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80c0adcb 1[[chapter_ha_manager]]
22653ac8 2ifdef::manvolnum[]
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3ha-manager(1)
4=============
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5:pve-toplevel:
6
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7NAME
8----
9
734404b4 10ha-manager - Proxmox VE HA Manager
22653ac8 11
49a5e11c 12SYNOPSIS
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13--------
14
15include::ha-manager.1-synopsis.adoc[]
16
17DESCRIPTION
18-----------
19endif::manvolnum[]
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20ifndef::manvolnum[]
21High Availability
22=================
5f09af76 23:pve-toplevel:
194d2f29 24endif::manvolnum[]
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25
26Our modern society depends heavily on information provided by
27computers over the network. Mobile devices amplified that dependency,
28because people can access the network any time from anywhere. If you
29provide such services, it is very important that they are available
30most of the time.
31
049fc557 32We can mathematically define the availability as the ratio of (A), the
b5266e9f 33total time a service is capable of being used during a given interval
049fc557 34to (B), the length of the interval. It is normally expressed as a
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35percentage of uptime in a given year.
36
37.Availability - Downtime per Year
38[width="60%",cols="<d,d",options="header"]
39|===========================================================
40|Availability % |Downtime per year
41|99 |3.65 days
42|99.9 |8.76 hours
43|99.99 |52.56 minutes
44|99.999 |5.26 minutes
45|99.9999 |31.5 seconds
46|99.99999 |3.15 seconds
47|===========================================================
48
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49There are several ways to increase availability. The most elegant
50solution is to rewrite your software, so that you can run it on
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51several hosts at the same time. The software itself needs to have a way
52to detect errors and do failover. If you only want to serve read-only
53web pages, then this is relatively simple. However, this is generally complex
54and sometimes impossible, because you cannot modify the software yourself. The
55following solutions works without modifying the software:
04bde502 56
8c1189b6 57* Use reliable ``server'' components
fd9e8984 58+
049fc557 59NOTE: Computer components with the same functionality can have varying
2af6af05 60reliability numbers, depending on the component quality. Most vendors
8c1189b6 61sell components with higher reliability as ``server'' components -
04bde502 62usually at higher price.
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63
64* Eliminate single point of failure (redundant components)
8c1189b6 65** use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
42dfa5e9 66** use redundant power supplies in your servers
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67** use ECC-RAM
68** use redundant network hardware
69** use RAID for local storage
70** use distributed, redundant storage for VM data
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71
72* Reduce downtime
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73** rapidly accessible administrators (24/7)
74** availability of spare parts (other nodes in a {pve} cluster)
75** automatic error detection (provided by `ha-manager`)
76** automatic failover (provided by `ha-manager`)
b5266e9f 77
5771d9b0 78Virtualization environments like {pve} make it much easier to reach
8c1189b6 79high availability because they remove the ``hardware'' dependency. They
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80also support the setup and use of redundant storage and network
81devices, so if one host fails, you can simply start those services on
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82another host within your cluster.
83
049fc557 84Better still, {pve} provides a software stack called `ha-manager`,
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85which can do that automatically for you. It is able to automatically
86detect errors and do automatic failover.
87
8c1189b6 88{pve} `ha-manager` works like an ``automated'' administrator. First, you
43da8322 89configure what resources (VMs, containers, ...) it should
049fc557 90manage. Then, `ha-manager` observes the correct functionality, and handles
8c1189b6 91service failover to another node in case of errors. `ha-manager` can
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92also handle normal user requests which may start, stop, relocate and
93migrate a service.
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94
95But high availability comes at a price. High quality components are
049fc557 96more expensive, and making them redundant doubles the costs at
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97least. Additional spare parts increase costs further. So you should
98carefully calculate the benefits, and compare with those additional
99costs.
100
101TIP: Increasing availability from 99% to 99.9% is relatively
d5c3a54a 102simple. But increasing availability from 99.9999% to 99.99999% is very
8c1189b6 103hard and costly. `ha-manager` has typical error detection and failover
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104times of about 2 minutes, so you can get no more than 99.999%
105availability.
b5266e9f 106
823fa863 107
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108Requirements
109------------
3810ae1e 110
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111You must meet the following requirements before you start with HA:
112
5bd515d4 113* at least three cluster nodes (to get reliable quorum)
43da8322 114
5bd515d4 115* shared storage for VMs and containers
43da8322 116
5bd515d4 117* hardware redundancy (everywhere)
3810ae1e 118
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119* use reliable “server” components
120
5bd515d4 121* hardware watchdog - if not available we fall back to the
8c1189b6 122 linux kernel software watchdog (`softdog`)
3810ae1e 123
5bd515d4 124* optional hardware fencing devices
3810ae1e 125
3810ae1e 126
80c0adcb 127[[ha_manager_resources]]
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128Resources
129---------
130
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131We call the primary management unit handled by `ha-manager` a
132resource. A resource (also called ``service'') is uniquely
5bd515d4 133identified by a service ID (SID), which consists of the resource type
049fc557 134and a type specific ID, for example `vm:100`. That example would be a
8c1189b6 135resource of type `vm` (virtual machine) with the ID 100.
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136
137For now we have two important resources types - virtual machines and
138containers. One basic idea here is that we can bundle related software
a35aad4a 139into such a VM or container, so there is no need to compose one big
049fc557 140service from other services, as was done with `rgmanager`. In
4c34defd 141general, a HA managed resource should not depend on other resources.
3810ae1e 142
22653ac8 143
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144Management Tasks
145----------------
146
147This section provides a short overview of common management tasks. The
148first step is to enable HA for a resource. This is done by adding the
149resource to the HA resource configuration. You can do this using the
ff4ae052 150GUI, or simply use the command-line tool, for example:
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151
152----
153# ha-manager add vm:100
154----
155
049fc557 156The HA stack now tries to start the resources and keep them
d4642672 157running. Please note that you can configure the ``requested''
a35aad4a 158resources state. For example you may want the HA stack to stop the
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159resource:
160
161----
162# ha-manager set vm:100 --state stopped
163----
164
165and start it again later:
166
167----
168# ha-manager set vm:100 --state started
169----
170
171You can also use the normal VM and container management commands. They
172automatically forward the commands to the HA stack, so
173
174----
175# qm start 100
176----
177
049fc557 178simply sets the requested state to `started`. The same applies to `qm
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179stop`, which sets the requested state to `stopped`.
180
181NOTE: The HA stack works fully asynchronous and needs to communicate
049fc557 182with other cluster members. Therefore, it takes some seconds until you see
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183the result of such actions.
184
185To view the current HA resource configuration use:
186
187----
188# ha-manager config
189vm:100
190 state stopped
191----
192
193And you can view the actual HA manager and resource state with:
194
195----
196# ha-manager status
197quorum OK
198master node1 (active, Wed Nov 23 11:07:23 2016)
199lrm elsa (active, Wed Nov 23 11:07:19 2016)
200service vm:100 (node1, started)
201----
202
203You can also initiate resource migration to other nodes:
204
205----
206# ha-manager migrate vm:100 node2
207----
208
209This uses online migration and tries to keep the VM running. Online
210migration needs to transfer all used memory over the network, so it is
049fc557 211sometimes faster to stop the VM, then restart it on the new node. This can be
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212done using the `relocate` command:
213
214----
215# ha-manager relocate vm:100 node2
216----
217
218Finally, you can remove the resource from the HA configuration using
219the following command:
220
221----
222# ha-manager remove vm:100
223----
224
225NOTE: This does not start or stop the resource.
226
a35aad4a 227But all HA related tasks can be done in the GUI, so there is no need to
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228use the command line at all.
229
230
2b52e195 231How It Works
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232------------
233
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234This section provides a detailed description of the {PVE} HA manager
235internals. It describes all involved daemons and how they work
236together. To provide HA, two daemons run on each node:
3810ae1e 237
8c1189b6 238`pve-ha-lrm`::
3810ae1e 239
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240The local resource manager (LRM), which controls the services running on
241the local node. It reads the requested states for its services from
242the current manager status file and executes the respective commands.
3810ae1e 243
8c1189b6 244`pve-ha-crm`::
3810ae1e 245
60ed554f 246The cluster resource manager (CRM), which makes the cluster-wide
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247decisions. It sends commands to the LRM, processes the results,
248and moves resources to other nodes if something fails. The CRM also
249handles node fencing.
250
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251
252.Locks in the LRM & CRM
253[NOTE]
254Locks are provided by our distributed configuration file system (pmxcfs).
a35aad4a 255They are used to guarantee that each LRM is active once and working. As an
3821ecaf 256LRM only executes actions when it holds its lock, we can mark a failed node
049fc557 257as fenced if we can acquire its lock. This then lets us recover any failed
5eba0743 258HA services securely without any interference from the now unknown failed node.
049fc557 259This all gets supervised by the CRM which currently holds the manager master
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260lock.
261
c7470421 262
c6284866 263[[ha_manager_service_states]]
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264Service States
265~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
266
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267The CRM uses a service state enumeration to record the current service
268state. This state is displayed on the GUI and can be queried using
ff4ae052 269the `ha-manager` command-line tool:
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270
271----
272# ha-manager status
273quorum OK
274master elsa (active, Mon Nov 21 07:23:29 2016)
275lrm elsa (active, Mon Nov 21 07:23:22 2016)
276service ct:100 (elsa, stopped)
277service ct:102 (elsa, started)
278service vm:501 (elsa, started)
279----
280
281Here is the list of possible states:
282
283stopped::
284
285Service is stopped (confirmed by LRM). If the LRM detects a stopped
286service is still running, it will stop it again.
287
288request_stop::
289
290Service should be stopped. The CRM waits for confirmation from the
291LRM.
292
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293stopping::
294
295Pending stop request. But the CRM did not get the request so far.
296
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297started::
298
299Service is active an LRM should start it ASAP if not already running.
300If the Service fails and is detected to be not running the LRM
301restarts it
302(see xref:ha_manager_start_failure_policy[Start Failure Policy]).
303
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304starting::
305
306Pending start request. But the CRM has not got any confirmation from the
307LRM that the service is running.
308
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309fence::
310
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311Wait for node fencing as the service node is not inside the quorate cluster
312partition (see xref:ha_manager_fencing[Fencing]).
313As soon as node gets fenced successfully the service will be placed into the
314recovery state.
315
316recovery::
317
318Wait for recovery of the service. The HA manager tries to find a new node where
319the service can run on. This search depends not only on the list of online and
320quorate nodes, but also if the service is a group member and how such a group
321is limited.
322As soon as a new available node is found, the service will be moved there and
323initially placed into stopped state. If it's configured to run the new node
324will do so.
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325
326freeze::
327
328Do not touch the service state. We use this state while we reboot a
329node, or when we restart the LRM daemon
330(see xref:ha_manager_package_updates[Package Updates]).
331
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332ignored::
333
fb29acdd 334Act as if the service were not managed by HA at all.
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335Useful, when full control over the service is desired temporarily, without
336removing it from the HA configuration.
581f2240 337
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338migrate::
339
340Migrate service (live) to other node.
341
342error::
343
344Service is disabled because of LRM errors. Needs manual intervention
345(see xref:ha_manager_error_recovery[Error Recovery]).
346
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347queued::
348
349Service is newly added, and the CRM has not seen it so far.
350
351disabled::
352
353Service is stopped and marked as `disabled`
354
c7470421 355
c6284866 356[[ha_manager_lrm]]
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357Local Resource Manager
358~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
359
8c1189b6 360The local resource manager (`pve-ha-lrm`) is started as a daemon on
60ed554f 361boot and waits until the HA cluster is quorate and thus cluster-wide
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362locks are working.
363
364It can be in three states:
365
b8663359 366wait for agent lock::
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367
368The LRM waits for our exclusive lock. This is also used as idle state if no
369service is configured.
370
b8663359 371active::
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372
373The LRM holds its exclusive lock and has services configured.
374
b8663359 375lost agent lock::
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376
377The LRM lost its lock, this means a failure happened and quorum was lost.
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378
379After the LRM gets in the active state it reads the manager status
8c1189b6 380file in `/etc/pve/ha/manager_status` and determines the commands it
2af6af05 381has to execute for the services it owns.
a35aad4a 382For each command a worker gets started, these workers are running in
5eba0743 383parallel and are limited to at most 4 by default. This default setting
8c1189b6 384may be changed through the datacenter configuration key `max_worker`.
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385When finished the worker process gets collected and its result saved for
386the CRM.
3810ae1e 387
5eba0743 388.Maximum Concurrent Worker Adjustment Tips
3810ae1e 389[NOTE]
5eba0743 390The default value of at most 4 concurrent workers may be unsuited for
049fc557 391a specific setup. For example, 4 live migrations may occur at the same
3810ae1e 392time, which can lead to network congestions with slower networks and/or
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393big (memory wise) services. Also, ensure that in the worst case, congestion is
394at a minimum, even if this means lowering the `max_worker` value. On the
395contrary, if you have a particularly powerful, high-end setup you may also want
396to increase it.
3810ae1e 397
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398Each command requested by the CRM is uniquely identifiable by a UID. When
399the worker finishes, its result will be processed and written in the LRM
8c1189b6 400status file `/etc/pve/nodes/<nodename>/lrm_status`. There the CRM may collect
049fc557 401it and let its state machine - respective to the commands output - act on it.
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402
403The actions on each service between CRM and LRM are normally always synced.
a35aad4a 404This means that the CRM requests a state uniquely marked by a UID, the LRM
049fc557 405then executes this action *one time* and writes back the result, which is also
3810ae1e 406identifiable by the same UID. This is needed so that the LRM does not
a35aad4a 407execute an outdated command.
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408The only exceptions to this behaviour are the `stop` and `error` commands;
409these two do not depend on the result produced and are executed
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410always in the case of the stopped state and once in the case of
411the error state.
412
413.Read the Logs
414[NOTE]
415The HA Stack logs every action it makes. This helps to understand what
416and also why something happens in the cluster. Here its important to see
417what both daemons, the LRM and the CRM, did. You may use
418`journalctl -u pve-ha-lrm` on the node(s) where the service is and
419the same command for the pve-ha-crm on the node which is the current master.
420
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421
422[[ha_manager_crm]]
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423Cluster Resource Manager
424~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
22653ac8 425
8c1189b6 426The cluster resource manager (`pve-ha-crm`) starts on each node and
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427waits there for the manager lock, which can only be held by one node
428at a time. The node which successfully acquires the manager lock gets
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429promoted to the CRM master.
430
2af6af05 431It can be in three states:
3810ae1e 432
b8663359 433wait for agent lock::
e1ea726a 434
97ae300a 435The CRM waits for our exclusive lock. This is also used as idle state if no
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436service is configured
437
b8663359 438active::
e1ea726a 439
97ae300a 440The CRM holds its exclusive lock and has services configured
e1ea726a 441
b8663359 442lost agent lock::
e1ea726a 443
97ae300a 444The CRM lost its lock, this means a failure happened and quorum was lost.
3810ae1e 445
a35aad4a 446Its main task is to manage the services which are configured to be highly
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447available and try to always enforce the requested state. For example, a
448service with the requested state 'started' will be started if its not
449already running. If it crashes it will be automatically started again.
a35aad4a 450Thus the CRM dictates the actions the LRM needs to execute.
22653ac8 451
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452When a node leaves the cluster quorum, its state changes to unknown.
453If the current CRM can then secure the failed node's lock, the services
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454will be 'stolen' and restarted on another node.
455
456When a cluster member determines that it is no longer in the cluster
457quorum, the LRM waits for a new quorum to form. As long as there is no
458quorum the node cannot reset the watchdog. This will trigger a reboot
049fc557 459after the watchdog times out (this happens after 60 seconds).
22653ac8 460
85363588 461
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462HA Simulator
463------------
464
465[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-ha-manager-status.png"]
466
467By using the HA simulator you can test and learn all functionalities of the
468Proxmox VE HA solutions.
469
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470By default, the simulator allows you to watch and test the behaviour of a
471real-world 3 node cluster with 6 VMs. You can also add or remove additional VMs
472or Container.
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473
474You do not have to setup or configure a real cluster, the HA simulator runs out
475of the box.
476
477Install with apt:
478
479----
480apt install pve-ha-simulator
481----
482
049fc557 483You can even install the package on any Debian-based system without any
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484other Proxmox VE packages. For that you will need to download the package and
485copy it to the system you want to run it on for installation. When you install
486the package with apt from the local file system it will also resolve the
487required dependencies for you.
488
489
049fc557 490To start the simulator on a remote machine you must have an X11 redirection to
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491your current system.
492
493If you are on a Linux machine you can use:
494
495----
3c5584e9 496ssh root@<IPofPVE> -Y
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497----
498
049fc557 499On Windows it works with https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/[mobaxterm].
b8633a34 500
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501After connecting to an existing {pve} with the simulator installed or
502installing it on your local Debian-based system manually, you can try it out as
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503follows.
504
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505First you need to create a working directory where the simulator saves its
506current state and writes its default config:
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507
508----
509mkdir working
510----
511
049fc557 512Then, simply pass the created directory as a parameter to 'pve-ha-simulator':
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513
514----
515pve-ha-simulator working/
516----
517
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518You can then start, stop, migrate the simulated HA services, or even check out
519what happens on a node failure.
b8633a34 520
2b52e195 521Configuration
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522-------------
523
85363588 524The HA stack is well integrated into the {pve} API. So, for example,
ff4ae052 525HA can be configured via the `ha-manager` command-line interface, or
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526the {pve} web interface - both interfaces provide an easy way to
527manage HA. Automation tools can use the API directly.
528
529All HA configuration files are within `/etc/pve/ha/`, so they get
530automatically distributed to the cluster nodes, and all nodes share
531the same HA configuration.
532
206c2476 533
4c34defd 534[[ha_manager_resource_config]]
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535Resources
536~~~~~~~~~
537
1ff5e4e8 538[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-ha-manager-status.png"]
863a8f3a 539
4d63b3cc 540
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541The resource configuration file `/etc/pve/ha/resources.cfg` stores
542the list of resources managed by `ha-manager`. A resource configuration
a35aad4a 543inside that list looks like this:
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544
545----
8bdc398c 546<type>: <name>
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547 <property> <value>
548 ...
549----
550
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551It starts with a resource type followed by a resource specific name,
552separated with colon. Together this forms the HA resource ID, which is
553used by all `ha-manager` commands to uniquely identify a resource
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554(example: `vm:100` or `ct:101`). The next lines contain additional
555properties:
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556
557include::ha-resources-opts.adoc[]
558
8bdc398c 559Here is a real world example with one VM and one container. As you see,
470d4313 560the syntax of those files is really simple, so it is even possible to
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561read or edit those files using your favorite editor:
562
e7b9b0ac 563.Configuration Example (`/etc/pve/ha/resources.cfg`)
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564----
565vm: 501
566 state started
567 max_relocate 2
568
569ct: 102
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570 # Note: use default settings for everything
571----
572
1ff5e4e8 573[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-ha-manager-add-resource.png"]
4d63b3cc 574
ff4ae052 575The above config was generated using the `ha-manager` command-line tool:
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576
577----
578# ha-manager add vm:501 --state started --max_relocate 2
579# ha-manager add ct:102
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580----
581
85363588 582
1acab952 583[[ha_manager_groups]]
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584Groups
585~~~~~~
586
1ff5e4e8 587[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-ha-manager-groups-view.png"]
4d63b3cc 588
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589The HA group configuration file `/etc/pve/ha/groups.cfg` is used to
590define groups of cluster nodes. A resource can be restricted to run
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591only on the members of such group. A group configuration look like
592this:
85363588 593
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594----
595group: <group>
596 nodes <node_list>
597 <property> <value>
598 ...
599----
85363588 600
206c2476 601include::ha-groups-opts.adoc[]
22653ac8 602
1ff5e4e8 603[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-ha-manager-add-group.png"]
4d63b3cc 604
e60ce90c 605A common requirement is that a resource should run on a specific
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606node. Usually the resource is able to run on other nodes, so you can define
607an unrestricted group with a single member:
608
609----
610# ha-manager groupadd prefer_node1 --nodes node1
611----
612
613For bigger clusters, it makes sense to define a more detailed failover
614behavior. For example, you may want to run a set of services on
615`node1` if possible. If `node1` is not available, you want to run them
049fc557 616equally split on `node2` and `node3`. If those nodes also fail, the
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617services should run on `node4`. To achieve this you could set the node
618list to:
619
620----
621# ha-manager groupadd mygroup1 -nodes "node1:2,node2:1,node3:1,node4"
622----
623
624Another use case is if a resource uses other resources only available
625on specific nodes, lets say `node1` and `node2`. We need to make sure
626that HA manager does not use other nodes, so we need to create a
627restricted group with said nodes:
628
629----
630# ha-manager groupadd mygroup2 -nodes "node1,node2" -restricted
631----
632
049fc557 633The above commands created the following group configuration file:
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634
635.Configuration Example (`/etc/pve/ha/groups.cfg`)
636----
637group: prefer_node1
638 nodes node1
639
640group: mygroup1
641 nodes node2:1,node4,node1:2,node3:1
642
643group: mygroup2
644 nodes node2,node1
645 restricted 1
646----
647
648
649The `nofailback` options is mostly useful to avoid unwanted resource
e60ce90c 650movements during administration tasks. For example, if you need to
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651migrate a service to a node which doesn't have the highest priority in the
652group, you need to tell the HA manager not to instantly move this service
653back by setting the `nofailback` option.
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654
655Another scenario is when a service was fenced and it got recovered to
656another node. The admin tries to repair the fenced node and brings it
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657up online again to investigate the cause of failure and check if it runs
658stably again. Setting the `nofailback` flag prevents the recovered services from
659moving straight back to the fenced node.
1acab952 660
22653ac8 661
80c0adcb 662[[ha_manager_fencing]]
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663Fencing
664-------
665
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666On node failures, fencing ensures that the erroneous node is
667guaranteed to be offline. This is required to make sure that no
668resource runs twice when it gets recovered on another node. This is a
049fc557 669really important task, because without this, it would not be possible to
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670recover a resource on another node.
671
bdfd4601 672If a node did not get fenced, it would be in an unknown state where
0d427077 673it may have still access to shared resources. This is really
049fc557 674dangerous! Imagine that every network but the storage one broke. Now,
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675while not reachable from the public network, the VM still runs and
676writes to the shared storage.
677
678If we then simply start up this VM on another node, we would get a
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679dangerous race condition, because we write from both nodes. Such
680conditions can destroy all VM data and the whole VM could be rendered
681unusable. The recovery could also fail if the storage protects against
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682multiple mounts.
683
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684
685How {pve} Fences
0d427077 686~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5771d9b0 687
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688There are different methods to fence a node, for example, fence
689devices which cut off the power from the node or disable their
690communication completely. Those are often quite expensive and bring
691additional critical components into a system, because if they fail you
692cannot recover any service.
693
694We thus wanted to integrate a simpler fencing method, which does not
695require additional external hardware. This can be done using
696watchdog timers.
697
698.Possible Fencing Methods
699- external power switches
700- isolate nodes by disabling complete network traffic on the switch
701- self fencing using watchdog timers
702
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703Watchdog timers have been widely used in critical and dependable systems
704since the beginning of microcontrollers. They are often simple, independent
705integrated circuits which are used to detect and recover from computer malfunctions.
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706
707During normal operation, `ha-manager` regularly resets the watchdog
708timer to prevent it from elapsing. If, due to a hardware fault or
709program error, the computer fails to reset the watchdog, the timer
049fc557 710will elapse and trigger a reset of the whole server (reboot).
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711
712Recent server motherboards often include such hardware watchdogs, but
713these need to be configured. If no watchdog is available or
714configured, we fall back to the Linux Kernel 'softdog'. While still
715reliable, it is not independent of the servers hardware, and thus has
716a lower reliability than a hardware watchdog.
3810ae1e 717
a472fde8 718
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719Configure Hardware Watchdog
720~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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721
722By default, all hardware watchdog modules are blocked for security
723reasons. They are like a loaded gun if not correctly initialized. To
724enable a hardware watchdog, you need to specify the module to load in
725'/etc/default/pve-ha-manager', for example:
726
727----
728# select watchdog module (default is softdog)
729WATCHDOG_MODULE=iTCO_wdt
730----
731
049fc557 732This configuration is read by the 'watchdog-mux' service, which loads
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733the specified module at startup.
734
3810ae1e 735
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736Recover Fenced Services
737~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
738
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739After a node failed and its fencing was successful, the CRM tries to
740move services from the failed node to nodes which are still online.
741
742The selection of nodes, on which those services gets recovered, is
743influenced by the resource `group` settings, the list of currently active
744nodes, and their respective active service count.
745
746The CRM first builds a set out of the intersection between user selected
747nodes (from `group` setting) and available nodes. It then choose the
748subset of nodes with the highest priority, and finally select the node
749with the lowest active service count. This minimizes the possibility
750of an overloaded node.
751
752CAUTION: On node failure, the CRM distributes services to the
049fc557 753remaining nodes. This increases the service count on those nodes, and
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754can lead to high load, especially on small clusters. Please design
755your cluster so that it can handle such worst case scenarios.
2957ef80 756
22653ac8 757
c7470421 758[[ha_manager_start_failure_policy]]
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759Start Failure Policy
760---------------------
761
049fc557 762The start failure policy comes into effect if a service failed to start on a
a35aad4a 763node one or more times. It can be used to configure how often a restart
a3189ad1 764should be triggered on the same node and how often a service should be
049fc557 765relocated, so that it has an attempt to be started on another node.
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766The aim of this policy is to circumvent temporary unavailability of shared
767resources on a specific node. For example, if a shared storage isn't available
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768on a quorate node anymore, for instance due to network problems, but is still
769available on other nodes, the relocate policy allows the service to start
770nonetheless.
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771
772There are two service start recover policy settings which can be configured
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773specific for each resource.
774
775max_restart::
776
049fc557 777Maximum number of attempts to restart a failed service on the actual
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778node. The default is set to one.
779
780max_relocate::
781
049fc557 782Maximum number of attempts to relocate the service to a different node.
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783A relocate only happens after the max_restart value is exceeded on the
784actual node. The default is set to one.
785
0abc65b0 786NOTE: The relocate count state will only reset to zero when the
22653ac8 787service had at least one successful start. That means if a service is
4c34defd 788re-started without fixing the error only the restart policy gets
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789repeated.
790
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791
792[[ha_manager_error_recovery]]
2b52e195 793Error Recovery
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794--------------
795
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796If, after all attempts, the service state could not be recovered, it gets
797placed in an error state. In this state, the service won't get touched
c5bca1ae 798by the HA stack anymore. The only way out is disabling a service:
d02982f7 799
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800----
801# ha-manager set vm:100 --state disabled
802----
d02982f7 803
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804This can also be done in the web interface.
805
806To recover from the error state you should do the following:
22653ac8 807
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808* bring the resource back into a safe and consistent state (e.g.:
809kill its process if the service could not be stopped)
22653ac8 810
c5bca1ae 811* disable the resource to remove the error flag
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812
813* fix the error which led to this failures
814
4c34defd 815* *after* you fixed all errors you may request that the service starts again
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816
817
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818[[ha_manager_package_updates]]
819Package Updates
820---------------
821
049fc557 822When updating the ha-manager, you should do one node after the other, never
26513dae 823all at once for various reasons. First, while we test our software
049fc557 824thoroughly, a bug affecting your specific setup cannot totally be ruled out.
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825Updating one node after the other and checking the functionality of each node
826after finishing the update helps to recover from eventual problems, while
827updating all at once could result in a broken cluster and is generally not
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828good practice.
829
830Also, the {pve} HA stack uses a request acknowledge protocol to perform
831actions between the cluster and the local resource manager. For restarting,
832the LRM makes a request to the CRM to freeze all its services. This prevents
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833them from getting touched by the Cluster during the short time the LRM is restarting.
834After that, the LRM may safely close the watchdog during a restart.
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835Such a restart happens normally during a package update and, as already stated,
836an active master CRM is needed to acknowledge the requests from the LRM. If
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837this is not the case the update process can take too long which, in the worst
838case, may result in a reset triggered by the watchdog.
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839
840
c6284866 841[[ha_manager_node_maintenance]]
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842Node Maintenance
843----------------
52a75187 844
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845Sometimes it is necessary to perform maintenance on a node, such as replacing
846hardware or simply installing a new kernel image. This also applies while the
847HA stack is in use.
848
849The HA stack can support you mainly in two types of maintenance:
850
851* for general shutdowns or reboots, the behavior can be configured, see
852 xref:ha_manager_shutdown_policy[Shutdown Policy].
853* for maintenance that does not require a shutdown or reboot, or that should
854 not be switched off automatically after only one reboot, you can enable the
855 manual maintenance mode.
856
857
858Maintenance Mode
859~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
860
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861You can use the manual maintenance mode to mark the node as unavailable for HA
862operation, prompting all services managed by HA to migrate to other nodes.
863
864The target nodes for these migrations are selected from the other currently
865available nodes, and determined by the HA group configuration and the configured
866cluster resource scheduler (CRS) mode.
867During each migration, the original node will be recorded in the HA managers'
868state, so that the service can be moved back again automatically once the
869maintenance mode is disabled and the node is back online.
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870
871Currently you can enabled or disable the maintenance mode using the ha-manager
872CLI tool.
873
874.Enabling maintenance mode for a node
875----
876# ha-manager crm-command node-maintenance enable NODENAME
877----
878
879This will queue a CRM command, when the manager processes this command it will
880record the request for maintenance-mode in the manager status. This allows you
881to submit the command on any node, not just on the one you want to place in, or
882out of the maintenance mode.
883
884Once the LRM on the respective node picks the command up it will mark itself as
885unavailable, but still process all migration commands. This means that the LRM
886self-fencing watchdog will stay active until all active services got moved, and
887all running workers finished.
888
889Note that the LRM status will read `maintenance` mode as soon as the LRM
890picked the requested state up, not only when all services got moved away, this
891user experience is planned to be improved in the future.
892For now, you can check for any active HA service left on the node, or watching
893out for a log line like: `pve-ha-lrm[PID]: watchdog closed (disabled)` to know
894when the node finished its transition into the maintenance mode.
895
896NOTE: The manual maintenance mode is not automatically deleted on node reboot,
897but only if it is either manually deactivated using the `ha-manager` CLI or if
898the manager-status is manually cleared.
899
900.Disabling maintenance mode for a node
901----
902# ha-manager crm-command node-maintenance disable NODENAME
903----
904
905The process of disabling the manual maintenance mode is similar to enabling it.
906Using the `ha-manager` CLI command shown above will queue a CRM command that,
907once processed, marks the respective LRM node as available again.
908
909If you deactivate the maintenance mode, all services that were on the node when
910the maintenance mode was activated will be moved back.
a9023144 911
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912[[ha_manager_shutdown_policy]]
913Shutdown Policy
914~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
a9023144 915
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916Below you will find a description of the different HA policies for a node
917shutdown. Currently 'Conditional' is the default due to backward compatibility.
049fc557 918Some users may find that 'Migrate' behaves more as expected.
a9023144 919
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920The shutdown policy can be configured in the Web UI (`Datacenter` -> `Options`
921-> `HA Settings`), or directly in `datacenter.cfg`:
922
923----
924ha: shutdown_policy=<value>
925----
926
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927Migrate
928^^^^^^^
a9023144 929
a4a67cdb 930Once the Local Resource manager (LRM) gets a shutdown request and this policy
049fc557 931is enabled, it will mark itself as unavailable for the current HA manager.
a4a67cdb 932This triggers a migration of all HA Services currently located on this node.
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933The LRM will try to delay the shutdown process, until all running services get
934moved away. But, this expects that the running services *can* be migrated to
935another node. In other words, the service must not be locally bound, for example
936by using hardware passthrough. As non-group member nodes are considered as
937runnable target if no group member is available, this policy can still be used
938when making use of HA groups with only some nodes selected. But, marking a group
939as 'restricted' tells the HA manager that the service cannot run outside of the
940chosen set of nodes. If all of those nodes are unavailable, the shutdown will
941hang until you manually intervene. Once the shut down node comes back online
942again, the previously displaced services will be moved back, if they were not
943already manually migrated in-between.
a9023144 944
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945NOTE: The watchdog is still active during the migration process on shutdown.
946If the node loses quorum it will be fenced and the services will be recovered.
a9023144 947
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948If you start a (previously stopped) service on a node which is currently being
949maintained, the node needs to be fenced to ensure that the service can be moved
049fc557 950and started on another available node.
e9833be4 951
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952Failover
953^^^^^^^^
954
955This mode ensures that all services get stopped, but that they will also be
956recovered, if the current node is not online soon. It can be useful when doing
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957maintenance on a cluster scale, where live-migrating VMs may not be possible if
958too many nodes are powered off at a time, but you still want to ensure HA
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959services get recovered and started again as soon as possible.
960
961Freeze
962^^^^^^
963
964This mode ensures that all services get stopped and frozen, so that they won't
965get recovered until the current node is online again.
966
967Conditional
968^^^^^^^^^^^
969
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970The 'Conditional' shutdown policy automatically detects if a shutdown or a
971reboot is requested, and changes behaviour accordingly.
972
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973.Shutdown
974
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975A shutdown ('poweroff') is usually done if it is planned for the node to stay
976down for some time. The LRM stops all managed services in this case. This means
977that other nodes will take over those services afterwards.
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978
979NOTE: Recent hardware has large amounts of memory (RAM). So we stop all
980resources, then restart them to avoid online migration of all that RAM. If you
981want to use online migration, you need to invoke that manually before you
982shutdown the node.
983
984
985.Reboot
a9023144 986
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987Node reboots are initiated with the 'reboot' command. This is usually done
988after installing a new kernel. Please note that this is different from
989``shutdown'', because the node immediately starts again.
a9023144 990
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991The LRM tells the CRM that it wants to restart, and waits until the CRM puts
992all resources into the `freeze` state (same mechanism is used for
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993xref:ha_manager_package_updates[Package Updates]). This prevents those resources
994from being moved to other nodes. Instead, the CRM starts the resources after the
995reboot on the same node.
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996
997
998Manual Resource Movement
3dc611ff 999^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
a9023144 1000
049fc557 1001Last but not least, you can also manually move resources to other nodes, before
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1002you shutdown or restart a node. The advantage is that you have full control,
1003and you can decide if you want to use online migration or not.
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1004
1005NOTE: Please do not 'kill' services like `pve-ha-crm`, `pve-ha-lrm` or
049fc557 1006`watchdog-mux`. They manage and use the watchdog, so this can result in an
a4a67cdb 1007immediate node reboot or even reset.
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1008
1009
221a0d1a 1010[[ha_manager_crs]]
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1011Cluster Resource Scheduling
1012---------------------------
7210615d 1013
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1014The cluster resource scheduler (CRS) mode controls how HA selects nodes for the
1015recovery of a service as well as for migrations that are triggered by a
1016shutdown policy. The default mode is `basic`, you can change it in the Web UI
1017(`Datacenter` -> `Options`), or directly in `datacenter.cfg`:
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1018
1019----
1020crs: ha=static
1021----
1022
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1023[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-datacenter-options-crs.png"]
1024
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1025The change will be in effect starting with the next manager round (after a few
1026seconds).
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1027
1028For each service that needs to be recovered or migrated, the scheduler
1029iteratively chooses the best node among the nodes with the highest priority in
1030the service's group.
1031
1032NOTE: There are plans to add modes for (static and dynamic) load-balancing in
1033the future.
1034
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1035Basic Scheduler
1036~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7210615d 1037
0940b99b 1038The number of active HA services on each node is used to choose a recovery node.
d68bea00 1039Non-HA-managed services are currently not counted.
7210615d 1040
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1041Static-Load Scheduler
1042~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7210615d 1043
57aa03c7 1044IMPORTANT: The static mode is still a technology preview.
6d085cd5 1045
0940b99b 1046Static usage information from HA services on each node is used to choose a
d68bea00 1047recovery node. Usage of non-HA-managed services is currently not considered.
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1048
1049For this selection, each node in turn is considered as if the service was
1050already running on it, using CPU and memory usage from the associated guest
1051configuration. Then for each such alternative, CPU and memory usage of all nodes
1052are considered, with memory being weighted much more, because it's a truly
1053limited resource. For both, CPU and memory, highest usage among nodes (weighted
1054more, as ideally no node should be overcommitted) and average usage of all nodes
1055(to still be able to distinguish in case there already is a more highly
1056committed node) are considered.
1057
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1058IMPORTANT: The more services the more possible combinations there are, so it's
1059currently not recommended to use it if you have thousands of HA managed
1060services.
1061
1062
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1063CRS Scheduling Points
1064~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1065
1066The CRS algorithm is not applied for every service in every round, since this
1067would mean a large number of constant migrations. Depending on the workload,
1068this could put more strain on the cluster than could be avoided by constant
1069balancing.
1070That's why the {pve} HA manager favors keeping services on their current node.
1071
1072The CRS is currently used at the following scheduling points:
1073
1074- Service recovery (always active). When a node with active HA services fails,
1075 all its services need to be recovered to other nodes. The CRS algorithm will
1076 be used here to balance that recovery over the remaining nodes.
1077
1078- HA group config changes (always active). If a node is removed from a group,
1079 or its priority is reduced, the HA stack will use the CRS algorithm to find a
1080 new target node for the HA services in that group, matching the adapted
1081 priority constraints.
1082
1083- HA service stopped -> start transtion (opt-in). Requesting that a stopped
1084 service should be started is an good opportunity to check for the best suited
1085 node as per the CRS algorithm, as moving stopped services is cheaper to do
1086 than moving them started, especially if their disk volumes reside on shared
1087 storage. You can enable this by setting the **`ha-rebalance-on-start`**
1088 CRS option in the datacenter config. You can change that option also in the
1089 Web UI, under `Datacenter` -> `Options` -> `Cluster Resource Scheduling`.
1090
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1091ifdef::manvolnum[]
1092include::pve-copyright.adoc[]
1093endif::manvolnum[]
1094