!
Heartbeat decides which interface will be used by looking at the routing table. It tries to select the lowest cost route to the IP address to be taken over. In the case of a tie, it chooses the first route found. For most configurations this means the default route will be least preferred.
If you don't specify a netmask for the IP address in the haresources
file, the netmask associated with the selected route will be used.
Configuring Authkeys
The third file to configure determines your authentication keys. There are three types of authentication methods available: crc, md5, and sha1. "Well, which should I use?", you ask. Since this document is called "Getting Started", we'll keep it simple......
If your heartbeat runs over a secure network, such as the crossover cable in our example, you'll want to use crc. This is the cheapest method from a resources perspective. If the network is insecure, but you're either not very paranoid or concerned about minimizing CPU resources, use md5. Finally, if you want the best authentication without regard for CPU resources, use sha1. It's the hardest to crack.
The format of the file is as follows:
auth <number>
<number> <authmethod> [<authkey>]
SO, for sha1, a sample /etc/ha.d/authkeys could be:
auth 1
1 sha1 key-for-sha1-any-text-you-want
For md5, you could use the same as the above, but replace "sha1" with "md5".
Finally, for crc, a sample can be:
auth 2
1 crc
Make sure its permissions are safe, like 600. And "any text you
want" is not quite right. There's a limit to the number of
characters you can use.
That's it!
If you want heartbeat to run on startup, what to do will differ on your
distribution. For Red Hat (again, sorry) and Mandrake, you will need
to place links to the startup script in the appropriate init level directories.
I have heartbeat start last and only care about the 0(halt), 6(reboot),
3(text-only), 5(X) run levels.
So, I needed to type in the following (as root, of course):
cd /etc/rc.d/rc0.d ; ln -s ../init.d/heartbeat
K01heartbeat
cd /etc/rc.d/rc3.d ; ln -s ../init.d/heartbeat
S99heartbeat
cd /etc/rc.d/rc5.d ; ln -s ../init.d/heartbeat
S99heartbeat
cd /etc/rc.d/rc6.d ; ln -s ../init.d/heartbeat
K01heartbeat
The last time I ran slackware, there was no /etc/rc.d/init.d directory
(may have changed by now) and to do the same thing, I would have placed
in /etc/rc.d/rc.local:
/etc/ha.d/heartbeat start
***This assumes you copy the file ha.rc to /etc/ha.d/heartbeat.
If you can't find /etc/rc.d/init.d with your distribution and you're unsure
of how processes start, you can use the rc.local method. But you're
on your own for shutdown, I just don't remember...
Note: If you use the watchdog function, you'll need to
load its module at bootup as well. For Red Hat, I put the following
command at the bottom of the /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file:
/sbin/insmod softdog
For the rc.local method, just put the same line right above where you
start heartbeat.
Once you've started heartbeat, take a peek at your log file (default
is /var/log/ha-log) before testing it. If all is peachy, the service
owner's log (linuxha1 in our example) should look something like this:
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:45 info: Neither logfile nor logfacility
found.
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:45 info: Defaulting to /var/log/ha-log
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:45 info: ***********************
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:45 info: Configuration validated. Starting
heartbeat.
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:46 notice: Starting serial heartbeat on
tty /dev/ttyS0
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:46 notice: UDP heartbeat started on port
694 interface eth1
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:46 notice: Using watchdog device: /dev/watchdog
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:46 error: Cannot open /proc/ha/.control:
No such file or directory
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:56 warn: node linuxha2.linux-ha.org: is
dead
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:56 INFO: Running /etc/ha.d/rc.d/status
status
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:57 info: Requesting our resources.
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:58 INFO: Running /etc/ha.d/resource.d/IPaddr
192.168.85.3 status
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:26:58 INFO: Running /etc/ha.d/rc.d/ip-request
ip-request
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:00 info: node linuxha2.linux-ha.org: status
up
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:00 INFO: Running /etc/ha.d/rc.d/status
status
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:28 Acquiring resource group: linuxha1.linux-ha.org
192.168.85.3 httpd smb mirror
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:28 INFO: Running /etc/ha.d/resource.d/mirror
start
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:29 INFO: Running /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb
start
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:30 INFO: Running /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd
start
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:31 INFO: Running /etc/ha.d/resource.d/IPaddr
192.168.85.3 start
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:32 INFO: ifconfig eth0:0 192.168.85.3 netmask
255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.85.255
heartbeat: 2000/01/18_14:27:32 Sending Gratuitous Arp for 192.168.85.3
on eth0:0 [eth0]
NOTE: Your log may differ depending on when you started
heartbeat on linuxha2!!! I waited just over 10 seconds.
OK, now try to ping your cluster's IP (192.168.85.3 in the example).
If this works, telnet to it and verify you're on linuxha1.
Next, make sure your services are tied to the .3 address. Bring
up netscape and type in 192.168.85.3 for the URL. For Samba, try
to map the drive "\\192.168.85.3\test" assuming you set up a share
called "test". See Samba docs to get that going. As an aside,
however, you'll want to use the "netbios name" parameter to have your Samba
share listed under the cluster name and not the hostname of your cluster
member!
NOTE: If you can't bring up the service IP address and you get ha-log entries similar to this:
If this all works, you've got availability. Now let's see if we have High Availability :-)It may mean that you need to enable IP aliasing in your kernel build. Check /usr/src/linux/.config for "CONFIG_IP_ALIAS=y" if you don't have it, you'll have the line "CONFIG_IP_ALIAS is not set". Rebuild your kernel with IP aliasing enabled.SIOCSIFADDR: No such device
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCSIFNETMASK: No such device
SIOCSIFBRDADDR: No such device
SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCADDRT: No such device
Take down linuxha1. Kill power, kill heartbeat, whatever you have
the stomach for, but don't just yank both the serial and eth1 heartbeat
cables. If you do that, you'll have services running on both nodes
and when you re-connect the heartbeat, a bit of chaos....
Now ping the cluster IP. Approximately 5-10 seconds later it should
start responding again. Telnet again and verify you're on linuxha2.
If it happens but takes more like 30 seconds, something is wrong.
If you get this far, it's probably working, but you should probably
check all your heartbeats, too.
First, check your serial heartbeat. Unplug the crossover cable
from your eth1 NIC that you're using for your udp heartbeat. Wait
about 10 seconds.
Now, look at /var/log/ha-log on linuxha2 and make sure there's no line
like this:
1999/08/16_12:40:58 node linuxha1.linux-ha.org:
is dead
If you get that, your serial heartbeat isn't working and your second
node is taking over. To avoid any problems, shut down heartbeat on
the first node, then test your null modem cable. Run the above serial
tests again.
If your log is clean, great. Re-connect the crossover cable.
Once that's done, disconnect the serial cable, wait 10 seconds and check
the linuxha2 log again.
If it's clean, congrats! If not, you can check /var/log/ha-log
and /var/log/ha-debug for more clues.
Appendix A - Crossover Cable Construction
Your cable diagram should be as follows:
Connector A Connector B
| Connector A | Connector B |
| Pin # | Pin # |
| 1 | 3 |
| 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 1 |
| 6 | 2 |
| 4 | 7 |
| 5 | 8 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8 | 5 |
Rev 1.1.0
(c) 2000 Rudy Pawul
rpawul@iso-ne.com