High-availability cluster

The HCL Informix® Virtual Appliance editions that support Enterprise Replication (ER) and high availability clusters provide a demonstration that shows how to configure and use ER and high-availability cluster capabilities.

You can easily create a demonstration cluster environment that is separate from the demo_on instance.

The cluster demonstration is a set of pre-configured instances that demonstrate high-availability capabilities. All demonstration instances are independent of one another, so you do not have to stop or remove any of the other pre-configured instances before creating or starting the cluster demonstration instances. You must explicitly create and start the cluster demonstration instances. The high-availability cluster demonstration is not automatically created on image boot; it must be explicitly created.

Convenience scripts are provided for you to create, start, stop, and remove the cluster demonstration instances. All convenience scripts must be executed as user informix.

To use the cluster demonstration, you must run the createC1Cluster script as user informix. The createC1Cluster script creates and starts the cluster demonstration instances. You can stop the cluster demonstration instances using stopC1Cluster and start them again with startC1Cluster.

The cluster environment does not start automatically after a re-boot.

To create, remove, start, or stop the demonstration cluster as user informix, use one of the following commands:

Table 1. High-availability cluster start and stop scripts
Script name	Description
createC1Cluster	Creates and starts an Informix demonstration cluster.
removeC1Cluster	Stops the demonstration cluster and removes all database files that are associated with the cluster instances.
startC1Cluster	Starts a previously created demonstration cluster.
stopC1Cluster	Stops a running Informix demonstration cluster.

The high-availability cluster demonstration creates multiple cluster demonstration instances. Use the scripts that are described in the previous table to manage all instances. Separate scripts that set the environment for each individual cluster demonstration instance are included. These scripts are useful if you want to perform actions in the context of one of the cluster demonstration instances (to look at the instance's server log, for example, or to run the dbaccess utility against the instance). When you use the scripts in the following table, source the appropriate environment setup script from a command prompt.

Table 2. High-availability cluster manipulation scripts
Script	Description
. setc1primary	Sets the environment variables for the c1primary instance.
. setc1sds1	Sets the environment for the c1sds1 instance.
. setc1sds2	Sets the environment for the c1sds2 instance.
. setc1hdr1	Sets the environment for the c1hdr1 instance.
. setc1rss1	Sets the environment for the c1rss1 instance.
. setc1rss2	Sets the environment for the c1rss2 instance.

Connection Manager log file

The tailCM script runs the tail command to continuously display the last few lines of the Connection Manager log file. When you use the script, you might see the following warning in the log:

Warning: Password Manager failed; working in trusted node mode

The warning indicates that no Connection Manager password file exists and that the Connection Manager can access all of the servers in the high-availability cluster without using a password. You can prevent this warning from appearing by creating a password file and then encrypting it using the onpassword utility. You can prevent the warning from appearing by creating a password file and then encrypting it using the onpassword utility. For more information, see the HCL Informix Administrator's Reference.

Web-based demonstrations for the Informix demonstration cluster

The HCL Informix Virtual Appliance includes some pre-configured demonstrations that illustrate some of the high-availability features provided by Informix. These demonstrations are written as PHP-based Web pages and they require the cluster demonstration instances to be started.