5.1. Apache HTTP Server Setup Overview

First, configure Apache HTTP Server on all nodes in the cluster. If using a failover domain , assign the service to all cluster nodes configured to run the Apache HTTP Server. Refer to Section 3.6 Configuring a Failover Domain for instructions. The cluster software ensures that only one cluster system runs the Apache HTTP Server at one time. The example configuration consists of installing the httpd RPM package on all cluster nodes (or on nodes in the failover domain, if used) and configuring a shared GFS shared resource for the Web content.

When installing the Apache HTTP Server on the cluster systems, run the following command to ensure that the cluster nodes do not automatically start the service when the system boots:

chkconfig --del httpd

Rather than having the system init scripts spawn the httpd daemon, the cluster infrastructure initializes the service on the active cluster node. This ensures that the corresponding IP address and file system mounts are active on only one cluster node at a time.

When adding an httpd service, a floating IP address must be assigned to the service so that the IP address will transfer from one cluster node to another in the event of failover or service relocation. The cluster infrastructure binds this IP address to the network interface on the cluster system that is currently running the Apache HTTP Server. This IP address ensures that the cluster node running httpd is transparent to the clients accessing the service.

The file systems that contain the Web content cannot be automatically mounted on the shared storage resource when the cluster nodes boot. Instead, the cluster software must mount and unmount the file system as the httpd service is started and stopped. This prevents the cluster systems from accessing the same data simultaneously, which may result in data corruption. Therefore, do not include the file systems in the /etc/fstab file.