HP Integrity Virtual Machines 4.3: Installation, Configuration, Administration

the Cluster Volumes Manager (CVM) as well as files on a Cluster Files System can be configured
to be active and available on multiple Serviceguard nodes simultaneously. Additional care and
planning should be taken when configuring VMs as Serviceguard Packages to insure that no
more then one guest on one node can access these backing store types.
The Integrity VM toolkit script, hpvmsg_package, is used to create Serviceguard package
configuration file and control script templates for the VMs to be protected by Serviceguard
packages. This script is designed to determine the cluster-shared backing store and application
data storage used by the VM guest to be packaged and adds the appropriate logical volume and
mount point entries into the package control script for guest failover.
When creating a Serviceguard cluster with virtual machines acting as packages, the
hpvmsg_package script correctly identifies CVM logical volumes and CFS files backing stores
used by guests but requires users to verify or provide activation modes and package dependencies
for the backing stores.
The hpvmsg_package script creates the package configuration in the package directory:
/etc/cmcluster/hpvm-name/hpvm-name.conf. Inside the configuration file are instructions,
examples, and default and assigned named-values pairs describing the resources used by the
virtual machines and controlled and monitored by Serviceguard.
For information about selecting the appropriate values for these items, see the templates files in
the Managing Servicguard manual and the Veritas Storage Foundation 5.0 Cluster File System
Administration Guide Extracts for HP Serviceguard Storage Management Suite.
10.3.5 Limitations Associated with These Configurations
The following limitations are associated with Serviceguard configurations:
• The only backing-store types permitted with Online VM Migrations are:
— Whole disk
— Shared LVM logical volumes
If you plan to use Online VM Migration with VMs as Serviceguard Packages, you must
limit your VM configuration to one of these backing-store types.
• The VM Host presents devices to the virtual machines as virtual devices. Attached I/O
devices; such as tape, DVD, burner, and changed, are not presented as virtual devices; but
instead, they are presented as direct I/O devices. In a typical Serviceguard configuration,
these devices are ignored and are not expected to be present on more than one Serviceguard
node. The hpvmsg_package script does not insert information about these devices into the
package configuration file. For information about excluding a device from probing, see the
Managing Serviceguard manual.
• When Integrity VM guests are configured as packages in a Serviceguard (SG) cluster,
hpvmstatus displays which VM Host is running the distributed guests as an SG package.
Because this information comes from SG, it can be delayed by as much as 10 seconds. This
delay does not cause any risk of starting the same guest on two different Integrity VM Hosts,
because SG is controlling the start of these guests and allows a single instance to run at any
one time.
• The hpvmsg_package does not add appropriate entries to the package configuration and
control script files. After running the /opt/cmcluster/toolkit/hpvmsg_package
script to package a guest that contains CVM or CFS backing stores, review and modify the
package configuration and control scripts for each cluster member. As part of this process,
add CVM and/or CFS backing store entries to these files.
• Guests configured as Serviceguard packages should be stopped and started using
Serviceguard package control commands. Do not use the Integrity VM commands
(hpvmstart, hpvmstop, and hpvmconsole) to start and stop these types of guests.
There is no limitation associated with the use of AVIO functionality with VMs as Serviceguard
Packages configurations.
10.3 VMs as Serviceguard Packages 211