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Clustering

Your initial installation is a cluster of one, a single node. Now repeat the installation process to create three or more nodes, always ending with an odd number of nodes, as described in the standard deployment.

Once you have a set of nodes, the next step is to cluster them together.

Caution

Before proceeding with clustering be aware that:

  • Before adding a node to a cluster, all nodes must be in a healthy state.

  • The node that joins a cluster loses its own application data, such as configured sessions. The data present on the node that you are joining is inherited.

  • Before joining a node to a cluster, the node must have the same products installed as those nodes that already participate in the cluster.

  • Removing a node from a cluster results in its data being lost.

  • Removing one healthy node from the cluster results in data loss and the need for a reset, but the remaining node will remain functional.

  • When later replacing a node in a cluster, always remove the existing node before adding a new node.

Follow the clustering steps for your method of deployment: Appliance or Linux installer

Clustering when using the appliance

To join a new appliance to an existing appliance cluster:

  1. Log in to the Appliance Administration console using the root account at https://hostname:9443.

  2. Click Cluster.

  3. Specify the DNS hostname or IP address of the remote appliance to which you are clustering.

  4. Specify root as the username and enter the password for the root user on the remote appliance.

  5. Click Join Cluster.

    When clustering is complete, the Cluster Status will display a list of all nodes in the cluster with a status of "Ready." The process takes 5-15 minutes to complete.

Clustering when using Linux installations

To join a new Linux node to an existing cluster:

  1. On a node that exists in a cluster, note the following:

    • The hostname or IP address of the host

    • The cluster join token, which is obtained by executing: sudo cspctl cluster token

  2. On the node that is joining the cluster, execute the following:

    sudo cspctl cluster join -s <hostname> -t <token>

    Note that the hostname and token values were obtained from the existing node in the cluster you are joining (step 1). The process takes 5-15 minutes to complete.

To remove a node

To remove a node from a cluster, please refer to the Cluster Management help:

  1. In the MSS Administrative Console, click Cluster Management from the drop-down menu.

  2. Click Nodes, and then open Help (?).

  3. Click Nodes and follow the steps to delete a node.

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