Managing Serviceguard Nineteenth Edition, Reprinted June 2011

NOTE: This is a new process for configuring packages, as of Serviceguard A.11.18. This manual
refers to packages created by this method as modular packages, and assumes that you will use it
to create new packages; it is simpler and more efficient than the older method, allowing you to
build packages from smaller modules, and eliminating the separate package control script and
the need to distribute it manually.
Packages created using Serviceguard A.11.17 or earlier are referred to as legacy packages. If
you need to reconfigure a legacy package (rather than create a new package), see “Configuring
a Legacy Package” (page 289).
It is also still possible to create new legacy packages by the method described in “Configuring a
Legacy Package”. If you are using a Serviceguard Toolkit such as Serviceguard NFS Toolkit, consult
the documentation for that product.
If you decide to convert a legacy package to a modular package, see “Migrating a Legacy Package
to a Modular Package” (page 297). Do not attempt to convert Serviceguard Toolkit packages.
(Parameters that are in the package control script for legacy packages, but in the package
configuration file instead for modular packages, are indicated by (S) in the tables later in this
section (page 220).)
Choosing Package Modules
IMPORTANT: Before you start, you need to do the package-planning tasks described under
“Package Configuration Planning ” (page 120).
To choose the right package modules, you need to decide the following things about the package
you are creating:
• What type of package it is; see “Types of Package: Failover, Multi-Node, System Multi-Node”
(page 217).
• Which parameters need to be specified for the package (beyond those included in the base
type, which is normally failover, multi-node, or system-multi-node). See “Package Modules
and Parameters” (page 219).
When you have made these decisions, you are ready to generate the package configuration file;
see “Generating the Package Configuration File” (page 241).
Types of Package: Failover, Multi-Node, System Multi-Node
There are three types of packages:
• Failover packages. This is the most common type of package. Failover packages run on one
node at a time. If there is a failure, Serviceguard (or a user) can halt them, and then start them
up on another node selected from the package’s configuration list; see “node_name”
(page 223).
To generate a package configuration file that creates a failover package, include-m
sg/failover on the cmmakepkg command line. See “Generating the Package Configuration
File” (page 241).
• Multi-node packages. These 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.
The Veritas Cluster File System (CFS) system multi-node packages are examples of multi-node
packages; but support for multi-node packages is no longer restricted to CVM/CFS; you can
create a multi-node package for any purpose.
Choosing Package Modules 217