RH436: Deploy and Manage Reliable, Available Critical Production Services with Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management

# Outline of the article ## Introduction - What is RH436: Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.pdf? - Why is it important to learn about high availability clustering and storage management? - What are the main topics covered in this course? - Who is the target audience for this course? - What are the prerequisites and objectives for this course? ## High availability clustering - What is high availability clustering and what are its benefits? - What are the components of a high availability cluster? - How to install and configure a Pacemaker-based high availability cluster on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3? - How to create and manage highly available services using cluster resources and constraints? - How to troubleshoot common cluster issues and eliminate single points of failure? ## Shared storage - What is shared storage and what are its advantages? - What are the types of shared storage supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux High-Availability Add-On and Resilient Storage Add-On? - How to configure iSCSI initiators and targets for shared storage access? - How to configure multipathing for improved performance and reliability of shared storage devices? - How to implement Logical Volume Manager (LVM) in cluster-aware configurations using HA-LVM or CLVM? ## Cluster file systems - What is a cluster file system and what are its features? - What is Red Hat Global File System 2 (GFS2) and how does it work? - How to create and mount GFS2 file systems on shared storage devices? - How to manage GFS2 file systems using command-line tools and graphical user interface? - How to optimize GFS2 performance and troubleshoot common GFS2 issues? ## Conclusion - Summarize the main points of the article - Emphasize the value of RH436: Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.pdf course for senior Linux system administrators - Provide a call to action for readers to enroll in the course or take the free assessment - Provide 5 unique FAQs after the conclusion # Article RH436: Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.pdf added Are you a senior Linux system administrator who wants to provide highly available network services to a mission-critical enterprise environment? Do you want to learn how to deploy and manage shared storage and server clusters using the latest technologies from Red Hat? If yes, then you should check out RH436: Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.pdf, a comprehensive course that covers everything you need to know about high availability clustering and storage management on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3. In this article, we will give you an overview of what this course is about, what are the main topics covered in it, who is the target audience for it, what are the prerequisites and objectives for it, and how you can enroll in it or take a free assessment to gauge your skills. By the end of this article, you will have a clear idea of whether this course is suitable for you and how it can help you advance your career as a Linux system administrator. ## What is RH436: Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.pdf? RH436: Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.pdf is a 4-day course that provides intensive, hands-on experience with the Pacemaker component of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High-Availability Add-On, as well as cluster storage components from the Resilient Storage Add-On, including Cluster Logical Volume Manager (CLVM), Red Hat Global File System 2 (GFS2), and Device-Mapper Multipath. This course strongly emphasizes lab-based activities, where you will set up a cluster of systems running Pacemaker, and deploy Linux-based services such as web servers and databases on that cluster. You will also configure shared storage devices using iSCSI, multipathing, HA-LVM or CLVM as appropriate, and create GFS2 file systems on those devices. You will learn how to manage cluster resources and constraints, troubleshoot common cluster issues, optimize cluster performance, and eliminate single points of failure. This course is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3, the latest version of the leading enterprise Linux platform that offers enhanced security, performance, and reliability for mission-critical workloads. ## Why is it important to learn about high availability clustering and storage management? High availability clustering and storage management are essential skills for any Linux system administrator who is responsible for maintaining a high availability service using cluster technology. High availability clustering is a technique that allows you to provide continuous service to your clients by ensuring that your network services are always available, even in the event of a failure of one or more nodes in the cluster. High availability clustering also improves the scalability, performance, and reliability of your network services by distributing the workload among multiple nodes and providing failover and load balancing mechanisms. Shared storage is a type of storage that can be accessed by multiple nodes in the cluster simultaneously, allowing them to share data and resources. Shared storage is crucial for high availability clustering, as it enables you to create cluster file systems that can be mounted on all nodes in the cluster, providing consistent and coherent access to the data. Shared storage also simplifies the management of cluster storage, as you can use common tools and commands to create, modify, and delete logical volumes, file systems, and directories on shared storage devices. By learning how to implement high availability clustering and shared storage on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3, you will be able to deploy reliable, available critical production services in a high availability cluster environment, using the best practices and tools from Red Hat. You will also be able to leverage the features and benefits of Red Hat Enterprise Linux High-Availability Add-On and Resilient Storage Add-On, which are included in your Red Hat subscription. ## What are the main topics covered in this course? This course covers the following main topics: - High availability clustering: You will learn how to install and configure a Pacemaker-based high availability cluster on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3, how to create and manage highly available services using cluster resources and constraints, how to troubleshoot common cluster issues and eliminate single points of failure. - Shared storage: You will learn how to configure iSCSI initiators and targets for shared storage access, how to configure multipathing for improved performance and reliability of shared storage devices, how to implement Logical Volume Manager (LVM) in cluster-aware configurations using HA-LVM or CLVM. - Cluster file systems: You will learn how to create and mount GFS2 file systems on shared storage devices, how to manage GFS2 file systems using command-line tools and graphical user interface, how to optimize GFS2 performance and troubleshoot common GFS2 issues. ## Who is the target audience for this course? This course is designed for senior Linux system administrators who use high-availability clustering and fault-tolerant shared storage technologies to maximize resiliency of production services. This course is also suitable for anyone who wants to prepare for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in High Availability Clustering exam (EX436), which validates your skills and knowledge in high availability clustering and storage management on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3. ## What are the prerequisites and objectives for this course? To enroll in this course, you should have the following prerequisites: - Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) certification or equivalent experience - Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification or equivalent experience You can take a free assessment to gauge whether this course is the best fit for your skills. By completing this course, you should be able to achieve the following objectives: - Install and configure a Pacemaker-based high availability cluster - Create and manage highly available services - Troubleshoot common cluster issues - Work with shared storage (iSCSI) and configure multipathing - Implement Logical Volume Manager (LVM) in cluster-aware configurations - Configure GFS2 file systems on storage shared by multiple nodes ## How can I enroll in this course or take a free assessment? If you are interested in enrolling in this course or taking a free assessment to evaluate your skills, you can visit the official website of Red Hat Training, where you can find more information about this course, such as the course description, outline, outcomes, technology considerations, schedule, pricing, location, etc. You can also contact Red Hat or a Red Hat Certified Training Partner near you for more details. Alternatively, you can also access this course as part of a Red Hat Learning Subscription, which gives you on-demand, unlimited access to our online learning resources for an entire year. You can also verify your knowledge by taking our free assessment, which will help you identify your skill level on Red Hat products and recommend courses tailored to you at no cost. ## Conclusion ## High availability clustering High availability clustering is a technique that allows you to provide continuous service to your clients by ensuring that your network services are always available, even in the event of a failure of one or more nodes in the cluster . High availability clustering also improves the scalability, performance, and reliability of your network services by distributing the workload among multiple nodes and providing failover and load balancing mechanisms. Some of the benefits of high availability clustering are: - It eliminates single point of failure for critical IT services - It automatically detects and recovers from application failures regardless of the cause - It prevents data loss during a system failure - It restarts or repairs the failed server without requiring manual intervention - It supports planned maintenance by allowing manual failover To implement high availability clustering on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3, you will need to use the Pacemaker component of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High-Availability Add-On. Pacemaker is an open-source cluster resource manager that manages the resources and services on a cluster and ensures that they are available and functional at all times. The main components of a Pacemaker-based high availability cluster are: - Cluster nodes: The servers that run the cluster software and host the cluster resources - Cluster resources: The services or applications that are managed by the cluster, such as web servers, databases, file systems, etc. - Cluster resource agents: The scripts or programs that control the start, stop, monitor, and migrate operations of cluster resources - Cluster communication layer: The software that enables communication between cluster nodes using network protocols such as UDP or TCP - Cluster configuration: The XML file that defines the cluster properties, nodes, resources, constraints, and options To install and configure a Pacemaker-based high availability cluster on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3, you will need to perform the following steps: - Install the high-availability package group on each node using yum - Configure firewall rules to allow cluster communication on each node using firewall-cmd - Configure host name resolution for each node using /etc/hosts or DNS - Create and distribute authentication keys for each node using pcs - Start and enable the pcsd service on each node using systemctl - Create a cluster using pcs with a name and a list of nodes - Configure cluster properties using pcs such as stonith-enabled, no-quorum-policy, etc. - Add cluster resources using pcs with a name, a resource agent, and optional parameters - Add cluster constraints using pcs such as location, order, colocation, etc. To create and manage highly available services using cluster resources and constraints, you will need to use pcs commands or the web-based graphical user interface provided by pcsd. You can use pcs commands to create, modify, delete, start, stop, enable, disable, move, group, clone, or monitor cluster resources. You can also use pcs commands to create, modify, delete, or show cluster constraints that define how cluster resources are placed and ordered on the cluster nodes. To troubleshoot common cluster issues and eliminate single points of failure, you will need to use various tools and commands such as pcs status, pcs config, corosync-cfgtool, corosync-cmapctl, crm_mon, crm_verify, crm_simulate, crm_resource, journalctl, and systemctl. You will also need to check the log files in /var/log/cluster/, /var/log/pacemaker/, /var/log/corosync/, /var/log/messages/, etc. You will also need to identify and resolve any issues related to network connectivity, authentication keys, firewall rules, host name resolution, resource configuration, resource dependencies, resource failures, fencing devices, quorum votes, ## Shared storage Shared storage is a type of storage that can be accessed by multiple nodes in the cluster simultaneously, allowing them to share data and resources . Shared storage is crucial for high availability clustering, as it enables you to create cluster file systems that can be mounted on all nodes in the cluster, providing consistent and coherent access to the data. Shared storage also simplifies the management of cluster storage, as you can use common tools and commands to create, modify, and delete logical volumes, file systems, and directories on shared storage devices. Some of the advantages of shared storage are : - It improves performance and availability of network services by reducing network traffic and latency - It supports data replication and backup across multiple nodes for disaster recovery - It allows for dynamic scaling of storage capacity and performance as needed - It supports different types of storage devices and protocols for flexibility and compatibility There are different types of shared storage supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux High-Availability Add-On and Resilient Storage Add-On : - iSCSI: A protocol that allows block-level access to storage devices over TCP/IP networks - Fibre Channel: A protocol that allows block-level access to storage devices over optical fiber networks - Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE): A protocol that allows block-level access to storage devices over Ethernet networks - Network File System (NFS): A protocol that allows file-level access to storage devices over TCP/IP networks - Server Message Block (SMB): A protocol that allows file-level access to storage devices over TCP/IP networks To configure shared storage for high availability clustering on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3, you will need to perform the following steps: - Configure the shared storage devices on the network using iSCSI, Fibre Channel, FCoE, NFS, or SMB as appropriate - Configure multipathing for improved performance and reliability of shared storage devices using device-mapper-multipath - Partition and format the shared storage devices using fdisk or gdisk and mkfs - Create logical volumes on the shared storage devices using HA-LVM or CLVM as appropriate ## Cluster file systems A cluster file system is a type of file system that can be mounted and accessed by multiple nodes in the cluster at the same time, providing a shared namespace and data access . A cluster file system is different from a distributed file system, which distributes data across multiple nodes and provides a unified view of the data. A cluster file system requires shared storage devices that can be accessed by all nodes in the cluster simultaneously. One of the cluster file systems supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux Resilient Storage Add-On is Red Hat Global File System 2 (GFS2) . GFS2 is a 64-bit symmetric cluster file system that provides a shared namespace and manages coherency between multiple nodes sharing a common block device. GFS2 is intended to provide a feature set that is as close as possible to a local file system, while at the same time enforcing full cluster coherency between nodes. Some of the features of GFS2 are : - It supports files up to 8 EB and file systems up to 100 TB - It uses journaling and write barriers to provide data consistency and recovery - It uses a distributed lock manager (DLM) to synchronize access to file system metadata and data - It uses a meta file system to store system files such as journals, inodes, and indirect blocks - It supports POSIX ACLs and extended attributes - It supports quotas and quota enforcement - It supports direct I/O and memory-mapped I/O - It supports online resizing and defragmentation - It supports user-space utilities and graphical user interface for file system management To create and mount GFS2 file systems on shared storage devices, you will need to perform the following steps: - Create a logical volume on the shared storage device using HA-LVM or CLVM as appropriate - Create a GFS2 file system on the logical volume using mkfs.gfs2 - Mount the GFS2 file system on the cluster nodes using mount or /etc/fstab To manage GFS2 file systems using command-line tools and graphical user interface, you will need to use various tools and commands such as gfs2_tool, gfs2_edit, gfs2_grow, gfs2_quota, gfs2_jadd, gfs2_convert, gfs2_mount, gfs2_umount, and gfs2_fsck. You can also use the Conga web-based graphical user interface to create, modify, delete, mount, unmount, or check GFS2 file systems. To optimize GFS2 performance and troubleshoot common GFS2 issues, you will need to use various tools and commands such as gfs2_tune, gfs2_stat, gfs2_quota, gfs2_jadd, gfs2_fsck, journalctl, and systemctl. You will also need to check the log files in /var/log/messages/, /var/log/gfs/, /var/log/gfs-fsck/, etc. You will also need to identify and resolve any issues related to lock contention, journal size, inode size, resource group size, fragmentation, allocation policy, atime updates, ## Conclusion In this article, we have given you an overview of RH436: Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.pdf added, a 4-day course that provides intensive, hands-on experience with high availability clustering and storage management on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3. We have explained what this course is about, why it is important to learn about high availability clustering and storage management, what are the main topics covered in it, who is the target audience for it, what are the prerequisites and objectives for it, and how you can enroll in it or take a free assessment to gauge your skills. By taking this course, you will be able to install and configure a Pacemaker-based high availability cluster, create and manage highly available services, troubleshoot common cluster issues, work with shared storage (iSCSI) and configure multipathing, implement Logical Volume Manager (LVM) in cluster-aware configurations, and configure GFS2 file systems on storage shared by multiple nodes. You will also be able to prepare for the Red Hat Certified Specialist in High Availability Clustering exam (EX436), which validates your skills and knowledge in high availability clustering and storage management on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3. If you are interested in enrolling in this course or taking a free assessment to evaluate your skills, you can visit the official website of Red Hat Training, where you can find more information about this course, such as the course description, outline, outcomes, technology considerations, schedule, pricing, location, etc. You can also contact Red Hat or a Red Hat Certified Training Partner near you for more details. Alternatively, you can also access this course as part of a Red Hat Learning Subscription, which gives you on-demand, unlimited access to our online learning resources for a