Question : Slow cluster resource load on OES/Linux

We have a mixed node Novell cluster, with OES2 and NetWare nodes. It is mixed for the purpose of migrating to OES.

When a cluster volume resource fails over from one NetWare node to another, it is very fast, and only drops a single packet.  However, when failing from one OES node to another, or from a NetWare node to an OES node, it is much slower, with three to five packets dropped.

Any ideas on how to improve the performance of the OES nodes?

Answer : Slow cluster resource load on OES/Linux

Here is what I got from the top clustering support expert at Novell on your issue:

In a mixed cluster every time it needs to convert the NetWare scripts to linux scripts, this takes some extra time.  After they complete their upgrade it will no longer have to do this conversion as they will all be converted to linux scripts in edirectory (happens with "cluster convert" command as described in section 6.7).

From our documentation: http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2/clus_admin_lx/data/bu1b637.html

6.6 Modifying Cluster Resource Scripts for Mixed NetWare and Linux Clusters

Novell Cluster Services includes some specialized functionality to help NetWare and Linux servers coexist in the same cluster. This functionality is also beneficial as you migrate NetWare cluster servers to Linux. It automates the conversion of the Master IP Address resource and cluster-enabled NSS pool resource load and unload scripts from NetWare to Linux. The NetWare load and unload scripts are read from eDirectory, converted, and written into Linux load and unload script files. Those Linux load and unload script files are then searched for NetWare-specific command strings, and the command strings are then either deleted or replaced with Linux-specific command strings. Separate Linux-specific commands are also added, and the order of certain lines in the scripts is also changed to function with Linux.

Unlike NetWare cluster load and unload scripts that are stored in eDirectory, the Linux cluster load and unload scripts are stored in files on Linux cluster servers. The cluster resource name is used in the load and unload script filenames. The path to the files is /var/opt/novell/ncs/.

6.7 Finalizing the Cluster Conversion

They could also do a tail -f /var/run/ncs/RESOURCE.load.out and see if there is a spot in the script that appears to be taking a little longer than it should.

Hope that helps..

Scott