HP-UX Serviceguard Heartbeat Configuration Solutions

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Executive Summary
The ability to correctly configure the various heartbeat interfaces in a ServiceGuard environment
helps to increase the High Availability (HA) “worthiness” of a customer solution. While some
aspects may be considered common sense concepts, this paper reviews some of the more
complicated configurations and instructs you how to optimize these particular configurations.
Topics include
• Overview
• Interrupt assignment algorithm
• Ensuring heartbeat interface drivers are optimally placed
Auto Port Aggregation (APA) configuration
Non-APA configuration
• Managing Interrupts to Improve High Availability
Overview
What does this paper provide?
I’ve just installed Serviceguard and set up my network heartbeat interfaces. I’ve followed the
instructions in the Serviceguard manual – what else do I need to know?
HP has identified additional rules and information to consider in assigning heartbeat network
cards.
The Serviceguard manual identifies key points to consider when installing the network heartbeat
cards. However, an additional requirement may also need to be considered for your
configuration. You may need to read this document if you have
• Multiple heartbeats in a Serviceguard environment
• High end systems with high I/O activity on high speed I/O interfaces.
Under heavy I/O traffic situations a Serviceguard configuration may encounter problems related
to high CPU utilization from the I/O cards (both network and storage) which may result in
problems that cause the Serviceguard cluster to failover.
One additional consideration in installing heartbeat cards, especially under such circumstances,
is the assignment of the card/driver to a CPU. This is done automatically when the card is first
installed in the system. However, to optimize the configuration, you may need to review the
following data.
(If you have installed the heartbeat cards as part of a card On-Line Addition (OLA), you should
reboot your system. The assignment of the interrupts may be different between your current
environment and when the system is again rebooted).
Note: Before you begin, you should have already