SUSE® Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension is an integrated suite of open source clustering technologies that enables you to implement highly available physical and virtual Linux clusters. For quick and efficient configuration and administration, the High Availability Extension includes both a graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface (CLI).
This guide is intended for administrators who need to set up, configure, and maintain High Availability (HA) clusters. Both approaches (GUI and CLI) are covered in detail to help the administrators choose the appropriate tool that matches their needs for performing the key tasks.
The guide is divided into the following parts:
Before starting to install and configure your cluster, make yourself familiar with cluster fundamentals and architecture, get an overview of the key features and benefits, as well as modifications since the last release. Learn which hardware and software requirements must be met and what preparations to take before executing the next steps. Perform the installation and basic setup of your HA cluster using YaST.
Add, configure and manage resources, using either the GUI or the crm command line interface. Learn how to make use of load balancing and fencing. In case you consider writing your own resource agents or modifying existing ones, get some background information on how to create different types of resource agents.
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension ships with a cluster-aware file system (Oracle Cluster File System, OCFS2) and volume manager (clustered Logical Volume Manager, cLVM). For replication of your data, the High Availability Extension also delivers DRBD (Distributed Replicated Block Device) which you can use to mirror the data of a high availabilitly service from the active node of a cluster to its standby node.
Managing your own cluster requires you to perform a certain amount of troubleshooting. Learn about the most common problems and how to fix them. Find a comprehensive reference of the command line tools the High Availability Extension offers for administering your own cluster. Also, find a list of the most important facts and figures about cluster resources and resource agents.
Many chapters in this manual contain links to additional documentation resources. These include additional documentation that is available on the system as well as documentation available on the Internet.
For an overview of the documentation available for your product and the latest documentation updates, refer to http://www.novell.com/documentation.