Using NFS as a filesystem type with HP Serviceguard A.11.20 on HP-UX 11i v3, September 2010

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Introduction
This white paper explains how to configure packages that need access to an NFS-imported filesystem
as shared storage. This capability is available as of HP Serviceguard version A.11.20; in previous
releases, Serviceguard has supported only direct-attached storage, using technologies such as SCSI,
Fibre Channel, or SAS.
Note:
Although HP Serviceguard A.11.20 supports NFS-imported storage, direct
attached storage is still recommended over NFS for performance reasons.
Audience
This document is for users of HP Serviceguard A.11.20 who want to configure packages that import
and mount remote filesystems via NFS.
HP also provides the HP Serviceguard NFS toolkit, which provides high availability for an NFS server.
This capability is different from what is described in this white paper; see the “
HP Serviceguard NFS
Toolkit” documentation for more information.
It is assumed that the reader has an understanding of HP Serviceguard.
Terms and Definitions
Term Definition
HA High Availability
MBTD Maximum Bridge Transit Delay—part of the IEEE 802.1D network specification
NFS Network Filesystem
NFS client
A system that mounts and accesses the NFS server’s shared filesystems. In the context of this
white paper, the NFS client is one of the Serviceguard cluster nodes
NFSPkg A Serviceguard failover package that uses an NFS filesystem shared by an NFS server
NFS server A system that shares its filesystems over a network
Serviceguard support for NFS on HP-UX 11i v3
Overview
In HP Serviceguard A.11.19 and earlier, the storage groups and filesystems which are activated by
the Serviceguard packages must be available locally; remote mounting is not supported. This has
meant that an application could not be managed by Serviceguard if the application’s storage was
remote. As of A.11.20, HP Serviceguard can manage such applications via packages that import
remote storage using the Network Filesystem. This feature does not in itself provide HA for the NFS
client or server, but HA for the NFS server is supported by the HP Serviceguard NFS Toolkit.