Testing Your NFS Hierarchy

Before testing your NFS resource hierarchy, you should validate your client setup as described below. You can then test your NFS resource hierarchy by initiating a manual switchover. This will simulate a failover of a resource instance from the primary server to the backup server.

Validating the Client Setup

In general, clients must mount the file system using the LifeKeeper-protected IP address you selected during the Create NFS Resource Hierarchy task. There is no client-side checking to ensure that you select the correct IP address, so you must carefully follow the validation steps below to ensure the client is using the correct IP number for the file system.

To validate the client setup, do the following:

1. Verify that no NFS instances are in service on the backup server.

2. Mount the file system on the client using the correct LifeKeeper-protected IP address.

3. Perform a manual switchover to the backup server and ensure that the NFS instance you just switched over is the only NFS instance currently in service on the backup server.

4. When the switchover has completed, ensure that the client can still access the file system.

Performing a Manual Switchover from the GUI

After you define the dependencies, LifeKeeper automatically controls the starting and stopping of the application whenever it detects faults, which initiate failover recovery. You can also manually initiate a switchover for administrative reasons, such as maintenance.

You can initiate a manual switchover from the LifeKeeper GUI by selecting Edit, Resource, and In Service from the drop‑down menu. For example, an in service request executed on a backup server causes the application hierarchy to be placed in service on the backup server and taken out of service on the primary server.

If you execute the Out of Service request, the application is taken out of service without bringing it in service on the other server.

*Note: To take an NFS resource out of service, you must take both the NFS resource and the associated HA-NFS resource out of service.

For activities within the application, all actions are those defined in the application’s documentation. LifeKeeper does not regulate or control internal operations such as rollbacks and backing-up archives. Tape archiving and restoration are the responsibility of the application administrator.

Recovery Operations

When the primary server fails, the NFS Server Recovery Kit software performs the following tasks:

• Starts the NFS daemons if they are not running.

• Exports the NFS file system.