Initial LVS Configuration

Red Hat Cluster Suite: Configuring and Managing a Cluster
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# Chapter 8. Initial LVS Configuration

After installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you must take some basic steps to set up both the LVS routers and the real servers in the LVS cluster. This chapter covers these initial steps in detail.

| Note
| The LVS router node that becomes the active node once the cluster is started is also referred to as the primary node. When configuring an LVS cluster, use the Piranha Configuration Tool on the primary node.

# 8.1. Configuring Services on the LVS Routers

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program installs all of the components needed to set up an LVS cluster, but the appropriate services must be activated before configuring the cluster. For both LVS routers, set the appropriate services to start at boot time. There are three primary tools available for setting services to activate at boot time under Red Hat Enterprise Linux: the command line program `chkconfig`, the ncurses-based program `ntsysv`, and the graphical Services Configuration Tool. All of these tools require root access.

| Tip
| To attain root access, open a shell prompt and type the following command followed by the root password:
    su -

On the LVS routers, there are three services which need to be set to activate at boot time:

- The `piranha-gui` service (primary node only)

- The `pulse` service

- The `sshd` service

If you are clustering multi-port services or using firewall marks, you must also enable the `iptables` service.

It is best to set these services to activate in both runlevel 3 and runlevel 5. To accomplish this using `chkconfig`, type the following command for each service:

    /sbin/chkconfig --level 35 daemon on

In the above command, replace daemon with the name of the service you are activating. To get a list of services on the system as well as what runlevel they are set to activate on, issue the following command:

    /sbin/chkconfig --list

| Warning
| Turning any of the above services on using `chkconfig` does not actually start the daemon. To do this use the `/sbin/service` command. See Section 8.3 Starting the Piranha Configuration Tool Service for an example of how to use the `/sbin/service` command.

For more information on runlevels and configuring services with `ntsysv` and the Services Configuration Tool, refer to the chapter titled "Controlling Access to Services" in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide.

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