sbdutil command examples and man page

  • 7002097
  • 05-Dec-2008
  • 01-Jun-2018

Environment

Novell Cluster Services 1.8.4

Resolution

sbdutil is for creating or viewing a Novell Cluster Services SBD (Split Brain Detection) partition.

Common uses:
To find the SBD partition use "sbdutil -f"
x64-6:/ # sbdutil -f
/dev/evms/.nodes/cluster.sbd

To see the HeartBeats written to the SBD partition use "sbdutil -v"  The HeartBeat should increment at half the tolerance, by default every 4 seconds.
This command shows output for up to 32 nodes so it might be useful to use "sbdutil -v | head" so the information you need does not scroll off the screen.
64-6:/ # sbdutil -v | head

Cluster (SBD) partition on /dev/evms/.nodes/cluster.sbd
Signature  # HeartBeat State eState  Epoch   SbdLock Bitmask
SBD*       0 00172923  LIVE              5      LOCK 00000003
SBD*       1 00108310  LIVE              5      LOCK 00000003
SBD*       2 00000001                    0      UNLK 00000000
SBD*       3 00000001                    0      UNLK 00000000
SBD*       4 00000001                    0      UNLK 00000000
SBD*       5 00000001                    0      UNLK 00000000
SBD*       6 00000001                    0      UNLK 00000000

If you have information still in the "sbdutil -v" view from old nodes that have been removed from the cluster then run "sbdutil -i" to initialize it.  This can be done while the cluster is running, without any issues.

If you need to recreate the SBD partition then use "sbdutil -c -d /dev/sdb" Where /dev/sdb is the device you want the SBD partition to be on.

Below is the Man page for sbdutil

NAME
       sbdutil - Create, find, or view a Novell Cluster Services SBD partition.

AVAILABILITY
       Novell Open Enterprise Server 11

SYNTAX
       sbdutil [-c|-f|-i|-v] [-s][-r] [-d device] [-d device] [-p partition] [-n cluster_name]
       sbdutil -c -d device [-s [size]] [-n cluster_name]
       sbdutil -f [-s] [-n cluster_name]
       sbdutil -i -p partition [-s] [-n cluster_name]
       sbdutil -v [-p partition] [-s] [-n cluster_name]
       sbdutil -r

       Enter the command at a terminal console prompt as the root user or any
       other user in admin or ncsgroup. If the command succeeds, the partition
       name is printed. See Return Value for more information.

DESCRIPTION
       The SBD utility (sbdutil) allows you to create, find, or view a Novell
       Cluster Services SBD partition.

           Important
           The cluster SBD partition is not required unless you have shared
           storage in the cluster.

       We recommend that you carve out a LUN/disk of 20 MB in size to use for
       the SBD. If you mirror the SBD, you need to carve out a separate
       LUN/disk of equal size to use. Before you begin, each of these small
       disks must be initialized and marked as shareable for clustering. You
       can initialize the device by using the Novell Storage Services (NSS)
       Management Utility (nssmu(8)) or the Storage plug-in to iManager. The
       NSS utility called ncsinit(8) is also available for initializing a
       device and setting it to a shared state.

OPTIONS
       -c
          Create an SBD partition. This option requires at least one device to
          be specified. You can create a mirrored SBD by supplying more than
          one device with multiple instances of the -d option.

              Important
              Do not create an SBD partition for a cluster that already has an
              SBD partition. If you need to re-create the SBD for a cluster,
              delete its existing SBD first.
          To delete an SBD:

           1.Enter cluster down at the server console of one cluster server.

             This causes all cluster servers to leave the cluster.

           2.Delete the SBD partition.

             You can use NSSMU (nssmu) or other utilities to delete the SBD
             partition.

       -f
          Find the SBD partition.

       -i
          Initialize the SBD partition. If there is information in the sbdutil
          -v view from old nodes that have been removed from the cluster, you
          can run sbdutil -i to initialize the view. This can be done without
          any issues while the cluster is running.

       -v
          View the SBD partition.

       -d device
          The device where you want to create an SBD partition. You can create
          a mirrored SBD by supplying more than one device with multiple
          instances of the -d option. Specify only the base (leaf) names (such
          as sdb or mpathd) with the -d option.

       -p partition
          Use this partition instead of searching for one.

       -n cluster_name
          Use the specified cluster name instead of getting the name from
          cluster.xml. If this option is not specified, the SBD partition is
          named by default with the cluster name that is found in the
          cluster.xml file on the node.

       -s
          Assume the device is a shared disk system instead of checking
          cluster.xml. An optional partition size (in MB) can also be
          specified when creating a partition (-c). The default size is 8 MB.
          Some of the allocated space is used for storing metadata such as the
          partition table and MBR (master boot record) for the partition.

          Specify the size as -1 to use all free space on the device. This
          option allows Novell Cluster Services to use a whole disk/LUN (or
          LUNs) that you set aside for SBD.

       -r
          Prints all log entries from the oldest to the newest.
         
FILE
       /opt/novell/ncs/bin/sbdutil
          SBD utility file.