RHEL5 Clustering

[tcorapi]

I'm looking for an updated HowTo or Wiki for RedHat EL5 clustering. I've been through TB-2007-02-HACluster but it pertains to RH4 and seems to have some inconsistencies with 5. Also read HowTos/Setting up for HA but same there too. RHEL4. My main concern is that I'm using Conga to manage a simple cluster between two IBM Blades attached to a SAN. Some of the service names listed in these docs do not match either, including ccds and fenced. Some guidance would be appreciated.
RHEL5.0 on IBM blades attached to IBM DSxxx storage server (SAN). Scalix Enterprise 11.3. Currently, one Scalix server installed and in use. I am moving to a clustered solution for High Availability.

[mikevl]

Hi

For this sort of solution it would be better to contact your local Scalix authorised dealer

Mike

[tcorapi]

Thanks for the reply. I have already been down that road. I keep getting "It should be the same" when it is not. There are several differences. I figured it out on my own anyways. It is disappointing to see a product with technical documentation that is so incomplete. The basics are fine, but the detail is lacking.

[mikevl]

Hi tcorapi

We have done a few installation with RHEL4 and RHEL5 clustering now. Yes there are differences and it would be difficult to go through them in the context of this forum. If you are going down the path of clustering and you don't fully understand the issues a few points come to mind.

1) You have made a significant investment in hardware, Scalix and RHEL

2) If you don't get everything 100% right in the initial install you may probably blame Scalix for your lack of knowledge

3) All the clustering material is covered very well in the RHEL documentation

4) Given your current investment. Investing in someone to sit with you for 2 - 4 hours to get the clustering up to speed would be minor over what you have already spent. You would learn a lot and possibly save many hours of heartach down the track if you find that in a crisis situation you may have missed something.

The article you have described covers enough to get you going but does not cover the additional bits and pieces that may be required to get your installation to where it needs to be. In our latest installation setting up clustering took about 4 hours. It took about that time again to create site spacific scripts to handle WAN based DR over a fiber link and provision for another soon to be installed cluster partener on another WAN site.

It would be difficult to cover every senerio that users may ever use in one document.

Mike

[tcorapi]

I don't expect documentation to cover all scenarios but the scenario the TB article matches my own, except for the version of RedHat. RHEL clustering is covered very well, for ver. 4, not 5, which was my point to begin with.
I am not blaming Scalix (the application), I am unhappy with the documentation. As an Enterprise solution, I would expect feedback to be recieved in an appreciative manner, not defensive. If you sell a product that states support for RHEL5, then the supporting documentation for that platform should be there. Pretty close or "should be" doesn't cut it.

Reply if you wish but I am already communicating with Sales Management with my concerns.