Although eGuide is a session-based tool that ships without any failover feature, you can run it in a clustered environment. This section explains how to set up eGuide to run in a clustered environment. For more information about Novell® Cluster ServicesTM, see the Novell Cluster Services 1.7 for NetWare 6.5 Administration Guide.
Install and configure eGuide on the nodes in the cluster where the virtual IP address moves to during failover (that is, an Active/Active cluster configuration).
If the node running eGuide fails, Novell Cluster Services detects the node failure and moves (reloads) the virtual IP address to another node in the cluster.
Using the Generic_IP_Service template that ships with Novell Cluster Services, create a new cluster resource called eGuide.
For information about the template and where it is located, see the Installation section in the Novell Cluster Services 1.7 for NetWare 6.5 Administration Guide.
The cluster resource you create uses a virtual IP address that moves between nodes in the cluster.
When you create a new cluster resource, a wizard steps you through the creation of a load script and an unload script.
Verify the load and unload scripts.
The load script should contain only the following lines (any other lines should be commented out):
./opt/novell/ncs/lib/ncsfuncs
exit_on_error add_secondary_ipaddress xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
exit 0The unload script should contain only the following lines:
./opt/novell/ncs/lib/ncsfuncs
ignore_error del_secondary_ipaddress xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
exit 0Point your Web browser to: http://web_server/nps/eGuide.html.
Replace web_server with the IP address used in the eGuide cluster resource.
eGuide services are now available; however, any live sessions are not failed over. If a service fails in the middle of a user's session, that user must re-authenticate and restart whatever processes were interrupted.
Because eGuide, Tomcat, and Apache are already running (Active/Active) on the other nodes, there is no load time for these applications if Novell Cluster Services moves the virtual IP to another node.
Although Active/Active mode is the recommended configuration, eGuide can also be run in Active/Passive mode. Active/Passive mode signifies that the software runs on only one node at a time in the cluster. When a server fails, the software starts on another specified node in the cluster, and the cluster volumes that were mounted on the failed server fail over to that other node. This makes Active/Passive mode slower because, in addition to cluster volumes failing over, the software must load on other servers in the cluster before users can access files and directories. For more information about Active/Passive clustering modes, see the Novell Cluster Services 1.7 for NetWare 6.5 Administration Guide.
If you want to configure eGuide as an Active/Passive clustered resource, you need to create a cluster resource that loads and unloads both eGuide and its dependencies (that is, Apache and Tomcat). You need to complete this identical configuration of eGuide on all nodes where you want eGuide highly available.