Configuring the GroupWise High Availability (GWHA) in GroupWise 2014

  • 7016275
  • 09-Mar-2015
  • 12-Jun-2020

Environment


Novell GroupWise 2014
Novell GroupWise 2014 R2
GroupWise 18

Situation

Minimum steps to getting the GroupWise High Availability GWHA service running
Unable to get the GWHA working properly
Unable to configure GROUPWISE_MA_OPTIONS in /etc/sysconfig in yast

Resolution

This guide assumes the GroupWise Monitor package has been installed already.  This is required for the GWHA to work.  If needed, the documentation can be found here

The steps below describe configuring the GWHA for a single server setup.  Additional steps will be required when configuring for multiple servers or a clustered server, however the steps should be relatively the same for the other servers involved.
  1. Create a user for the GWHA service by typing useradd gwhauser
    Note: gwhauser can be named anything as long as it's used in the config later
  2. Create a password for the gwhauser by typing passwd gwhauser and proceed to enter a password
  3. Modify the /etc/opt/novell/groupwise/gwha.allow file so that gwhauser is uncommented or alternatively add the user that was created for the gwha
  4. Enable the GWHA service by launching YaST and navigating to Network Services | Network Services (xinetd), enable Network Services if needed and then scroll down to gwha under the Service column and toggle the status to on
  5. Make sure that the service is properly running by typing netstat -peanut | grep :8400
    Note: If there is no output showing listening, then step 4 was most likely not completed properly
  6. Go to GWHA startup options in YaST by opening to System | /etc/sysconfig Editor, once it loads, highlight Network | Mail | GroupWise | GROUPWISE_MA_OPTIONS
    Note: Making this change should restart grpwise-ma.  rcgrpwise-ma restart can also be ran manually when needed
  7. In the textbox beneath Setting of: GROUPWISE_MA_OPTIONS add --hauser gwhauser --hapassword novell --hapoll 240 and proceed to save by selecting OK
    Note: These should be all the startup options needed, if more are desired, the other startup options can be found here
    Also note: --hapoll 240 says to poll every 240 seconds.  --hapassword novell is entered assuming the password set for gwhauser is novell123
  8. Restart xinetd by typing rcxinetd restart
    Note: Check to see if the service is properly listening by typing netstat -peanut | grep :8400
    Also note: If upon restarting the xinetd service a message similar to xinetd services are already running, the command killall -9 xinetd should be ran and then rcxinetd start
  9. Test the stopping one of the agents with rcgrpwise stop agentname as outlined here
    Note: If everything seems to be configured properly and the GWHA is not starting agents, type rcgrpwise-ma restart and if needed, check the steps given here
    Also Note: If the GroupWise services are R2 or above, the steps in the following document may be needed GWHA will function

Additional Information

Detailed documentation for this topic can be found here