Novell OPEN ENTERPRISE SERVER 2 SP 2 - CLUSTER SERVICES 1.8.7 FOR LINUX Manual page 37

If this is a new cluster, the shared disk system must be connected to the first server so that the cluster
partition can be created during the Novell Cluster Services install.
SBD Partitions
The shared disk system must have at least 20 MB of free disk space available for creating a special
cluster partition for the split-brain detector (SBD).
IMPORTANT: The cluster SBD partition is not required unless you have shared storage in the
cluster.
The Novell Cluster Services installation automatically allocates one cylinder on one drive of the
shared disk system for the special cluster partition. Depending on the location of the cylinder, the
actual amount of space used by the cluster partition might be less than 20 MB.
If you want to mirror the SBD partition for greater fault tolerance, you need at least 20 MB of free
disk space on a second shared disk where you want to create the mirror.
Before installing Novell Cluster Services or creating a new SBD partition, you must initialize the
partition, and mark its device as shareable for clustering. If you plan to mirror the SBD, you must
also initialize the partition you want to use as the mirrored SBD, and mark its device as shareable for
clustering. This allows the installation software to recognize available partitions and present them
for use during the install. You can initialize the device by using NSSMU or the Storage plug-in to
iManager. Beginning in OES 2 SP2, the NSS utility called
a device and setting it to a shared state.
For information about how SBD partitions work and how to create one after installing the first node,
see Section 8.16.3, "Creating a Non-Mirrored Cluster SBD Partition," on page
Shared iSCSI Devices
If you are using iSCSI for shared disk system access, ensure that you have configured iSCSI
initiators and targets (LUNs) prior to installing Novell Cluster Services.
Shared RAID Devices
We recommend that you use hardware RAID in the shared disk subsystem to add fault tolerance to
the shared disk system.
Consider the following when using software RAIDs:
NSS software RAID is supported for shared disks.
Linux software RAID can be used in shared disk configurations that do not require the RAID to
be concurrently active on multiple nodes. Linux software RAID cannot be used underneath
clustered file systems (such as OCFS2, GFS, and CXFS) because it does not support concurrent
activation.
WARNING: Activating Linux software RAID devices concurrently on multiple nodes can
result in data corruption or inconsistencies.
ncsinit
Installing and Configuring Novell Cluster Services on OES 2 Linux
is also available for initializing
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