Specifications
LifeKeeper Communication Paths
network access requirements.
Note: If you wish to simply disable your firewall, see Disabling a Firewallbelow.
LifeKeeper Communication Paths
Communication paths are established between pairs of servers within the LifeKeeper cluster using
specific IP addresses. Although TCP Port 7365 is used by default on the remote side of each
connection as it is being created, the TCP port on the initiating side of the connection is arbitrary.The
recommended approach is to configure the firewall on each LifeKeeper server to allow both incoming
and outgoing traffic for each specific pair of local and remote IP addresses in the communication
paths known to that system.
LifeKeeper GUI Connections
The LifeKeeper GUI uses a number of specific TCP ports, including Ports 81 and 82 as the default
initial connection ports. The GUI also uses Remote Method Invocation (RMI), which uses Ports 1024
and above to send and receive objects. All of these ports must be open in the firewall on each
LifeKeeper server to at least those external systems on which the GUI client will be run.
LifeKeeper IP Address Resources
The firewall should be configured to allow access to any IP address resources in your LifeKeeper
hierarchies from those client systems that need to access the application associated with the IP
address. Remember that the IP address resource can move from one server to another in the
LifeKeeper cluster; therefore, the firewalls on all of the LifeKeeper servers must be configured
properly.
LifeKeeper also uses a broadcast ping test to periodically check the health of an IP address resource.
This test involves sending a broadcast ping packet from the virtual IP address and waiting for the first
response from any other system on the local subnet. To prevent this test from failing, the firewall on
each LifeKeeper server should be configured to allow the following types of network activity.
l Outgoing Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets from the virtual IP address (so
that the active LifeKeeper server can send broadcast pings)
l Incoming ICMP packets from the virtual IP address (so that other LifeKeeper servers can
receive broadcast pings)
l Outgoing ICMP reply packets from any local address (so that other LifeKeeper servers can
respond to broadcast pings)
l Incoming ICMP reply packets to the virtual IP address (so that the active LifeKeeper server
can receive broadcast ping replies)
LifeKeeper Data Replication
When using LifeKeeper Data Replication, the firewall should be configured to allow access to any of
the ports used by nbd for replication. The ports used by nbd can be calculated using the following
208User Guide