4.2.1. The FailSafe Cluster View

The FailSafe Cluster View window provides the following capabilities:

• Shows the relationships among the cluster items (nodes, resources groups, etc.)

• Gives access to every item's configuration and status details

• Shows health of the cluster

• Gives access to the FailSafe Manager and to the SYSLOG

• Gives access to Help information

From the FailSafe Cluster View, the user can click on any item to display key information about it. The items that can be viewed in this way are the following:

• Clusters

• Cluster Nodes

• Resource Types

• Resources

• Resource Groups

• Failover Policies

4.2.2. The FailSafe Manager

The FailSafe Manager provides access to the tasks that help you set up and administer your highly available cluster. The FailSafe Manager also provides access to the FailSafe Guided Configuration tasksets.

• Tasksets consist of a group of tasks collected together to accomplish a larger goal. For example, “Set Up a New Cluster” steps you through the process for creating a new cluster and allows you to launch the necessary tasks by simply clicking their titles.

• FailSafe tasksets let you set up and monitor all the components of a Linux FailSafe cluster using an easy-to-use graphical user interface.

4.2.3. Starting the FailSafe Manager GUI

You can start the FailSafe Manager GUI by launching either the FailSafe Manager or the FailSafe Cluster View.

To launch the FailSafe Manager, use one of these methods:

• Choose “FailSafe Manager” from the desktop (KDE or GNOME) menu.

  You will need to restart the desktop panel after installing Linux FailSafe to see the FailSafe entry in the appropriate menu. To restart the panel, right-click (ring-click) on the panel, and select restart. In order for this to take effect, the sysadm_failsafe_client package must be installed on the client system.

• Enter the following command line:

  % /usr/bin/fstask

• In your Web browser, enter http://server/FailSafeManager/ (where server is the name of node in the pool or cluster that you want to administer) and press Enter. At the resulting Web page, click on the shield icon.

  You can use this method of launching FailSafe Manager if you want to administer the Cluster Manager GUI from a non-Linux system. If you are running the Cluster Manager GUI on a Linux system, the preferred method is to use the desktop panel menu or /usr/bin/fstask.

  This method of launching FailSafe Manager works only if you have installed the Java Plug-in, exited all Java processes, restarted your browser, and enabled Java. If there is a long delay before the shield appears, you can click on the “non plug-in” link, but operational glitches may be the result of running in the browser-specific Java.

To launch the FailSafe Cluster View, use one of these methods

• Choose "FailSafe Manager" from the desktop (KDE or GNOME) menu.

  You must restart the desktop panel after installingLinux FailSafe to see the FailSafe entry in the appropriate menu. To restart the panel, right-click (ring-click) on the panel, and select restart. In order for this to take effect, the sysadm_failsafe-client package must be installed on the client system.

• Enter the following command line:

  % /usr/bin/fsdetail

The Cluster Manager GUI allows you to administer the entire cluster from a single point of administration. When Linux FailSafe daemons have been activated in a cluster, you must be sure to connect to a node that is running all the Linux FailSafe daemons to obtain the correct cluster status. When Linux FailSafe daemons have not yet been activated in a cluster, you can connect to any node in the pool.

4.2.4. Opening the FailSafe Cluster View window

You can open the FailSafe Cluster View window using either of the following methods:

• Click the “FailSafe Cluster View“ button at the bottom of the FailSafe Manager window.

  This is the preferred method of opening the FailSafe Cluster View window if you will have both the FailSafe Manager and the FailSafe Cluster View windows open at the same time, since it reuses the existing Java process to open the second window instead of starting a new one, which saves memory usage on the client.

• Open the FailSafe Cluster View window directly when you start the FailSafe Manager GUI, as described above in Section 4.2.3.

4.2.5. Viewing Cluster Item Details

To view the details on any cluster item, use the following procedure:

1. Open the FailSafe Cluster View Window.

2. Click the name or icon of any item.

The configuration and status details will appear in a separate window. To see the details in the same window, select Options. When you then click on the Show Details option, the status details will appear in the right side of the window.

4.2.6. Performing Tasks

To perform an individual task with the FailSafe GUI, do the following:

1. Click the name of a category in the left-hand column of the FailSafe Manager window.

   A list of individual tasksets and taskset topics appears in the right-hand column.

2. Click the title of a task in the right-hand column.

   The task window appears.

   Note: You can click any blue text to get more information about that concept or input field.

3. Enter information in the appropriate fields and click OK. to complete the task. (Some tasks consist of more than one window; in these cases, click Next to go to the next window, complete the information there, and then click OK.

   A dialog box appears confirming the successful completion of the task and displaying additional tasks that you can launch.

4. Continue launching tasks as needed.

4.2.7. Using the Linux FailSafe Tasksets

The FailSafe Manager GUI also provides tasksets to guide you through the steps necessary to complete a goal that encompasses several different tasks. Follow these steps to access the Linux FailSafe tasksets:

1. Click the Guided Configuration category in the lefthand column of the FailSafe Manager window.

   A list of tasksets appears in the right-hand column.

2. Click a taskset in the right-hand column.

   A window appears and lists the series of tasks necessary to accomplish the desired goal.

3. Follow the steps shown, launching tasks by clicking them.

   As you click a task, its task window appears. After you complete all of the tasks listed, you can close the taskset window by double-clicking the upper left corner of its window or clicking Close if there is a Close button on the window.