Defining a high-availability group

To ensure continuous storage management, multiple Spectrum Control Base instances must be activated and combined into a high-availability (HA) group.

Before you begin

You must define an HA group before adding storage systems to Spectrum Control Base.

About this task

An HA group is a combination of two Spectrum Control Base instances, operating in the active/passive mode. Active Spectrum Control Base instances are backed up by the standby ones to provide uninterruptible service if one of them becomes unavailable. A default HA group (ha_group_<1–100>) is created automatically during Spectrum Control Base installation.

1. Click General settings on the Settings menu. The General Settings dialog box is displayed.
2. Enter the FQDN of the first Spectrum Control Base and the name of the HA group that you want to create, and then click Apply.

   Note: The FQDN, which you enter, is automatically copied to the Hostname field of the Server Certificate dialog box during the generation of the Spectrum Control Base server certificate, as explained in Managing server certificates. A default HA group name is assigned automatically by Spectrum Control Base in the ha_group_number format. The number is randomly selected from 1 to 100. If you intend to change the default HA group name, any XIV storage system with microcode 11.5, connected to Spectrum Control Base, which is the default HA group member, must be removed from Spectrum Control Base before the group name change.

   

3. Log in to the standby instance of Spectrum Control Base and add its FQDN, as explained above. The HA group name must be identical to the value that was provided when registering the active Spectrum Control Base instance.

   Important: The Spectrum Control Base software must be installed and configured separately for each HA group member. This is required for obtaining a unique VASA key which is generated during installation. Do not clone an existing instance of an active Spectrum Control Base for use as a standby member. However, cloning the VM which will host Spectrum Control Base prior to installation is acceptable. When deploying a Spectrum Control Base virtual machine in a VMware HA cluster, use the Fault Tolerance feature to ensure its continuous availability. If the fault tolerance cannot be achieved, use the VMware High Availability, as the second best choice. Back up your Spectrum Control Base configuration regularly, using the sc_configuration CLI command. See CLI – Backing up or restoring a Spectrum Control Base configuration.

4. Define storage credentials for all Spectrum Control Base instances, as explained in Entering the storage system credentials.
5. Add the same storage system for all Spectrum Control Base instances. Spectrum Control Base redundancy is available only if active and standby members manage the same storage system. See Adding a storage system.
6. Configure the server certificates. See Managing server certificates.
7. Register all HA group members as storage providers in the vCenter server. See Registering Spectrum Control Base as a storage provider on vCenter server.
8. Add storage spaces and services to the active Spectrum Control Base. There is no need to configure these settings for a standby HA member. See Managing storage spaces and services. Storage spaces and services defined on an active instance of Spectrum Control Base do not appear on the standby instance immediately. Any VVol-enabled storage services defined on the active Spectrum Control Base are populated on the standby server's GUI during system failover.

   A failover to a standby HA group member occurs when the active Spectrum Control Base service is stopped or reset. See Checking and controlling the Spectrum Control Base service.