Contents

Index

Preparation

This page contains the following information:

How to Prepare Hosts for Sun Cluster Installation
Configuration Variables for This Plug-in
How to Create N1SPS Virtual Hosts for Use With This Plug-in
How to Create Host Sets for Use With This Plug-in

How to Prepare Hosts for Sun Cluster Installation

Before you can use this plug-in to install Sun Cluster software on a host, that host must be able to
access the Java Availability Suite (JAS) distribution for Sun Cluster 3.2. Access can be made
available by any number of methods, including the following:

• Loading the DVD on each new cluster node prior to installation
• Remotely mounting (NFS) a copy of the distribution
• Using N1SPS itself to snapshot the distribution and pushing it out to each host

When you run any of the N1SPS plans to create clusters, add nodes, or install nodes, you are prompted
for the location of the "Java Availability Suite distribution". The default response is set to
"/opt/JES/downloads/solaris_cluster_3_2".

You must set this "Java Availability Suite distribution" field to the root directory of the JAS
distribution for Sun Cluster 3.2 software. This is the directory on the distribution which includes,
among other things, the "Copyright" file and the directories "Solaris_x86" or "Solaris_sparc".

These plans will also prompt you for the "Java Availability Suite installer state file". The default
response is set to the following location:

/opt/SUNWsc/n1sps/plug-ins/com.sun.SunCluster/1.0/scConfigFiles/JAS_StateFiles/solaris_cluster_3_2/Solaris_10/stateFile_install

If you install Sun Cluster software on the Solaris 9 OS, you must change the default location of the
state file to the following location:

/opt/SUNWsc/n1sps/plug-ins/com.sun.SunCluster/1.0/scConfigFiles/JAS_StateFiles/solaris_cluster_3_2/Solaris_9/stateFile_install

You can also supply your own custom installer state file if there are Sun Cluster data service agents
or other JAS components that you want to install by using the JAS installer (see
How to Use Custom Installer State Files With This Plug-in and How to Use This Plug-in to Install Data-Service Agents).
Refer to the Java Enterprise System (JES) installation documentation for more information regarding JES or JAS state files.

Configuration Variables for This Plug-in

The Sun Cluster Framework plug-in relies on three types of N1SPS variables for expressing configuration
data. They are host type variables, plan variables, and component variables.

Since this plug-in supports the creation of many clusters from just a single run of a plan, the use of
variables is conveniently structured such that data which is likely to be common amongst a set of
clusters is stored in component variables, and data which will be unique to each cluster or to each
cluster node is stored in host type variables.

As an example, cluster switch names and other private network data is likely to be the same amongst some
set of related clusters. However, the private-network adapters that are used by individual cluster nodes
might be different from one node to the next. So, private-network adapters are configurable from a
"clusterNode" host type. Actually, in the case of private-network adapters, users have a choice between
configuring the adapters from either the component or the host type.

Another example is the cluster name. The cluster name must always be different for each cluster. So, if
the cluster name were stored with the component data, users would only be able in create one cluster at
a time. The cluster name is an example of cluster-wide, rather than per-node, data. So, instead of
storing the cluster name in a "clusterNode" host type, it is stored in a "cluster" host type.

Plan variables are used to direct the execution of a plan. This plug-in uses plan variables for things
like specifying the location of the JAS installer state file.

How to Create N1SPS Virtual Hosts for Use With This Plug-in

For each cluster, there are two types of virtual N1SPS hosts which must be created and configured. They
are hosts of type "clusterNode" (or, com.sun.SunCluster#clusterNode) and and hosts of type "cluster"
(or, com.sun.SunCluster#cluster).

"clusterNode" host type

This host type is used to configure certain per-node options for individual cluster nodes.

• Users must create one virtual N1SPS host of type "clusterNode" for each host that will be installed
  and configured as a cluster node.

• Each such virtual host must be a child of the physical host for that cluster node.

• The "clusterHost" variable for each of these hosts must be set to the name of the virtual host of
  type "cluster" for this cluster.

See Variables for Plug-in Virtual Hosts of Type "clusterNode" for information about
configuring the other variables that are associated with hosts of the "clusterNode" host type.

"cluster" host type

This host type is used to configure certain cluster-wide options for each cluster. And, by virtue of
its parent-child relationship to one of the "clusterNode" host types, it identifies a host for use in
performing cluster-wide tasks.

• Users must create one virtual N1SPS host of type "cluster" for each cluster that will be managed by
  the Sun Cluster Framework plug-in.

• Each virtual host of the "cluster" host type must be a child of one of the hosts of type "clusterNode".
  And in turn, as indicated above, all "clusterNode" hosts for a given cluster must point to this same
  "cluster" host through their "clusterHost" variables.

• Most plans in the Sun Cluster Framework plug-in require that the parent host of this "cluster" host
  be up, responsive, and, typically, booted in cluster mode. Hosts of the "cluster" host type can
  always be re-parented to a different "clusterNode" as needed.

• As a matter of convention and ease of use, match the name of each host of the "cluster" host type to
  the name of the cluster it represents.

See Variables for Plug-in Virtual Hosts of Type "cluster" for information about configuring
the variables associated with hosts of this type.

How to Create Host Sets for Use With This Plug-in

The use of N1SPS host sets is not a requirement for the Sun Cluster Framework plug-in. However, the use
of N1SPS host sets does make the use of the plug-in more convenient. For ease of use, create one host
set for each cluster. Each such host set should contain all of the virtual hosts of type "clusterNode"
for a given cluster, as well as the virtual host of type "cluster".

Host sets that you construct in this way can almost always be provided as targets to plans in this
plug-in. The notable exception to this is the plan for removing nodes, since nodes should only be
removed from a cluster one node at a time. All plans in this plug-in check the host types of their
target hosts and are typically designed to filter out any host types that the plan doesn't need.