Chapter 2. Installation and Setup / 2.4. Preparations | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 2.3. Shared Disk System Requirements | 2.5. Installing Heartbeat |  | |
Chapter 2. Installation and Setup / 2.4. Preparations | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.3. Shared Disk System Requirements | 2.5. Installing Heartbeat | | |
Prior to installation, execute the following preparatory steps:
Configure hostname resolution by either setting up a DNS server or by
editing the /etc/hosts file on each server in the
cluster as described in Modifying /etc/hosts with YaST. It is essential that members of the cluster are able to find each other
by name. If the names are not available, internal cluster communication
will fail.
Configure time synchronization by making Heartbeat nodes synchronize to a time server outside the cluster as described in Configuring the Heartbeat Servers for Time Synchronization. The cluster nodes will use the time server as their time synchronization source.
Heartbeat does not require that time is synchronized for each of the nodes in the cluster, however, it is highly recommended if you ever plan to look at logfiles.
Procedure 2.1. Modifying /etc/hosts with YaST
On one SLES 10 server, open YaST, and in left column, select +.
In the window, click and fill in the necessary information in the pop-up window for one other server in the cluster.
This information includes the IP address, hostname (for example node2.novell.com), and host alias (for example node2) of the other server.
Use node names for host aliases. You can find node names by executing uname -n at a command prompt on each server.
Click , and then repeat Step 2 to add the other nodes in the cluster to the
/etc/hosts file on this server.
Repeat Step 1 through Step 3 on each server in your Heartbeat cluster.
To check if hostname resolution is functioning properly, ping the node name (host alias) you specified in Step 2 .
Procedure 2.2. Configuring the Heartbeat Servers for Time Synchronization
Time synchronization will not start unless the date and time on the cluster servers is already close. To manually set the date and time on cluster servers, use the date command at the command line of each cluster server to view, and if necessary change, the date and time for that server.
To configure the nodes in the cluster to use the time server as their time source proceed as follows:
On a cluster server, start YaST, click , then click .
Choose to have the NTP daemon start during boot and then enter the IP address of the time server you configured.
Click and reboot this server to ensure the service starts correctly.
Repeat Step 1 through Step 3 on the other non-time server nodes in the cluster.
Reboot all cluster nodes. After rebooting the nodes, time should be synchronized properly.
To check if time synchronization is functioning properly, run the ntpq -p command on each cluster node. Running the ntpq -p command on a non-time server node will display the server that is being used as the time source.
