[Linux-HA] Split Brain, Fencing without STONITH

[Andrew Beekhof]

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 11:28 AM, Dennis Kern <dennis.kern at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>  I use Heartbeat 2.1.3 with DRBD 8.0.11
>
>  The configuration for a two node  NFS file server works very well,
>  except split brain handling.
>
>  I have no power device for STONITH and I didn't found any hint in the
>  web for handle split brain with a 2 Node Cluster without STONITH.
>
>  What is the "best" solution for me to avoid split brain? Is there no
>  mechanism like "ping demon". I mean if ping ist not possible (either
>  to local LAN, crossover connection to the other node), than the node
>  can go down?

no.  nodes dont shut themselves down based on pingd or anything else.

> Or did I missunderstood something?
>
>  Would it be possible: If split brain is detected and the node who not
>  run the resources actual shut down?

not really.  the only correct and reliable solution is STONITH.
things like pingd can help but can still be fooled if you're
particularly unlucky.

unless you have shared storage.  in which case there are a couple of
tricks you can do.