HP Serviceguard on Linux

Course overview

This course is designed for experienced Linux system and network administrators who will be implementing HP Serviceguard A.11.20. Topics include the basic requirements of a highly available system and progress through to the configuration of a Serviceguard cluster and packages, culminating in using both NFS and Oracle 11gR2 toolkit packages. The course is 50 percent lecture and 50 percent hands-on labs using RHEL 6.2 on HP servers.

Prerequisites

• Linux administration experience (H7091S or U2794S or equivalent.)
• Linux Networking administration experience or equivalent (H7092S or equivalent)
• HP-UX Logical Volume Manager (LVM) (H6285S)  or equivalent

Audience

• Linux system and network administrators who currently, or soon will, develop, design, implement, and monitor HP Serviceguard clusters on Linux

Ways to save

Course objectives

At the conclusion of this course you should be able to:

• Configure, implement, and manage an HP Serviceguard cluster and packages
• Install prerequisite software packages
• Install HP Serviceguard A.11.20 and Serviceguard Manager
• Use ‘cmeasyinstall’
• Utilize basic troubleshooting techniques
• Install and configure NFS and Oracle packages using the toolkits

Next steps

• HP Serviceguard II: ContinentalClusters, CFS, & Oracle RAC (U8601S) or HP Metrocluster (HB507S), HP Integrity Virtual Machines (HB506S), HP StorageWorks XP Disk Arrays (H6773S)

Benefits to you

• Protect your mission critical applications against a wide variety of hardware and software failures through effective use of Serviceguard on Linux
• Reduce your application downtime to near zero by learning how to configure your Serviceguard cluster and using Serviceguard's rolling upgrade facility
• Minimize, and in some instances eliminate, your application downtime by learning how to automate the detection of failures and restoration of application service

Course outline

Introduction

• Course objectives
• Prerequisites
• Expectations

Introduction to High Availability

• What is high availability?
•  Reducing the risk
• Storage technologies
• HA network design

High Availability with Serviceguard

• Features and benefits of Serviceguard
• How Serviceguard works at a high level
• Serviceguard packages
• Minimizing planned downtime
• Installing prerequisite software
• Serviceguard Manager

Storage for Serviceguard

• Volume management
• Persistent reservation overview
• Review of LVM concepts
• Configure a shared LVM volume group
• Using hosttags

Cluster Concepts and Configuration

• Describe the difference between heartbeat, stationary and standby
• LAN interfaces
• Configure active/standby LAN interfaces using channel bonding
• Cluster arbitration using a LockLUN and Quorum server
• Steps to configure a Serviceguard cluster
• View the status of the cluster and log file

Additional Cluster Features

• Test the local LAN failover
• Node failures and cluster reformation
• Node joining and leaving a cluster
• Basic cluster management

Packages and Services

• Configure a basic Serviceguard package
• Describe the package configuration file
• Package and node switching management
• Interpret package status from cmviewcl
• Package log file

Package Policies

• Package FAILOVER policy
• Package FAILBACK policy
• Package access control
• Using package dependencies, priorities, and weights

Application Monitoring Scripts

• Writing and using an application monitor
• The package control script
• Application integration toolkits

Cluster Troubleshooting

• Test clusters and packages for problems
• Using the log files
• Using Serviceguard commands for troubleshooting
• Approaches to troubleshooting

Cluster and Package Online Reconfiguration

• Cluster modifications can be done online
• Online package modifications
• Storage reconfiguration
• Add and remove a node while the cluster is running
• Add and remove a package while the cluster is running

Highly Available NFS

• Install the NFS server toolkit
• Configure an NFS server package using the NFS toolkit
• Test the NFS server package for various failures

Highly Available Oracle Database

• Install the Oracle database toolkit
• Configure an Oracle 11gR2 database package using the Oracle toolkit
• Check the operation of the Oracle database and failover

Serviceguard Manager

• Discuss the components of Serviceguard Manager
• Navigate the Serviceguard Manager interface
• Start and stop the cluster using Serviceguard Manager
• Move a package with Serviceguard Manager