The LifeKeeper GUI uses Java technology to provide a graphical status interface to LifeKeeper and its configuration data. Since the LifeKeeper GUI is a client/server application, a user will run the graphical user interface on a client system in order to monitor or administer a server system where LifeKeeper is executing. The client and the server may or may not be the same system. The LifeKeeper GUI allows users working on any machine to administer, operate, or monitor servers and resources in any cluster, as long as they have the required group memberships on the cluster machines. For details, see [Configuring GUI Users ]. The LifeKeeper GUI Server and Client components are described below.
GUI Server
The LifeKeeper GUI server is initialized on each server in a LifeKeeper cluster at system startup. It communicates with the LifeKeeper core software via the Java Native Interface (JNI), and with the LifeKeeper GUI client using Remote Method Invocation (RMI).
GUI Client
The LifeKeeper GUI client is designed to run either as an application on a Linux system, or as an applet which can be invoked from a web browser on either a Windows or Unix system.
The LifeKeeper GUI client includes the following graphical components:
- The status table on the upper left displays the high level status of connected servers and their resources.
- The properties panel on the upper right displays detailed information about the most recently selected status table object.
- The output panel on the bottom displays command output.
- The message bar at the very bottom of the window displays processing status messages.
- The server context and resource context toolbars (in the properties panel) and global toolbar provide fast access to frequently-used tasks.
- The server context and resource context menus (popup) and global menus (file, edit server, edit resource, view, and help) provide access to all tasks.
Right-clicking on a graphic resource, server, or table cell will display a context menu. Most tasks can also be initiated from these context menus, in which case the resources and servers will be automatically determined.
Starting the Application Client
Users with administrator privileges on a LifeKeeper server can run the application client from that server. To start the LifeKeeper GUI app run /opt/LifeKeeper/bin/lkGUIapp from a graphical window.
If you have done this and the client still is not loading, see GUI Troubleshooting.
Exiting GUI Clients
Select Exit from the File menu to disconnect from all servers and close the client.
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