7.4 Installing and Configuring an Archive Server Cluster

You can configure the archive server in an active/passive cluster configuration, using Novell Cluster Services™ 1.7 for OES NetWare.

Before you attempt to implement this solution, familiarize yourself with how Cluster Services works. For information, see the OES 2: Novell Cluster Services 1.8.4 for NetWare Administration Guide.

This section discusses the following tasks:

7.4.1 Installing OES NetWare and ArkManager 2.1

After you plan your system and meet prerequisites and guidelines, you are ready to install the Archive and Version Services software module, ArkManager, on your server.

Perform the following procedure for each server you plan to include in the archive server cluster:

  1. Install OES NetWare on your archive server, using the Basic install option.

    The Basic option installs ArkManager 2.1 on your server, but you must configure other key components after the install before you can run the program.

  2. The configuration files and sample configuration files are located in the sys:\arkManager directory. Confirm the install by looking for the following elements:

    arkConfig_sample_basic.xml

    arkConfig_sample_full.xml

    arkSQL_sample.cnf

  3. Use the Archive Versioning plug-in for iManager as the management interface to control versioning jobs and to view the ArkManager job log.

    1. Launch a Web browser, then open it to the Novell iManager Login:

      
https://svr1.example.com/nps/iManager.html

      Replace svr1.example.com with the actual IP address or DNS name of your archive server. The URL path is case sensitive.

    2. Log in as the administrator user (such as admin) to the Novell eDirectory tree that contains your archive server.

    3. The Archive Versioning role is available in the Infrastructure category. For information about iManager, see Novell iManager 2.7 Administration Guide.

  4. Continue with the next section, Making Devices Sharable for Clustering.

7.4.2 Making Devices Sharable for Clustering

After you install OES NetWare, make your storage devices sharable for clustering.

  1. In iManager, expand the Storage role, then click Devices.

  2. Select the primary archive server for the cluster as the server you want to manage.

  3. Select the devices you plan to use for the archive pool and volume, then mark the devices as Sharable.

    Make sure the devices you choose are located in a configuration that is available to every server in the planned cluster. For more information, see Sharing Devices for NSS Pools in the OES 2: NSS File System Administration Guide.

  4. Depending on your implementation plan, continue with one of the following:

7.4.3 Configuring Sharable Software RAID Devices for Your Archive Pool and Volume

After you make devices sharable for clustering, you can optionally create a software RAID devices for the archive pool and volume to satisfy your availability needs. Use one of the following methods:

Creating a Sharable Software RAID 1 or 5 Device

To create a data fault-tolerant solution, create a software RAID 1 or 5 device to use for your archive pool and volume. For information, see Creating a Software RAID Device with iManager in the OES 2: NSS File System Administration Guide .

  1. In iManager, expand the Storage role, then click Software RAIDs.

  2. If it is not already selected, select the primary archive server in the cluster.

  3. Click New to open the Create a Software RAID dialog box.

  4. Specify a name for the RAID.

  5. Specify the type of RAID:

    • RAID 1 (mirroring)

    • RAID 5 (striping with parity)

  6. (Conditional) For a RAID 5 device, specify the Stripe Size.

    The default size of 64 KB typically provides the best performance for devices with NSS volumes.

  7. From the available devices, select the devices that you made sharable in Section 7.4.2, Making Devices Sharable for Clustering.

    For a RAID 1 device, specify 2 to 4 devices. For a RAID 5 device, specify 3 to 14 devices.

  8. Specify the amount of space to use for each segment.

    Each segment contributes equal amounts of space.

  9. Click OK.

  10. Continue with Section 7.4.4, Installing Novell Cluster Services 1.7 for OES NetWare.

Creating a Sharable Software RAID 10

To provide maximum data fault tolerance, create a software RAID 10 (mirrored RAID 0 device) pool by creating a pool on a RAID 0 device, and then mirroring the pool.

  1. Create 2 to 4 RAID 0 (striping) devices. Repeat the following steps to create each device:

    1. In iManager, expand the Storage role, then click Software RAIDs.

    2. If it is not already selected, select the primary archive server in the cluster.

    3. Click New to open the Create a Software RAID dialog box.

    4. Specify a name for the RAID.

    5. Specify the type of RAID as RAID 0.

    6. Specify the Stripe Size.

      The default size of 64 KB typically provides the best performance for devices with NSS volumes.

    7. From the available devices, select the devices that you made sharable in Section 7.4.2, Making Devices Sharable for Clustering.

      Make sure that the segments in each of your RAID 0 devices have no devices in common; otherwise, you cannot mirror them later.

    8. Specify the amount of space to use for each segment.

      Each segment contributes equal amounts of space.

    9. Click OK.

  2. Install Novell Cluster Services 1.7 on each of the servers. For information, see Section 7.4.4, Installing Novell Cluster Services 1.7 for OES NetWare.

  3. Create a cluster-enabled pool on one of the RAID 0 devices. For information, see Section 7.4.5, Creating a Sharable Archive Pool.

  4. Mirror the cluster-enabled pool to create the RAID 10.

    For detailed information, see Mirroring an Existing Pool with NSSMU in the OES 2: NSS File System Administration Guide.

    1. At a server console prompt, enter

      
nssmu

    2. In NSSMU, select Partitions from the NSSMU main menu.

    3. Select the NSS partition for the archive pool.

      This is the cluster-enabled pool you create in Section 7.4.5, Creating a Sharable Archive Pool.

    4. Press F3 to create the RAID 1 device and mirror the partition.

    5. From the available devices, select 1 to 3 of the RAID 0 devices you created in Step 1, then press Enter.

  5. Continue with Section 7.4.6, Creating a Shared Archive Volume.

7.4.4 Installing Novell Cluster Services 1.7 for OES NetWare

  1. Install Novell Cluster Services 1.7 for OES NetWare for each server you plan to include in the archive server cluster.

    For information, see the OES 2: Novell Cluster Services 1.8.4 for NetWare Administration Guide.

  2. After Cluster Services is installed successfully on each server, continue with the next section, Creating a Sharable Archive Pool.

7.4.5 Creating a Sharable Archive Pool

Create a cluster-enabled, sharable pool. For more information, see Creating a Pool in the OES 2: NSS File System Administration Guide.

  1. In iManager, expand the Storage role, then click Pools.

  2. If it is not already selected, select the primary server in the cluster.

  3. Click New to open the New Pool wizard.

  4. Name the pool.

  5. For each of the shared devices, specify the space to use in the pool.

    If you select sharable software RAID devices, the entire space is used in the pool.

  6. Select Cluster Enable on Creation to enable this option.

  7. Select Activate on Creation to enable this option.

  8. To complete the cluster information, specify the following Shared-Pool Clustering Parameters:

    • Virtual Server Name: The name assigned by NetWare to the virtual server that represents the shared pool in the cluster.

    • CIFS Virtual Server Name: The name assigned by NetWare to the virtual server for handling CIFS (Common Internet File System) requests. This is the name of the server as it appears in a Windows system.

    • IP Address: The IP address that you want to assign the virtual server.

      To specify an IP address, tab between the different entries; no dot is required in the fields. For example, if the IP address is 192.168.1.1, type

      192 168 1 1

    • Advertising Protocols: Protocols that give users native file access to data: NCP, CIFS, and AFP.

      Specify one or more advertising protocols by selecting the check boxes of the protocols you want to enable for data requests to this shared pool.

  9. Click Finish.

  10. Continue with the next section, Creating a Shared Archive Volume.

7.4.6 Creating a Shared Archive Volume

On the cluster-enabled archive pool, create an NSS volume and directory where you plan to store the archive database and archive data. You should use the volume exclusively for the archive.

  1. Configure an NSS volume.

    The following procedure describes how to create a nonencrypted NSS volume with iManager. For detailed information, see Creating and Configuring Unencrypted NSS Volumes with iManager in the OES 2: Novell Storage Services File System Administration Guide for OES.

    If your implementation requires an encrypted NSS volume to store file versions from encrypted NSS data volumes, use the NSS Management Utility to create the encrypted volume. The iManager Storage plug-in does not provide an encryption option. For information, see Creating an Encrypted Volume in the OES 2: Novell Storage Services File System Administration Guide.

    1. In iManager, expand the Storage role, then click Volumes.

    2. If it is not already selected, select the archive server.

    3. Click New to open the New Volume wizard.

    4. Configure the new volume.

      • Specify a name for the volume. For example, ark.

      • Select the NSS pool you created in Section 7.3.3, Creating an Archive Pool, then select the Allow the Volume to Grow to Pool Size check box.

      • Specify the desired attributes for the volume.

    5. Click Finish.

  2. (Optional, recommended) Create a directory in the archive volume where you want to store the archive database and archive data.

    For detailed information, see Creating a Directory in the OES 2: File Systems Management Guide.

    1. Open your Web browser to the Novell Remote Manager Login page on the archive server, and then log in with your administrator username and password. For example, enter

      
https://192.168.1.1:8009

      Replace 192.168.1.1 with the actual IP address or DNS name of your archive server.

    2. Click Manage Server > Volumes.

    3. Click the Properties icon next to the archive volume.

    4. Type the name of the directory, then click Create Subdirectory.

  3. Continue with Section 7.4.8, Installing and Configuring the ArkSQL Server.

7.4.7 Configuring the ArkSQL Configuration File

  1. On the primary server in the cluster, configure the sys:\arkManager\arkSQL.cnf file.

    For information, see Section 7.3.5, Configuring the ArkSQL Configuration File.

  2. Copy the sys:\arkManager\arkSQL.cnf file from the primary server to the sys:\arkManager directory for each of the other servers in the cluster.

  3. Continue with Section 7.4.8, Installing and Configuring the ArkSQL Server.

7.4.8 Installing and Configuring the ArkSQL Server

  1. On each server in the cluster, install MySQL. Specify the shared volume location as the path of the archive database.

    For information, see Section 7.3.6, Installing and Configuring the ArkSQL Server.

  2. Continue with the next section, Configuring Archive Server Information.

7.4.9 Configuring Archive Server Information

  1. On the primary server, configure the archive server information in the sys:\arkManager\arkConfig.xml file.

    For information, see Section 7.3.7, Configuring Archive Server Information.

  2. Copy the sys:\arkManager\arkConfig.xml file from the primary server to the sys:\arkManager directory for each of the others servers in the cluster.

    If you modify the settings for the archive server in the future, you must reconfigure the Basic elements in the sys:\arkManager\arkConfig.xml file and copy the modified file to all of the servers in the cluster.

  3. Continue with Section 7.4.10, Archiving File Versions.

7.4.10 Archiving File Versions

  1. On the primary server in the cluster, configure the individual jobs for the archive cluster server. Specify the shared volume location as the path of the archive database.

    For information, see Section 9.0, Configuring Jobs in ArkConfig.

  2. Copy the sys:\arkManager\arkConfig.xml file from the primary server to the sys:\arkManager directory of the secondary servers in the cluster.

  3. Continue with the next section, Editing the Autoexec.ncf File.

7.4.11 Editing the Autoexec.ncf File

When you install MySQL and ArkManager, commands are added to the autoxec.ncf file on the server to automatically start both programs when the NetWare server starts. Because Novell Cluster Services starts and stops the programs, these commands must be removed or commented out from each server in the cluster where they are installed.

  1. On the primary server, open the autoexec.ncf file in a text editor.

  2. Comment out or remove the following line:

    
mysqld_safe --defaults-file=sys:\ArkManager\arkSQL.cnf

  3. Comment out or remove the following line:

    
arkstart

  4. If you are using Port 3306 for your ArkSQL server, make sure the following line is commented out.

    
mysqld_safe --autoclose

    This line should already be commented out as part of the install procedure.

  5. If you are using another port for your ArkSQL server, make sure the following line is commented out:

    
mysqld_safe --port=3307 --autoclose

    Replace 3307 with your actual port number. This line should already be commented out as part of the install procedure.

  6. Save the autoexec.ncf file.

  7. Copy the autoexec.ncf file to the other servers in the cluster.

  8. Continue with Section 7.4.12, Configuring Cluster Services to Automatically Stop and Start ArkManager and ArkSQL on System Reboot.

7.4.12 Configuring Cluster Services to Automatically Stop and Start ArkManager and ArkSQL on System Reboot

For each server in the cluster:

  1. Set up Novell Cluster Services to start arkManager by default on reboot of the cluster.

    1. Open ConsoleOne®.

    2. In the ConsoleOne Properties dialog box, select Scripts > Cluster Resource Load Script.

    3. Add the following commands to the end of the existing load script:

      
delay 2


      
mysqld_safe --defaults-file=sys:\ArkManager\arkSQL.cnf


      
search add sys:\arkManager


      
arkstart

    4. Click Apply.

  2. Set up Novell Cluster Services to stop arkManager services by default on the server down command.

    1. In the ConsoleOne Properties dialog box, click Scripts > Cluster Resource Unload Script.

    2. Add the following command to the beginning of the existing unload script:

      
arkstop

    3. Click Apply, then click Close.

  3. Restart each of the servers in the cluster to offline and then online the resources.

    For information, see the OES 2: Novell Cluster Services 1.8.4 for NetWare Administration Guide.

    When the servers come back up, Novell Archive and Version Services is running on the primary server. The secondary servers will be on hot standby, waiting to be called to action.