Using HP Serviceguard for Linux with VMware virtual machines - Technical white paper

About vminfo

Serviceguard running on VMs uses the vminfo command to get information about the virtualization platform. When

invoked (vminfo –M), it returns the ESX host name and the default timeout value. A symbolic link cmvminfo is created for

this command in the $SGSBIN directory.

Installing vminfo

vminfo command is part of the Serviceguard rpms from A.11.19 onwards. On Serviceguard version A.11.18, you have to

install vminfo separately. Go through the details below to get the rpms for your system.

HP has released separate vminfo rpms for SLES and RHEL distributions. They are vmtoolkit-0.1-0.sles10.noarch.rpm,

vmtoolkit-0.1-0.rhel4.noarch.rpm, and vmtoolkit-0.1-0.rhel5.noarch.rpm. These rpms are delivered with the

Serviceguard for Linux Contributed Toolkit Suite, which you can download onto the host from

https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=SGLXTOOLS

Install the appropriate vmtoolkit rpm using the following command on the guest:

# rpm –ihv vmtoolkit-0.1-0.xxxxx.noarch.rpm

where “xxxxx” is the appropriate distribution designator.

The command is installed in the directory /opt/hp/vmtoolkit/ on the guest.

About sg_persist

If a Serviceguard cluster has one or more virtual machine nodes, all the nodes of the cluster must have the sg_persist

command installed. The sg_persist command is used for SCSI persistent reservation and is available with the Linux

distributions. These packages are generally installed during OS installation, for example, on SLES versions 10 and 11. If

they are not, you need to install them from the distribution discs.

Installing sg_persist on Red Hat

The sg_persist command is included in sg3_utils package. It is available on RHEL 4 Update 5 (and later), RHEL 5 Update 6

and later, and RHEL 6.

To install the rpm, use the command

# rpm –Uvh sg3_utils-<version>.arch.rpm

Where <version> must be 1.223-3.1 or higher and arch indicates the platform, for example i386 or x86_64.

RHEL 5 Update 6 to 8 ships 1.25-5 version of sg3_utils. On RHEL 6 U1, the package version is 1.28-3, and RHEL 6 U2

ships with 1.28-4.

Important: You must also install the sg_persist command from sg3_utils on any physical servers participating as nodes in the cluster,

and you must ensure that the shared storage system supports persistent reservation.

Serviceguard on VM guests

Serviceguard for Linux release A.11.18.02 and A.11.19.00 are certified on VMware virtual machines running 32-bit and

64-bit versions of Red Hat and SUSE Enterprise Linux (VMware ESX server is supported only on x86 (32 bit) and x86-64

platforms). Serviceguard for Linux release A.11.20.00 supports RHEL 5 & 6 on only 64-bit (x86_64) architecture.

Serviceguard A.11.20.00 does not support SUSE Linux Enterprise Server(SLES) but it is expected to be certified

on it soon.

Starting from Serviceguard for Linux release A.11.18.02 includes a new package control script and a new package

module. These add the functionality to take advantage of the sg3_utils. Packages that run on VMware guests must use

the new package control script or new module. For more information see the latest revision of the HP Serviceguard for

Linux release notes, which you can find at hp.com/go/linux-serviceguard-docs

→Getting started.