Creating an active-passive configuration (AIX® Linux®)

Regardless of the high availability software that you use, you must complete the same basic steps to configure a two-server active-passive configuration.

Procedure

  1. Set up the hardware and cable the network.

    The servers must be physically separate. Use identical hardware with identical internal storage, memory, and processing power.

    The servers must be able to communicate with each other over high-speed networks. To minimize single points of failure, each server must have redundant connections to at least two physically separate high-speed networks.

    To support failover when a problem occurs, the high availability software creates a heartbeat signal between the servers. Set up at least two more physically separate networks for this signal. These networks can be serial or other networks. The networks that carry the heartbeat signal must be physically separate and isolated from the high-speed networks.

  2. Install the high availability software on both the active server and the passive server.
  3. Allocate an IP address and associate it with the virtual host name that the client tier will use to connect to the IBM® InfoSphere® Information Server server-side components.
  4. Mount the shared storage device in identical mount points on each node. Create the following mount points:
    • Base installation directory. Typically /opt/IBM
    • Base user home directory. Typically /home
  5. Use the appropriate high availability software administration tools to complete the following steps:
    1. Create a resource group for the InfoSphere Information Server resources.
    2. Add a resource to manage the virtual IP address.
    3. Start the resource group.
    4. Ensure that the resource group is running on the primary server on which InfoSphere Information Server is to run. Ensure that you can connect to the primary server by using the virtual host name. Test failover and resolve any issues before continuing.
  6. On both servers, create the directories in the following table within the mount points of these directories. Ensure the directories have identical local user permissions. Create the dsadm, db2inst1, db2fenc1, xmeta, and iauser user IDs with the same names, passwords, group names, group IDs, and home directories on both servers. The names of the directories might be different than indicated in the table, depending on your configuration.
    Table 1. Directories for active-passive configuration
    Configuration of tiers Directory
    All Project directory. Default: /opt/IBM/InformationServer/Server/Projects
    Engine tier on both servers
    • InfoSphere Information Server installation directory. Default: /opt/IBM/InformationServer
    • Home directory for the InfoSphere Information Server engine administrator. Typically /home/dsadm
    Services tier on both servers IBM WebSphere® Application Server installation directory. Default: /opt/IBM/WebSphere
    Metadata repository tier on both servers, IBM Db2® database system
    • Db2 database system installation directory. Default: /opt/IBM/db2
    • Db2 instance owner home directory. Typically /home/db2inst1
    • Db2 fenced user home directory. Typically /home/db2fenc1
    • Metadata repository owner home directory. Typically /home/xmeta
    • If IBM InfoSphere Information Analyzer is installed, the home directory of the owner of the analysis databases. Typically /home/iauser
  7. If the active-passive configuration will include only the engine tier (that is, the metadata repository or services tiers are to be located outside of the active-passive configuration), install and configure the metadata repository and services tiers first, before you continue with the engine tier installation and configuration. The engine tier installation requires that the metadata repository tier and services tier are installed first, unless you install them all at the same time in a single pass of the installation program.
  8. Run the InfoSphere Information Server installation program on the primary server.

    When prompted by the installation program, specify the virtual host name. Whenever prompted for an installation directory, specify a path within the mount point.

  9. Replicate the /etc/services entries on both servers.
  10. Create scripts to start, stop, and monitor the servers. Store the scripts on the shared storage device.

    Several sample high availability control scripts are included with InfoSphere Information Server. You can use these scripts or modify them to fit your configuration. See High availability control scripts included with IBM InfoSphere Information Server.

  11. Use the appropriate high availability software administration tools to complete the following steps:
    1. If the engine tier is included in the high availability configuration, add the InfoSvrEngine script or its equivalent resource agent script to the resource group.
    2. If the services tier or metadata repository tier is included in the high availability configuration, add the InfoSvrServices script or its equivalent resource agent script to the resource group.
  12. Test the setup by simulating different failures.