Using Custom DR & HA Replication Interfaces with 9.1
mtulley
Published on 21/08/2018 / Updated on 05/09/2018
Previously the MQ Appliance restricted Disaster Recovery (DR) and High Availability (HA) Replication to eth20 and eth21 respectively. With the release of 9.1, this has been relaxed, users will now be able to configure DR and HA Replication links over interfaces of their choosing, including Aggregated Interfaces. This feature is even more desirable when combined with the new MQ Appliance M2002 as it allows use of new 4 x 40GB interfaces and additional 2 x 10GB interfaces.
DR is a special case as each DR Queue Manager can be configured to use a different replication link. Whatever the DR Replication is set to at the DR Queue Managers creation, it will use that current interface. If it is changed, only DR Queue Managers created after this point will use the new interface. In most cases, configuring in this manner on a QM by QM basis would be needlessly complicated.
Note: If you are comfortable with the default settings then there is no need to modify these settings and add any complexity.
The following example focuses on HA, for DR specifics see: Configuring custom DR replication interfaces
Custom Interfaces (HA)
Displaying the current HA Replication Link
mqa(mqcli)# dsphalink
The default replication link is IP address (10.21.81.100) interface (eth21)
Setting the HA Replication Link to a different interface
mqa(mqcli)# sethalink -r 10.20.81.100
The sethalink command succeeded.
mqa(mqcli)# dsphalink
The default replication link is IP address (10.20.81.100) interface (eth20)
Resetting the HA Replication Link to default values
mqa(mqcli)# sethalink -d
The sethalink command succeeded.
mqa(mqcli)# dsphalink
The default replication link is IP address (10.21.81.100) interface (eth21)
Custom Interfaces (HA) with Aggregated Links
Using an Aggregated Link rather than the default (single) replication interface for DR or HA may be particularly attractive, as it removes a potential single point of failure from your configuration.
The following example focuses on Active Backup (default), for other Aggregated Link Types see: Configuring link aggregation interfaces by using the command line
Enabling a set of Interfaces for Link Aggregation
To enable an interface for Link Aggregation turn on the link-aggregation-mode in the interface settings. When this mode is enabled the interface will not be available for normal use, it will not show up in the ip address table (show ipaddress).
mqa(config)# show ethernet eth32
ethernet: eth32 [up]
---------------
admin-state enabled
ip-config-mode static
ip-address 10.32.81.100/16
ipv6-dadtransmits 1
ipv6-nd-retransmit-timer 1000 Milliseconds
link-aggregation-mode on
mtu 1500 Bytes
mode Auto
force-mode off
hardware-offload on
flow-control auto
Creating an Aggregated Link (Active-Backup)
mqa(config)# link-aggregation HAREP
New Link Aggregation Interface configuration
mqa(config link-aggregation HAREP)# ip-address 10.32.81.100/16
mqa(config link-aggregation HAREP)# link eth32
mqa(config link-aggregation HAREP)# link eth33
mqa(config link-aggregation HAREP)# type active-backup
mqa(config link-aggregation HAREP)# exit
mqa(config)# write mem
Overwrite previously saved configuration? Yes/No [y/n]: y
Configuration saved successfully.
mqa(config)# show link-aggregation
link-aggregation: HAREP [up]
-----------------------
admin-state enabled
ip-config-mode static
ip-address 10.32.81.100/16
ipv6-dadtransmits 1
ipv6-nd-retransmit-timer 1000 Milliseconds
type active-backup
link eth32 [up]
link eth33 [up]
mtu 1500
hardware-offload on
Using the Aggregated Link as the HA Replication Link
mqa(mqcli)# sethalink -r 10.32.81.100
The sethalink command succeeded.
mqa(mqcli)# dsphalink
The default replication link is IP address (10.32.81.100) interface (HAREP)