Red Hat Cluster - VMware ESX fencing

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Tested on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 64 bits and VMware ESX 3.5 Edit November 2011 : Tested on RHEL6.1 and VMware ESX 4.1

If you set up a cluster, in case of failure, you’ll probably want the surviving host to be able to “fence” or “stonith” the faulty node.

Red Hat Cluster provides a collection of scripts for that purpose (for APC, ILO, DRAC, etc. and VMware).

The vmware script doesn’t work out of the box :

<code># fence_vmware -a "esx.intranet.example.org" -l "fence_vmware_account" -p "xxx" -n 'node01'
fence_vmware_helper returned Please install VI Perl API package to use this tool!
Perl error: Can't locate VMware/VIRuntime.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib64/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib64/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib64/perl5/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8 .) at (eval 1) line 1.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 1) line 1.

Please use '-h' for usage</code>

Go to http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/viperltoolkit/ (you’ll need to register)

Grab either one of those :

ESX 3.5

VMware-VIPerl-1.6.0-104313.i386.tar.gz VMware-VIPerl-1.6.0-104313.x86_64.tar.gz

ESX 4.1

VMware-vSphere-Perl-SDK-4.1.0-.i386.tar.gz VMware-vSphere-Perl-SDK-4.1.0-.x86_64.tar.gz

You’ll need to install some stuff on your system :

RHEL5

<code># yum install openssl-devel

Dependencies Resolved

========================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                   Arch                         Version                                 Repository                                         Size
========================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 openssl-devel                             i386                         0.9.8e-12.el5_5.7                       rhel-5Server-x86_64-updates                       1.9 M
 openssl-devel                             x86_64                       0.9.8e-12.el5_5.7                       rhel-5Server-x86_64-updates                       1.9 M
Installing for dependencies:
 e2fsprogs-devel                           x86_64                       1.39-23.el5_5.1                         rhel-5Server-x86_64-updates                       633 k
 keyutils-libs-devel                       x86_64                       1.2-1.el5                               rhel-5Server-x86_64-updates                        27 k
 krb5-devel                                x86_64                       1.6.1-55.el5                            rhel-5Server-x86_64-updates                       1.9 M
 libselinux-devel                          x86_64                       1.33.4-5.7.el5                          rhel-5Server-x86_64-updates                       149 k
 libsepol-devel                            x86_64                       1.15.2-3.el5                            rhel-5Server-x86_64-updates                       192 k
 zlib-devel                                x86_64                       1.2.3-3                                 rhel-5Server-x86_64-updates                       102 k

Transaction Summary
========================================================================================================================================================================
Install       8 Package(s)
Upgrade       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 6.7 M
Is this ok [y/N]: </code>

RHEL6

<code># yum install openssl-devel perl-Compress-Raw-Zlib perl-Compress-Zlib
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package openssl-devel.x86_64 0:1.0.0-10.el6_1.5 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: pkgconfig for package: openssl-devel-1.0.0-10.el6_1.5.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: zlib-devel for package: openssl-devel-1.0.0-10.el6_1.5.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: krb5-devel for package: openssl-devel-1.0.0-10.el6_1.5.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: /usr/bin/pkg-config for package: openssl-devel-1.0.0-10.el6_1.5.x86_64
---> Package perl-Compress-Raw-Zlib.x86_64 0:2.023-119.el6_1.1 will be installed
---> Package perl-Compress-Zlib.x86_64 0:2.020-119.el6_1.1 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: perl(IO::Uncompress::Gunzip) >= 2.020 for package: perl-Compress-Zlib-2.020-119.el6_1.1.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: perl(IO::Compress::Gzip) >= 2.020 for package: perl-Compress-Zlib-2.020-119.el6_1.1.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: perl(IO::Compress::Gzip::Constants) >= 2.020 for package: perl-Compress-Zlib-2.020-119.el6_1.1.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: perl(IO::Compress::Base::Common) >= 2.020 for package: perl-Compress-Zlib-2.020-119.el6_1.1.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package krb5-devel.x86_64 0:1.9-9.el6_1.2 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libselinux-devel for package: krb5-devel-1.9-9.el6_1.2.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: libcom_err-devel for package: krb5-devel-1.9-9.el6_1.2.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: keyutils-libs-devel for package: krb5-devel-1.9-9.el6_1.2.x86_64
---> Package perl-IO-Compress-Base.x86_64 0:2.020-119.el6_1.1 will be installed
---> Package perl-IO-Compress-Zlib.x86_64 0:2.020-119.el6_1.1 will be installed
---> Package pkgconfig.x86_64 1:0.23-9.1.el6 will be installed
---> Package zlib-devel.x86_64 0:1.2.3-25.el6 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package keyutils-libs-devel.x86_64 0:1.4-1.el6 will be installed
---> Package libcom_err-devel.x86_64 0:1.41.12-7.el6 will be installed
---> Package libselinux-devel.x86_64 0:2.0.94-5.el6 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libsepol-devel >= 2.0.32-1 for package: libselinux-devel-2.0.94-5.el6.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: pkgconfig(libsepol) for package: libselinux-devel-2.0.94-5.el6.x86_64
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libsepol-devel.x86_64 0:2.0.41-3.el6 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================================================================================
 Package                              Arch                 Version                           Repository                                 Size
=============================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 openssl-devel                        x86_64               1.0.0-10.el6_1.5                  rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates               1.1 M
 perl-Compress-Raw-Zlib               x86_64               2.023-119.el6_1.1                 rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates                67 k
 perl-Compress-Zlib                   x86_64               2.020-119.el6_1.1                 rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates                43 k
Installing for dependencies:
 keyutils-libs-devel                  x86_64               1.4-1.el6                         rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates                28 k
 krb5-devel                           x86_64               1.9-9.el6_1.2                     rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates               1.2 M
 libcom_err-devel                     x86_64               1.41.12-7.el6                     rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates                30 k
 libselinux-devel                     x86_64               2.0.94-5.el6                      rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates               135 k
 libsepol-devel                       x86_64               2.0.41-3.el6                      rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates                64 k
 perl-IO-Compress-Base                x86_64               2.020-119.el6_1.1                 rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates                66 k
 perl-IO-Compress-Zlib                x86_64               2.020-119.el6_1.1                 rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates               133 k
 pkgconfig                            x86_64               1:0.23-9.1.el6                    rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates                70 k
 zlib-devel                           x86_64               1.2.3-25.el6                      rhel-6Server-x86_64-updates                43 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================================================================================
Install      12 Package(s)

Total download size: 3.0 M
Installed size: 6.4 M
Is this ok [y/N]: </code>

Unzip VMware-*.tar.gz and run : ./vmware-install.pl

Accept the terms. (yes, this is needed).

Then you should get to this :

The installation of VMware VIPerl Toolkit 1.6.0 build-104313 for Linux completed successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-viperl.pl".

Make sure you add “virtual machine administrator” permissions to “vmware_fence_account”, for the VM’s it needs to stonith.

From now on, you should be able to stonith VM’s.

Here’s a working RHCS config (/etc/cluster/cluster.conf) :

[sourcecode language=“xml”]

[whatever resources you have] [whatever services the cluster is in charge of] [/sourcecode]


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