Specifications
Local Recovery Scenario
when a particular interface fails on a server, the protected IP address can be made to function on the
backup interface, therefore avoiding an entire application/resource hierarchy failing over to a backup
server.
Local Recovery Scenario
IP local recovery allows you to specify a single backup network interface for each LifeKeeper-
protected IP address on a server. In order for the backup interface to work properly, it must be
attached to the same physical network as the primary interface. The system administrator is
expected to insure that a valid interface is being chosen. Note that it is completely reasonable and
valid to specify a backup interface on one server but not on another within the cluster (i.e. the chosen
backup interface on one server has no impact on the choice of a backup on any other server).
When a failure of an IP address is detected by the IP Recovery Kit, the resulting failure triggers the
execution of the IP local recovery script.LifeKeeper first attempts to bring the IP address back in
service on the current network interface. If that fails, LifeKeeper checks the resource instance to
determine if there is a backup interface available. If so, it will then attempt to move the IP address to
the backup interface. If all local recovery attempts fail, LifeKeeper will perform a failover of the IP
address and all dependent resources to a backup server.
The backup interface name can be identified in the Information field of the IP resource instance. The
Information field values are space-separated and are, in order, the primary server name, the network
interface name, the IP address, the netmask and the backup interface name. Here is an example:
ServerA eth0 172.17.106.10 fffffc00 eth1
If no backup interface is configured, the 5th field value will be set tonone.
When the protected IP address is moved to the backup interface, the 2nd and 5th field values are
swapped so that the original backup interface becomes the primary and vice versa. The result is that
during LifeKeeper startups, switchovers and failovers, LifeKeeper always attempts to bring the IP
address in service on the interface on which it was last configured.
Command Line Operations
In LifeKeeper for Linux v3.01 or later, the mechanism for adding or removing a backup interface from
an existing IP resource instance is provided as a command line utility. This capability is provided by
the lkipbu utility. The command and syntax are:
lkipbu [-d machine] -{a|r} -t tag -f interface
The add operation (specified via the -a option) will fail if a backup interface has already been defined
for this instance or if an invalid interface name is provided. The remove operation (specified via the -r
option) will fail if the specified interface is not the current backup interface for this instance.
A command line mechanism is also provided for manually moving an IP address to its backup
interface. This capability is specified via the -m option using the following syntax:
lkipbu [-d machine] -m -t tag
56SteelEye LifeKeeper for Linux