11.1 CLUVFY HP-UX ia64 Issues

For our latest install of 10.2 RAC on HP-UX 11.31 Itanium 64 bit, we used the 11g version of Cluster Verify (cluvfy). Here are the issues that we had. First, it would complain about the MTU values being different between the private and public interfaces.

Different MTU values used across network interface(s).

These different values are necessary because we are using Infiniband as the private interconnect and you want the larger Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) value for the more robust interconnect. The public interface is a standard gigabit network so a lower value makes sense. So, we basically ignored that error because changing the Infiniband to a lower MTU value is not practical just to get a clean cluvfy before installing the Clusterware. For more info on MTU and Oracle RAC see MetaLink note: 341788.1

This is a known bug discussed in metalink note 758102.1. Root cause is BUG
7493420 fixed in 11.2. This configuration is valid since the interfaces across nodes have the same MTU. As long as the interfaces across the nodes have the same MTU, you are good to go.

The next issue had to do with shared storage. With HP-UX ia64 11.31, we created shared raw ASM LUNs then created aliases to those LUNs for the ASM diskstring. This storage is shared between the two nodes using EVA8000 storage. Cluvfy does not recognize that shared storage is available and it is working correctly. The failure message you get can be ignored. Here is the message:

Shared storage check failed on nodes "xxxxx"

In the known limitations section of the cluvfy readme, it clearly states the following:

"Sharedness check of SCSI disks is currently not supported."

If these are SCSI disks, then this error is expected as cluvfy cannot handle this check. As long as these disks can be seen from both nodes and has the correct permissions and ownership, ASM should install/work fine.

As long as your storage is working correctly, you can ignore the shared storage check because cluvfy is not able to verify multipath / autopath type software like that built in to HP-UX 11.31 using virtual disk devices on EVA8000 storage.