Executive summary

This document describes the Easy Deployment feature that is available with the HP Serviceguard A.11.20 with PHSS_41628 or later. Easy Deployment provides an intuitive and straightforward configuration solution to users in a clustered environment. It not only enables users to configure a cluster and cluster-wide storage with a single command, but also greatly simplifies configuration of packages for popular applications. It avoids the need for demanding deployment wizards and filling of parameters in complex configuration files. With Easy Deployment, most of the cluster/package attributes are auto-discovered, and storage or application prerequisites are automatically resolved. Thus, the user can accomplish a deployment procedure with minimal manual input. This also significantly reduces the learning curve required to deploy complex applications in a Serviceguard environment.

Easy Deployment is made available to users by way of HP Serviceguard Manager B.03.10 and Serviceguard command-line tools/commands. The Serviceguard Manager Easy Deployment interfaces, coupled with Serviceguard’s command line tools, present the user with a dramatically simple, yet flexible, deployment process.

Introduction

The demand for higher levels of availability in business IT infrastructures is ever increasing. Minimizing downtime in environments that involve vital applications is painstakingly time consuming, and involves considerable complexity in terms of configuration and deployment of robust clustered environments. Following traditional means of deployment requires a large lead time. It also requires user expertise in areas such as storage and network configuration. The Easy Deployment feature in Serviceguard makes it faster and significantly simpler to deploy high availability clusters and packages to offer application availability. The Easy Deployment feature for configuring a cluster is called cluster Easy Deployment; while the feature for configuring application packages is called package Easy Deployment.

Cluster Easy Deployment enables creation of a basic Serviceguard cluster as well as clusters with additional capabilities, depending on whether or not the corresponding product is found to be installed on all the selected nodes. For example, if Metrocluster is detected, Serviceguard Manager will provide the user with options to deploy a site-aware Metrocluster or a traditional Metrocluster for failover applications. Other examples of this help the user to deploy a cluster with Cluster File Systems or the Serviceguard Extension for RAC Toolkit. The user may also deploy the primary or recovery clusters in the context of Continentalclusters. These cluster Easy Deployment options are available in Serviceguard Manager as an interactive wizard. Designed for optimum flexibility, it allows users to either use default settings or modify certain parameters. For instance there are provisions in the wizard for selecting nodes, mapping nodes to sites, setting lock options, enabling the CVM/CFS infrastructure, and tuning network and storage configurations.

The cmdeploycl and cmpreparestg commands can be used to achieve cluster Easy Deployment from the command line. These commands:

•Provide a quick and simple way to create and start a cluster

•Automate security, storage, and networking configuration that must always be done before you configure nodes into a cluster

•Simplify cluster lock configuration

•Simplify creation of shared storage for packages

The package Easy Deployment feature, on the other hand, simplifies the deployment of packages for complex applications like Oracle Single Instance, Oracle RAC, and the Oracle E-business Suite by auto-discovering package parameters and creating prerequisite packages to resolve application-related dependencies. It also enables a single-step deployment of the Site Controller package in a Metrocluster environment. A Site Controller package is used to configure complex workloads in a Metrocluster/Continentalclusters environment using the Site Aware Disaster Tolerant Architecture (SADTA).

Serviceguard Manager enables the user to pick a package Easy Deployment task and specify a small number of required parameters. Once this is done, it generates all the required configuration files, populated with auto-discovered parameters. Serviceguard Manager combines ease of use with a degree of flexibility as it allows users to review and edit the configuration files before deploying them.