Testing Your SAP MaxDB Resource Hierarchy

You can test your SAP MaxDB resource hierarchy by initiating a manual switchover that will simulate a failover of the resource instance from the primary server to a backup server.

Performing a Manual Switchover from the LifeKeeper GUI

You can initiate a manual switchover from the LifeKeeper GUI by selecting Edit, Resource and InService. For example, an in-service request executed on a backup server causes the SAP MaxDB resource hierarchy to be placed in service on the backup server and taken out of service on the primary server. At this point, the original backup server is now the primary server and original primary server has now become the backup server.

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

!IMPORTANT: After bringing your resource hierarchy in service on the backup server, you should attempt to connect to the databases, especially when using raw devices as device spaces. This is necessary to ensure that all disk partitions are visible on the backup servers and the raw bindings are being established correctly.

If the raw bindings have not been established on the backup servers, it is most likely caused by the fact that new partitions were created on the primary server and added to the configuration, but the partition tables have not yet been updated on the backup servers.

The solution is to reboot the backup servers so that the partition tables are updated correctly.