Configuring Failover; Agile Management Consoles; Agile Fusion Manager Modes; Agile Fusion Manager And Failover - HP IBRIX X9720 System Administrator Manual

4 Configuring failover

This chapter describes how to configure failover for agile management consoles, file serving nodes,
network interfaces, and HBAs.

Agile management consoles

The agile Fusion Manager maintains the cluster configuration and provides graphical and
command-line user interfaces for managing and monitoring the cluster. The agile Fusion Manager
is installed on all file serving nodes when the cluster is installed. The Fusion Manager is active on
one node, and is passive on the other nodes. This is called an agile Fusion Manager configuration.

Agile Fusion Manager modes

An agile Fusion Manager can be in one of the following modes:
active. In this mode, the Fusion Manager controls console operations. All cluster administration
and configuration commands must be run from the active Fusion Manager.
passive. In this mode, the Fusion Manager monitors the health of the active Fusion Manager.
If the active Fusion Manager fails, the a passive Fusion Manager is selected to become the
active console.
nofmfailover. In this mode, the Fusion Manager does not participate in console operations.
Use this mode for operations such as manual failover of the active Fusion Manager, X9000
software upgrades, and server blade replacements.
Changing the mode
Use the following command to move a Fusion Manager to passive or nofmfailover mode:
ibrix_fm -m passive | nofmfailover [-A | -h <FMLIST>]
If the Fusion Manager was previously the active console, X9000 software will select a new active
console. A Fusion Manager currently in active mode can be moved to either passive or nofmfailover
mode. A Fusion Manager in nofmfailover mode can be moved only to passive mode.
With the exception of the local node running the active Fusion Manager, the -A option moves all
instances of the Fusion Manager to the specified mode. The -h option moves the Fusion Manager
instances in <FMLIST> to the specified mode.

Agile Fusion Manager and failover

Using an agile Fusion Manager configuration provides high availability for Fusion Manager
services. If the active Fusion Manager fails, the cluster virtual interface will go down. When the
passive Fusion Manager detects that the cluster virtual interface is down, it will become the active
console. This Fusion Manager rebuilds the cluster virtual interface, starts Fusion Manager services
locally, transitions into active mode, and take over Fusion Manager operation.
Failover of the active Fusion Manager affects the following features:
User networks. The virtual interface used by clients will also fail over. Users may notice a brief
reconnect while the newly active Fusion Manager takes over management of the virtual
interface.
GUI. You must reconnect to the Fusion Manager VIF after the failover.
Failing over the Fusion Manager manually
To fail over the active Fusion Manager manually, place the console into nofmfailover mode. Enter
the following command on the node hosting the console:
ibrix_fm -m nofmfailover
Agile management consoles 37