HP Serviceguard A.11.20 Release Notes, September 2012

Serviceguard Optional Products Not Bundled
The following optional product is not bundled with Serviceguard, but is delivered free with
Serviceguard on the Serviceguard Distributed Components CD, and can also be downloaded from
http://www.hp.com/go/softwaredepot/ha:
• Quorum Server, and the Quorum Server Version A.04.00 Release Notes.
Serviceguard A.11.19 Is the Required Basis for Rolling Upgrades
A.11.19 is the only version of Serviceguard that will allow both the older version of the cluster
manager and the New Cluster Manager (page 8) to coexist during a rolling upgrade. This means
that though you can perform a rolling upgrade to A.11.19, or from A.11.19 to A.11.20, you
cannot do a rolling upgrade from a pre-A.11.19 release to a post-A.11.19 release.
For example, you can do a rolling upgrade from A.11.18 to A.11.19, but you cannot do a rolling
upgrade from A.11.18 directly to A.11.20; you must upgrade to A.11.19 first. See “Upgrading
from an Earlier Serviceguard Release” (page 43) and “Rolling Upgrade” (page 46).
You can also do a rolling upgrade using a Dynamic Root Disk (DRD). It is recommended to use
this method as it is easier and is less disruptive because each node is down for a shorter time. For
more information, see “Upgrade Using DRD” (page 44).
New Cluster Manager
IMPORTANT: Serviceguard A.11.19 introduced a new cluster manager. Because of this change,
you must upgrade to Serviceguard A.11.19 before you can do a rolling upgrade to any later
release, including Serviceguard A.11.20.
If you are already running A.11.19, you can skip the discussion that follows.
In a running cluster, the new cluster manager affects node timeout and failover and cluster
re-formation, providing significant performance improvements; see the discussion of
MEMBER_TIMEOUT under “Cluster Configuration Parameters” in the latest version of Managing
Serviceguard for more information.
NOTE: Because of these built-in performance improvements, Serviceguard Extension for Faster
Failover is no longer being offered as a separate product (starting with A.11.19).
There is also a one-time effect on upgrade to Serviceguard A.11.19.
Upgrade will trigger a cluster membership transition from the old to the new cluster manager when
the last node in the cluster has rolled to A.11.19. This transition can take up to one second, during
which time the old cluster manager will shut down and the new cluster manager will start.
CAUTION: From the time when the old cluster manager is shut down until the new cluster manager
forms its first cluster, a node failure will cause the entire cluster to fail. HP strongly recommends
that you use no Serviceguard commands other than cmviewcl (1m) until the new cluster manager
successfully completes its first cluster re-formation. See the section “Special Considerations for
Upgrade to Serviceguard A.11.19” in Appendix D of the latest version of Managing Serviceguard
for more information.
For further caveats that apply to specific upgrade paths make sure you read the following sections
in these Release Notes: “Compatibility Information and Installation Requirements” (page 36) and
“Upgrading from an Earlier Serviceguard Release” (page 43).
8 Serviceguard Version A.11.20 Release Notes