[ Next Article | Previous Article | Book Contents | Library Home | Legal | Search ]
7318 Model S20 Guide and Reference

7318 High-Availability Environment for the Model S20

The following information describes the 7318 High-Availability (HA) feature that can be used with High-Availability Cluster Multi-Processing (HACMP) servers. HACMP enables the creation of a cluster of loosely coupled systems.

Introduction

The following provides information on the ICMP version of the 7318 high availability feature that can be used with a HACMP/6000 cluster environment. When there is a redundant network, this feature allows the 7318 to recover from a network failure.

The HA feature is designed to allow a 7318 to physically attach to two distinct local area networks (LANs), using both its 10Base-T and AUI port connectors. Once attached, the 7318 will be given the address of a host or hosts that will determine which network to use.

The 7318 will come online and automatically switch to the interface configured as the primary interface. It will then begin to "ping" the host. As long as those pings are returned, the 7318 will remain on that Ethernet. If, however, the pings stop being returned, the 7318 will switch (after a length of time) to the backup interface. It will then try to ping the host again. If this succeeds, the 7318 will stay on that port. If it fails immediately, or after some amount of time, the 7318 will switch back to primary port and stay there until a ping is returned.

The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) version of the HA uses an ICMP ping packet to determine if the host is online. In the ICMP case, there are separate Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for the host, as well as separate IP and other Internet parameters for both interfaces of the 7318.

Notes:
  1. This HA feature is incompatible with daisy-chaining of multiple 7318s on a single ethernet drop. Each 7318 with the HA feature enabled should have a private ethernet drop.

  2. The HA feature is also incompatible with mixing of the P10/S20-style ports on the 7318 Model S20.

Definitions

The following definitions are important in understanding the ICMP version of the HA feature:

Primary host Specifies the host used to determine the operability of the Ethernet on the primary interface. The Backup Host is defined as the host that is used to determine the operability of the Ethernet on the backup interface. Both the primary and backup hosts have separate Internet addresses.
Primary interface Specifies the first interface on the 7318.
Backup interface Specifies the second interface on the 7318, which is used if pinging fails on the primary interface.
Ping interval Specifies the periods between pings.
Switch to backup Specifies the number of seconds that the HA feature keeps the 7318 on the primary interface without pings, before switching to the backup interface.
Switch to primary Specifies the number of seconds that the HA feature keeps the 7318 on the backup interface without pings, before switching to the primary interface.

The 7318 also has a second set of Internet parameters for the backup interface. These are known as BackupHost, BackupMyIPaddr, BackupMyNetMask and BackupMyDefGateway.

General Operation of the HA Feature

The 7318 will initialize on the primary interface when the HA feature is enabled. Once started, the HA module will ping the primary host IP address using the ICMP protocol, using the ping interval. If the ping is not returned, the switch to backup timer will be started. If that timer expires without receiving any ping response, the HA module will switch the interface to the backup interface.

At this point, all of the Internet parameters for the 7318 will be switched to the backup ones, and a new address (that of the backup host) will be used for pinging. After the pinging starts, if the ping is not returned, the switch to primary timer will be started. If that timer expires without receiving any ping response, the HA module will switch the interface back to the primary interface.

At this point, the HA module will again start pinging the primary host. However, in this state, the 7318 will stay on the primary interface until ping responses are received (for example, the interface will not keep switching in the case where there is no response from either port). Once a ping response is received in this state, the HA module will reset and go back to its initial state where an absence of ping response will again cause the interface to switch.

Configuration File Format of the HA Feature

The [HighAvail] section enables and configures the HA feature for the Model S20.

[HighAvail] Section

The [HighAvail] section contains the following entries:

enable=1 Disables or enables the HA feature on the 7318. Acceptable values are 0, which disables the HA feature, and 1, which enables it. Setting the enable entry to 0 is useful for turning the HA feature off, while saving the rest of the information in the configuration file.
addressType=icmp Specifies the type of ping protocol used by the 7318 to ping the primary and backup hosts.
PrimaryHost=Address Specifies the IP address of host to ping on primary network.
BackupHost=Address Specifies the IP address of host to ping on the backup network.
BackupMyIPAddr=Address Specifies the IP address of 7318 on the backup network.
BackupMyNetMask=Address Specifies the network mask for use on the backup network.
BackupMyDefGateway=Address Specifies the gateway for use on the backup network.
Note: All addresses should be in dotted decimal format.
SwitchToBackup=Integer Specifies the integer time in seconds before the 7318 switches from the primary to the backup Ethernet port in the case of failure. It is recommended that this value be set to 5 times larger than the PingingInterval parameter.
SwitchToPrimary=Integer Specifies the integer time in seconds before the 7318 switches from the backup Ethernet port to the Primary port, in the case of failure. For HACMP/6000 environments, this value should also be longer than the worst case fallover recovery time.
PingingInterval=Integer Specifies the time in seconds between pings.
PrimaryInterface=AUI/10baseT Specifies either the primary or backup interface.
BackupInterface=AUI/10baseT Specifies either the primary or backup interface.
Note: Do not configure both primary and backup interfaces the same.
Internet Parameters Set from NVRAM, BOOTP, or the configuration file. The values being set are:
  • Netmask
  • Gateways
  • Domain
  • Broadcast
  • Nameserver
    Note: Both the host and 7318 must have a separate set of Internet parameters for use on the primary and backup interface.

The ICMP Version of the HA Feature figure graphically shows the layout of a 7318 attached to two separate IP interfaces.

IP Network Address Format

The Model S20 HA configuration uses IP network address format. The IP address consists of four groups of decimal numbers, each group separated by a . (period). Acceptable values for each group are 0 through 255. A typical IP address might look like the following:

255.192.40.16 

Configuring the High-Availability Environment for the Model S20

Configuring the HA feature involves editing the default configuration file and uncommenting appropriate lines.

Prerequisites

You must have root user authority.

Procedure

  1. Copy the default configuration file to a 7318-specific file by typing:
    cp /usr/lib/cns/s20.cfg /usr/lib/cns/7318EtherAddress.cfg
    where the 7318EtherAddress parameter specifies the Ethernet hardware address of the 7318 to be configured for HA.

  2. Uncomment the following entries in the 7318 default configuration file and change the values as required for your configuration:
    [HighAvail]
    enable=0
    ;addresstype=icmp
    ;pinginginterval=60
    ;switchtobackup=600
    ;switchtoprimary=1200
    ;primaryinterface=AUI
    ;secondaryinterface=10baseT
    ;primaryhost=0.0.0.0
    ;backuphost=0.0.0.0
    ;backupmyipaddr=0.0.0.0
    ;backupmynetmask=0.0.0.0
    ;backupmydefgateway=0.0.0.0

High-Availability Configuration with a Single Host

The connection station software model: S20 (3.41.13) is shown in the following figure:

Boot the 7318 using the 10BT with bootp. An example of a .cfg file is shown below:

[HighAvail]
enable=1
 
;You can select either ICMP (TCP/IP) pings or IPX (NetWare) pings. 
;For TCP/IP use address type "icmp". For NetWare, use "ipx".
 
addresstype=icmp
 
;Timeouts in seconds
;   use ratio here pingingInterval:switchToX of at least 5:1
 
pingingInterfal=5
switchToBackup=30
switchToPrimary=30
 
;primaryhost and backuphost are the names of hosts to ping
;to determine when to switch interfaces. The addresses
;can be IP addresses or IPX addresses. In the case of 
;IPX addresses, the addresses can be the same. They must 
;be different for IP.
 
primaryhost=3.3.3.1
backuphost=2.2.2.2
backupmyipaddr=2.2.2.99
backupmynetmask=255.255.255.0
backupmydefgateway=2.2.2.2
 
;The following interfaces should be set to 10baseT or AUI.
;The backupInterface should be the opposite of the primary.
 
primaryInterface=10baseT
backupInterface=AUI

There were no special routes in the host, just the routes for the network interfaces that show up when configuring the interfaces with SMIT. From netstat -rn:

default 129.35.128.1 UG 2 1132 tr0
2.2.2 2.2.2.2 U 2 48 en1
3.3.3 3.3.3.1 U 2 1349 en0
127 127.0.0.1 U 1 9 lo0
129.35.128 129.35.128.61 U 7 4302 tr0

The route table on the 7318 was interesting before and after the fallover. The show route command showed a loopback route, a default route for the gateway, and a route for the active network interface (3.3.3). After the fallover, all references to the 3.3.3 network were gone and replaced by the equivalent routes for the 2.2.2 network. The original routes were restored with it flipped back over to the primary ethernet.

After the fallover to the secondary ethernet, a telnet session to the second host system at 2.2.2.3 (an AIX Version 4 system) was started. It was lost again when a toggle back to the primary was done.

7318 P10 and S20 High Availability Feature Limitations

  1. No daisy-chaining.

    When the first 7318 in the chain switches interfaces, it switches to the backup ethernet, which is the wrong subnet (IP)/LAN(IPX) for the rest of the 7318s in the chain. The second and subsequent 7318s in the chain cannot switch interfaces to the 10BaseT because it is not connected.

  2. No P10-stype ports on the S20 when doing ICMP switching.

    The IPX protocol stack is not set up to use an internal network number for the 7318 (IPX section in the config file). P10-style sessions do not switch over with the telnet sessions, but may recover when the 7318 returns to the primary interface.

  3. No SLIP/CSLIP/PPP fallover.

    There is no dynamic routing in the 7318 to handle the change in routing that would be required.

  4. No backup Kerberos-authorized server.

    No option exists in the configuration file to set it or use it. You must rely on the backup gateway to provide a path to the Kerberos server.

  5. No backup mgrAddress for SNMP.

    No option exists in the configuration to set it or use it. You must rely on the backup gateway to provide a path to the SNMP manager.

Related Information

Refer to High Availability Cluster Multi-Processing/6000 Administration Guide for more information concerning HACMP.


[ Next Article | Previous Article | Book Contents | Library Home | Legal | Search ]