Deciding How To Install And Configure The Linux Agents In A Cluster; Recording Secondary Ip Addresses For The Agents; Determining Appropriate Failover Lists For The Agents - Novell GROUPWISE 8 - INTEROPERABILITY Manual

13.6 Deciding How to Install and Configure the
Linux Agents in a Cluster
There are several cluster-specific issues to consider as you plan to install the Linux MTA and POA
in your clustered GroupWise system:
Section 13.6.1, "Recording Secondary IP Addresses for the Agents," on page 132
Section 13.6.2, "Determining Appropriate Failover Lists for the Agents," on page 132
Section 13.6.3, "Determining Cluster Resource Information for the Linux Agents," on
page 133
Section 13.6.4, "Planning the Linux Agent Installation," on page 133

13.6.1 Recording Secondary IP Addresses for the Agents

By default, the GroupWise agents listen on all IP addresses, both primary and secondary, that are
bound to the server. This means that any time there is a possibility of two of the same type of agent
loading on the same node, it is important that each agent use the appropriate secondary IP address of
the GroupWise
that, in the case of the POA, GroupWise clients do not lose their connections to the POA. When you
use the Configure GroupWise for Clustering option, the GroupWise Installation program sets the --
ip switch in each agent startup file to its unique secondary IP address.
If you are going to set up a GroupWise name server to help GroupWise clients locate their post
offices, make sure that the default POA port number of 1677 is used somewhere in the cluster. For
more information, see
Office Agent" in the
AGENT CLUSTERING WORKSHEET
Under Item 3: MTA Network
Clustering Worksheet to the Agent Clustering Worksheet.
Under Item 6: POA Network
System Clustering Worksheet to the Agent Clustering Worksheet.

13.6.2 Determining Appropriate Failover Lists for the Agents

By default, a
organized in ascending alphanumeric order. Only one node at a time can have a particular
GroupWise partition mounted and active. If a GroupWise partition's preferred node fails, the
partition fails over to the next node in the failover list. You should customize the failover list for
each GroupWise partition based on the
When a node fails, its partitions should not all fail over together to the same secondary node.
Instead, the partitions should be distributed across multiple nodes in the cluster. This prevents any
one node from shouldering the entire processing load typically carried by another node. In addition,
some partitions should never have the potential of being mounted on the same node during a failover
situation. For example, a post office and POA that service a large number of very active GroupWise
client users should never fail over to a node where another very large post office and heavily loaded
POA reside. If they did, users on both post offices would notice a decrease in responsiveness of the
GroupWise client.
132 GroupWise 8 Interoperability Guide
partition. The secondary IP address moves with each agent when it fails over, so
"Simplifying Client/Server Access with a GroupWise Name
GroupWise 8 Administration
Information, transfer the domain secondary IP address from the System
Information, transfer the post office secondary IP address from the
GroupWise partition is configured to have all nodes in the cluster in its failover list,
Guide.
fan-out-failover principle.
Server" in "Post