HP XC System Software Installation Guide Version 3.1

Availability Tools from Other Vendors
If you prefer to use another availability tool, such as Heartbeat Version 1 or Version 2 (which is an open
source tool), you must obtain the tool and configure it for use on your own. Third-party vendors are
responsible for providing customer support for their tools.
Installation and configuration instructions for any third-party availability tools you decide to use are
outside the scope of this document. See the vendor documentation for instructions.
1.9.4 Write Translator and Other Supporting Scripts
Translator scripts parse the HP XC configuration and management database (CMDB), the database that
stores HP XC configuration data. The translator scripts use the information in the database to create the
files necessary for the availability tool to function properly on an HP XC system. Specifically, a translator
script is responsible for gathering IP alias and daemon information and creating the necessary files to
ensure that a node that serves a service advertises the IP alias and starts the daemon.
Because Serviceguard is the recommended availability tool, translator scripts and other supporting scripts
are already provided for you in the HP XC Serviceguard RPM. You do not have to write scripts if you are
using Serviceguard.
Availability Tools from Other Vendors
If you are using an availability tool other than HP Serviceguard, you are responsible for completing the
following tasks:
1. You must write translator scripts and any other required scripts. See the vendor documentation or
contact the HP XC Support organization (at [e-mail]) for information about how to
write these scripts.
2. When the scripts are ready, you must copy or move the scripts to the
/opt/hptc/availability/availability_tool directory for use by the cluster_config
utility.
When the cluster_config utility finds translator scripts in the
/opt/hptc/availability/availability_tool directory, you are prompted to specify the nodes
that you want to associate as members in an availability set, and you select the availability tool you want
to use to manage the availability set.
1.9.5 Choose Nodes as Members of Availability Sets
Use the following guidelines to decide which nodes to associate into availability sets:
• If you want to configure the database server with improved availability, you must create one
availability set, containing the head node and one other node, to serve the dbserver service. The
dbserver service is served by the head node by default and cannot be moved.
• When the head node is a member of an availability set, HP recommends that the second member in
the availability set is the same hardware model type as the head node.
• The head node can be a member of only one availability set per availability tool.
• If you intend to configure nat or LVS as services for improved availability, the nodes you associate
in the availability set must have an external Ethernet connection configured as well. You do this using
the cluster_config utility.
• You cannot overlap nodes in availability sets. A node can be a member in only one availability set
per availability tool. For instance, if nodes n8 and n7 are associated into an availability set under
Serviceguard, neither node n8 nor n7 can be a member of another availability set being managed by
Serviceguard.
However, nodes n8 or n7 or both can be members of another availability set if it is managed by an
availability tool other than Serviceguard, for example HeartBeat Version 1 or Version 2.
1.9.6 Role Assignments for Improved Availability
An important part of planning your strategy for improved availability is to determine the services for
which availability is vital to the system operation. Services are delivered in node roles. A node role is an
abstraction that combines one or more services into a group and provides a convenient way of installing
services on a node.
28 Preparing for a New Installation