Requires Optional SwitchOver/UX Software

NAME

switchheartb − send state-of-health messages to standby

SYNOPSIS

switchheartb [-f infofile]

Remarks:

This command requires installation of optional SwitchOver/UX software (not included in the standard HP-UX operating system) before it can be used. 

DESCRIPTION

switchheartb starts the SwitchOver/UX heartbeat daemon.  heartbeat sends state-of-health messages to the standby host.  When the standby determines that the messages have stopped, it initiates a takeover, locking the current host’s disks, and rebooting as the current host.  heartbeat also accesses the root devices periodically to ensure that the primary host notices the takeover (and halts). 

Arguments

-f infofile Names the information file.  Default is /etc/switch/Switchinfo. 

switchheartb is run at bootup by primary hosts only, usually from /etc/inittab. 

switchheartb finds the section in the information file describing the current host.  It sends messages across each LAN link described by an entry of the form

lan# = station address

where # is 0-9 or a-f.  This character is the logical unit (lu) number for the LAN card.  station address is the station address, in hexadecimal, with a leading 0x.  The lan# name corresponds to the LAN device file name.  For example, a lan0 entry causes messages to be sent via /dev/lan0.  The destination station address is named by the corresponding entry in the section describing the standby host.  That is, /dev/lan0 must address the same network on both primary and standby. 

In the information file, several entries in the section for this host control how the heartbeat daemon runs:

rtprio Gives the real-time priority for the process (see rtprio(2)), or no if no real-time priority is desired.  The default is 0. 

lockmem Tells whether the daemon should be locked into main memory (yes) or not (no).  The default is yes. 

pulserate tells how often heartbeat messages are to be sent; pulserate = 30 means every 30 seconds.  The default is 10. 

logfile names the file to which heartbeat writes error messages. 

rootdisk Names the (raw) root device of the primary which heartbeat periodically accesses to ensure that the current host notices the takeover and halts. 

rootmir Names the second (raw) root device of the primary.  This entry is required only if the root is mirrored. 

rootthird Names the third (raw) root device of the primary.  This entry is required only if mirrored three-way using the Logical Volume Manager. 

Once the standby starts to monitor this host, any failure of heartbeat causes a takeover.  Therefore, before killing the daemon (normally never done) or rebooting the machine, stop the readpulse daemon running on the standby. 

Only users with appropriate privileges can run switchheartb. 

AUTHOR

switchheartb was developed by HP. 

FILES

/dev/lan* interface to LAN cards

/etc/switch/Switchinfo
default SwitchOver/ UX information file

/etc/switch/writeroot
touches root every 30 seconds

/etc/switch/heartbeat
heartbeat daemon

SEE ALSO

switchsetlan(1m), switchreadp(1m), switchdiskl(1m), switchsetflg(1m), switchinfo(4). 

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992