Managing Serviceguard Nineteenth Edition, Reprinted June 2011

NOTE: If you need to do maintenance that requires halting a node, or the entire cluster, you
should consider Live Application Detach; see “Halting a Node or the Cluster while Keeping Packages
Running” (page 267).
• Maintenance mode is chiefly useful for modifying networks and EMS resources used by a
package while the package is running.
See “Performing Maintenance Using Maintenance Mode” (page 276).
• Partial-startup maintenance mode allows you to work on package services, file systems, and
volume groups.
See “Performing Maintenance Using Partial-Startup Maintenance Mode” (page 276).
• Neither maintenance mode nor partial-startup maintenance mode can be used for legacy
packages, multi-node packages, or system multi-node packages.
• Package maintenance does not alter the configuration of the package, as specified in the
package configuration file.
For information about reconfiguring a package, see “Reconfiguring a Package” (page 297).
NOTE: In order to run a package in partial-startup maintenance mode, you must first put it in
maintenance mode. This means that packages in partial-startup maintenance mode share the
characteristics described below for packages in maintenance mode, and the same rules and
dependency rules apply. Additional rules apply to partial-startup maintenance mode, and the
procedure involves more steps, as explained underPerforming Maintenance Using Partial-Startup
Maintenance Mode.
Characteristics of a Package Running in Maintenance Mode or Partial-Startup Maintenance Mode
Serviceguard treats a package in maintenance mode differently from other packages in important
ways. The following points apply to a package running in maintenance mode:
• Serviceguard ignores failures reported by package services, subnets, EMS resources, and file
systems; these will not cause the package to fail.
NOTE: But a failure in the package control script will cause the package to fail. The package
will also fail if an external script (or pre-script) cannot be executed or does not exist.
• The package will not be automatically failed over, halted, or started.
• A package in maintenance mode still has its configured (or default) weight, meaning that its
weight, if any, is counted against the node's capacity; this applies whether the package is
up or down. (See “About Package Weights” (page 135) for a discussion of weights and
capacities.)
• Node-wide and cluster-wide events affect the package as follows:
If the node the package is running on is halted or crashes, the package will no longer
be in maintenance mode but will not be automatically started.
◦
◦ If the cluster is halted or crashes, the package will not be in maintenance mode when the
cluster comes back up. Serviceguard will attempt to start it if auto_run is set to yes in
the package configuration file.
• If node_fail_fast_enabled (page 224) is set to yes, Serviceguard will not halt the node
under any of the following conditions:
◦ Subnet failure
◦ EMS resource failure
◦ A script does not exist or cannot run because of file permissions
274 Cluster and Package Maintenance