HOW-TO: Sun Cluster in VMware Fusion

VMWare fusion cluster…

For all those people that need a sun cluster on their macbook. This is a small how-to of sorts, I’ll not go into full detail regarding everything as if you can’t manage the simpler steps then I find it unlikely you’ll manage to handle the later tasks of configuring sun cluster.

So..

Step #1.

Create a Virtual Machine and install Solaris 10. (Basic configuration, it will want one disk, and one network interface) For the Filesystem layout, the default set up will be an 8Gb disk this needs to be split something like

512 swap

512 /globaldevices

7gb /

In the installation provide a hostname along the lines of node-a and give the network interface a useable IP address, VMware uses 172.16.190.X so use this range for your IP address. Install the default packages and complete the installation. Once rebooted:

#svcadm disable sendmail

#svcadm disable cde-login

Once these services are disabled create a user and shut the vm down.

Step #2

Open finder and locate the virtual machine on your mac, right click and select duplicate. Rename the Virtual Machine to node-b or at least make it match up to your naming system. Boot up the duplicate system (node-b) and once logged in edit the following files:

/etc/nodename

/etc/hostname.e1000g0

/etc/hosts

Give the system a different IP address and alter the naming so that it follows on from the previous virtual machine. Also ensure that in the hosts file you keep the record for the other system otherwise this will need adding later on. Reboot the system and ensure that it’s networking information is correct, you can try pinging between the two machines and ensure the hosts file entries are correct otherwise the Sun Cluster will fail later. Once tested ensure that both machines are switched off.

Step #3

Open Terminal from /Applications/Utilites on the mac and change directory to where the Virtual machines are located. Change directory to the first node and locate the .vmx file that is in there, this will need opening in vim and the following line will need adding to it:

disk.locking = "FALSE"

In VMware fusion open the settings of the second node and rename it to node-b to make it easier to differentiate between the nodes in VMware. Open the settings of the first node, and go to the hard disks setting. Add 3 or more hard disks to the first node, and apply the changes, these disks will be used as our shared storage for the cluster. Open the hard disk settings for the second node and add a disk to the virtual machine, under the filename drop down menu select Choose existing disk… and add the disks from node-a, whilst ensuring that ‘Share this virtual disk …’ is selected. Also add another two network adapters to each virtual machine, these will be used for the cluster interconnects.

Step #4

Start the nodes up that are part of the cluster, you should test the disks are visible by using the format command. Copy the sun cluster installer over to both nodes and either using X forwarding or just use the console start the installer. Once the installer starts ensure that the following components are installed:

Sun Cluster

Sun Cluster Agentts

Quorum Server

The installer will patch a few packages and then confirm that the system requirements are met. Select ‘Configure Now’ and ensure that Support for Remote configuration is enabled, then start the installer.

Step #5

Once the installer has finished, you’ll be returned to the prompt and its not the point to actually ‘install’ the cluster. On the first node (node-a), change to the cluster binaries directory /usr/cluster/bin and start scinstall. Select the Create a new cluster node and follow the actions below, ensure that you select Custom cluster install.

What is the name of the cluster you want to establish?  vmcluster

Node name (Control-D to finish):  node-a

Node name (Control-D to finish):  node-b

Node name (Control-D to finish):  ^D

Do you need to use DES authentication (yes/no) [no]?  no

Should this cluster use at least two private networks (yes/no) [yes]?  yes

Does this two-node cluster use switches (yes/no) [yes]?  no 

Then for the cluster interconnects ensure that e1000g1 connects to e1000g1 and e1000g2 connects to e1000g2.

Is it okay to accept the default network address (yes/no) [yes]?  yes

Is it okay to accept the default netmask (yes/no) [yes]?  yes

Do you want to turn off global fencing (yes/no) [no]?  no

Do you want to disable automatic quorum device selection (yes/no) [no]?  no

The Globaldevices set up should use /globaldevices by default, it will check the existence on both nodes.

Is it okay to create the new cluster (yes/no) [yes]?  yes

Interrupt cluster creation for cluster check errors (yes/no) [no]?  no

{cluster installs and nodes reboot}

Step #6

If you wish to use the Solaris webconsole plugin for Sun Cluster, it helps to bind the console listening port to an external IP as it’s bound to localhost by default:

# smcwebserver stop
 # svccfg -s svc:/system/webconsole setprop options/tcp_listen = true
 # svcadm refresh svc:/system/webconsole
 # /usr/share/webconsole/private/bin/wcremove -i console
 # svcadm clear system/webconsole:console
 # smcwebserver start

This can then be accessed on http://VM_IP:6789/ .

Job done.