HP Serviceguard Version A.11.18 Release Notes, September 2008

Multi-node packages run simultaneously on more than one node in the cluster. Failures
of package components such as applications, services, EMS resources, or subnets, will
cause the package to be halted only on the node on which the failure occurred.
Relocatable IP addresses cannot be assigned to multi-node packages.
IMPORTANT: If the package uses volume groups, they must be activated in shared
mode: vgchange -a s, which is available only if the SGeRAC add-on product is
installed.
For more information, see Chapter 6 of Managing Serviceguard.
Differences between Failover and Multi-Node packages
Note the following important differences in behavior between multi-node and failover
packages:
• If a multi-node package has auto_run disabled (set to no in the package
configuration file) it will not start when the cluster is started. You can use
cmmodpkg to enable package switching and start the package for the first time.
But if you then halt the multi-node package via cmhaltpkg, it can be re-started
only by means of cmrunpkg, not cmmodpkg.
• If a multi-node package is halted via cmhaltpkg, package switching is not disabled.
This means that the halted package will start to run on a rebooted node, if it is
configured to run on that node and its dependencies are met.
• When a multi-node package is started the first time (either at cluster startup, or
subsequently if auto_run is set to no, and package switching is then enabled) any
dependent package will start on its primary node. But if a multi-node package is
halted along with its dependent packages, and the multi-node package is then
restarted, dependent packages which have had package switching re-enabled will
start on the first eligible node on which an instance of the multi-node package
comes up; this may not be the dependent packages’ primary node.
To ensure that dependent failover packages restart on their primary node if the
multi-node packages they depend on need to be restarted, make sure the dependent
packages' package switching is not re-enabled before the multi-node packages are
restarted. You can then either restart the dependent failover packages with
cmrunpkg, specifying the node you want them to start on, or enable package
switching for these packages after the multi-node package startup is complete.
What’s in this Release 39