Red Hat Cluster Service 2 Tutorial - Archive

Cluster Setup

In Red Hat Cluster Services, the heart of the cluster is found in the /etc/cluster/cluster.conf XML configuration file.

There are three main ways of editing this file. Two are already well documented, so I won't bother discussing them, beyond introducing them. The third way is by directly hand-crafting the cluster.conf file. This method is not very well documented, and directly manipulating configuration files is my preferred method. As my boss loves to say; The more computers do for you, the more they do to you". I've grudging come to agree with him.

The first two, well documented, graphical interface methods are:

• system-config-cluster, older GUI tool run directly from one of the cluster nodes.
• Conga, comprised of the ricci node-side client and the luci web-based server (can be run on machines outside the cluster).

I do like the tools above, but I often find issues that send me back to the command line. I'd recommend setting them aside for now as well. Once you feel comfortable with cluster.conf syntax, then by all means, go back and use them. I'd recommend not relying on them though, which might be the case if you try to use them too early in your studies.

The First cluster.conf Foundation Configuration

The very first stage of building the cluster is to create a configuration file that is as minimal as possible. To do that, we need to define a few thing;

• The name of the cluster and the cluster file version.
  • Define cman options
  • The nodes in the cluster
    • The fence method for each node
  • Define fence devices
  • Define fenced options

That's it. Once we've defined this minimal amount, we will be able to start the cluster for the first time! So lets get to it, finally.

Name the Cluster and Set The Configuration Version

The parent element containing the entire cluster is