Shared SCSI Storage with VMWare Server 2.0 and OCFS

(An update over the same trick with VMWare Server 1.X)

VMWare Server was declared End Of Availability on Jan/2010, while VMWare is pushing to use Player, ESX(i), vCenter, vSphere and all the “formerly known as” product names. I think that VMWare Server series are a great software, but v2.0 was sentenced to death since:

• Adding the web UI lead to many browser-related issues: [1,2,3]
• Bloated with tomcat, java .. and so on.
• Lastests releases didn’t included a VI Client.
• Why none of VMWare Server shown the “shared scsi controller” in their UI?

The King is dead. Long live the King.

Well, let’s see a recipe for configuring a shared SCSI bus + OCFS2 with VMWare Server 2.0.

I will use a turnkey Linux appliance in this test, because it has a very simple startup menu for configuring IP address and it’s debian based (apt-get!).

1. Environment
   I’ll assume that we’re in a Windows host, with 

   d:\node1	-- node1 virtual machine, 192.168.2.51
   d:\node2	-- node2 virtual machine, 192.168.2.52
   d:\shared	-- all shared stuff.

2. Preparing Virtual Machine
   Download, save & import your favourite testing appliance into VMWare Server 2.0, and change the following:/etc/hosts: 

   127.0.0.1	node1	localhost
   192.168.2.51	node1
   192.168.2.52	node2

   /etc/hostname:

   node1

   Reboot the VM, and verify if all changes persisted with ifconfig and hostname utils.

3. Adding a Shared SCSI disk
   With the VMWare Server 2.0 UI you can add a new disk to node1, and setup these parameters: 
   1. create it into the “shared” folder (read “1. Environment”)
   2. independent & persistent
   3. adapter SCSI:0, device 0
   4. (optional: 1Gb, don’t allocate immediately)

   Save config and edit the .vmx file and ensure that the following properties are set:

   node1.vmx:

   scsi0.sharedBus = “virtual” # was “none”
   disk.locking = “false”
   scsi0.virtualDev = “lsilogic”
   scsi0:0.redo = “”
   scsi0:0.deviceType = “disk”

4. Install and configure OCFS2 stuff
   1. Install OCFS2 packages
      In Debian / Ubuntu is pretty easy: 

      apt-get install ocfs2console ocfs2-tools

   2. Configure OCFS2
      If you try to execute:
      ./o2cb startYou can get errors like: 

      Loading module “configfs”: OK
      Mounting configfs filesystem at /sys/kernel/config: OK
      Loading module “ocfs2_nodemanager”: OK
      Loading module “ocfs2_dlm”: OK
      Loading module “ocfs2_dlmfs”: OK
      Creating directory ‘/dlm’: OK
      Mounting ocfs2_dlmfs filesystem at /dlm: OK
      Checking O2CB cluster configuration : Failed
      invoke-rc.d: initscript o2cb, action “start” failed.

      To fix this, run “dpkg-reconfigure ocfs2-tools” and create the file /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf:

      cluster:
      	node_count = 2
      	name = ocfs2
      node:
      	ip_port = 7777
      	ip_address = 192.168.2.51
      	number = 1
      	name = node1
      	cluster = ocfs2
      node:
      	ip_port = 7777
      	ip_address = 192.168.2.52
      	number = 2
      	name = node2
      	cluster = ocfs2

      Ensure that name & cluster attributes (value: “ocfs2″ in the example) matches your response when ran “dpkg-reconfigure ocfs2-tools”. This file should use TABs instead whitespaces.

   3. Test OCFS2
      

      root@node1:/etc/init.d# ./o2cb start
      Loading module “configfs”: OK
      Mounting configfs filesystem at /sys/kernel/config: OK
      Loading module “ocfs2_nodemanager”: OK
      Loading module “ocfs2_dlm”: OK
      Loading module “ocfs2_dlmfs”: OK
      Mounting ocfs2_dlmfs filesystem at /dlm: OK
      Starting O2CB cluster ocfs2: OK

      root@node1:/etc/init.d# ./o2cb status
      Module “configfs”: Loaded
      Filesystem “configfs”: Mounted
      Module “ocfs2_nodemanager”: Loaded
      Module “ocfs2_dlm”: Loaded
      Module “ocfs2_dlmfs”: Loaded
      Filesystem “ocfs2_dlmfs”: Mounted
      Checking O2CB cluster ocfs2: Online
      Heartbeat dead threshold = 7
      Network idle timeout: 10000
      Network keepalive delay: 5000
      Network reconnect delay: 2000
      Checking O2CB heartbeat: Not active

   4. Make a OCFS2 partition
      Create a new partition with fdisk and the mkfs it with: 

      mkfs.ocfs /dev/sdX1

      Mount it:

      mount -t ocfs2 /dev/sdX1 /mnt/shared

      And define it in fstab:

      /dev/sdX1 /mnt/shared ocfs2 _netdev 0 0

5. Cloning the first node
   Shutdown node1 and copy it in node2 folder (see “1 – Environment”). Node2 is exactly configured as node1, but IP address
   and hostname should be changed. All references to shared disk vdmk remain valid as the disk is in a separate folder. Repeat “2 – Preparing Virtual Machine” for Node2.
6. Reboot both nodes & enjoy.

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