Extending Your VMDK Hierarchy

After you have created a hierarchy, you should extend that hierarchy to another server in the cluster. There are three possible ways to extend your resource instance:

1. When you successfully create your VMDK resource hierarchy you will have an opportunity to select Continue which will allow you to proceed with extending your resource hierarchy to your backup server.

2. Right-click on an unextended hierarchy in either the left or right pane on the LifeKeeper GUI.

3. Select the Extend Resource Hierarchy task from the LifeKeeper GUI by selecting Edit, Resource, Extend Resource Hierarchy from the dropdown menu. This sequence of selections will launch the Extend Resource Hierarchy wizard. The Accept Defaults button that is available for the Extend Resource Hierarchy option is intended for the user who is familiar with the LifeKeeper Extend Resource Hierarchy defaults and wants to quickly extend a LifeKeeper resource hierarchy without being prompted for input or confirmation. Users who prefer to extend a LifeKeeper resource hierarchy using the interactive, step-by- step interface of the GUI dialogs should use the Next button.

a. The first dialog box to appear will ask you to select the Template Server where your VMDK resource hierarchy is currently in service. Remember that the Template Server you select now and the Tag to Extend that you select in the next dialog box represent an in-service (activated) resource hierarchy. An error message will appear if you select a resource tag that is not in service on the template server you have selected. The dropdown list in this dialog provides the names of all the servers in your cluster.

Note: If you are entering the Extend Resource Hierarchy task by continuing from the creation of a VMDK resource hierarchy, this dialog box will not appear because the wizard has already identified the template server in the create stage. This is also the case when you right-click on either the VMDK resource icon in the left pane or right-click on the VMDK (File System) resource box in the right pane of the GUI window and choose Extend Resource Hierarchy.

!CAUTION: If you click the Cancel button at any time during the sequence of extending your hierarchy, LifeKeeper will cancel the extend hierarchy process. However, if you have already extended the resource to another server, that instance will continue to be in effect until you specifically unextend it.

Click Next to continue.

b. Select the Tag to Extend. This is the name of the VMDK instance you want to extend from the template server to the target server. All of the resources that you have created on the template server will be listed in the dropdown.

Note: If you are entering the Extend Resource Hierarchy task immediately following the creation of a VMDK hierarchy, this dialog box will not appear because the wizard has already identified the tag name of your resource in the create stage. This is also the case when you right-click on either the VMDK (File System) resource icon in the left pane or on the VMDK (File System) resource box in the right pane of the GUI window and choose Extend Resource Hierarchy.

Click Next to continue.

c. Select the Target Server where you will extend your VMDK resource hierarchy.

Click Next to continue.

d. The Switchback Type dialog appears. The switchback type determines how the VMDK resource will be switched back to the primary server when it becomes in service (active) on the backup server following a failover. Switchback types are either intelligent or automatic. Intelligent switchback requires administrative intervention to switch the resource back to the primary server while automatic switchback occurs as soon as the primary server is back on line and reestablishes LifeKeeper communication paths.

Click Next to continue.

e. Select or enter a Template Priority. This is the priority for the VMDK hierarchy on the server where it is currently in service. Any unused priority value from 1 to 999 is valid, where a lower number means a higher priority (1=highest). The extend process will reject any priority for this hierarchy that is already in use by another system. The default value is recommended.

Note: This selection will appear only for the initial extending of the hierarchy.

Click Next to continue.

f. Select or enter the Target Priority. This is the priority for the new extended VMDK hierarchy relative to equivalent hierarchies on other servers. Any unused priority value from 1 to 999 is valid, indicating a server’s priority in the cascading failover sequence for the resource. A lower number means a higher priority (1=highest). Note that LifeKeeper assigns the number “1” to the server on which the hierarchy is created by default. The priorities do not need to be consecutive, but no two servers can have the same priority for a given resource.

Click Next to continue.

g. An information box appears confirming that LifeKeeper has successfully checked your environment and that all requirements for extending this resource have been met. If there are requirements that have not been met, LifeKeeper will disable the Next button and enable the Back button.

Click Back to make changes to your resource extension.

Click Cancel to extend your resource another time.

Click Next to launch the Extend Resource Hierarchy configuration task.

Click Finish to confirm the successful extension of your VMDK resource instance.
　

4. Click Done to exit the Extend Resources Hierarchy menu selection.
   

Note: Be sure to test the functionality of the new instance on both servers.