HP 3PAR Cluster Extension Software Administrator Guide (5697-2047, June 2012)

Failover error handling
Windows Cluster automatically fails over resource groups if the system where resource group is
running on becomes unavailable. This is part of the cluster functionality. Also, this means that if a
problem occurs with the HP 3PAR storage system, a resource group online process will be stopped.
The behavior of HP 3PAR Cluster Extension is highly configurable. Depending upon the customer
setting, Cluster Extension is used to prevent resource groups from going online automatically under
the wrong conditions.
Cluster Extension will return local, data center-wide or even cluster-wide errors to prevent accidental
access to the resource group’s virtual volumes. HP does not recommend restarting a failed resource
group without investigating the problem. A failed Cluster Extension resource indicates the need to
check the status of the Remote Copy volume group and its member virtual volumes and decide
whether it is safe to continue or not.
HP 3PAR Cluster Extension services, resources, or resource groups return a data center error and
fail the resource if the Remote Copy volume group status indicates that the problem experienced
locally would not be solved on another system connected to the same HP 3PAR storage system.
Depending on the resource group and resource property values, the resource tries to start on
different nodes several times. If the remote data center is down, this would look like the resource
group is alternating between the surviving systems. This happens until the previously mentioned
resource and resource group property values are reached or you disable the restarting of the
resource. This could be also the case if the ApplicationStartup resource property has been set to
FASTFAILBACK. If a 3PAR storage system state has been discovered that does not allow bringing
the resource group online on any system in the cluster, a cluster error would be reported and the
resource would fail on all systems. This could lead to the same behavior as described for a HP
3PAR Cluster Extension data center error.
Failing physical disk resources during online attempt of the resource group
When resource groups that use HP 3PAR Cluster Extension to failover Remote Copy volume group
are brought online, physical disk resources may fail due to the following reasons:
The physical disk resource does not have a dependency on its HP 3PAR Cluster Extension
resources/packages configured. Review the setup steps for HP 3PAR Cluster Extension
resources.
The fibre channel path or connectivity between the servers and the storage systems may be
broken. So user has to review the FC connectivity between the servers and the storage systems.
Cannot connect to HP 3PAR storage system
During HP 3PAR Cluster Extension configuration, if you are unable to connect to the 3PAR storage
system, ensure that the storage system is up and running, and the network ports are functioning
properly. To check for response from the storage system over the network, use the ping command
from cluster nodes to the storage system's network name or IP address.
ping <storage system network name or IP address>
If you are using storage system network name, verify it is resolving to proper IP address using
nslookup command from the cluster nodes.
nslookup <storage system network name>
Failover error handling 85