I/O fencing protects the data on shared disks when nodes in a cluster detect a change in the cluster membership that indicates a split-brain condition.
The fencing operation determines the following:
The nodes that must retain access to the shared storage
The nodes that must be ejected from the cluster
This decision prevents possible data corruption. When you install SFCFSHA, the installer installs the VRTSvxfen package, which includes the I/O fencing driver. To protect data on shared disks, you must configure I/O fencing after you install and configure SFCFSHA.
I/O fencing technology uses coordination points for arbitration in the event of a network partition.
I/O fencing coordination points can be coordinator disks or coordination point servers (CP servers) or both. You can configure disk-based or server-based I/O fencing:
See About planning to configure I/O fencing.
Note: |
Symantec recommends that you use I/O fencing to protect your cluster against split-brain situations. |
See the Veritas Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability Administrator's Guide.