Configuration of IPMP on Four Node Veritas Cluster 4.

0 configured in N+1 Topology

Customer: BSNL
Location: Sec 53, Mohali, Punjab
Configuration: Veritas Cluster 4.0. Four Node Cluster in N+1 topology.
Requirement: 4 node VCS Cluster in N + 1 Topology. Every Node has 2-3 Service Groups (in failover
mode) with one Virtual IP configured with each Service Group. Need to configure IP multipathing on all
four nodes.
Problem Faced: VCS have inbuilt agent MultiNICB which support Solaris IPMP. When we configured the
multiNICB in any service group, the group name on network interfaces is changed to name of multiNICB
resource mentioned in that service group. As one node is fail over for all other three nodes, it was not
possible to have more than one mutliNICB resource in cluster. So IPMP was failing whenever tried to
configure multiNICB resource in more than one Service group.
Solution provided:
Configured the hostname.ce0 / hostname.ce4 on all servers using following syntax
/etc/hostname.ce0 on masterdb node
masterdbtest1netmask+broadcast+deprecatedfailoverup\
addifmasterdbnetmask+broadcast+up

In the file /etc/hostname.ce4, add the following line:

Masterdbtest2netmask+broadcast+deprecatedfailoverup

Used the same syntax on all other servers. Didnt provide the group name in hostname file as it is provided
by VCS multinicB resource.
Created a new Service group in Parallel Mode. All four nodes made member of that service group. Add
multiNICB resource in that service group. Used ce0, ce4 as IPMP interfaces on all the servers (interface on
all servers dont need to be same. it is also possible to use different interfaces). With only MultiNICB
resource in the group, the Service group was not going online. To make the SG online, added another
resource named Phantom (it is inbuilt agent in VCS) in same service group.
Phantom Enables VCS to determine the status of parallel service groups that do not
include OnOf
Resources (resources that VCS cant start and stop as required). Without the dummy
resource provided by Phantom, VCS couldnt assess the status of groups that only
contain
None (Persistent) and OnOnly resources (like multiNICB) because the state of these
resources is not
Considered in the process of determining whether a group is online.
After adding the Phantom Resource, Able to start/stop that service group. Once start
this SG, IPMP group name on all interfaces is changed to name of MultiNICB resource
name of all systems (in the output of ifconfig a command on all servers).
Now added a resource name proxy (it is also inbuilt Agent in VCS) in all service
groups. Proxy resource is used to Mirrors the state of another resource on a local or
remote system. The target resource must be in a diferent resource group from the Proxy
resource. Added the multiNICB resource as target resource in all service groups in proxy
properties.

Added IPmultiNICB resource in all service group & provided the name of multiNICB resource in
the properties of IPmultiNICB. provided the logical IP & netmask etc.
After adding both resources, created the link as required & online the Service Group. All service
groups come up without any problem. Tested the IPMP functioning & failover on all systems
(within the local interfaces as well as across the systems on Service Group failover) & it is
working perfectly fine.
Status of call: Closed

Solution provided & implemented by : Sachin Kumar & Ashwani Kumar

Enterprise Services North